Page 55 of Never Been Shipped

He shook his head slightly, not wanting to speak and disrupt what she was doing.

“I’m sorry I—” She swallowed. “That thing I said about you seducing me. I didn’t mean it.”

Everything she’d told him about Ryder made that make more sense, too. There was a lot of trust involved, sending naked pictures of yourself to someone. There was a lot of trust in letting someone touch you, in letting someone in on a fantasy or allowing someone to get you off in public.Have you always been like this?Micah had asked him, and the truth was that to the extent he was like anything it was because it washer, and he trusted her. He hoped she felt the same way about him, but heunderstood if she had hang-ups in that regard, after everything she’d been through.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I could’ve handled the reunion tour discussion better. My timing’s always been shit.”

The smile she gave him was more in her eyes than her mouth, which was parted as she dragged the ice cube from his lip down the side of his throat. “I’ve listened to a million hours of you playing guitar,” she said. “You have impeccable timing.”

“Well, I hope so,” he said. “Because that’s kind of the perfect segue.”

She was still watching the path the ice cube was making down his throat, a cold drip sliding down and getting caught in his clavicle. But her gaze pulled up to his at those words, a quizzical line between her brows. “Segue to what?”

He took her injured hand again, gently flexing her fingers, monitoring her face for any sign of pain. “We seem to be down a guitarist,” he said.

Her eyes widened. “Oh my god,” she said. “Did I hurt him that bad? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but…shit, I never meant to take him out.”

John shook his head. “He’s fine,” he said. “He’ll need to have his nose reset, maybe—frankly, I’m not losing any sleep over it. But he’s not coming back on the cruise. He’s going to arrange a boat to take him to Nassau and he’ll fly back to the States from there.”

“Whoa,” she said. “That’s…over a broken nose? Don’t they have medics on the ship?”

“They do,” John said. “And they’re probably helping him right now to make him more comfortable for his boat ride. Butit’s the funniest thing, he also happened to have a family emergency that meant he had to leave right away. Don’t worry, Steve and Frankie are making sure he gets all packed up and arrangements are made to ship his gear back to him.”

He could see the moment when it dawned on her, what he was really saying. “You guys kicked him out.”

“I would argue he brought it all on himself,” John said. “But yes, we kicked him out.”

“You…” Her eyes were a little shiny, but it wasn’t until she laughed that a single tear leaked out and spilled down her cheek. “I don’t know what to say.”

John linked his fingers with hers, careful not to jostle her hand too much as he gave a gentle squeeze. “Well, that’s why I’m hoping your strumming hand will be in decent enough shape by tomorrow night. How would you feel about playing the rhythm part for ‘If Only’ at prom?”

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Play guitar onstage?In front of everyone, at arguably the most iconic live performance of their entire career?

“But you play rhythm,” she said stupidly, still trying to catch up.

“Normally,” John said. “But I’d take over Ryder’s lead part, and let you play rhythm. You know the song, Micah. Youwrotethe song. We’d have the next twenty-four hours to practice, and I know you could do it. What do you say?”

Despite what Ryder had loved to charge her with, it wasn’t that shecouldn’tplay any instrument. She’d written songs on both guitar and piano, after all. In high school, she’d played flute in the marching band, so long ago that she barely knew that she’d be able to play “Seven Nation Army” like they’d once performed. But she’d definitely never felt confident enough to play live, in front of people, while also trying to sing at the same time.

“Frankie would probably be a better choice,” she said.Frankie might primarily be a bassist, but the instruments were close enough—Micah knew they could do it.

“Frankie’s ready to step up if we need them to,” John said. “But we agreed that we thought you’d be perfect. We can practice, at the very least, and see how it goes. I’ll be right there with you, every step of the way.”

“You’d have to do the harmonies,” Micah said. “On the chorus. If we were really going to make it good.”

She could tell from the expression on his face that he hadn’t thought that far ahead. But his gaze settled on hers, and she could also tell that there wasn’t going to be any getting out of this. “I can do that,” he said.

She touched his bottom lip, which looked tender and swollen but had already started to scab over. He sank his teeth into the pad of her thumb, giving her a wicked grin. “Let’s do it,” he said. “Just the two of us.”

It had always been the two of them, hadn’t it? Playing guitar in her room, trying to figure out chord structures to their favorite songs. When she’d introduced John at last night’s show and called him the beating heart of the band, she’d meant it. He’d always been the one holding everything together.

“Wewrote the song,” she said. “I’m in.”

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