Page 23 of Don't Fall For A Rockstar

Then I remembered that Tommy promised to call today. If there was one thing I knew about him after two months of communication, it was that he was a man of his word.

“We had a long night,” Otis muttered. “Go get some sleep. Then call your man.”

“He’s not mine,” I grumbled, getting up.

“Pretty sure he is, if that lovesick face he had on last night was any indication.”

“What?”

Otis tugged his beard and winked at me. “I may be allergic to the ‘L-word’ myself, but that don’t mean I’m out of touch. I saw his face. That man has it bad.”

My heart took off running. Sleep? No way that’s happening now.

Still, I had a few hours to kill until Tommy called me. Might as well try to rest, since we’d arrive in Chicago tomorrow, and with two shows lined up, it was going to be busy.

I made my way to the back of the bus, to my bunk, to the right of the aisle. Otis had the one above me, with Heath and Xander on the other side. There were two more bunks, but they were empty. Our manager, Kasey Roan, was flying out to Chicago ahead of time, not riding with us. I really didn’t care if he stuck around. He was slick, with a polished air that set me on edge. I hadn’t heard anything horrible about him; it was just an intuition I had. But, being new to the label, we didn’t want to start making trouble over nothing. If he was honest with us, I was good.

I pushed the curtain aside and flopped down on my bed. My phone buzzed, and despite being tired, I reached for it. Fast. But it wasn’t Tommy. It was Kasey, informing us about updates to the schedule for the next few weeks. I’d be back in Nashville in over a week, and I couldn’t fucking wait. Then I remembered that Wayward Lane was taking a break in January to work on their next album. That meant that Tommy was going to be in town at the same time as me.

Without pause, I texted Tommy.

Nate: I’ll be back in Nashville on the 9th/10th. You around?

I waited a few minutes for a reply, but when none came, I put my phone under my pillow and tried to ignore my disappointment.

“Get over yourself. The man’s working. Go to sleep,” I mumbled to myself.

Closing my eyes, I did some deep breathing exercises and finally felt my body relax. Between the darkness of the bunk and the motion of the bus, I finally drifted off.

Until I heard the telltale buzz of my notification, and suddenly, I was wide awake. I tapped on the screen and smiled when I saw the message.

Tommy: I am. And I’m already getting our date set up. You, me, and no interruptions.

Nate: I can’t wait

I was so fucking excited about seeing Tommy again that my cock was achingly hard in my jeans.

Nate: Are you still calling later?

Tommy: Definitely. I’m almost done here. Call you in two hours.

Two hours? I was counting down every second.

CHAPTER 10

TOMMY

THE NEXT DAY

Iworked like the Tasmanian devil, running around getting all the band’s gear packed and loaded as quickly and efficiently as possible, along with the rest of the crew. The sooner this was done, the sooner I’d be back at my condo.

Ready to call Nate. No distractions.

Ace was on vacation as of this morning, so he put me in charge of the roll up. And I relished the opportunity. It got me thinking about the future. My job was great, but there was a lot of heavy lifting, and I couldn’t haul shit forever. And I had a good ear for tuning. Maybe I could go back to school, part time, and become a sound engineer, like Ace. He didn’t just oversee everything on the road and soundcheck, but back in the studio, too. And I knew for sure that I wanted to stay in the industry.

Once the next set of amps was ready to go, I got out my tablet and catalogued everything while directing six of our team to load it up on the next truck.

“Did Ace leave already?”

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