Page 31 of Forever and Ever

Rome reaches for another bottle of whiskey and skips the glass altogether, drinking straight from the bottle. Adrian looks over at me as we watch Rome chugging it with that look on his face that tells me Rome’s the next mess on his list.

Good luck with that.

Rome isn’t like the rest of us. Adrian got lucky with Sebastian because he met Cassie, and she settled his lovesick ass down. I’m sober now, so even if I stick my dick in every chick who walks past me, I’m otherwise boring. And Eloise is practically re-virginizing herself the way she’s sworn off dating.

But Rome—I’m not sure what’s going on with him, except that every tour it gets worse.

“Ladies.” Rome stands up and walks toward the stage. “Who wants to suck my dick?”

Fuck.

Adrian rolls his eyes and stands up to remind Rome this isn’t a whorehouse. But as soon as the words are out of Adrian’s mouth, one of the girls tells him she’ll be off in ten minutes, and they should hang out.

Here I thought this break in our tour would bring a little reality back to all of us. But, besides Sebastian, the rest of the band seems as fucked as ever. Adrian and Eloise are probably at his house arguing non-stop and torturing each other. Rome’s going to get kicked out of every strip club in Denver.

And I’ve got Merry.

If the next four months don’t destroy me, I might be tempted to finish what I started before rehab.

My house is quiet when I get home at almost three in the morning. Adrian finally managed to drag Rome’s drunk ass out of the club, but not until after he disappeared into a private room for about an hour.

Merry’s door is closed as I walk by, and I wonder when she went to sleep. She was still in there when I left for the club, and I’m not sure if she’s tired, busy, or just straight avoiding me.

Maybe it’s for the best.

I hop in the shower, so I don’t go to bed smelling like strippers, but I’m not tired. I’m hungry and buzzing with energy. Once I’m clean, I look at the clock and realize I need to be at Adrian’s house for a band meeting at nine, and at this rate I’m not sure I’m going to get much sleep.

Walking into the kitchen, I see a faint glow coming from the fridge, with bare legs peeking out the bottom of the door.

I could get used to this, Merry in my house, barefoot. Looking for food in the middle of the night before crawling back into bed.

Thoughts like that are dangerous.

Merry closes the fridge and jumps when she sees me. “Fuck, Noah.” She holds her palm flat on her chest. “You scared me.”

“Sorry, just got home.” I circle the island and stand opposite her.

“I heard you come in,” Merry says, rolling her eyes. “Figured you went to bed.”

“Not tired.”

Her big brown eyes do a once over, and I can’t tell what she’s thinking. Without makeup, her eyes are wider, and she looks younger. Softer, even. Her hair’s in a messy ponytail with a few waves tumbling on the sides of her face.

Her hands move to the hem of the oversized T-shirt she’s wearing, and she tugs it slightly, not that it does anything to cover her bare legs.

“Foo Fighters,” I read her T-shirt. “You break my heart.”

I slap my hand on my bare chest and feign a heartache.

“You know Dave Grohl is my one true love.” She winks.

I do, it’s something she’s told me many times just to piss me off.

“So, how are the guys?” Merry grabs her glass of water and takes a drink.

“Adrian’s good. Eloise hasn’t killed him yet. And Rome fell in love with a stripper.” I shrug with a laugh. “So, nothing new.”

“And you?” she says, walking up to me and getting really close. She smells like berry body wash, and I’d love to drown in that smell. “Have fun spending timenot under your roof?”

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