I kept my head down as he walked to the door and held my breath when I heard it open.
“You’re making a big mistake,” he called back to me.
I know.
But I couldn’t tell him that. I couldn’t say anything.
Chapter Six
Zack
“I’m out,” Molly said when she called me on Sunday night.
I was sitting on the back porch drinking coffee and watching Emily and Lily play in the sand. Lily had woken up at the crack of dawn and wanted to go swimming. Of course it was too early, but as soon as it was light, I’d taken her out for a walk on the beach to collect shells while Em had made breakfast. As soon as we’d finished eating, Lily had asked to go swimming again. So we’d spent the morning in the ocean, splashing and playing and running from the waves.
Lily was exhausted after lunch, and truthfully, so were Emily and I, so we’d all napped for a few hours. After dinner, Lily had wanted to go swimming again, but Emily had talked her into making a sand castle for her princess dolls, and that’s what they were doing when I got the phone call from Molly.
“What do you mean, you’re out?” I asked sitting up straighter in my chair.
Emily must have heard me because she glanced back with a look of concern on her face. She watched me for a few seconds before Lily begged her attention back.
“I mean, I’m no longer your manager,” Molly declared.
Shit.
“Did Adam fire you?” I demanded, ready to call him if he did. I’d pull our contract if he fired Molly.
She sighed. “No, he actually gave me a raise and a goal of going out and signing three more bands that he’s been watching. It’s supposed to be a positive thing, but I’m not sure I agree. I understand where he’s coming from. I am good at scouting and courting, but I love managing you guys.”
She wasn’t happy, and neither was I. And we both knew this change was because of what had happened at the radio station. It had been the last straw. Adam wasn’t happy with the way I’d been pushing back, and I was certain he figured Molly wasn’t pushing back on me like she should have.
“Shit, that sucks, Molls. What does that mean for us?”
“Well, you’re getting the new guy that Adam just hired. His name is Jonathan Striker, and he’s managed smaller bands for a few years. He approached Adam a few months ago about managing you guys, telling him what he thought the band needed, and they’ve apparently been talking all along. Adam thinks he’ll do as good of a job as me, if not better, if you know what I mean.”
Yeah, I knew what she meant. This Jonathan guy wasn’t going to let me push back on him even when it was the right thing to do for our band – not his. I didn’t like him already.
“Loud and clear,” I deadpanned, the anger rising inside me.
I was pissed. We’d specifically signed with Live Ammunition because of Molly. She’d managed us when we were nobodies. She’d been with us practically from the beginning, and she was our family. When we agreed to sign with a label, we talked about wanting to keep things close so we could have a say and do the right things for our band. With someone new, that say would go away. The guys weren’t going to like this, especially Leo.
“Do you want me to talk to Adam?” I asked, knowing I’d do what I could to keep Molly with us.
She sighed. “No, it’s fine. He’s not going to change his mind. Truthfully, he was pissed about the changes we made to the promo the other day. He reamed me out for that, and this was his way of telling me I was just too close.”
I fucking knew it.
“What do you know about this Jonathan guy?” I asked, instead of getting anymore worked up. It’s not like it would do any good, even though I felt like throwing my coffee cup across the porch.
“He seems legit. I’ve asked around, and everyone says he works his ass off for the bands he promotes. He’ll put everything into you guys and do what he can to make sure you’re successful. I think you should trust him.”
I shook my head a few times. I didn’t really let new people in very easily. I was guarded by nature, so this guy was going to have to prove himself to me before I’d be convinced, but I trusted Molly. She’d never steered me wrong in the past.
“Do you want me to tell the other guys?”
“No, I’m going to call them,” she said resignedly.
“I’m not happy about this,” I said, stating the obvious.
“I know you’re not, Zack, but the music business is a business, so I think we should feel fortunate we got away with this for as long as we did. Not many bands get that lucky.”
I sighed. “I know.”
“Alright, I’ve got to go. Talk soon.”
“Bye Molly.”
I hung up the phone and tossed it onto the table. Emily looked up again, and I just shook my head.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, and Lily looked up.
“What’s wong, Daddy?” she asked, echoing Emily.
“Nothing, baby girl,” I said, figuring I could let go of some of the anger and frustration I was feeling with a good distraction.
I walked down to the beach and settled beside Lily on the sand. She was crouched down packing sand onto the side of what I knew was supposed to be a castle, but there wasn’t much shape to it. I smoothed her hair back, and she looked up at me.
“Do you wike the pwincess castle, Daddy?”
“It’s beautiful,” I said, and Emily met my gaze and smiled at me.
“You okay?” she mouthed above Lily’s head.
I shook my head.
“What happened?”
“Tell you later,” I told her.
“Tew what, Daddy?” Lily asked, all ears apparently.
I reached out and tickled her. She giggled. “That you need to wrap it up so you can take a bath and go night-night.”
“No!” she cried. “I don’t wanna go night-night.”
So I picked her up in my arms and blew a raspberry on her stomach, instantly stopping her cries and making her laugh.
