“Okay, I’ll go”—I thumbed awkwardly over my shoulder—“wait out there.”
“You don’t have to. Might be the best show all night.” He winked.
I rolled my eyes along with my head and moved back to the living room, trying to catch my breath and a coherent thought. It was nearly impossible to keep myself from imagining him stripping down in the next room. I suddenly found myself wondering if he had any tattoos I hadn’t seen before … Oh my God! I had to stop.
I looked around his place. He had several family photos and different shots of his parents, brothers and sister, and another of him in a couple different wedding parties. Next to a fancy desk rested a couple guitars, a music stand and mic and an amplifier in the corner.
“You keep your décor pretty simple,” I stated.
“Truthfully, I’m hardly ever here. I’m in school all day, at practice with the band, doing shows or traveling, or on the blacktop.”
“The blacktop?”
He chuckled. “The race track.”
“What kind of race track?”
“I own a ’69 Dodge Charger muscle car that I race on the semi pro circuit.”
“You race cars too?” Why was I surprised?
“Yeah, and I love it, but I’m getting pressed against a wall.” He came out in the black Sex Pistols shirt.
“What do you mean?”
“NASCAR wants me to sign on, and Chasing North wants me to tour full time. Doing either would require me to wait on my master’s degree, and committing to one cancels out the other. I can’t do them all at the same time.” He sounded conflicted.
I watched as he loaded his electric and acoustic guitars into their cases.
“Which do you love most?” I tried.
“I can’t decide. I’ve been trying for months. I keep waiting for some kind of neon sign with an arrow pointing in the right direction to whack me in the back of my head, but it hasn’t. I think I’m just lucky that I get to choose between things I enjoy so much.”
“And money isn’t necessarily a factor you have to fit into the equation?” I gathered.
“Right. And on top of that I’ve already earned my BA in Engineering and could easily go home and work the family business …”
“Which is oil and ranching, right?” I verified.
“Yeah. My dad and mom would respect any choice I made, and my brother, Caleb, and brother-in-law, Nate, really have the whole operation covered … Really, when I think about it, I’ve been weighing this decision so long I came back for another year of school when it wasn’t necessary. My brother Will graduated and went right into the MotoX pro circuit. I procrastinated. Plus, I love Seattle. I love North Dakota too, it’ll always be home, but …”
“You love this too.”
“Exactly. Do you feel like that about your home?”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t really have a home anymore. I’m self-displaced.”
He looked confused. “Are you doing what you love?”
I felt my mouth gape open.
“Hey! I promised no heavy questions. I’m sorry.”
My entire face must have read like a caution sign. That was definitely territory I couldn’t go into, not tonight, not if I wanted to try the concert.
“So, are you ready to go?” I instantly changed the subject.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” He smiled, taking the edge off the tension that had appeared with his simple question.
“I’ll tell you the truth, Sam, I haven’t looked in a mirror all day. Not even to check my hair or makeup. I shielded my eyes when I had to use the restrooms.” I swallowed hard, embarrassed.
He came over slowly and ran his fingers through both sides of my hair, smoothing and detangling it gently with his fingers. “You’re breathtaking.”
Sam had been right; the Columbia City Theatre was intimate and classy. An exposed brick wall flashed the business’ moniker on a neon sign; an archway at the back of the stage held a thick, burgundy velvet curtain, pulled back by golden ropes with tassels at the ends. I took an anxiety pill as a precaution.
Sam brought me up a set of stairs in the back of the building that led to the lighting booth. He knocked and a second later, the door opened.
“Sammy boy!” said the man who answered the door, before he grabbed Sam in a one armed hug. “You’re almost on time!”
Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Jolie, this is Logan Stone, Chasing North’s manager. Logan, this is my friend, Jolie.” At the word “friend,” I caught Sam shoot Logan a warning look that almost made me laugh.
“Hello, Jolie.” Logan shook my hand and smiled. He was probably my age or a few years older with blond hair and a trimmed goatee. He wore a business casual burgundy button-up and black jeans. “Jolie means pretty in French, doesn’t it?”
I was impressed. “Yes, it does.”
“Your name fits you perfectly.” He smiled.
“Over here is Miles, our lighting man,” Sam continued.
“Hi!” Miles turned in his office chair on wheels. When he leaned back to offer me his hand, his chair leaned back with him. “Good to meet you.” He shook my hand and quickly turned back to adjusting the colored levers on his board.
I’d never been in a lighting booth before. A massive console with buttons, knobs and levers took up most of the room.
“The rest of the band just started sound check, and you probably saw the line at the door?” Logan said to Sam.
“That’s code for me to move my ass.” Sam smiled at me. “Jolie is going to stay up here tonight.”
“Excellent,” said Logan. “We can always use a third set of eyes.”
Sam leaned into me. “If you need me at any time for any reason you just signal me through the glass and I’ll be back up here in a heartbeat okay?”
“Okay.”
“I mean anything.”
I knew he meant a panic attack. “I know you will.”
He nodded, satisfied, and left the room.
“Here, have a seat.” Logan offered me a chair. “How long have you known our star performer?”
