Last Song (Chasing Cross Book Five) (A Brothers of Rock Novel) (rockstar contemporary romance) (5 page)

BOOK: Last Song (Chasing Cross Book Five) (A Brothers of Rock Novel) (rockstar contemporary romance)
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“Me? What’s wrong with
me?”

“Sarah, you spend your
life busy, which is great, but... what about you?”

“What about me? I have
money. I have my own business. I have a house. A dog.”

“But no man to share it
all with,” Susie said.

“Why would I want to
share?”

Sarah offered a devilish
grin but Susie could see right through it. A smile could lie, but the eyes
couldn’t. Did Sarah enjoy being single? Define enjoy. Sure, it was nice to come
home after work and unwind a little. Take Molly for a walk. Have her own
thoughts. Clear her mind. But, yes, usually around dinner or shortly after, it
would be nice to have someone to talk to, to hold her, and to spend time with,
but it hadn’t happened that way for Sarah.

“You can’t make up
excuses,” Susie said. “I know you were busy before. You were getting your
practice off the ground and John was an idiot.”

“He wasn’t,” Sarah said.

“He was. He liked your
meatloaf and your boobs.”

Sarah laughed and almost
spit wine across Molly and at Susie. Her face turned red and with her free hand
she covered her chest.

“There’s nothing wrong
with liking meatloaf,” Sarah said.

“Or boobs,” Susie said.
“My goodness... even since having the baby, Paul is obsessed with mine. I think
he’s trying to enjoy the last of it all because he knows they won’t stay big
forever. But you, Sarah, I mean... come on...”

“Stop,” Sarah said. “I’m
not going to go look for a date because of my chest.”

“But it’s a good way to
get attention.”

“This conversation is
over.”

“Fine,” Susie said.

That was the closest
Sarah and Susie ever came to an argument and right on cue Sarah caught Susie
looking at her, smiling. Sarah couldn’t stay annoyed for long mostly because
everything Susie said was true. There hadn’t been much of a relationship with
John. He filled in empty spots of time for Sarah. And sure, when they were
together, they enjoyed each other’s company in the bedroom. After all, Sarah
was a woman and she had needs.

With that thought in
mind, Sarah couldn’t help but realize she hadn’t had... well,
together time
, since
John. That was a long time ago. A real long time ago.

“You’re thinking about
sex now,” Susie said.

“I am not,” Sarah said.

“You are. You want it.
You need it.”

“You need to go home,”
Sarah said. “I’m cutting you off and kicking you out.”

“You are not,” Susie
said.

“Oh, I am.”

Sarah pushed from the
couch and stole the wine bottle. She took it to the kitchen and Susie soon
followed, unable to really move as fast as she probably would have liked. Sarah
had the bottle on the counter when Susie stood in the doorway to the kitchen.

“You know I love you,
right?”

“Of course,” Sarah said.

“I want you to be happy.
I want you to find a guy, get married, and have twenty kids.”

“Twenty?”

“Eh, maybe one or two
then. At least one, so we could get pregnant together.”

“That’s what you want?”
Sarah asked.

“It’s an idea.”

“You need a hobby,” Sarah
said.

Susie laughed. She looked
over her shoulder at an old piano in the corner of the large dining room and
she walked to it.

“Maybe I’ll learn how to
play piano,” Susie said. She put her hand down, hitting random, ugly notes.

“Or not,” Sarah said.

Susie laughed. She let
out a groan. “I better call for a ride.”

“What about the baby?”

“Are you kidding me?
That’s the secret, Sarah. You want the baby to fall asleep... put him in his car
seat.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Susie said. “I
can’t tell you how many times we’ve put the baby in the car and circled the
block to get him to fall asleep.”

“That’s funny,” Sarah
said.

“Funny,” Susie said as
she found her cell phone.

Thirty minutes later,
sitting with cups of tea in front of them, Sarah and Susie enjoyed their last
laugh. They hugged one more time and then Sarah walked Susie to the front door.

“Thanks for this night,”
Susie said. “I needed it.”

“Me too.”

“I’m sorry I’m a pain in
your ass.”

“I wouldn’t expect
anything less.”

“But seriously, Sarah, I just
want you to find someone, have a little excitement, and stop talking to a dog.”

