“Fine…but I’m agreeing under protest.”
“Noted.” He grinned. “Stash your gear and come forward to take a seat.”
“Okay.”
She put her backpack in an overhead compartment and rejoined the group. They each had a beer bottle in hand. Jacob handed her one.
“I don’t drink, remember?” God, he should, of all people.
“We’re toasting the kick-off of the tour, so clink your bottle with the rest.”
She smiled and humored him. Lesson the first: touring musicians didn’t care about open-carry laws, and neither did their driver. All he told them to do was sit down.
She watched their dynamic and listened, and didn’t expect to be one of the gang, being new and a girl, but she hoped they’d at least see her as a benign presence.
When Aaron and Mikey started a debate on the best rock band of the ‘80s, Bob sat next to her. “What’s your story, honey?”
“Jacob warned me about you,” she said quietly.
He grinned, hazel eyes sparkling. “Did he? I could say Jake’s no angel, either, but you probably know that.”
Understatement of the decade. “I don’t read tabloids.”
“I do. I like to know what they’re saying about us.”
“Doesn’t it piss you off?”
“Nah. If it was really personal, like family or some shit, maybe, but who cares if they say I banged a girl in a janitor’s closet?” He took a long swallow from his bottle. “So. Jake said you’re old chums.”
“From high school.”
He whistled. “You two ever hook up?”
She wondered what Jacob really told him. “We were neighbors, and I was his math tutor.”
“You’ve got stories, though.”
“Bob, I’m not sharing anything he doesn’t ask me to.” Not that she wanted them knowing about her private life, either.
He smiled and said, “Good.”
“You were testing me.”
He nodded once. “He’s been my best friend for three years. No one can fuck with a guy’s life like a chick, no offense.”
“None taken. I think.” Would they all put her through Twenty Questions?
Jacob came to the table. “Bob, I told you, man. Beth’s like a hound. Never known someone more dependable.”
Old Reliable, that’s me. The way he put it nagged at her insecurities. Dependable, reliable, and faithful translated into boring and un-dateable. She bet the girl that answered his phone with the sexy voice that night never got cheated on. Beth had only been with one person since Jacob, and Nathan didn’t know the real her.
Once she figured out the boys were going to be night-owls, she asked Jacob if he needed her for anything (he didn’t), and called it a night. She was the early riser and it’d be her job to make coffee and start breakfast.
One touch of a button turned the room into a full-size bed. Not fair when her boss was stuck in a bunk, but oh, well. If anyone asked, she’d say of course he had the big bed. He was the star. She hoped to fall asleep soon, but her body wasn’t having it. The boys were kinda loud, this wasn’t her bed, the feeling of moving didn’t sit right, and her ex was right outside the door. She put the pillow on top of her head and hoped she’d get used to this soon, because right now, she wanted to go home.
Her bladder woke her at seven. She peeked out the door, heard snoring, and made a beeline for the bathroom. Really didn’t want to get caught in her PJ’s. Once that was done, she turned on the coffeemaker and slipped back to her room to get dressed. Her phone buzzed with a text from the road manager asking for their ETA. With her jeans buttoned and a t-shirt on, she crept forward to talk to the driver.
“Good morning,” she whispered.
“Mornin’, miss. What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering when we might be arriving at the venue.”
“One o’clock, maybe. Noon, if we don’t run into traffic once we hit city limits.”
“Thanks.” She sent the text reply and stowed the phone in her back pocket.
The coffee woke Bob first. He nodded to her on his way to the bathroom. From what she could gather, he was the closest in age to Jacob, with Aaron the youngest. She already expected to have to wake him today. When Dylan stirred next, she got up from breakfast and turned her bedroom back into the living room.
She came back out to run face-first into Jacob’s chest. “Sorry.” Oh, God…he still smells like Obsession.
He shrugged. “How’d you sleep?”
“It’s a strange bed, but I’m okay. You?”
“I can sleep on a rock, remember?”
Vividly. “A lot can change in five years.”
“Not everything.” There was a strange light in his eyes that made her shiver.
“I guess.” Her lust for things Jacob-shaped certainly hadn’t gone away. “Well, I left my plate, so…”
“Of course.” He pressed his body flat against the wall to let her by.
Lesson the second: the guys didn’t care if they ate breakfast in their underwear in front of her. Jacob wore sweatpants and Dylan had a t-shirt on, but the other three were only in boxers. Guess she should be grateful no one slept in the nude.
They had showers at the venues, so at least they wouldn’t have to deal with that awkwardness. She didn’t care where she had to go—she wasn’t going to bathe in earshot of six men.
“Beth…Beth.”
“Huh?” Caught with my mind wandering again.
“How much longer are we stuck on this thing?” Jacob asked.
“’Til noon, maybe.” They groaned. “Watch TV or something,” she said. “This thing came with entertainment.”
They split between watching a DVD and playing Playstation 3, Jacob taking his guitar to the back.
She followed and checked her laptop for e-mails. “Working on something new?” she asked.
“Kinda. There’s pressure, you know, after a debut. Everybody asks when the next album will come as soon as the first is on the shelves.”
