Fall: a ROCK SOLID romance

by Karina Bliss

  Seth was touched. “Thanks, mate.”

  The trail grew steeper, ending their heart-to-heart as both men concentrated on the climb. Zander stayed on Seth’s heels, pushing him hard. Son of a bitch had ten years on him, too. Drumming required physical stamina and Seth kept himself fit, but even so the muscles in his thighs were burning when they reached the clearing at the top ten minutes later. Ignoring the view, he bent double, blowing hard and grateful for the cool rain on his back.

  “Show-off,” he managed to say.

  Chest heaving, Zander grinned. “Always.” Shrugging off a small backpack, he unzipped it and tossed Seth a water bottle. The two men moved under the drooping branches of a young rimu. Even with gray skies and sheets of rain blowing across the silver sea, the Hauraki Gulf was stunning.

  Seth picked out the shape of islands through the mist—Great Barrier, Little Barrier, Tiritiri Matangi. And all around him the lush native bush bursting with Nikau palms, pohutukawas, kauri, and ponga. He’d have to bring Dimity up here.

  God, he had it bad.

  Zander looked surprisingly at home in this rugged setting. He was such a brash showman it was easy to forget that he, too, had roots in this land through his Kiwi mother.

  Seth felt that kinship as they stood silently looking at the view. “This would be the place to tell me you’re not coming back to the band,” he commented.

  Zander gaped at him. “Dimity told you.”

  Replacing the cap on his water bottle, Seth shook his head. “Not a word, but she’s been acting crazy since we got to New Zealand. Spending time with you confirmed my suspicions.” You’re sad. He kept that thought to himself. “Dimity’s clearly still hoping for a miracle…” He waited.

  Zander shook his head.

  “That’s what I figured.” Even though he’d expected this, the confirmation cut deep. But he could mourn his own loss later. “I’m so damn sorry, Zee, that the vocal damage is permanent.”

  His mentor looked away.

  “You probably don’t want to talk about it, I get that. But let me just say, it’s been one hell of a ride and I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunities you’ve given me. Moss and Jared will tell you the same. I’ve learned so much from you.” If he didn’t crack a joke, he’d tear up. “And I can work on four hours sleep a night now.”

  Zander laughed. “Mate, if you can work with me, you can work with anyone.” He dropped a hand on Seth’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Hey, this isn’t your fault.”

  “It’s all my fault.” Zander started to say something, then shrugged. “Don’t you read the papers? And while we’re doing the gratitude thing…I appreciate your loyalty these past months. I think you were all idiots—you could have killed your careers if the public turned on you—but on a personal level? Your support meant a lot to me.”

  “Only assholes would abandon the guy who gave them their first break.”

  “Yeah, but I was—still am—a difficult son of a bitch.”

  Seth grinned. “I’m not saying touring together hasn’t been…challenging. But you made me a better musician and took my career to warp speed. Most of all, you gave me self-belief.” His throat tightened. “I’m following my passion because of you.”

  “Jesus.” Zander caught him in a hug. “I’m welling up.”

  “American guys.” Seth blinked hard. “So fucking emotional.”

  “Kiwi blokes.” Zander released him. “So fucking repressed.” Unashamedly, he wiped his eyes. “Any band you three form will be successful. I wouldn’t have chosen you if you weren’t the best. And I’ll keep doing as much as I can to help you.” He replaced their water bottles in the backpack and led the way down the trail. “One thing—let me tell Dimity you know I’m leaving.”

  “Sure.”

  They started running. “I have to say, you’re taking the news more philosophically than she is,” Zander commented.

  His crucible had been ditching engineering for a music career. “As long as I can make a living playing music I’ll be happy. For Dimity, it’s different.”

  “How? She’ll still have a job, at least until I run out of money.”

  “The band is her family,” Seth said. “Probably the first real family she’s had.”

  Zander’s stride faltered. “I’d never thought of it like that.”

  They stopped talking and concentrated on running. When they were on the flat, and walking in a warm-down, Seth raised his idea. “We’ll need a good manager.”