“Don’t pick on Molly,”
Sarah said.

Susie smiled. “My deepest
apologies then. Think about it though... you deserve some excitement. Some
noise in your life.”

Susie left and Sarah shut
the door.

Noise in my life...

Sarah laughed to herself.
She took the mugs from the table to the kitchen. She looked out the window to
the neighbor’s house. The moving truck had been there for hours but was now
gone. The house was quiet, so quiet, that when a light came on in the garage,
Sarah jumped and gasped for air.

Someone was in the
garage.

And a minute or so
later... Sarah had noise in her life.

 

(6)

 

Johnnie sat with a fancy
bottle of water in his hand. He stared it at for a few seconds, not really sure
what his mind was telling him. He twisted the cap off and took a drink. It
tasted like water. What the hell made it cost three times as much as another
bottle of water? With nobody around to see it, Johnnie threw the bottle at the
wall. It hit and shattered. For some reason that made him feel good.

It made him think of
Rick.

The show had been
amazing.

The band hadn’t missed a
note and Luke hadn’t missed a beat. In fact, there was an energy behind the
drum kit. An energy Johnnie hadn’t seen in a while. Luke played hard and smiled
the entire time. He knew when to kick in, when to stop, and knew how to play
along when Johnnie talked to the crowd.

It was really impressive.

And that actually
bothered Johnnie.

Part of him almost hoped
Luke would have sucked, but that wasn’t fair to Luke. He had nothing to do with
anything happening with Rick. He was saving Chasing Cross from looking like a
band full of idiots.

The dressing room door
opened and in walked the rest of the band. Minus Luke.

Danny and Davey collapsed
on a couch, each holding a beer. Chris stood with his arms folded, stretching
his neck. They all needed a shower and they all needed to do some serious
talking, sleeping, and traveling. They had another show tomorrow night. Thankfully,
it was only a hundred miles north of where they were, making the traveling part
of it easy.

“Thoughts?” Chris asked,
starting the conversation.

“We’re doing this here?”
Johnnie asked.

“Why not?” Danny asked.
“Talk as we feel.”

“I want to talk to Rick,”
Johnnie said.

“We tried that,” Davey
said. “We don’t even know where the hell he is now.”

“My question is this...
did he actually quit?” Chris asked.

“What do you mean?”
Johnnie asked.

“Well, the legal stuff,”
Chris said. “How does that work?”

“Peter will know that,”
Davey said.

The door opened again and
there stood Peter. “Peter will know what?”

“Shut the door,” Johnnie
said.

Peter looked at the band
suspiciously. Peter had been even worse lately, thanks to Rick leaving the
band. Every little situation now became something bigger, something else for
Peter to worry about and become paranoid about.

“This thing with Rick,”
Danny said.

Peter rolled his eyes.
“Guys...”

“Is he done?” Chris
asked. “I mean, like out for good?”

“Lawyers have talked,”
Peter said. “But nothing is official. If and when that time comes we have to
sit and decide what to do.”

“What do you mean?” Danny
asked.

“Well, Rick is a fifth of
the band,” Peter said. “Album sales still count for him, unless you guys pay
him off or sue him to get him out for good.”

“Sue him?” Johnnie asked.
“We’re a band...”

“This is business now,”
Peter said.

“Sue him,” Danny
whispered. “No. I could never do that. Not to Rick.”

“He walked away,” Peter
said. “I’m not saying we’re going to sue him, but what are his intentions? How
do you know he won’t have his lawyer fight for money? What if he wants money
for these shows? What if he claims his name and drums sell the songs? Hell, the
start of the show still has Rick’s voice, doesn’t it?”

The band looked at each
other, growing more and more worried.

“Listen, guys, I’m not
trying to be a prick, okay? I know most of the time I’m an ass when it comes to
money. Shoot me for that, fine. I love money. I’ll always love money, but this
could become serious. Keyword, become. I just want you prepared. If Rick pushes
this and wants it, then he’ll have to cut ties and walk away. That requires some
legal nonsense to happen, but it also means he could have some demands of his
own. Financial demands.”

“We’ll pay him,” Johnnie
said. “If he wants out or wants something, we’ll settle. We can’t burn a
bridge... he’s our brother.”