“I’ve been getting to know him for the past few weeks,” I answered.
“Did you catch the show at the Fenix?”
“No. This will be the first.” Then I remembered. “I did see some of the band’s acoustic set at Kells.”
“Holy shit! She’s the flu!” Miles laughed, surprised.
“I’m the what?” I came back.
“Nothing.” Logan tried to change the subject quickly. “The place is going to fill up fast, and Sammy doesn’t know it, but a record exec from Warner is coming tonight.”
“Did you say Sam doesn’t know?” I challenged.
“Nope.” Logan look pleased with himself.
I felt like I was out of the loop. “Why wouldn’t you want to tell him?”
“Don’t want him to get nervous.”
I had a feeling Sam wasn’t the type to get nervous. “Or is it because you want to surprise him with a possible record deal?”
Logan and Miles both turned slowly to look at me.
“That would wedge him into a decision faster,” I continued to reason.
They looked at each other.
“Um, if you see him during intermission, would you do me a favor and not tell him?” Logan looked nervous now.
I shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”
He smiled again, but it was more uneasy. “How do you know Sam?”
“The university.”
“Yeah, what are you studying?”
“I’m not. I’m a professor.”
“I told you.” Miles laughed again. “The flu.”
Logan watched me, perplexed. “Why are you out with Sam?”
“When are they going to start?” I asked, ignoring his question.
“In ten,” Miles announced like nothing tense was going on behind him.
“I didn’t mean that in a rude way,” Logan began. “He just has a reputation and I thought
…”
“I don’t fit the profile?”
“You’re beautiful and obviously brilliant.”
“Sam and I are friends.”
“Sam doesn’t have friends that are girls,” Logan insisted.
I had no illusions when it came to Sam and his probable number of conquests. “Then I suppose that makes me rare and valuable,” I explained confidently.
“I suppose it does,” Logan contemplated.
“They’re ready,” Miles said excitedly.
“Come up to the board,” Logan invited. “You’ll get a bird’s eye view.”
I moved my chair closer and peered out the huge window. The dance floor in front of the stage was packed with people jammed in shoulder to shoulder, facing the stage.
“Hello, Columbia City Theatre!” Sam’s voice rocked through the mic. “We’re so excited to be playing for you here tonight!”
Everyone screamed and Sam waited for the fervor to calm. “We’re going to start with a set of originals only.”
Again the crowd lost their mind, and I realized the band had gained a real following.
“This first song is called ‘Seventh Heaven.’” Sam got out before the screaming started back up. “But I want to introduce our band …” He could only shout over them all at this point, and it made me laugh how badly the audience wanted them to play.
“On the drums we have Lucas Gardner …” Sam waved his hand so the crowd’s attention would be cast toward the drummer as he started up an incredible drum solo.
“On bass we have Noah Webb …” The drummer eased up on the volume while Noah took center stage and beat out a complex bass riff. Girls would yell out the band members’ names intermittently.
“On lead guitar …”—the screaming crowd went nuts again—“Zach Rochester!”
“The crowd’s not going to let them perform!” quipped Miles, laughing.
“Glad there’s only four guys in the band,” Logan said.
“And I’m Sam North!”
I took back everything I’d thought before. Now the crowd went insane!
“And we are CHASING NORTH!”
The band was great electric, and I could understand why Logan would want to back Sam into a corner and force a decision. They had a radio friendly blend of sounds, mixing post grunge rock and alternative, and they showed their evolving diversity with either a hard edge or a pop vibe beat.
“They’re phenomenal!” I said to Logan and Miles.
“Yeah, they are. They could really hit it big,” Logan agreed.
After the show was over, Sam and the other members of Chasing North signed hundreds of flyers and photographs and took pictures with half the crowd, while Logan shook hands and hobnobbed with the record execs.
I watched Sam like the show was still going on. He looked in his element. But then, I didn’t know if I’d ever seen Sam anywhere that wasn’t his element.
Women hit on all the band members, but Sam’s activity definitely outweighed them all. A moment later, Sam was making his way out of the still pressing crowd.
“You must be a powerful friend,” Miles said lightheartedly, “because he’s leaving his fans early to come up here for you.”
Why did that make me nervous? “How do you know?”
“Monitor,” Miles explained. “I can hear him when he talks.”
I bit my lip. “What did he say?” Oh my God, I sounded like a teenager.
Miles smiled. “Asked how you were doing and said to tell you he’s coming.”
I sat back in my chair, now feeling like an excited teenager.
When the lighting booth door burst open, Sam, covered in a sheen of sweat and with a concerned expression, asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m perfect.” And I meant it.
“Good! Let’s get the hell out of here.”
I peered back through the glass that looked over the crowd and saw Logan still talking to a couple guys in suits.
“Sam, I think you’re expected—”
“Yeah, I know what Logan’s doing and I don’t give a shit right now.” He smiled and reached his hand out to me.
I really had no choice, my body just up and grabbed his hand, and out the door we went, exiting through a back door.
The bus stopped on the corner a couple blocks away from my apartment building.
“It’s raining hard, Jolie,” Sam warned playfully.
