Page 92 of Hope & Harmony

“I’ve got things to do. See you later.” He turned on his heel and practically speed-walked back toward the elevators.

I was a jerk for pushing him so hard.

I didn’t even know what my end game was.

It didn’t change anything in my life if he ever performed as Ross Rocket again, so it shouldn’t have mattered so much.

But it did and I was trying to understand why.

Maybe it was because it seemed like he still had so much to offer, both personally and professionally, yet he seemed determined to hide his talent.

The truth was that it was none of my business.

And I had a feeling any chance I’d had with him had just walked away.

CHAPTER 5

ROSS

It was a busy morning as I tried to come up with a plan for the band.

The most obvious option would be to postpone the show and add it to the end of the tour.

The issue with that was that we had a full schedule with a European leg set to begin at the tail end of the US leg, but the dates weren’t set in stone yet, so adding on could become problematic. Plus, it took months to prepare for their world tours. This was their first major tour since Devyn had joined the band, and she added a slightly different dynamic, so there were details to sort out that had nothing to do with the music itself. Putting any major changes into place now could add a level of complication no one needed.

I made a handful of phone calls to people I knew, but no one was available to drop everything and come to Phoenix for the night, which left me back at square one.

After lunch, I knocked on Tommy’s door, hoping we’d hear something from Kingston sooner rather than later. Devyn had texted that the wait would probably be a couple of hours, so we still didn’t have any answers.

“Hey.” Tommy opened the door looking like he’d just woken up.

“It’s after one,” I told him, arching a brow. “And we didn’t even play last night.”

“Well, we didn’t play music,” he said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “That doesn’t mean Harley and I didn’t go out.”

I chuckled. “She still asleep?”

He shook his head. “No. She was up with River and took him to the playground.” He looked at me over the brim of his cup. “You want a cup?”

“Nah, I’m good.” I sank into a chair by the window.

“Still no word from King?”

“The place is busy, so they’re still waiting.”

“We leave for soundcheck in a couple of hours,” he pointed out needlessly.

“I don’t know what we’re gonna do,” I said, “but we’ll have to decide in the next hour. If we’re going to cancel, we want to do it before people actually leave for the show.”

“It’s going to depend on how long it takes King,” he replied. “I hate to cancel, but not much we can do if he can’t sing.”

“I tried to find a singer, but no one was available.”

“I can sing a couple of songs, but I don’t have his register,” Tommy said thoughtfully. “Devyn and Z sing a little too, but not enough to carry us, and I don’t think Kellan has the range to pull off a whole set either.”

“It might be best to just call it,” I admitted. “And not even bother making it up at the end since we don’t have much time.”

“I hate that for our fans,” Tommy said. “Especially since this is the first full tour since Carter.”

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