“Sorry.”
“Eh, goes with the territory. But they won’t push unless we take a year to start recording demos again.”
She looked up from her screen. “You like all this?”
He nodded right away. “Hell yeah. Livin’ the dream.”
“I just wondered if it’s what you hoped for.”
“I know. I think it helped that it didn’t come instantly. I wasn’t ready for the commitment at eighteen.”
Or twenty. But she wasn’t going to touch that subject.
Once they got inside the venue, it was go-go-go. Sacramento was the first gig. The band did some press while the tech guys set up, then sound checks started. They dialed it in some, did a half-hour rehearsal, tweaked it some more, and broke for lunch. She got their stage clothes in the dressing rooms and made sure Jacob’s rider was adhered to. The show would start at seven o’clock, no warm-up act.
If she’d forgotten how kinetic Jacob was before, she’d never forget again. Her feet hurt by six from staying at his side. She finally got to sit while he showered, then watched him get ready. He wore leather pants and a sleeveless vintage tee. Concentrating on his image in the mirror, he applied black eyeliner, then spiked his hair straight up.
“Crunchy,” she teased.
“Hey, they like it.”
“Whatever sells tickets.”
Once he was finally satisfied, he stood and turned to face her. “Well?”
Gorgeous as ever. She gave a thumb’s up, not trusting her voice.
He kissed her cheek on the way out. “Thanks, love.”
She felt his breath on her skin more than his lips, but it still left her stunned. She shook her head clear and ran after him to watch from the wings.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading. Please drop Carla a review or message with your thoughts—they’re like virtual cookies.
Beth and Jacob’s story continues in Forgiven.
Years after their at
tempt at dating crashed and burned, a struggling Beth went to work for rock-star Jacob as his personal assistant. At first, they’re almost friends, but when Jacob becomes the stereotypical hard-partying musician, a wedge builds between them that could be permanent. When a car accident sidelines Beth with weeks of recovery, she takes it as a sign to change her life and resigns, but Jacob has other plans. He’s still in love with her and won’t give up until she gives him a second chance. Can Beth and Jacob forgive all the pain they caused each other in the past?
Forgiven is the third of five books in the My Once and Future Love Revisited series exploring Beth and Jacob’s relationship with all its joys, flaws, and heartache. New Adult Contemporary Romance saga.
A sample from Chapter One of Forgiven:
The band played their intro to his hit single. He waited, bouncing on his toes, until a second before the lyrics started, then ran out, grabbed the microphone, and instantly had the crowd in his hand.
My god…
He’d always been a good performer, but now…the confidence, the control, the charisma. They ate him up. Women screamed and tried to grab his feet when he neared the stage’s edge.
It was the first time Beth heard the whole album.
You know how women think it’d be sweet or romantic to have a song written about them? Not so much in real life. Not when she was the villain of half the set. Her body debated between throwing up and fleeing in tears. If any of his fans found out she was the girl in those break-up songs, she couldn’t show her face in public.
He sang for over an hour and they demanded an encore. He ran off the stage and grabbed her in a sweaty hug. “Do you hear that?”
“It’s deafening. Go! Give them what they want.” What was with all the touching?
They screamed when he came back. She watched him say something to Bob, then he approached the audience. “Okay, okay. Two more songs.” They groaned en masse. “I’m outta songs, guys! Seriously, you’ve been beautiful. Goodnight, Sacramento. Thank you!”
The band left after the encore, running for the dressing rooms whooping and hollering over their success. People were backstage to talk to them, and it was close to an hour before they got a chance to change clothes. They had to wait another hour after that before they could get to the bus. The fangirls had swarmed the parking lot.
The first concert going so well was a good omen.
They hit San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, crossed down to Vegas, over to Denver, to Kansas City, up to Chicago… If Beth thought he carried grudges, she’d swear Jacob hired her in revenge. The album was stuck in her head by now and half the songs eviscerated a girl that sounded a lot like her. Could she take two more months of this?
By the time they reached Philly, then NYC, the shows were selling out, it was two days before Christmas and Jacob’s voice was getting a little rough. She did some research on the Web for coping remedies and made a note in her planner to schedule time for vocal warm-ups before the remaining shows.
He didn’t balk at her suggestions until she sent him out in the cold with a scarf. “These things look stupid.”
“No they don’t, and keeping your throat warm will help protect your voice.”
“Couldn’t you find one in black?”
“Navy blue was all I had. Do you see me with the time to shop?”
“Alright, alright…” He wrapped it around his neck. “Happy, boss?”
“Thank you. You have the drops in your pocket?”
“Yeah.”
She picked a speck of lint off his sweater. “You drank all the honey-lime tea?”
“Yes, Mum.”
“She says Happy Christmas, by the way, and she misses you. She wants you to call.”
“I know, I know.”
She smiled at his pout. “Aaron! Get out of that bathroom. I told you five minutes and that was six minutes ago.”
Jacob watched Beth run off to boss his mates around. She’d settled into the role of den mother quite nicely. They were in New York until the twenty-sixth and even had hotel rooms instead of the bus. He was looking forward to the brief break and a little present shopping. After performing on GMA this morning, they’d get a little personal time.
