A New Beginning

Reaching my bag on top of the pile was like scaling Mt. Everest. I was mentally cursing whoever put my things on top of the heap of luggage. Grabbing my purse I slid down the bags and settled back down into the grass. The events of the past week played over in my mind as I watched the Berry twins load the van with our belongings. After much pleading with my brother, he finally let me go on tour with them. This only came after Jimmy and I got into a heated argument. Needless to say that I was hurt by the entire group for not telling me that they were about to go on tour for a solid year. Seriously, what were they expecting to do with me, keep me in a kennel? All Jimmy could say is that he didn’t know what to tell me. Technically, he was still trying to win my affection back, so the tour wasn’t his main focus. In the end, everything was worked out and they cleared a spot for me on the bus. Much to Johnny’s dismay, there were no available bunks, so I would have to share with one of the guys. The ray of sun that had been beating down on my exposed back disappeared as someone’s tall frame blocked its path. Only one person could pull that off. I felt as he knelt behind me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders bringing my body into his lap.

“On a scale of one to one hundred, how excited are you right now?” Jimmy whispered into my ear.

“Hmm…”I said, pretending to think hard about my choice in words, “I’d say about a 69.”
I smirked as I felt his grip on me tighten just a tad. Jimmy set himself up for that one and I had to take the opportunity to make a dirty joke.

“Not that I need to remind you, but you are aware that you will be sleeping in my bunk for the next twelve months?”

Leaning my head back to get a better view of his face, I nodded quite eagerly. Deep, soothing laughter melted into the air as Jimmy took in my response. He placed a soft kiss on my head and relaxed into the grass. After the tumultuous affair with Lexi this morning, I was glad that Jimmy was here with me. I was filled with despair this morning as I said my good-byes to Lexi. Her aunt had gotten into a car accident and they needed her home instantly. It seemed that her absence wasn’t felt just by me. Brian had been moping around all morning and it didn’t seem that he was going to perk up any time soon. We felt that the only thing we could do was to let Brian ride out his grief over the nonattendance of his girlfriend. My brows furrowed as that word came into play. Girlfriend. I still haven’t heard that word from Jimmy’s lips yet, and I needed to have that confirmation.

“Babe, what’s the matter? You just tensed up.” Jimmy asked, concern evident in his tone.

“Jimmy, what exactly are we?”

A wave of déjà vu crashed down on me. Only a little while ago we were having this exact same discussion. Last time he said that we should ride it out and see how long we could go. Well, everyone knows how long that lasted. If he said the same thing to me now, I can honestly say that I would be devastated.

“Layla,” he said looking deep into my eyes, “I think we both know the answer to that. I fucked up my chance last time and now I am making it clear. Layla, you are my girlfriend.”

“Jimmy, you are my boyfriend.” I said in response.

As the words left my mouth, a tingly sensation covered my body. It felt so good to say that. My cheeks quickly grew numb from the amount of smiling that it had gone through in the past minute. I watched as Jimmy’s eyes twinkled in the early morning sunlight as he lowered his lips to mine. All the love that we shared exploded as our lips connected. No one could ever make me feel the way that Jimmy does. Never was I going to have to search for what I wanted in life, because I know that Jimmy is all that I will ever need. Our passion was cut short by the short, angry arms of my brother. Johnny’s vicious gaze fell on his friend as he pulled me off the ground.

“My Lord, you two are like rabbits.”

“Well, I do love Easter.” Jimmy laughed as he stole me back from Johnny’s grasp.

“Whatever, just please don’t pull that shit in front of me?” he asked.

“I can try brother,” I smiled, “but I can’t make any guarantees.”

The bus’s horn ended our conversation, telling us that we were now ready to leave. Pent up energy mixed with a cramped bus was not working for me and we had only been on the road for five minutes. All of the guys were just lounging around the front of the bus, which left me with nothing to do. Throwing myself on top of Johnny and Zacky, I began to ask Johnny any question that I could think of.

“Johnny, how old was I when I was put up for adoption?”

He gave me a curious look before he answered me. “I’d have to say that you were barely a year old. Why do you ask?”

I shrugged and then continued with my questions. “So, did all of the guys know that I existed at that point?”

“Actually, they were at the hospital when you were born. Mom usually babysat us and she went into labor with all of us there. I remember how Zacky had to call the ambulance while Dad got the rest of us into a car.”

“Yeah, that was a messed up day.” Zacky chimed in.

“Do you have any weird memories of me?” I asked eagerly.

“I do.” Brian laughed. “It had to have been two months after they brought you home and Matt asked to hold you. He tried making one of those cute baby faces to make you smile and all you did was cry. I mean seriously, you would not shut up.”

My gaze went toward Matt and it took everything in me to not start laughing. Something tells me that Matt can still make a baby cry with ease.

“Yeah, well, you couldn’t get to stop crying either. If I remember correctly, Jimmy was the only one that could get her to quite down.” Matt said with a smirk. “My, how things change.”

Matt’s sarcastic comment made my eyes find Jimmy on the opposite couch. Of course, Jimmy couldn’t take the shit eating grin off his face as he looked at me. Just the thought of Jimmy holding me as a baby brought a deep blush to my cheeks.

“What can I say? She liked my touch then and she still does.”

A pillow instantly smacked him in the face after saying this. Glancing at Johnny I saw that he had another pillow loaded just in case Jimmy felt like pushing his luck further.

“It’s true.” I whispered to Johnny.

He kept looking between Jimmy and I, which made him angrier. Johnny stumbled up from the leather couch and huffed his way into the back room. Still laughing at my brother’s antics, they were silenced by Jimmy’s soft lips. I melted under his touch as the kiss took me away.

“You’re going to love our first stop.” He said as he pulled away.

“Where’s that?” I asked as I cuddled closer to his body.

“Las Vegas.”