Page 32 of Too Little Too Soon
He wasn’t really this much of an asshole, but seriously, sometimes it seemed like women were the cause of all his angst. Was it only a week ago that he’d thought he was on top of the world and all was right in life?
What was next? Was he going to trip over somebody’s high heel and break an arm and be unable to tour?
Fuck, he needed to stop with all the negative energy.
It helped that his stalker wasn’t anywhere within his range of vision tonight. It also helped that he hadn’t seen Ava since they checked into their hotel earlier today. She was here, somewhere, but she’d ridden over to the arena on Panic Station’s tour bus, which was just fine with him. And whatever the hell they’d been doing before the show, neither Maria nor Ava had been hanging out in the dressing room.
Lacey stood at the front of the stage, talking to the crowd, building them into a frenzy.
When her arm went up and her head fell back like she was about to call the start to a drag race, Cash tapped his keys, leading into “Dream This.” One of the singles from their first album. Parker joined him with the deep, thrumming notes of his bass, then Oz with his guitar riffs, and finally, Travis banged on his drums, really kicking the song into gear. Lacey clutched the microphone and crooned the opening lyrics.
Game on.
Travis was exactly where he wanted to be. Right here, right this minute, nothing else mattered except giving these people the best damn concert experience they’d ever had. Demigoddess Revival was a hundred times better than Dog Daze had ever been, and he was a lucky son of a bitch for falling in with these guys.
Sometimes, he just needed that reminder.
They played a slew of their own songs, plus “Good Times” by INXS because Lacey fucking rocked the hell out of that song and they planned to cover it on their next album. And then the show was over and they were exiting the stage to deafening screams and shouts and clapping.
They were the opening act, so their show was shorter than Panic Station’s. But that was okay. Assuming this tour went as well as they anticipated, they’d be headlining by the time they released their next album.
Wouldn’t that be something?
Somebody handed him a towel and a bottle of water, and he twisted off the cap, dumped the water over his head, then used the towel to scrub his face and hair while he followed the security guard down the hall to their dressing room.
He heard the sound of the shower the minute he stepped into the room, which meant he was going to have to stew in his own sweat for another few minutes. He stalked over to the mini fridge and grabbed another bottle of water, actually drinking this one, and finally took stock of who all was in the room with him.
Oz and Maria, Cash, and Ava were all chilling on the couches set up in the corner. Lacey and Parker had snagged the shower first.
Travis was kind of jealous. He wouldn’t mind having a shower buddy once in a while. Someone to scrub his back and make sure his pecker was really, really clean…
He turned away from the sight of Ava, sitting there looking far more elegant than anyone attending a rock concert should.
“Hey, Ava, we should get out of here,” Maria said.
Travis glanced over his shoulder. She’d jumped up and was reaching for her sister.
“It’s fine, Maria. You two can stay. I can handle it.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” He wasn’t, but he forced his legs to carry him over to the couch, where he sat on Cash’s other side.
Cash and Oz both arched their brows at his weird comment, but neither said a word.
“Bourbon?” Cash offered, nodding at the bottle perched on the coffee table in front of them.
“Yeah, sure.”
Cash splashed more than two fingers’ worth into a tumbler already filled with ice and handed it to him. Travis took a decent swallow, appreciating the burn that forced him to focus on something other than Ava’s soft hair that she’d twisted into a loose braid draping over her shoulder.
Christ, the woman was beautiful. She and Holly and Maria all strongly resembled each other, yet Travis had never looked at either of her sisters the way he couldn’t stop looking at her.
“Where’s Riley and the nanny?” Cash asked.
“At the hotel,” Maria said. “Riley has had pretty much zero routine for the last two weeks, and now we’re trying to work her back into one. As best as we can while being on the road, anyway.”
“Bummer for the nanny,” Cash said. “Hopefully, she’s not a fan of our music.”
