Page 56 of Of Heartbreak and Harmony
“Come back to my bus with me, Firebird. I’ll behave. I promise.”
I don’t even think it through this time. I just nod, then I follow him out of the park, my lamb kabobs completely forgotten.
“What’s your real name?” he asks randomly, and for a moment I don’t answer. I don’t want to tell him my real name. I like that he calls me Firebird. “I promise not to stalk you.”
He says it jokingly, cajolingly, and I roll my eyes.
“My name is Callie.”
Calla Lily Sunrise, to be specific, but no way in hell am I telling him that. That’s what happens when you have a hippie mom and a musician dad. Weird fucking names.
“I like Firebird, though,” I tack on, and he shoots me a grin.
“Me too.”
When we make it to his bus, Torren shakes hands with a hulking beast of a man I can only assume is security.
“Callie, this is Beau. Beau, this is Callie.”
I wave awkwardly, and Beau nods. No smile, and he doesn’t uncross his arms from his chest. Torren reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black leather wallet, takes a fifty-dollar bill from inside and hands it to the security guard.
“Could you send someone to grab us some lamb kabobs?” He looks at me. “Veggies?” I nod. “Hummus plate, too?” I nod again, and he glances back at Beau. “Need me to write it down for you?”
Beau raises a brow and Torren laughs before slapping him on the shoulder and telling him thank you. Then I’m following Torren up the stairs of his tour bus and trying my best not to die on the spot. The bus smells of weed and spicy cologne, a hint of leather and sandalwood. The blend sounds weird, but surprisingly, it’s not a bad smell. I imagine it’s some sort of band mixture. If The Hometown Heartless released a candle, it would smell like this.
The inside is much larger than I expected. To say I’m in awe would be an understatement. Two black leather couches line either side of the bus, and a large flat-screen T.V. is mounted above the one on the left.After the couches, there’s a kitchenette, two small bench seats and a table jutting out from the wall. There’s a dark hall beyond that I assume leads to a bathroom and some beds, but I don’t venture down there. I wouldn’t be surprised if this bus cost over a million dollars. Something like this would be the dream. For our band to get big enough to move out of our shitty van and trailer? After a year of vagabonding it, though, it still seems so out of reach.
I fold my hands in front of my body and try not to look as out of place as I feel. I turn back to Torren as he pulls a stack of papers out of a cabinet and hands it to me.
It’s an NDA.
My heart sinks once more. Fuck, hanging out with him is affecting my equilibrium more than that time we tried to go whale watching up the coast. I feel like I’m going to get seasick from the ups and downs.
“The label requires you to sign this,” he says pointedly.
I shake my head. “I’m not signing that.”
I might have come here of my own volition, but I’m not signing anything that could tie my hands if this whole encounter goes south. I might be an idiot fangirl, but I’m not a moron, and I’m not a freaking groupie.
“Fair enough.” He takes the NDA from my hands and sticks it back in the cabinet. I cock my head and purse my lips.
“That’s it?”
“You gonna talk to the press?”
“No.”
“Then that’s good enough for me.”
“How do you know I’m not lying?”
He shrugs. “I guess I don’t. Just going on the honor system.”
I have to hide my smile. I don’t know if this means he trusts me, but I’m choosing to believe it does. He gestures to a couch, so I sit, then he takes a seat beside me and messes with his phone for a minute. Music plays through some sort of surround sound system, and then he puts his phone down and grins at me. He’s finally taken his baseball cap and sunglasses off, so his shiny black curls and green eyes are up close and personal for me to ogle. He’s so pretty. It makes my chest hurt.
“What do you want to do, Firebird?”
He asks slowly, the suggestive tone making my stomach flip for thehundredth time since meeting him as reality sets in. God, am I really going to hook up with the bassist for The Hometown Heartless? I keep wanting to pinch myself because not even in my wildest fantasies did I ever think I’d get this close to him. I clear my throat nervously and ignore his smirk.
