Page 44 of Under the Ink

Ignoring his own developing sexual attraction to her, of course.

Naomi’s eyes shifted to the bowl of chips—but Sage figured it wasn’t because she was hungry. “He got a little too close—but I think it’s because he was drinking. I…I don’t remember what I said, but I pushed him away and left.”

“I’ll talk to him. And if he does it again, we’ll—well, I’ll have to ask Bobby, but I’m sure we can do something.” There was always the possibility of Sage beating the shit out of him out of everyone’s eyesight.

But that would be a last resort.

“No, please don’t. He was pretty drunk and—”

“That’s no excuse. If I’ve learned anything in this life, it’s that if a woman says no, it means no—whether it’s an arm around the shoulders or taking a deep dive.”

“A deep dive?” Naomi started laughing, and Sage appreciated how it lifted all the tension—just in time for them to order food. After giving the waitress their order and they were alone again, he remained silent, because Naomi acted like she was trying to figure out how to say something.

And he was right. Finally, she looked up at him. “I appreciate your support—and that you believe me.”

“Jesus. Whywouldn’tI believe you?”

Shifting her focus again, she glanced to his right as if watching the wait staff preparing drinks before lowering her eyes to the table once more. “You’d be surprised.”

Was that true? Did most people have a tendency to disbelieve when a female said someone was making her uncomfortable? Or was this just part ofthismysterious woman’s story? “Well, Idobelieve you—and that’s why I want to nip this in the bud right now.”

“No. I doubt he’ll even remember what happened. And if you say something and he doesn’t remember, that will just make things awkward between us when we’re trying to work.”

Now Sage wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. Demanding that he be allowed to “do the right thing” could make things worse—and the last thing he wanted to do was make her job harder. “All right. Just make me a promise. If he does this again, you tell me, okay? Or, if you’re not comfortable tellingme, tell Johnny or Bobby or anyone else.” Jesus. It really hit home—she was theonlyfemale touring with them right now inanycapacity. That would change at some point, because the other guys in the band would have their gals coming to visit at various points throughout the tour. But right now, it was just her.

She nodded just the same.

“Would it be easier if I got the number to one of the women back at the office—someone there you could talk to?”

“No.”

Because she’d answered his question a little too quickly, Sage imagined there was more behind it—but he wasn’t about to dig. This was a sensitive enough issue and he didn’t want to make things weirder than they already were. “Okay. But you’ll tell me or one of us if Andy does something again?”

“Yeah.” As she nodded her head, she made eye contact with him again. “I will.”

“All right.” After taking a sip of his beer, he decided to take the plunge. “I imagine some of us look like disgusting pigs because of the way we hang with groupies sometimes—but I promise you that’s what they want. Groupies want to have sex with rock stars, no matter how hard that might be to understand.”

“I’m not touching that one.”

Sage grinned. “That’s fair. If it helps, I think the world of metal is slowly changing—but, slow or not, we need to treatyouwith dignity and respect. You’re an important part of this crew, and we couldn’t do it without you.”

The smile Naomi gave him had to be the most genuine positive expression he’d ever seen on her face.

For now, that was good enough.

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

JUNE 20

Even though a few days had passed and the road crew had set up several venues since, Andy hadn’t so much as looked at Naomi.

She was going to try not to let it bother her, because as nice as Andy had seemed on day one, he’d slowly been revealing himself to be a creeper. Between the unwanted backrubs and the way he’d forced himself on her that night on the bus, she wanted nothing to do with him.

But she didn’t like the awkward not-talking-no-eye-contact crap, either.

Still, she’d take it over the alternative. And it was an excuse to ditch everybody pre-show—not that she needed another reason. Yet even though Naomi was starting to feel like she’d had her fill of cities, she’d heard so much about the Big Apple her whole life that she wanted to check it out for herself. While they’d been driving toward the venue, the band had tried to explain to her that NYC was actually like five cities in one.Burroughs, they’d called them. And the one they would be in wasManhattan.

Sure, she’d heard of it and Queens and all the others, but it hadn’t made sense to her. Johnny had tried to explain that it was kind of like how Denver was mashed together with lots of other cities and towns like Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, and Aurora—except in NYC, they really were part of the city while maintaining their separate status, whereas someone from Littleton would be offended if you’d said they were from Denver.

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