held up a brown paper bag. “Thought I’d surprise everyone with lunch.”
There was a chorus of “Yes” from my living room.
“Thank you for saving us from a second round of omelets,” Josie said loudly.
“Hey, you said you liked my cooking,” Dylan protested.
“I do, I do. But omelets twice in a day is a bit much.”
“Come in,” I said.
He headed straight to the living room. I purposely stayed behind. I wanted a chance to unabashedly take him in. He was wearing a black T-shirt with short sleeves above rugged jeans, and hot damn, he looked absolutely delectable.
He glanced over at me when he put the bag on the coffee table, catching me in the act. I grinned. He grinned back, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
Those eyes were truly something to write home about. As were his abs and arms, and, well, just every part of him, to be honest.
I hurried to the kitchen to take out plates from the cupboard, and I was smiling so big! I’d told him the sibs were with me today, and he came anyway. I knew he didn’t like gatherings, unless they were with the band, but he wanted to spend time with my family. That meant so much to me.
“Brayden, you’re a national treasure,” Josie exclaimed a few minutes later. We were sitting around the coffee table again, sharing half a dozen delicacies from my brothers’ favorite Chinese restaurant. I’d put everything on my plate from egg rolls to steamed vegetables to fried chicken.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said, humble as usual. The restaurant was in the top ten most recommended in New York. Tourists used to ask me about it. The price tags were astronomical, but the food was truly delicious.
“What’s your schedule like?” Josie asked.
“Depends if we’re performing or not. Tomorrow, we have gym and rehearsals in the morning. Then total rest in the afternoon. At four o’clock, we’re driven to the concert venue. We perform every other evening over a period of three weeks. Then we have a two-week break. Then we’re touring another three weeks and so on.”
I knew all of this, but it still boggled my mind. Were they even human?
“You do this for every album?” Ian asked.
“Yes, but we only release an album every three years. After the release of the first two albums, we toured one and a half years for each. It was insane, but we were also in the top ten highest grossing tours both times.”
“So why is it not as extensive this time?” Dylan inquired.
“It was too exhausting. We picked the venues and cities that performed best, and the total expected revenue is only 35 percent down despite us only performing 40 percent of the shows compared to last time.”
“Wow, that’s good,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s a good balance. We don’t want to disappoint our fans, which is why we tried to spread the tour as evenly as possible geographically. But after the last tour ended, we all knew we couldn’t do it again.”
“I believe that. Even this tour seems insane to me,” Josie said.
“So, is the travel itinerary all set? Security on point everywhere?” Dylan asked.
“Yes. Sasha is on top of everything,” Brayden replied.
“Will Isabelle have her own bodyguard?” Ian continued.
I cleared my throat. “Boys, behave. Let’s not turn this into an interrogation.”
Ian held his hands up in defense. “Hey, I’m not interrogating anyone.”
“I am,” Dylan supplied. I groaned.
“It’s fine, Isabelle. It’s normal that they want to know. And yes, she does,” Brayden said.
I whipped my head to him. “I do? You didn’t tell me that.”
“It’s on the instructions sheet Sasha sent you. I checked.”
The tips of my ears were hot.
“You didn’t read the instructions?” Brayden asked, frowning.
Holy shit! I sensed some overprotective alpha vibes about to be unleashed. I needed to diffuse this tension.
“I must have missed that part. What’s his name? Is he hot?” I batted my eyelashes in a ridiculous manner. Yeah, and I thought that was going to make things better? I was dead wrong. Brayden’s eyes darkened a tad. There was something feral about him. I couldn’t look away. He’d trapped me with that intense gaze. For a few moments, I completely forgot we weren’t alone in the room.
“Not funny,” he said eventually.
I flashed him a guilty smile. “Just a little funny.”
His gaze was still hard, and I had a hunch I’d only get back in his good graces with some smoking-hot kisses. They had to wait though.
We chatted about the first concert while we finished lunch, and