Page 27 of Revived

“That was nothing,” Calista whispered into my ear. I turned to see her beautiful glacier blue eyes taking me in with a certain amount of concern.

I smiled while explaining quickly, “Not my business.”

“Sure,” she snarked back then slapped my ass with a loud pop as she ushered me onto the band’s tour bus, where I was promptly made to feel unwelcome.

“Why do we get Gabe’s nurse reject? Why isn’t she riding with their band?” Sky asked. “Is it because the makeup girl is back again, and he’d rather be banging her?”

“Sky!” Roni and Calista huffed out at the same time. “Behave,” Roni followed up. “You know what kind of talk there would be if she rode with them. He’s trying to keep Mel’s reputation intact.”

Sky laughed. “Yeah, okay, sure. It has nothing to do with the makeup chick who is always so eager to see him.” Sky had already been on the bus when I saw the two of them together, so she must not have been totally wrong about that. Still, she was being a brat on purpose, and once again, I noted that she wasn’t all that young, and should have been beyond silly little dramas like this. Sky hadn’t even realized I was most of the way on the bus yet, until she turned and saw me standing there with Cal. When I expected to see some form of apology in her eyes, there was none. The woman just smirked at me. She had obviously been a very beautiful brunette, but her attitude made her seem less attractive immediately.

“Whoever hurt you must have sucked pretty bad,” I told her as Calista moved us past the cramped space to show me the rest of the bus.

“I’m going to ride with the crew for the first leg,” Sky spat out as she stormed off the bus.

“Don’t mind her. You actually hit the nail on the head. When we first started, her boyfriend was our manager. She had dreams of them becoming a rock-n-roll power couple. By the time we signed our first contract, I knew that would never happen. During our first tour, he slept with more groupies than I could count. He would fuck them while she was on stage. One day, she got a guy from one of the other bands to fill in for her mid-set and she went to see if the road crew’s gossip was true. It was. Sky was devastated. It changed her so much.”

“That is horrible.” While it explained a lot of her attitude, I knew the woman had been in the business for around a decade, so I didn’t think it should still be a driving force in her attitude.

Calista shook her head. “No. Horrible was her being pregnant by the jerk, him telling her to get rid of it, and that she was just a stepping stone he used to climb a ladder he couldn’t even get a foothold on before.”

“Damn,” I hissed out. “I’m sorry I brought up that kind of hurt for her.”

Calista laughed, which was surprising. “Don’t be. She’s had almost a decade to get the fuck over it. Instead of learning a lesson and moving on, or getting therapy to help her deal, Sky became a shit person who won’t hesitate to trample all over and destroy other people’s relationships. On that note, don’t listen to the shit she says about Gabe and Kaylee.”

“I take it Kaylee is the makeup girl?” Cal nodded and I simply gave her a questioning look. When she wasn’t forthcoming with more I pressed. “Was she telling the truth though?”

Calista sighed. “I won’t lie. They’ve hooked up before, but they’ve never been together as a couple either.”

Well that sucked. I’d be on a tour with Gabe and one of his regular tour fuck buddies. “That’s good then,” I mumbled.

“What? Why?”

“Honestly?” I asked as we sat on a couch that was situated toward the back of the bus away from the rest of the band and the driver. Cal tipped her head up in answer, as if to say, ‘continue’. “I need distance from them before I become more attached to the whole family than I already am.”

“Girrll,” She drew out the word. “Being on tour probably wasn’t a good way to accomplish that goal. We’re all on top of one another in this life. We know who didn’t change their underwear, who slept with whom, and what everyone ate for breakfast.”

“Well, I kind of had limited options in the workforce for now,” I explained. “Besides, it won’t take long for this crush…” I trailed off, not believing I’d just admitted to having a crush on a man. Jesus, I was old enough to be someone’s mom. Hell, damn near old enough to be someone’s grandma at this point, and I had a silly crush. I damn near rolled my eyes at myself.

“Your crush?” She asked quietly.

I returned a sheepish smile in answer, rather than allowing the universe to hear my admission again. Instead, we were able to drop the somewhat depressing conversation in favor of getting settled into the bus and my new routine.

~*~

Over the next few weeks, I treated minor wounds among the crew, and continued on with Chevy’s physical therapy regimen. We actually had Cal and Roni join us for training since a lot of it involved yoga. Sometimes, we drew a crowd of watchful eyes as we worked out. Other days, more crew members joined in. While I occasionally saw Gabe peek in to watch, he never joined in. I didn’t think he had much time to breathe, let alone join us. Their band was busy with pre-concert interviews, sound checks, meetings, and fan events all day at some of the venues. I wasn’t sure where they found the energy reserves to actually go on and perform some days.

It helped me distance though. The few times we both had down-time moments, I made sure not to stick around areas where he might find me easily. I’d been hiding out all day in the dark shadows of the mezzanine, watching the stage being put together and collecting my thoughts. I even heard Gabe ask the crew if any of them had seen me or knew where I was. Guilt flickered inside me, that he’d gotten me this job and I was actively hiding out from him. Just as I nearly gave in to that guilt, and swallowed the horrible feeling about what might happen if I gave in and then had to watch him with someone else, a familiar voice spoke from the shadows behind me.

“Why are you avoiding him? Did my dad do something to make you angry?”

I turned to watch Chevy move closer. My eyes stayed trained on his until he took the seat beside me. While we had enough dim light to see one another well enough, we were still shrouded in shadows. “He hasn’t done anything,” I admitted.

“Then why?”

“Chevy, it’s complicated,” I whispered.

“Nah. I don’t believe that,” he argued.

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