Rock Me

Chapter Two

Toby:

My nerves were shattered.

Logan had already gotten plastered, brought a strange woman into the hotel, and passed out.

If I hadn't been here, that hooker would have robbed him.

I had paced the floors until I was ready to break holes in the drywall. Some part of me thought Sophia would walk through those doors with Wit, and what a stupid thought that was.

I knew better, knew she would never.

But god, this feeling was eating me. I could see visions of her so clearly walking through the door behind him—her hair tied on top of her head, her smile, the way she pushed her glasses up on her nose—it haunted me. So, when Wit opened the door talking, my heart burst open in my chest. I ran toward the door, thinking she was right behind him. My excitement fell flat when I saw him alone, talking to someone on his phone.

"Well, how did it go?" I scrambled toward him, eager to know her answer and if we would be so close to her again.

"Wild." He sat on the couch with a huff, closing his eyes in frustration.

"Details, Wit." I snapped, making him look at me with his stern, fatherly look, which we often get when our attitudes are out of line.

"I'm sorry, Logan has given me hell tonight," I said, joining Wit on the couch. I let my exhausted frustrations leave my shoulders until I felt like the tension would explode in my head.

"I get it, apology accepted." He sat up, flipping through his phone before tossing it to me. On the screen was a picture of a woman with shoulder-length black hair working a bar at a club. At first, I didn't understand. It wasn't until I saw her smile that I realized who I was looking at.

"Sophia." She had lost so much weight that I barely recognized the woman she had become in the last few years, especially with the dark circles beneath her eyes.

"I barely recognized her. She looks so tired, and by the end of the conversation, I realized I had exhausted her." Wit's soft tone was so full of care that it took me two seconds to realize those feelings both of us had for Sophia in the past had not faded.

He still didn't know about those nights she and I spent together. But it was clear the way he felt for her hadn't dimmed even slightly.

"Is she overworked with school and work? Is that why she is so tired? I could send her some cash if she needs it." Those were the questions I needed the answers to. The next would be to find out if she is coming with us.

"I don't know, man. I don't think she is coming with us. But she wants to see Logan tomorrow and has agreed to talk with us about it. She called me right as I walked through the hotel doors to tell me. She said no at first. No hesitation, just no." He rubbed the sleepiness in his eyes. I looked back to Logan's closed door, then to Wit. I was wound too tight to sleep, and he needed it more than I did.

"Get some sleep, and I will take the night shift." He yawned again.

"That isn't fair, Toby. You took the night shift last night and had him all day while I tried to find Sophia. You can't take the night shift again. No, you get some sleep; I will be fine after some coffee." I shook my head. We were sitting here talking about who was watching our grown best friend. He shouldn't need a sitter, yet Wit and I both feared if he didn't have a round-the-clock person on his a.s.s that, he would either get killed, overdose or lose everything we had all worked so hard for.

"Just take a few hours, and I will wake you up when I get sleepy." I shrugged. There was no way in hell I could sleep knowing she would be here tomorrow. I wanted to get flowers. I wanted to fall to her feet before everyone and beg for her forgiveness. I needed to atone for my mistakes.

"Fine, just give me two hours, and I will be good to go." He mumbled, already half asleep upright on the couch. I tossed a blanket over him and went to the glass windows that gave us a view of a city that never sleeps.

Knowing she was out there, knowing she may be looking into those same blinding lights as I was right now, gave me peace, a comfort so strong I closed my eyes and laid my head against the glass, imagining breathing her in one last time.

Sophia:

"Go on, get coffee, go to the hotel, tell them you will go, and then make your demands. I will get Elias off to school, and you can get him after and spend the next few days with him before you leave." Lester was smiling, but I was ready to cry. This felt like such a mistake, such a poison that I was too prepared to take into my system and choke on.

I nodded and turned away from my friend, heading to the coffee shop for my favorite brew while cursing myself repeatedly.

"This is a mistake," I told myself until I was blue in the face.

