The Opposite Of Right (Bad Decisions Trilogy #1) (10 page)

Cam squeezed his eyes shut. And slowly slid Kylie to the ground. “Not now, Jake.”

He came around to their side. Slapped his hand on the metal door, right over the door handle, in an obvious
you’re not getting away from me
gesture. “Yes, now. There’s no slot on the official tour itinerary for me ripping you a new one, so now’s as good a time as any.”

Kylie didn’t know what to do, what to say. Should she stay? Turn tail and run back into the club? It was clear the fight was going to be
about
her, but did she also have to be a part of these two longtime friends hashing it out? And why wouldn’t Cam let go of her?

“I’m waiting, Cam. Waiting to hear you try and spin this. To try and convince me, once again, that you didn’t just royally fuck us over.”

Cam set his jaw. She actually heard his teeth grind. “I didn’t do any such thing. Kylie’s impact on this tour’s been nothing but positive.”

“Are you trying to pretend like you’re not mixing sex and business? Again? When you’ve still got your hands all over her ass tighter than a drumhead.”

“Let me explain—”

Kylie jumped when Jake cut him off with another hard blow to the side of the bus, this time with his fist. “Or we could skip all that and cut to the part where I tell you there’s no fucking excuse for hooking up with the goody girl.”

The goody girl? She’d been downgraded by Jake to a just a title, instead of a person? Kylie definitely didn’t want to stand here and be insulted. Finally releasing her, Cam shifted sideways to partially shield her from Jake, and the anger radiated off of him like the heat waving off the asphalt. It was very knight in shining armor of him.

Enough so that she presumed Cam didn’t want her to beat a hasty retreat. Rats. Self-preservation was one thing. Leaving Cam to take the heat for their relationship all by himself was another thing entirely. It might not be her fight, but Cam had to know, if only by her continued presence, that she had his back.

Another twitch in Cam’s jaw. He opened and closed his mouth twice, as if rejecting the first words that came to mind. Finally, he said, “This thing with Kylie isn’t a hookup.”

“Great.” Jake threw his hands in the air. Gave both of them a look of anger coated with shaming. “So you banged her more than once. Damn it, you know better. You promised. No sex on the bus.”

“I know.” His defense tumbled out in a rush. “That’s why, technically, we never had sex on the bus.”

Ouch. That’d made all kinds of sense when they joked about it, half naked. But standing here in front of his very angry best friend? It sounded all kinds of lame. Even to Kylie.

“For fuck’s sake, Cam!” Jake exploded. “You’re seriously going to stand there and split hairs over
where
or
how
you did the goody girl?”

Enough was enough. Especially with a half-dozen people who’d now stopped to watch the fight. As Jones poked his head out the side door of the club, obviously looking for his late-to-rehearsal bandmates, Kylie thrust an outstretched finger at Jake. “Stop calling me that. I have a name.”

“Your name doesn’t matter, sweetheart. To me, you’re just another chick with shiny hair and nice tits who Cam let steer him off course.”

That was unfair on more than one level. Jake might want to blow off some steam, but he shouldn’t slam Cam’s leadership of the band unnecessarily in the process. “He’s not off course. Riptide’s sounding better than ever.”

Jake tilted his head toward Jones with a slow eye roll to boot. “Oh, look at that. Another one of Cam’s bedmates putting in her two cents on our sound.”

“What’s with the attitude? Kylie’s got her head screwed on straight when it comes to music.” Then Jones did a double take and let fly a long, low whistle. “Hold up. One of Cam’s
what
?”

This was spiraling out of control. Cam appeared frozen. Or, at the very least, unsure of how to respond. Aside from a death grip on Kylie’s hand. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t much, but she squeezed back with as much reassurance as possible.

More of a crowd was gathering, and camera phones were snapping every second of the heated exchange. Maybe recording it, too. This was exactly what Riptide didn’t need in terms of publicity. Jones was still too busy doing a double take at the thought of Cam and Kylie as a couple to bother trying to dial Jake down a few notches. And Kylie had no idea how to get the situation under control. Despite what her parents claimed, there really
were
some things that college didn’t prepare you for, after all.

