Page 102 of One Day Like This (Excess All Areas 1)

“I’ll be glad when we’ve told them,” she said quietly.

“Me too.”

“Izabel,” Joe said, walking over to the two of them. He slung an arm over Izabel’s shoulder and grinned. “Just the woman I was looking for.”

“Matt, you remember Joe, right? He is one of our bronze sponsors for the event.”

Matt ground his jaw for a moment. “Yeah. I remember. We’re grateful.”

“We?” Joe ran his hand along the side of his head. “This is Izabel’s gig, isn’t it? It’s not like the two of you are dating or anything, right?”

“Joe,” Izabel warned.

He lifted his hand from her shoulder. “Rachel needs you in the kitchen.”

“Thanks, Joe. And thank you, Matt. What you organised with the developer. It’s amazing.”

Matt watched her hurry to the kitchen.

Joe stepped up to him. “Why are you fucking a good girl like that around?”

“You want to get out of my space?” Matt straightened his shoulders. Joe met him, inch for inch.

“She’s not the bit on the side you hide. She’s the girl you marry. Stop dicking her around.”

“Me and Iz are none of your business.”

“She’s my friend. I’m looking out for her.”

“Well don’t. Iz has enough people looking out for her.”

“Yeah? How are you looking out for her if you aren’t willing to risk everything for her?”

As Joe’s words hit him hard in the chest, Luke and the rest of the band came around the corner.

“Yeah,” Joe scoffed. “Just as I thought. Make it right.”

Three hours later, Matt looked around the convention centre, in awe of what Izabel had been able to pull off, as he placed his guitar over his shoulder and walked offstage with a wave. The audience roared their appreciation.

The concert was done. And in the morning, he and Iz could sit Luke down and tell him about their relationship.

“Everyone want a pint?” Jase asked as they reached the bar. With words and nods of agreement from the rest of the band, he headed in the direction of the bar.

“That was fucking smooth,” Luke said, throwing his arm over Matt’s shoulder. “Izabel’s done amazing, hasn’t she? I’m well chuffed for her.”

“Yeah, she did great. It’s all run like clockwork,” Matt said.

Ben nudged Luke with his shoulder. “You must be well proud of her.”

“I know we all are. It’s impressive to pull this off,” Alex said.

“She had some help from this bird who’s a sister of one of those lads over at the barbers. I’m kinda wondering if the guy who owns the place is the one she’s been hooking up with. She’s mentioned his name a few times because he volunteers at the shelter and shit. He’s a decent-looking guy. Maybe it was his sister who helped her out as a favour because Iz’s dating her brother.”

“Nah, mate. It’s one of the other guys who works there. Dominic. It’s his sister, Rachel,” Matt said, his trust in Iz strong enough to not follow Luke’s line of thinking. “That’s the one who’s been helping her.”

Luke screwed up his brow. “How do you know so much about it?”

Matt’s stomach dropped. He should just come clean now. But he promised Iz he wouldn’t tell Luke without her around. So, he did what he’d been doing the last nearly four months. He lied. “I had to deal with them, signing papers for this and stuff.” Okay, so it wasn’t a total lie because Simon had gotten him to sign some appearance legalities. “We got chatting about it.”

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