Page 84 of Love You Like That (Excess All Areas 4)

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“What do you mean we don’t have rooms?” Alex said four days later as he waited away from the reception desk where Ed was in the middle of a very heated conversation.

Ben shrugged and then slipped down into the plush leather sofa. “All I know is Ed was ranting about having booking numbers.”

Today had been a nightmare. Traffic had been slow to Nottingham, and accident had held them hostage between motorway junctions, one of the road crew, Tommy, had injured his hand putting equipment beneath the bus leading to him needing surgery on his thumb.

“It’s like Mercury’s in retrograde or something,” he muttered, feeling Zoe slip her hand beneath his sweater to rub his back.

If she was doing it to calm him, it was a failure. Just the brush of her fingers on his skin made him need keys to their bedroom asap.

Their room.

Thatthought soothed him. Because one thing he’d learned after the time they’d spent at home was that he could get very used to going to bed and waking up with Zoe Atkins.

When it wasn’t turning him on, her presence did soothe him. Quieted the low-grade itch to move and do, making it easier to simply be.

She’d been quiet since they’d got on the coach, and he wondered if she was having second thoughts about touring with them again. Their landlord had promised the contractors would be finished working soon, but the house was liveable and safe. Jase and Cerys had managed just fine.

“Worst case we can sleep on the bus. It’s not the end of the world,” Matt said.

Luke sat down next to Ben. “Glad Willow isn’t coming down until later today with Iz. Can always tell her to just stay home rather than have to hit the tour bus again.”

Jase grinned. “She loves the tour bus, and you know it. It’s just you, you old worrywart.”

“And if it was Cerys who was seven and a half months pregnant?”

“Now there’s a thought, eh, sunshine?”

Cerys rolled her eyes. “Has badgering people ever got you anywhere in life?”

“Did you ever hear the story of how the band started, Cerys?” Matt asked.

“I did.”

“I didn’t,” Zoe said. “Jase badgering?”

Luke laughed. “We were meant to be a duo. Me and Matt. But Jase badgered Nan. And Nan said she’d buy us instruments if we included Jase. And then Jase badgered everyone else to let Alex and Ben join because he knew they wanted to be in a band and that Matt wouldn’t let them.”

Matt put his arms out to the side. “And that is why we are now a five-some.”

Jase slipped his arms around Cerys’s waist. “So, you see, badgering works. Move in with me and have babies with me, sunshine.”

“We’ll see.”

Jase stepped back, mouth wide open. “Did you all hear that?”

“Hear what?” Alex said.

“She said, we’ll see. Not, no. Not, not yet. A ‘we’ll see’. It’s progress, boys. I’m wearing her down.”

One of the crew came hurrying into the lobby. “We’ve got a problem with the bus. We loaded up the equipment last night, but the door wasn’t closed properly so a shit ton of water got in. Some of the instruments are damaged.”

“Fuck me,” Ed muttered.

“If it’s that new guitar I just bought,” Ben cursed.

“The guitar’s fine. It’s the bags with the marimba in them that got most damaged. The wooden blocks.”

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