Jake let his head loll back around toward Kylie. “Do you really care about the music at all? Or did you only take this job to get the legendary Watson dick inside of you?”

Without warning, Cam’s fist shot out and clocked Jake right in the nose. The force of the blow lifted him off his feet. The brown-haired man fell to one knee. Would’ve hit the pavement if he hadn’t put a hand on the bus to steady himself. Jones raced forward, but seemed unsure if he should help Jake up or try to keep Cam from throwing another punch, seeing as how his arm was cocked and ready to go again.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Cam growled.

Kylie put a hand over her mouth to stifle her gasp. It was thrilling to have him stand up for her. It was terrifying to watch these best friends throw punches at each other. Romantic and horrifying all at once.

“I’ll leave Kylie out of it. Sure wish you’d shown the same restraint and stayed out of her.”

This time, it was Jones who stepped forward. “Enough, Jake. Kylie’s done nothing to deserve this.”

“Fine. I’ll say my piece, and then we’ll go in and get ready for the show.” Jake wiped blood away with the back of his hand. Glared up at Cam. “The new sound? Our hoped-for comeback from the disaster you caused with
Triangulation
? Doesn’t matter if it’s the best or worst damn music we’ve ever played. Because the music isn’t going to be what ends Riptide. Your bad decisions will do that.”

His words struck a chord. A painful one. Omigod. Kylie tried to swallow around the lump of guilt clogging her throat. Was this really all her fault? Blood spilled between friends. A band being ripped apart. Was her impulsive—and more than a little alcohol fueled—vow to try living by bad decisions ruining Cam’s life?

CHAPTER EIGHT

Most people had their favorite restaurants in their hometown. Living life as a musical nomad, Cam had his favorite ice cream spots in every city. Josh & John’s in Colorado Springs. Pitango Gelato in DC. But at the top of the list was Sebastian Joe’s, here in the Twin Cities. And he couldn’t think of anything sweeter than licking Sebastian Joe’s ice cream from Kylie’s luscious lips.

“Try this.” He pushed the spoon between her teeth and was rewarded with a moan of ecstasy. Cam recognized that one. He’d wrung it out of her many times over the past twelve days. In fact, making her moan like that was his new favorite hobby.

“What is that?”

“Pavarotti—caramel, bananas and chocolate chips.” Cam stuffed another spoonful in her. “Now let me have a taste.” He started by licking the drip at the corner of her mouth, then swept his tongue inside to savor the combination of the icy cream against her moist heat. That wrung another moan from her. Made him go hard as a rock. So hard that he had to shift sideways and drop his leg off the side of the chair to the ground before it cut off all blood flow to his crotch.

“How do you do that?” he murmured against her ear.

“Do what?”

“Rev me up so fast that I want to drag you behind those bushes over there and jump you.”

“Well, it isn’t really practice, so I’m going to go with innate talent.” Kylie giggled, looking immensely pleased with herself as she licked at the edge of her cone.

“You really more interested in that ice cream than in kissing me?”

“My first taste of cinnamon honey ice cream? You bet. It’ll be gone in five minutes—and you’ll still be sitting there, primed and ready for me.”

“Cocky, aren’t you?”

“Not all the time. I think you bring it out in me. Not in a bad way. I’m just discovering that it’s gotten easier to say what I want and go after it. You make that easy for me, Cam.”

“Glad to help.” He hadn’t known the old version of Kylie. But he was falling damn hard for this new version of her.

It was actually why he’d brought her out here, away from the bus, away from the drama. Away from Jake not talking to him, Tony yelling at him and Jones giving him sympathetic, wordless looks that choked him with everything not being said. Being with Kylie was like being able to breathe pure oxygen instead of city smog. She made everything easy for him, too. Made everything brighter. And Cam thought Kylie deserved to know that.