“Let it come,” I dared the sky, feeling disarmed.
Sam took my hand again and we stormed out through the bus doors. The music had made me feel vibrant and alive. It was music I hadn’t heard before, and even the few covers they’d performed hadn’t set off any triggers.
I screamed in delight at the assault of cold raindrops against my bare arms.
“Wait, wait!” Sam pulled me underneath an awning where we caught our breaths.
In that moment something came over me. Maybe it was the music, or the clothes or a delayed reaction to the dizzying heights of the Space Needle? Maybe it was the feel of Sam’s hand in mine or the rain on my face, but I was laughing for apparently no reason at all, and I felt drunk.
Sam watched me with a gorgeous, sexy grin lighting up his face. “I have an idea.” He laughed, moving his eyes to stay on mine. “Are you ready?”
“I don’t know?” I laughed.
Sam scooped me into his arms and ran out into the rain, twirling me underneath the starless sky.
“Do you know what we’re doing?” he sang.
“Not a clue!” I didn’t care, and I liked that I didn’t care.
“Were dancing … in the rain.”
I realized he was right. “We are, aren’t we?”
Without a thought I tenderly reached my fingers up and brushed his bangs from his eyes.
The motion made him stop cold as the heat in his eyes lit me like a flame.
It was so intense that I wriggled enough to free my legs, and as I set my feet on the concrete sidewalk, I kept my arms wrapped around his neck, laid my head on his shoulder and we danced, at two in the morning, in a Seattle downpour.
I was free and alive—and, at least for this moment, I felt happy.
A clap of thunder slammed over our heads, making us both jump. We laughed as we swept into the Queen Anne’s lobby.
“Hey, Alexander,” I said like an idiot to the night watchman.
“Hello, Ms. Jolie,” he said, sounding all stuffy and professional.
Sam yanked me around the corner to the elevators, pushed the button and pinned me up against the wall.
“Helloooooo, Msssss. Jolieeee,” he said, mimicking the watchman, being all kinds of sexy and breathing in my space.
I took in his sweet breath and felt the heat of his hard body escaping from his rain-drenched clothes.
“I am so proud of you for tonight.”
“You’re proud of me? Why?”
“Because you did it. You get to check off three things from your list. You’re a brave woman, Jolie, and I admire you for that.” I felt my face blush red, and he continued. “Tomorrow, you and me, all day. What do you say?”
“What do you want to do?” I was finding it hard to form complete sentences.
“Whatever you want.” His voice was deep and husky.
I could have sworn he was about to close the distance between us, but just then the elevator door slid open. He set a hand against it so it’d stay open for me to get in.
I thought about being forward and inviting him up, but I didn’t want to fuck up the perfect day. I stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for my floor.
“I’ll bring breakfast. Deal?” He leaned in.
“What if I said no?” I countered flirtatiously.
“You wouldn’t mean it.” Sam spoke in a sultry tone, reading my eyes.
I leaned into him closer until my lips hovered right above his ear and whispered, “Alright then, no.” And then I kissed him lingeringly on the cheek before I stepped away from him, deeper into the elevator.
/> He looked stunned that I’d kissed him and brought his hand up to his cheek. The corners of his lips turned up and he said, “Nine a.m., Jolie,” before he let the elevator doors close.
I almost squealed, but it was caught short. In that instant I saw her. In the mirrored reflection of the polished elevator doors, Kate stood there—a smile across her lips and a glow burning from her inside out. Even with streaks of black mascara running down her cheeks and her clothes soaked to her skin she was stunning, beautiful even, and I didn’t want to scare her away. Delicately I lifted my hand to meet hers. A little panic threatened the balance.
“Shh, it’s okay. Just us,” I promised. “We’re going to be alright now.”
The elevator stopped on the second floor and the doors separated. I caught my breath and hurried into my apartment and took a half dose of my panic pill. I wasn’t sure if I really needed it, but I didn’t want to mess up a perfect night.
After I peeled off my wet clothes, I threw them in the washing machine and wrapped myself in a robe. I had seen Kate, a happy vibrant Kate.
Sprawling on my bed, I replayed the night again and again in my mind: Sam’s sweet words, our ride up the Space Needle, his smile and his voice, and the feel of his hand and calloused, guitar-playing fingers against my skin, and his breath floating around me … I fell asleep with one cohesive thought, Sam and Kate.
Chapter Twelve
“Look After You”
The Fray
Sam
The elevator closed with Jolie tucked safely inside, and I knew I was in serious trouble. And I didn’t care. My head was reeling with her—her beautiful face, her inquisitive mind, her broken heart … her ravishing body. Her gentle kiss lingered on my cheek, and it took everything I had to keep going because I really wanted to follow her up there and make the sweetest love to her.
I wanted to be whatever she needed from me. I had never felt this way before. I knew my heart was on the line now, but I didn’t care. I wanted it there, in Jolie’s hands, even if she were to ultimately break it in the end. I wanted her to have it. I hadn’t opened myself for years, but Jake was right, sometimes fate had a funny way of turning shit you thought you knew upside down.
True North Book 3 - Finding Now Kate and Sam Page 11