  “Yeah, it’s a shame Robbie wants to retire. You need a powerhouse who knows the business inside out. Someone with easy access to the right people.”

  “I have a person in mind…I’m not sure it’s fair on you to ask, though.”

  “I can play a backroom role, but my current reputation won’t do you any favors.”

  “Your fucking ego.” Seth grinned. “I wasn’t talking about you. But yeah, I am thinking the job could stay in the band family. Dimity.”

  Zander stopped. “That’s brilliant.”

  “Yeah,” Seth said modestly.

  “Only…shit. I’d have to let her go. Sooner than I’d hoped to.”

  “So let’s drop the subject.”

  “No, it’s the perfect role for her. It would be selfish to hold her back, and I don’t want her staying through a misplaced sense of loyalty.”

  Three joggers approached and they stepped aside to let them pass.

  “Besides,” Zander added ruefully. “I can’t afford to pay her what she’s worth much longer. Neither can you, so include a profit share in your offer. Have you talked to the others about this?”

  Seth shook his head. “I wanted to run it by you first. None of us—including Dimity—would consider it unless you’re on board. She may still turn us down—she’s bound to get other offers. But I don’t see Jared and Moss saying no.”

  “How will it work, with you two being personally involved?”

  “Only I’m personally involved,” Seth corrected. “And Dimity would never let a little thing like sleeping together interfere with business.”

  Which was why he didn’t mention their affair to Jared and Moss when he set up a video conference on his return from the run to propose the idea. He wanted to respect the boundaries between work and play. And the honey badger would no doubt want to micromanage a ‘release strategy’.

  Falling in love with her also complicated things. Ya think? He needed to bring his raw feelings under control and decide how the hell he was going to handle their relationship going forward.

  If Dimity had an inkling of how he felt, she’d dump him. Of that he was sure. But if he kept his cool, used his head, then maybe he could sneak into her heart using guerrilla tactics—surprise bedroom raids, sabotaging her communications so she was offline occasionally… A man could hope.

  Even split-screened, there was no disguising the disgust on his bandmates’ faces, following his suggestion. “You don’t like the idea?”

  “Stealing our mentor’s PA from him if his voice doesn’t come back…why would you think that?” Jared said scathingly. Rage’s ‘soulful’ bass guitarist would have scared the shit out of his music nerd fan base right now, his dark eyes furious.

  “I guess I should have mentioned that Zander’s on board with the idea…if we end up needing a Plan B.” Zander’s diagnosis wasn’t Seth’s news to tell. Thank God.

  He wasn’t capable of dealing with that loss yet. Between his family situation and falling for Dimity, he was already at emotional overload and his brain had shut down. Try again after we’ve dealt with the feelings we’re currently processing.

  “She’d never leave Zander,” Moss said. “She’s too loyal.”

  “I agree.” And whatever Zander said, it would be a massive sacrifice for him to cut her loose now. He still had huge challenges ahead of him with the insurers and media. “Which is why—if we end up implementing Plan B—we’d work out a job-share arrangement, at least in the short term. There
’s no way we can afford her yet, either.” And Dimity was bound to get better offers once Zander’s condition became public knowledge. He wasn’t counting his chick just yet.

  “A job share could work,” Moss said slowly. “There’s no doubt that she’ll achieve great things for us. And she won’t say yes unless she thinks we’ll achieve great things for her. Jared?”

  “Yeah, sorry.” Frowning, the bassist put his cell away. “A text from Kayla. If Zander’s okay with it, then I think it’s a great idea.”

  “Everything okay at home?” Seth asked.

  “I think so. We’re no longer fighting, using please and thank you, having a great time with the kids, regular sex…” He shrugged.

  “And?”

  “And something’s still off. Kayla’s distant somehow, even in bed.”

  “I’m always faking it there, too,” said Moss.

  “I didn’t say that,” Jared protested, but there was a distance to his gaze, as though he was rerunning a sex tape. He refocused. “And how do guys fake it exactly, Dr. Ruth?”

  Moss grinned. “You want to have sex with a big, bad rocker, baby?” He delivered the Clint Eastwood growl perfectly. “Then that’s who I’ll be for you.” His broad shoulders rose in a sigh as he added in a normal voice, “I’ll watch Downton Abbey later.”