“Can we get serious for a minute?”

She eyed him warily. “As long as it’s a
good
serious. Ice cream shouldn’t be tainted by bad news.” Then Kylie held up one finger as her phone vibrated on the white wrought-iron table. “Hang on. Amanda had a hot date last night with a commodities trader. She’s supposed to e-mail and let me know when she can talk and give me all the details.”

He took her cone. Set it in his empty cardboard dish so she could look at the phone. “You schedule girl talk?”

“Of course.” Kylie swiped the screen and scrolled through her e-mail notifications.

Cam and Jake lived in each other’s back pocket, but never went into detail about their dates. Maybe that was how things had broken down so badly that he’d ended up decking his best friend. Or maybe Jake just couldn’t forgive him. Cam didn’t know if they’d be able to keep performing together. Oh, they’d gotten through the last two nights of shows. If nothing else, it proved the new music worked. But it was damn hard working next to someone who looked at you like you were shit on their shoe.

“Ohhhhhh.” Kylie drew the word out so long it practically became a sentence.

“Don’t think you’re ditching our ice cream date to hear about some commodities trader. That can wait.”

“No, this isn’t from Amanda.” Those big brown eyes flicked up to meet his. “It’s from the Smithsonian.”

He snorted. “Are they asking you for a donation? Pretty ballsy after they screwed you over by canceling that internship.”

“They’re asking me to come do the internship after all. The pregnant lady quit, they reallocated her position, and the program is going to be up and running again in a matter of weeks.”

Guess Cam’s announcement of how crazy he was about Kylie wasn’t going to be the big headline of their day. Well, this was a confidence booster that’d be good for her. He’d let her savor it. Tomorrow was soon enough to hand her his heart.

“Hope they groveled in that e-mail.”

She scanned the screen one more time. Whatever she read made her lips turn up the slightest bit at the corners. “In a very corporate way, yes.”

If the Smithsonian knew anything about Kylie, then yeah, they were probably scrambling to get someone so terrific back into their program. Too bad timing was everything. And the Smithsonian’s time had come and gone. “In that case, go ahead and be polite when you turn them down.”

“Why would I do that?”

Sarcasm. Cam laughed, enjoying her sassy spirit. No way was Kylie headed to DC. But he’d play along with the joke. “Right. They snap their fingers and off you go.”

She stroked the case of her phone, as if it held a precious treasure. “This flips everything back, as if the last two weeks never happened. It resets the clock on my whole future. Why would I turn my back on such an amazing opportunity?”

Cam had never felt the four-year age difference between them as much as at this moment. It was clear that Kylie’s fear of the unknown was driving her right now. Or equal parts fear and ingrained habit. This was the pre-tour version of Kylie. He wasn’t a fan. And cared enough to do whatever it took to erase her fear and remind her of what was on the line. No matter how much it pissed her off.

“Because you don’t want it.” Cam held up his thumb, just like Kylie always did, as he began to tick off all the reasons why it’d be a bad idea to turn tail and run back to her perfectly laid-out, perfectly boring path. “Because you don’t want the life your parents mapped out for you. Because you want to be in the music business and not fast-tracked to a cubicle on Capitol Hill. Any of that ring a bell?”

“Obviously. But there’s a difference between a pipe dream and a solid career.”

Yeah. One mattered more. “A career that you turned your back on. Thumbed your nose at.”

She shook her head, sending the long red strands flying about her face. “A career that will pay my rent. Because as soon as this mini-tour of yours ends, I don’t have a place to live, Cam. Do you know what that feels like? When I think about having no money? No place to go? Nothing to do?”

Kylie was starting to make points that didn’t completely suck. And that scared him. Because he knew her now. Knew that she was meant for a more vibrant life than being locked in an office. Knew that she had the passion and creativity to succeed in the music business. Or at least succeed at trying to make a go of it. Which was what you needed, to live your life with no regrets. Was she really going to give up without even trying? Just because she didn’t have an apartment lined up?