This tour wouldn’t have gone smoothly without her. She was amazing in a crisis. He didn’t know how she kept everything straight even with the assistance of her devices. Didn’t have to ask for what he needed half the time—the thought popped in his head and she’d be placing whatever it was in his hand or on his dressing table.
She was a different girl than before, though. Harder, sadder, keeping even more to herself. Her hair was always tied back in a braid or bun and she never wore make-up anymore except lip balm. A part of her spark was missing and he wondered what killed it.
‘Course, they weren’t thick as thieves now, so it wasn’t his place to ask. But he wondered.
He sang three songs at the show, signed a few autographs, and got back in the limo. They were dropped off at the hotel, a few hours to kill before needing to be at the venue for the last concert of the year. He grabbed a hat in his suite and told her to leave her coat on.
“Why?”
“We’re going back out.”
“But—”
“’Tis the holiday season.”
She sighed. “Oh, fine…”
“Where’s your Christmas spirit, pet?” He tried hard to remember not to call her ‘love’ since she wasn’t his anymore.
“Back in California where it’s warm,” she grumbled.
“Lightweight.”
“Freak.”
They bumped shoulders. “That’s Mister Freak to you.”
“Am I on the clock right now?”
“Not as such.”
“Then there’s no ‘mister’.”
“Cheeky wench.”
She grinned. “Have to keep you in line somehow.” They reached the street. “Do you know where you’re going?”
“No, but I bet if I tell a cabby I want to go shopping that’ll work.”
“You live on the edge, Jacob.”
It did work and he found a street to browse. When her teeth started chattering, he bought her a hot chocolate. Seeing a shoe store, he had an idea.
“Uh, men’s shoes are on that side, Jacob.”
“I know.” He walked over to the shelves of women’s boots.
“Am I about to learn something I don’t want to know?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter. You need warmer boots.”
“I’m fine.”
He arched a brow. “No you’re not. The one thing you’ve been complaining about for a week is the cold. Warmer feet will aid the rest of you.”
“I can buy my own shoes.”
“Consider them a Christmas gift.”
She glared at him, stubborn as always, but he didn’t budge. She sighed and walked to the display of fur-lined shoes. “This store is too expensive.”
“Uh, have you seen my house?”
“But—”
“Just try something on, Beth.”
She grumbled, grabbed a random pair, and asked the saleswoman for her size. Then she sat down to take her trainers off. He took the chair next to her.
“Cute.”
“What?”
“Christmas socks.” They were red with a snowman printed on the front.
“I’m festive,” she said, getting defensive. “Don’t look at my feet.”
“Why not? Seen them before.” Kissed them, nibbled on her toes…
“They’re too big.”
“You’re daft. They are not.”
“I wear an eight most of the time. They’re big.” She tucked her feet under the chair so he couldn’t see them.
“Beth, you’re five foot eight—”
“Seven.”
He rolled his eyes. Always interrupting him. “Five foot seven. If you had a petite foot, you’d topple over.”
“Oh, sure, throw physics at me.” She pouted. “Stop trying to make me feel b
etter.”
“Were you always this difficult?” he teased. The answer was yes, but he’d always found it a good challenge before.
“Jerk.
The banter was fun. He didn’t know he missed it until he had it again.
“What comes after the tour?” she asked. The clerk wasn’t back, yet.
“If you don’t know, I don’t. We might release another single, maybe make a video. Award shows come up. Maybe we’ll tour overseas next year. I don’t know.”
“Wow. How do you handle never knowing what’s next? Wait, you thrive on the unknown.”
She looked genuinely disturbed by the idea. He shrugged. Life always worked out, so he just…lived. But she was a control nut. She excelled once she figured out how the game worked. The more she could form the world to her preferences, the more comfortable she was. With her worrying over all those tedious little details, he didn’t have to. The freedom from being chewed out by his people was nice.
The saleswoman finally arrived with the shoebox. Beth had chosen a basic black mid-height boot with a fuzzy lining. She slipped her snowman-decorated feet into them and zipped up the sides. A few laps around the store later, she still looked undecided.
“Do they fit or not?” he asked.
“They’re okay.”
He looked at the shelf and picked up a sheepskin design that looked like a glorified slipper and tossed it to her. “Maybe that for your downtime. They’re squishy.”
“Squishy? And I don’t have down time.”
“Soft. You know. Plush.”
“Ah.” She ran her fingers through the wool lining.
“We sell a lot of Uggs,” the clerk said.
Beth handed the shoe to the clerk. “I’ll try it if you have my size. And miss, we have limited time, so if you could be prompt…”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Get both if you want,” he told Beth.
“I’m not letting you buy two pairs.”
“It’s Christmas. Let me be generous.”
She started taking off the black boots. “I don’t need these. I just didn’t wear my other pair today because I thought I’d be indoors.”
“Fine. I won’t argue anymore.” Damn independent woman.
Carla Krae - [My Once and Future Love Revisited 02] Page 13