  Seth and Jared cracked up laughing.

  “What makes it funny is that he does watch Downton Abbey,” Seth told Jared.

  “It was once, asshole.” Moss added silkily. “Maybe Jared should work out Kayla’s secret sexual fantasy.”

  “Maybe he should,” Seth retorted. Privately, he cursed the night he’d got liquored up with Moss and shared that insight. The guitarist was never going to stop ragging on him. Never mind that women loved it. He wondered how quickly he could tempt Dimity into bed again. He had a few ideas…

  “I’m starting to think Kayla’s fantasy might be starting over,” Jared said ruefully, “That advice is no good to—” He stopped. “Hmm, I’m getting an idea.”

  Seth’s cell buzzed in his pocket. Checking caller ID, he said, “Guys, I’ve got a phone call I need to take. Let’s finish this later.”

  Cutting the connection, he took a deep breath and answered his cell. “Mum.”

  “Can we talk?” Her voice sounded a little slurred. He wondered how much sleep she’d gotten last night and was ashamed suddenly for letting Frank drive a wedge between them.

  She’d been wrong to keep him in ignorance, but her motives had been loving. And Seth knew firsthand how good his father was at getting his own way. “I’m glad you called,” he said. “How was your lunch with Dimity?”

  * * *

  Dimity associated swimming pools with tranquility. Mirror-still, turquoise water that she sank into slowly as a respite from Los Angeles heat. The only sounds the soft kadonk of the filter flaps when she drifted past in a hot pink inflatable chair with her book.

  This water was splintered blue crystal, a churning frenzy of sleek bodies torpedoing through the water to a cacophony of shrill whistles and barked commands that ricocheted off the tiles like bullets. Industrial-strength chlorine caught in her throat as she pushed through the double doors.

  A whistle blew, shriller than the rest, and swimmers returned to base one after another, their capped heads popping out of the water like seals. It still took her another minute to identify Mel, and only because she spotted her prosthetic lying at the end of a swim lane.

  One hand hanging onto the ledge, water glistening on her strong shoulders, Mel was talking to a guy with a whistle and clipboard who had to be her coach. She caught sight of Dimity and frowned, and her coach turned to see what she was looking at.

  “No spectators today,” he called.

  Dimity kept coming. “This won’t take long.”

  “I’m not interested in talking to you,” Mel said. Replacing her swim goggles, she pushed off with her one leg, arms slicing through the water with admirable ease as she fast-crawled down her lane.

  “It’s important,” Dimity told the coach, and waited patiently for Mel’s return. But Mel didn’t stop. Her agile body flipped into a tumble-turn, drenching Dimity in the process, and she set off on another lap.

  “Nicely done,” Dimity conceded, shaking water off her pencil skirt. “But she’ll have to stop sooner or later, right?”

  The coach checked his clipboard. “In about fifty lengths.” He moved to a swimmer in the next lane.

  Hmm. Dimity reassessed her options. Glancing around, she saw a basket of rubber balls next to the kids’ pool and fetched one. Next time Mel returned she aimed it squarely at her head. “She strikes! She scores!”

  Mel came up spluttering and ripped off her goggles. “What the hell!”

  “I’m not leaving until we talk.”

  “Go away.” She hollered to her coach. “Jack, call security. This woman is crazy.”

  “Seth was faithful to you while you were dating,” Dimity said, as Jack hurried over. “Never once did he go home with anyone. I can vouch for that.”

  “Well, you would say that. And you know what? I don’t care.” Mel replaced her goggles.

  Jack took Dimity’s elbow. “She’s asked you to leave.”

  She shrugged off his hand, all her focus on Mel. “Women threw themselves at Seth and he resisted all temptation because he loved you. I would kill for that loyalty.”

  “You need to go,” Mel said flatly. She gripped the side of the ledge, preparing to push off.

  Dimity stepped away from Jack’s second attempt to take her arm and he beckoned one of the lifeguards. “You can’t throw away a lifelong friendship for something that isn’t true, you stupid cow!”