I screamed all the ways this was wrong and would uproot everything I had built for Elias and me, and even with coffee and sweets in my hand, even on the elevator ride to their hotel, I cursed myself.

It was five in the morning when I made it to their door. Ten minutes more passed before I could bring myself to knock.

My breath hitched in my throat when the door flew open, and a tired-looking Wit answered the door.

"Hey," he said through a yawn that reminded me how ready for bed I was.

"Hey," I replied with a forced smile, handing him the coffee and sweets. I tapped on my cup awkwardly as he stepped to the side for me to enter.

With a strong reluctance gnawing at me, I stepped in, looked around, and wished instead that I had never come the moment the bathroom door flung open, and Toby stepped out in nothing but jeans. Like Wit, Toby had gotten ripped. Growing from a boy to a man looked so good on them both. His deep brown hair hung over his eyes. Like Wit, you couldn't see the skin beneath his ink.

He locked eyes with me for what felt like an eternity, and for an instant, I saw nothing but regret in his eyes, a regret that stung so painfully I was sure I had made a mistake.

"Did he drown you in there?" Wit chuckled, bringing me out of the trance his green eyes held on me.

"You could say that." Toby's deep tone sent chills through me, making me quiver.

It wasn't until my brother stumbled out of the bathroom, wet like Toby, that I realized Toby had showered my brother.

Was he so far gone that he couldn't even bathe himself?

"Soph brought coffee." At the mention of my name, my brother's glassy eyes shot open and locked on me.

He was skinny and pale, and the dark circles under his eyes shook me. He looked… dead.

"Lo." The tears fell from my eyes without warning. The desperation in my brother's eyes when he stumbled my way shattered me, and when he and I ended up in a puddle on the floor, clinging to one another and sobbing, I understood why they came to me. He needed me more than I realized, and having him clinging to me sobbing made me realize how much I needed to see him again.

When Logan passed out in my arms from whatever he was high on, Wit and Toby took him to bed, tucked him in, and made sure he was comfortable. The care they showed him made my heart swell and made me realize that without them, I would have likely buried my brother already.

"How long has it been this bad?" I asked, cutting through the silence in the room.

"Too long," Toby answered, looking back at the closed door behind him.

"I will go on tour with you all. It is more than clear he needs help... But I have a few conditions."

"Absolutely, whatever you need. I know you probably have to work things out with Julliard, and we understand that-" I stopped Wit's rant with a laugh.

"I haven't been to Juilliard in two years." I laughed, but I couldn't look at them. I knew they would look at me with disappointment, and after seeing Logan, I couldn't handle that.

When their silence continued, I finally broke my staring contest with the floor when Lester's words rang through my head. "Make your demands." I heard his voice clearly, pushing me forward.

"If I go, you said your manager would pay. I need enough to cover my bills while I am gone. I can't let my mortgage fall behind, or anything else for that matter. I work too hard to ensure everything is paid to let it go no matter the circumstances."

"Done," Toby said quickly.

I didn't ask for the wild payout I had initially planned—the one that paid off my mortgage and put extra into my savings—but I didn't care about all that anymore.

I turned to leave but was quickly stopped.

"Whoa, wait up a second." Toby grabbed my arm, but I quickly yanked it away from him when the warmth of his rough hand sent a need through me that no man had been able to spark in me since the last time I had been with Toby.

"Don't, Toby," I said quietly so as not to cause a scene.

"I'm so sorry, Sophia." That felt like more than an apology for grabbing my hand, but I brushed it off.

"Is there anything else you need?" I shook my hand, fighting the urge to hit him in the nads or touch his muscled chest. I tried so hard not to look; I didn't want him to think he had an ounce of power over me, no matter how hot he was.

"No, just the bills." I turned away again Just as they both yelled, Saturday at ten. I shot them a thumbs-up and hustled out of that hotel like my pants were on fire.

Steady in my resolve, I vowed as my sneakers reached the pavement outside that I had to keep my distance from Toby. A few weeks in his face wouldn't be so bad if we didn't speak to one another... Right?