“No, Daddy,” she said through her giggles, unable to fight them.
I stood, lifting her with me. I continued to blow raspberries onto her bare stomach as I carried her up to the house. She giggled and screamed the whole way until I set her down on the porch and told her to wash her feet in the shallow basin we had outside for just that reason.
Emily and I followed suit, and then the three of us went into the tiny bathroom to start the bath time/bedtime process that had started to get longer the older Lily got since she never wanted to go to bed, even though I could see in her eyes that she was exhausted.
After reading her two stories and tucking her into what used to be my room, I met Emily in the master bedroom. A few months earlier, knowing it was time, I’d finally redecorated and updated some of the furniture in the house. For a while I’d held onto my mother’s memory through her things and her furniture, but I knew doing that wasn’t going to bring her back. And if I was serious about making a life with Emily, I figured turning the house into something that was ours was a good step. I’d kept a lot of the same things, but there were changes I made that let Emily know that she wasn’t a visitor in the house. It was hers too.
When I walked into the room, she was in bed, leaning up against the white-washed headboard, reading one of the industry websites on her iPad. I knew she liked to keep up with what was being said about us and our music, in addition to other bands like ours. She set the iPad down when I walked in, though.
I sat down next to her on the king-sized bed, and she put her head on my shoulder.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” she asked softly.
“Adam replaced Molly,” I said without preamble.
Her head instantly lifted from my shoulder, and she looked at me with wide eyes. “He did what?”
I sighed. “Apparently she was too close, so he reassigned her to recruit new music to the label. We’re getting Jonathan Striker apparently, and if you ask me,
he sounds like an asshole with that name.”
“I’ve heard of him. He’s pretty good,” she said, concern worrying her brow.
I shrugged. “Yeah, but he’s not Molly.”
Emily reached over and ran her hand back through my hair, playing with the strands at the nape of my neck.
“That sucks, babe. Can you talk to Adam?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not going to do any good. Molly asked me to stay out of it, not to make things worse. I have a feeling Adam’s not too happy with me, so I guess it’s better not to make waves.”
“Yeah, that makes sense, I guess.”
Neither of us said anything for a few seconds. Emily just continued to play with my hair, the rhythmic motion making me drowsy.
“Anything good online today?” I asked.
A few of the websites had given us pretty great reviews for the show we played in L.A., which was always a high to read.
She shook her head. “Nothing about you guys, but I’m imagining that after the interview that’ll air tomorrow on Lindsay’s show and the release of Without You on Tuesday, they’ll be a ton of buzz. You guys are virtually unstoppable.”
I turned to her. “Don’t say that,” I said, a smirk creeping up on my lips at her words. I couldn’t help it. I was still amazed by what people thought of us. “You don’t want to jinx the band, especially with Jonathan Douchebag joining the team.”
Emily smacked my shoulder. “Zack, don’t say that. You don’t even know him. You might really like him if you make an effort.”
She was too nice for her own good sometimes.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “We’ll see.”
Her hand moved to the back of my neck, massaging the muscles that had been stiff for the past few hours. She kept her hand in place as she moved to straddle my thighs, her other hand joining at the back of my neck.
“You’re really tense, baby,” she said, as she leaned forward and kissed me.
“I am. Do you know something that will make that go away?” I asked, as I scooted her flush against me so she was straddling my waist.
She pulled back and looked at me, nodding and smirking. “I know just the thing,” she said, sliding away from me.
Her fingers worked to unfasten my belt as she looked up at me through her lashes, smiling softly. I smiled back at her as she unzipped my pants, her hand reaching in to massage the hardness there. Giving in to the sensations when she freed me and closed her mouth around me, I let my head fall back and closed my eyes, instantly relaxing under her touch.
Right before I let her take me over the edge, I stopped her. She looked up at me with sexy, swollen lips and hooded eyes. Damn, that was so hot.
“Come here,” I beckoned, leaning forward so I could lift my shirt over my head.
She followed suit, sliding her tank top over her head and her shorts and panties off before she straddled me, I slid into her, relishing in the feeling. Soon her mouth was on mine, and she was moving against me, crying out in between kisses, as my hands held her hips tightly. Within a few minutes, I felt her getting close, and then she was crying out my name as softly as she could so we wouldn’t be heard and writhing above me, which sent me completely over the edge.
She collapsed on my chest, our uneven heaving breathing making our chests rise and fall in tandem. “Better?” she asked.
“A hundred percent,” I said, as she slid off of me and tucked in under my arm.
“Good.”
She rested her head on my chest and her left hand on my stomach. I laced our fingers together.
“I love hearing your heart beat,” she murmured, and I closed my eyes, feeling sleep start to wash over me. “Zack?”
“Mmm?” I said, knowing I wasn’t going to be awake for long.
“Would you maybe want to have the wedding here – at the house?”
I was suddenly wide awake. It was the first time we’d actually talked about making concrete plans to get married. With the tour and the new album, things had been so crazy that neither of us ever brought it up.
“I mean, would that be okay or would it be too hard for you?” she asked, when I didn’t say anything.