  Mel pushed off from the side. A lifeguard jogged over. In five seconds, Dimity would be thrown out. Stepping out of her heels, she jumped in after Mel. The water was barely heated. Gasping at the unexpected cold, she stretched out her legs, feeling for the bottom.

  There wasn’t one.

  Panic hit as her head went under. She flailed her arms and broke the surface. “Help!” Went under again.

  Her movements impeded by her pencil skirt, she kicked, groping blindly for the side, but her fingers couldn’t find purchase on the smooth tiles. In desperation, she tried to fling herself onto her back and float, but only succeeded in snorting water up her nose.

  “…kidding.” She heard Mel’s sarcasm as she broke the surface a second time and gasped a breath. “She’s a drama que—”

  She sank again. She was going to drown surrounded by the country’s best swimmers.

  Then an arm wrapped around her chest, and she found herself on her back, staring at the ceiling. “Relax,” Mel yelled in her ear. “I’ve got you.”

  Sucking oxygen into her lungs, Dimity closed her eyes and let Mel tow her to the side where multiple hands reached down and hauled her up and out of the pool. Water streaming off her clothes, she coughed and spluttered thanks.

  Mel swung herself out of the pool and strapped on her prosthesis. “You bloody idiot! Why the hell would you jump in the deep end if you can’t swim?”

  With as much dignity as she could muster, Dimity accepted a towel. “Because I didn’t realize it was the deep end, obviously!” Still shocked by her near-death experience, she tugged on her dry shoes.

  Only when Mel smothered a laugh, did she register how ridiculous she must look, donning stilettos while she sat dripping like a wet dog. “Okay, this makes me a bloody idiot.”

  Mel lent her a robe and brought her a hot chocolate while a nearby laundromat was speed-drying her clothes.

  “You’ve got to understand,” she told Mel, “that in the music industry, being nice is a tool. Something you pick up and put down according to whether it gets you what you want. Actually being nice—you might as well write sucker on your forehead. When I first met Seth through the auditions, I looked at this nice guy who was so earnest about being faithful to his childhood sweetheart and thought, ‘Yeah, good luck with that, Opie. You’ll dro
p those hometown values the second a groupie drops her panties in your lap.’ He proved me wrong.” He had more strength of character than any man she knew, which was quite a feat considering who she worked for.

  Cupping her hot chocolate, she looked at Mel. “He missed you and he did everything he could to keep your relationship alive, even when it was clear to his friends that you’d stopped trying.”

  The other woman swallowed, but she didn’t relent.

  “Seth was heartbroken when you ended your relationship and devastated when you told him you’d gotten engaged. Even though I thought you might be stringing him along with all your calls and texts, I offered to help him get you back. Yes, dumb in hindsight, but we were very drunk at the time. Which is how we ended up sleeping together.”

  Now came the hard part. Through the viewing window, she looked down to the pool where the swimmers were still powering through their laps. “Seth would deny it, but I still feel I took advantage of him,” she admitted. “And in the spirit of full disclosure, we are sleeping together now.”

  “I was never stringing Seth along,” Mel said quietly. “I kept phoning and texting because I was worried about him, and because I didn’t want to lose him as a friend.”

  “Well then, your timing was selfish.” Dimity wasn’t going to let her off the hook. “You should have been thinking about what was in his best interests, not yours.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” Mel mumbled.

  Dimity cupped her ear. “What was that?”

  “I believe nothing happened between you two before he and I broke up, and will tell him so.”

  “Still not hearing you.”

  Mel sighed. “Fine, I’ll apologize.”

  “Thank you.”

  The brunette collected their empty mugs. “You’re in love with him now, though.”

  “Please.” Dimity scoffed. “I’m just helping out a friend.”

  “A friend you’re having sex with.”

  “On a very casual basis. Do I look like the kind of idiot who’d fall for a guy on the rebound?”

  “As opposed to the kind of idiot who jumps in a pool when she can’t swim?”

  “As opposed to that kind of idiot,” she conceded. “It’s pretty simple really. I just want Seth to be—” She froze, feeling the blood drain from her face.