“A brother who walked
away, right?”

Johnnie stood and pointed
a finger at Peter. “You don’t know what he’s going through.”

“Neither do you,” Peter
said. “Nobody does. Has he returned anyone’s call?”

Peter looked at each band
member. Nobody answered. They all knew the answer.

No.

No, Rick hadn’t returned
anyone’s phone call.

“Don’t think for a second
this doesn’t eat at me,” Peter said. “Goddammit, it kills me.”

Peter took a shaky breath
and looked around the room one more time. It was silent. Completely silent.

“I just want everyone
prepared,” Peter said, his voice lower. “If something should happen and if the
legal punches start to get thrown, we have to be ready to fight. We have to
tuck emotions aside. We have to... just be ready, guys.”

Peter turned and left the
dressing room.

Chasing Cross sat in
silence for a few minutes absorbing the situation.

“Shit,” Chris said.

“Shit is right,” Johnnie
said.

“Well, let’s stay on good
thoughts maybe,” Davey said. “Let’s talk about Luke.”

“Luke was flawless,”
Danny said.

“Yeah, he was,” Johnnie
said. “Let’s see how he feels...”

Danny stood and left the
room. Nobody talked while Danny was gone. There was nothing else to say.
Everything seemed to be in Rick’s hands unless the band pulled the trigger
first. That would only push Rick more and more away. The interesting part was
that Peter didn’t even suggest that. Normally he’d be the one in the front of
the line, throwing the punches, wanting the most of anything he could get. But
not with this... and that really stuck with Johnnie, because it meant Peter
cared. Peter cared about the band and Peter cared about Rick.

When Danny came back into
the room with Luke it picked the mood up. Everyone hurried to grab Luke. To
slap hands. To hug. Anything to find some kind of celebration in the awkward
hell that had taken over Chasing Cross.

“What did you think?”
Johnnie asked Luke.

“You tell me,” Luke said.

“You were great,” Chris
said. “Honestly, man.”

“I loved it,” Luke said.

“Are you tired?” Johnnie
asked.

“No, I’m a rockstar. We
don’t get tired.”

They all laughed.

Johnnie asked if Luke
would be playing the next show and he agreed. The drumming situation had worked
itself out and in such a strange way. Luke knew his position and his purpose.
He’d never fall in love with being the drummer for Chasing Cross because he’d
already fallen in love with being the lead singer for Fallen Tuesday. It was a
win-win situation for everyone, including Rick.

Johnnie believed that
most of all.

He really believed that
once Rick got word of Luke drumming, he’d find his own faith that Chasing Cross
wasn’t moved on from him. They couldn’t move on from Rick.

Johnnie wrapped his arms
around Luke, the stand in drummer, and Danny, his blood brother. He hugged them
and let out a long laugh.

All he wanted to do was
enjoy the night.

Chasing Cross rocked and
that’s all that mattered right then.

 

**

 

Thunder.

Sarah opened her eyes and
touched her chest. Waking from such a sound sleep like she had been in made her
heart pound. Molly had her head perked up and let out a growl.

Sarah swore she heard
thunder but if it was thunder Molly wouldn’t have growled. She would have
whimpered and found a way to hide under the covers. The big dog was completely
petrified of thunder so badly that even when it started to rain the dog took
cover because she was smart enough to know that sometimes with rain came
thunder.

A booming sound came
again and Sarah listened.

It wasn’t thunder, no.

Molly growled again and
Sarah swatted at the bed.

“Molly, hush up,” she
said.

Molly put her head down,
a good loyal dog.

The sound came again.
Faster. Louder.

“What in the world...”

Sarah threw the covers
off herself and climbed from the bed. She walked to the window and looked over
her shoulder at Molly.

“You can growl now,” she
said. “Maybe let out a scary bark or two if you want.”

Molly sighed and tucked
her nose and face into the blanket.

Some guard dog.

Sarah looked out the
window and saw nothing out of the ordinary. She was facing the street though.
The nice quiet street that had attracted her to the house in the first place. It
had a picturesque feel, like she had fallen into a television show with the
perfect neighborhood. The neighborhood had its own set of problems here and
there, but noise certainly wasn’t one of them.

