Page 10 of Rock On

She nodded, not taking my words as accusation. They weren’t. She was the oldest of us five kids, and I was the youngest. Of course, she’d flown the coop before me.

I watched her go before I put my car back in gear and drove the perimeter of the gate to the other entrance where I’d dropped off Jerrin last night. Wearing jeans, another T-shirt—green this time—and a ballcap, he leaned against the fence near the gate, chatting with the two guards there. As soon as he saw me, he pushed away from the chain link and headed for me.

Unlikelast night, he leaned in and brushed his lips over mine, the light touch lingering and sending a tingle through me.

“Missed you,” he murmured.

“Missed you, too. Even if we talked half the night,” I teased.

He chuckled. “That was a first for me.”

“Yeah?” I liked that. Unable to stop my grin, I headed toward the street.

“Yeah. Maybe, I shouldn’t say this, but there’s something about you, Sky…”

That tingle he’d created inside me intensified, though he only held my hand. “There’s something about you, too,” I admitted quietly. “My sister, though… She said…”

“What did she say?” he growled.

“Not specifically about you,” I clarified. “I didn’t tell her about this. I want time for just us, without her opinions. And trust me, shewillhave opinions. She’s pretty overprotective. But she said you guys on the tour are, uh… What word did she used? Horndogs.”

His rich laughter filled the car, bringing back my smile. “She’s not wrong, but I’m not like that. I don’t mess around, sweet thing. Haven’t been with… Fuck, I can’t even remember. Like I said, there’s something different about you.”

He could have been feeding me a line, but I chose to believe him.

“So what do you want to do today?” I asked.

“Whatever you want. I’m yours until rehearsal time at four, then again afterward, if you want.”

“I want.” I wanted more than I should, actually. Too much too fast as he’d said yesterday, but I couldn’t think it was wrong.

“Maybe breakfast?” he offered. “Then we can decide.”

Despite the pastry I’d picked at earlier, I could eat. Or watch him eat while I drank more coffee. If I wasn’t careful, though, I might jump him.

“I was thinking breakfast then maybe laser tag or the ropes course outside of town.” Something like that would keep us from falling into each other. Tonight… Well, that was another story. We’d see what happened.

“I’m good with ropes,” he said, his tone making my head jerk toward him. Yeah, he was smirking, definitely teasing me.

I cleared my throat. “Laser tag it is, then.”

Five

Jerrin

My guiding light; my very air

Some might think the things Sky and I did were mundane, but to me, everything held a sizzle of excitement. Maybe, it was just being with her and having the sensation, the realization, she’d been meant for me all these years, that I’d been waiting for her.

Between last night, this morning and all our overnight texting, we’d gotten to know so much about each other, and nothing had risen any red flags or irritation inside me. Was I ready to propose? Fuck, no. However, I was quickly beginning to believe in love at first sight, but we weren’t there—I couldn’t tell her that. Yet.

Really, the only reservation or major issue looming ahead was me explaining I didn’t just work for the band. I basically was the band. That wasn’t an egotistical over-exaggeration. It was my voice and the music I wrote that were our lifeblood. I hoped Sky and I could get past that—especially with her aversion to concerts and especially crowds. And of course, the fact I’d been lying to her by letting her think I was crew. She might not like the traveling aspect of my job, either, or all the things her sister had said about the tour. It was a whole ball of problems.

The travel issue was the easiest to solve. The music festival was the tail-end of our tour, and we didn’t need to launch right into another. The band was due for a break then some studio time. I had to work on some of the songs I’d been writing before sharing them with the group, so we could make decisions on which ones we’d record. The past few days, I’d had some new ideas percolating, too. All about Sky, of course.

Strumming my guitar at rehearsal, I checked the tuning, though that was the job of my backline guitar tech. Behind me and to my sides, I heard Stone, Blu, Kyson and Stix all testing their instruments, too. I was only half paying attention, my mind elsewhere.

I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about Sky while crew milled around the five of us on the stage. Like worker ants, she’d said. Tomorrow, we’d be performing at the end of the day’s back-to-back lineup. This was the only chance they had to make sure all our marks were noted, so they could quickly switch to our setup before our performance. For the next few minutes, all I really had to do was stand here.

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