Page 156 of Before Now

His lips have turned up when my gaze returns. “I never said it was. I just couldn’t let myself believe it was really you until I looked offstage that night. Even then, I couldn’t.”

I hate the screen between us. Between me and his cutting blue stare. His touch. His everything.

“Foster?”

The words crawl from my soul, where they’ve lived, to my heart, where they started. But before they finally reach the place they were always destined to be, his gaze flicks up. He groans a second later and gives a sharp nod.

“Sorry. Christian thinks he needs me for something. Tell me what you were going to say first.”

I flash a smile. “Just that I miss you.”

“You have no fucking clue, my beautiful thing. I’ll talk to you after we pack up for the night.” His eyebrow lifts, his smirk devastating. “You can reward me for being a good boy and completing my interview.”

Then he’s gone, and I’m on the floor in my tiny apartment.

Every part of me desperately aching for the wandering boy I’ve always loved.

45

FOSTER

We’ve been writing almostnonstop for the last week.

Even our day off, we spent it with our heads buried in the music. We’re in a groove, and the end is in sight. And not only for the album, but for the tour.

More than ever, I want to finish, so everything can be Remi the second we walk offstage. She’ll have it rough convincing me to sit for our last interviews unless a lot of seducing is involved. So, not all that different than the other ones.

We’re on the bus outside tonight’s venue when I check my phone and see the text I’ve been waiting for the last several days. A smile tugs at my lips, and once I watch it through, I nod at Dev and Felix on the couch across the aisle.

“Colt break.”

Felix rolls his eyes. “Fuck that. I can take him if he comes for you again.”

Dev snorts. “I would fucking love to see a rematch, but without a solid door between us and him this time. Maybe we should skip it again.”

I would. Honestly, at this point, I’m more concerned with completing this than the very real threat Colt holds to my ribs.

But I have something better than the best, and I’m not fucking waiting to give it to Remi.

Moving my acoustic to the cushions, I step behind the curtain to snag a hoodie and grab Colton’s tablet from his bunk. He’s been inside, checking everything over for later, but he’s on his way back when I step off the bus.

“You going inside?” he asks.

“Nope. I have a woman to surprise.” I clap him on the shoulder. “I’ll stay in yelling distance.”

He waits until I drop to the concrete by the back of the bus before disappearing into it.

After sending the video, I use my bent knees to hold the tablet while I video chat Remi.

She answers and shows me a white ceiling before she picks up the phone. Her hair’s in a messy bun, wisps framing her face, and her pouty lips kick up at the corners. “Hey,” she rasps in the voice that melts my heart and wakes up my dick. Fuck, I’m so gone for her. Gone, gone, gone.

“God, I want to see your tits right now.”

She laughs. “One of those calls, I see?”

“Nah, but we can revisit later. Do you have your laptop with you?”

On a sigh, she shifts and holds it up. “It’s like you don’t know me.”

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