Sarah left the bedroom
and walked down the steps. With each step she took she swore she heard the
sounds more and more. At the bottom of the steps she turned on the living room
lights. She then heard the thuds as Molly jumped from the bed and finally
decided to join her downstairs. By the time Sarah walked into the kitchen she
had the noise pretty much discovered. Turning on the light above the kitchen
sink gave just enough light for Sarah to see herself in the glass of the
window. Beyond that, she saw that her new neighbor was still in the garage.

It sounded like drums.

“Great,” she whispered.
Sarah looked down at Molly who sat next to her. “Our new neighbor has a drum
set.”

Sarah listened again and
soon the drumming became good. The insistent pounding became an actual
drumbeat. Not that Sarah knew anything about drums or much about music, but
still, it was... what time now? It had to be well past midnight. Who the hell
sets up drums in the middle of the night?

She thought about what
Susie said earlier, about having some kind of noise in her life. Yeah, this was
noise alright, but not the kind Susie probably meant.

Sarah waited it out for a
few minutes before debating what to do. When she had been in her apartment all
those years ago it was easy to deal with this problem. A quick call to the
landlord solved it. But now she was on her own. In her own house. The rules on
noise and annoyances were different. She could call the police. They’d come and
tell the new neighbor to calm it down... but did Sarah really want that? She’d
never be able to introduce herself to her neighbor then. Calling the cops on
the first night there really wasn’t the best way to greet someone to the
neighborhood. Then again, it surprised Sarah that someone hadn’t already done
that. The positioning of her house to the neighbor’s house though could have
kept most of the sound shooting right towards Sarah’s house.

Just lovely.

Another few minutes went
by and the drumming finally stopped. Sarah let out a sigh of relief but then began
to panic when one of the garage doors started to slide open. She scrambled and
found the light switch to the kitchen just as someone walked from the garage.
If she got caught staring, there’d be no chance of ever really dealing with the
noise problem then.

The darkness of her house
protected her from being seen. The light from the garage flooded to the alley
as Sarah watched a man walk from the garage, drumsticks in his hands. His
wrists were moving and then he tossed the drumsticks back into the garage. The
way the light poured around him, it made him look like he was a rockstar or
something on stage. He slipped his hands into his pockets and put his head
back. Sarah didn’t want to look at the man like she did but she was curious.
What kind of man would move into the small town like this? Not to mention... he
wore jeans, black shoes, a black t-shirt. Nothing about him screamed
domesticated homeowner
.
Not that Sarah wanted to judge him or anyone for that matter, but he just
didn’t seem like the type to buy a house in a quiet neighborhood. It prompted
Sarah to look to the man’s house, wondering what else waited in there. Maybe he
was a single father and wanted a good home for his kids. Maybe he was a
newlywed.

Maybe he was just a
single guy looking for a change.

Sarah could have let her
mind run wild with it and probably would have if she didn’t look at the man
again. When Sarah did this time, she caught the man looking right at her. She
froze and gasped even though there was no way he could see her. She was in complete
darkness in her own house. Even still, he just stood in place, staring at
Sarah. She looked at him, too afraid to move.

Next to her, Molly let
out a small growl.

“Quiet,” Sarah whispered.

Molly growled again.

“Molly... no...”

The sound of the dog’s
nails scratching on the linoleum floor were followed by the sound of Molly’s
dog tags hitting the floor as she lied down.

Sarah waited the man out.
He finally moved, turning and going back into the garage. He pulled the door
shut. It let out a boom when it crashed to the ground. Molly barked once and
scrambled to her feet. Her nails moved along the kitchen floor like she was on
ice. It only scared her more. Sarah hurried to turn the kitchen light on but
the dog had made it out of the kitchen. She stood on carpet now, waiting for
Sarah.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s
go back to bed.”

Molly wagged her tail and
Sarah walked from the kitchen.

Sarah at least knew two
things about her neighbor.

First, he played drums.

Second, he was really
handsome.

When Sarah’s foot hit the
first step, the sound of the drums echoed again. Sarah sighed.

She now knew a third
thing about her new neighbor... he was annoying.

BOOK: Last Song (Chasing Cross Book Five) (A Brothers of Rock Novel) (rockstar contemporary romance)
12.27Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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