I knew what she was getting at. There were so many memories of my mom and her sickness and her last days in this house. But there were also really good memories of her being happy and vibrant and alive. And I’d practically grown up on the island – coming there every summer for vacations and then living there full-time for the past few years. It was my home, but it was also the place where Emily and I fell in love.
Emily was looking up at me when I met her gaze, and I felt my face soften. “I think that’s a great idea.”
Honestly, having the wedding at the house would make it feel a little more like my mom was there. It was as close as she could be to seeing me say ‘I do’ to the girl we both loved.
Emily smiled and snuggled closer to me. “Good. I think I’m going to start making plans. I was sitting outside with Lily today just thinking about how beautiful it would be to have a small wedding on the beach. It’s such a gorgeous backdrop.”
“I agree, but truthfully, I’d marry you anywhere,” I said, and she kissed my bare chest.
“I love you for that.”
“So when were you thinking? Can we do it in two weeks?”
She lightly smacked my chest. “You’re crazy. Do you know how long it takes to plan a wedding?”
I shrugged. “How long can it take? You, me, Lily, our friends and families. Done.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and there’s the dress, the food, the flowers, the music. It’s a lot, Zack.”
“Semantics,” I said. “Besides, I’ll handle the music. I know a great band who can play.”
She looked up at me. “You’re going to play at your own wedding?”
I smiled. “At least a few songs – including the ones I’ll write for my wife.”
Her eyes got wide. “Your wife. That’s so weird hearing you say that, but I totally love it.”
I smiled. “Yeah, me too. So two weeks?”
She grinned. “How about six months?”
I fake pouted, but really six months seemed like too long. I wondered if I could talk her into doing it sooner.
Chapter Seven
Zack
“Okay, guys let’s take a break, and then let’s think about regrouping. I’m not sure everyone’s head is in the game today. Can you tell me why that is?” Jonathan, our new jackass of a manager said, and three sets of eyes looked at Andrew.
Tommy, the genius who was producing our album, actually looked annoyed. We’d worked with him on our EP, and he’d been great, but something had set him off today, and we could all guess what it was. We were supposed to knock out Stolen. We were all being recorded at separate times, but we’d agreed to be there throughout the day to support each other. Leo had gone first and knocked it out of the park. Andrew was next, and he’d essentially crashed and burned, making countless mistakes. We were wasting valuable studio time with take after take that he should have been able to nail.
And to top things off, he’d been in a pissy mood since we’d arrived at the studio, and his playing was subpar when he’d actually gotten the guitar riffs right. It seemed whatever was plaguing him hadn’t let up since we’d gotten back from our break. I’d called him a few times over the long weekend, but he hadn’t retuned my calls. None of the other guys had heard from him either. And that morning he’d arrived five minutes before he was set to play with just enough time to hastily meet Jonathan and do a quick tune of his guitar. He hadn’t made it for Leo’s performance.
He also looked like he hadn’t slept. I decided I was pulling him aside during our first break to find out what the fuck was wrong with him. It was bad enough when he was moody, but he’d gone from being up and down to downright pissed off and looking like he’d been hit by a truck, and now it was affecting the rest of us. This album was too important for him to not have his head in the game. In two hours,
we’d only gotten a few good takes of some of his instrumental parts of one song, and we all knew he was capable of much more than he was putting out.
Andrew practically threw his guitar against the wall when Jonathan called a break. Then he stormed out of the studio.
“What’s his deal?” Jonathan asked me in a jovial way that made me assume he thought we were friends. Yeah, not so much.
He was a pretty boy with streaked blond hair and a chiseled jaw, and I didn’t trust him one bit. Sure, he said he wanted the album to be epic and that he totally had our backs, but there was something about him that made me have my guard up.
“Not sure,” I said, rising from the chair I was sitting on behind the mixing board.
“Can you find out?”
I turned and glared at him. “I was already planning on it.”
“Thank you,” Jonathan said curtly, turning back to the sound engineer who was playing back tracks.
Fuck him if he thought he was taking the lead in this band. If anyone was taking the lead, it was me or Leo. Jonathan had been with us for five minutes. He needed to earn his place. He didn’t get it automatically. But I’d deal with him later. Right now I needed to find my friend and figure out what the hell had crawled up his ass.
“Zack,” Tommy said then, and I turned around.
“Yeah?”
“Let him know we have to redo everything. None of these takes are good enough. Andrew’s a million times better than this, and he needs to bring it.”
I sighed upon hearing that, but I honestly wasn’t surprised that the takes were useless. I’d been listening to Andrew play all morning.
“I’ll tell him.”
Tommy just nodded and went back to the mixing board while I headed outside for some fresh air. I found Andrew out there, standing in front of the studio staring into the parking lot.
“Dude, what’s your problem? You look like this is the last place you want to be, and your playing is for shit.”
He didn’t turn when he heard my voice or my insult.
“I’m fine, man. Leave me alone.”
Broken Fairytales Series Box Set (Broken Fairytales, Buried Castles, Shattered Crowns) Page 68