Page 130 of Before Now

I half-smile. “It’s good, isn’t it?”

His eyes might be closed and covered, but I’ll bet my career they rolled anyway. “Just fucking play it.”

Reaching over, I cancel the voice note of silence and restart. I restart the rest of me along with it. Because nothing about this song feels heavy. Not a damn bit of it scrapes.

Not anymore.

I shut off the recording after playing through once, press send, then settle in, working it for another hour. By the time we resurface, Colt’s the one humming the song while I organize lyrics in my head.

* * *

Comingoff the stage a few days later, I snag Remi and kiss her. Right there at the bottom of the stairs, my blood pumping and the crowd still screaming.

Fuck, it seems too perfect. Being where I belong, onstage, and then feeling settled by being with her the second I walk off. I need it to last—need her to stay.

“Hi,” I say, and she grins.

“Hey.”

“You need to go be a sexy director with your crew before I get you?”

She typically meets with them for a breakdown of what they filmed, anything they missed she needs to account for at the next concert. I have to share her until she boards the bus. And I suck at sharing.

But tonight she shakes her head. “I passed it off to Xander for the rest of the tour.”

“Puppy?” I ask. “I didn’t know he could do that trick.”

A nod. “Told you he’d be useful.”

I smile and press my lips to hers. “I’ll be sure to tell him he’s a good boy. Maybe I’ll even throw a Frisbee for him.”

As Remi laughs, a member of the tour’s crew snags her attention. Audio, I think. She goes to talk to the woman before I reclaim her and head to the dressing room.

Dev and Felix have enough time on us that I pull her to me outside the door, leaning back against the wall. She sinks into my chest, face tilted up as she gives me a look.

“What?” I ask, sliding my hands to her ass.

“You could get your own dressing room.”

My lips twitch at her suggestion. “Why would I do that?”

“So you wouldn’t feel a need to avoid it after a show when Felix or Dev or both are either snorting coke or fucking women. Or both.”

“Oh, it’s both.” I shrug at the rest and tell her, “The label and our agent already view the band as two parts—Christian acts like it too sometimes when he’s following the money. A separate dressing room only feeds into it. If it backs up we’re a single unit, I’ll feel you up in hallways.”

She nods while messing with my shirt. “Mac pushed for the focus of the doc to be on you. I told Heath I wouldn’t do it, and if they press again in post-production, he said he’ll back me up. I refuse to make a cut downplaying Dev and Felix into supporting roles.”

I groan and kiss her. “Could you stop being so fucking perfect? It’s pretty disgusting.”

When she smiles, I kiss it too. “Okay, so I get the one dressing room, and I know whyIavoid it after a concert.”

“But…” I tuck my fingers under the top of her tight, ripped jeans.

“You used to go in,” she says, squinting at me. “You never even hesitated until these concerts after the break.”

I scrunch my face and turn my head away from her.

“You don’t have to now, either.”

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