Page 36 of Edge of Forever

Have we ever played for this many people before?

I’m pretty sure we haven’t.

“City of Angels—how the hell are ya?” Jonny yells.

The crowd makes a little noise.

They’re not super excited to see us, but they will be.

“You probably don’t know us, but we’re Crimson Edge and we’re going to give you our very special brand of rock and roll for the next forty-five minutes. You think you want to give us a chance?”

There are some whistles and slightly more applause.

“This one is the title track from our new album. It’s called ‘Rough Around the Edge!’”

We go right into it, and by the end, I can see the audience is paying attention.

They like it.

They likeus.

Fuck yeah.

This is what we’re here for.

The next forty minutes fly by. The crowd cheers long and loud, and there’s excitement in the air as we finish our set.

“That was fucking amazing,” Mick says, going right for his bottle of Crown.

I have something else in mind, and I scan the wings for Kirsten.

She’s leaning against the same wall, a faint smile on her face.

I run and scoop her up, spinning her around. She puts her arms around me and grins.

“That was a pretty fucking awesome performance,” she says before kissing me.

Our mouths move together easily, and I’m surprised to feel her tongue against mine. She’s usually not big on public displays of affection, but something tells me she’s staking her claim.

And I’m here for it.

She’s mine so it’s only fair that I’m hers.

“I’m so excited for you,” she says, her pretty golden eyes boring into mine.

“And I’m grateful you can be here to share this with me.”

She sighs, pressing her forehead against mine. “I won’t be here for long.”

“That’s okay. I’ll take as much time as I can get.”

“This extra time together on tour is going to make leaving that much harder.”

“We can make it work, Kirsten.”

“Sydney told me I can have it all but it feels too easy… like something has to go wrong.”

“Lots of stuff will go wrong,” I say. “We’re going to argue. We’re going to get frustrated. There are going to be nights where we both question why the hell we’re doing this—but that’s when we dig deep. Not just into who we are, but we have to remember who we are together.”

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