by Lisa Suzanne
But, like Blaze said earlier, maybe I’m chasing the wrong goal. And maybe my goal here needs to be just to let go and stop being so goddamn miserable.
Deep down I know that’s not what he meant...and yet I can’t seem to stop myself from putting down far more whiskey than I should.
Especially when she walks in the food room with his arm wrapped around her shoulder, both of them laughing and clearly having a great time together.
Fuck it. I’ll get back on track tomorrow.
Better yet, if I can remember this tomorrow, I’ll hit on Kat or Camille and prove to Lexi that she’s not the only one who can move on so easily.
It’s not even midnight yet, but I’m fucked and I just want to stumble my way upstairs so I can pass the hell out and sleep it all off.
Except life has other plans.
Just as I walk out of the food room so I can start the trek toward my bedroom, I find three men have joined our little party here tonight.
Standing in the doorway to the family room are Dax, Adam, and Brody.
“Your third challenge begins now,” Dax says.
Oh fuck.
CHAPTER 28: LEXI
I’m pretty drunk, but I’m definitely in the giggly phase still.
And when Dax announces that we’re about to start a challenge, I burst into laughter.
Everyone in the room pauses to look at me, but I’m too far gone to even notice.
“We all have nights where we tip the bottle too far back and still have to take the stage,” Dax says. “And tonight we’re testing your ability to play while you’re tired from a long day, potentially wasted, and definitely distracted. Head down to the basement and take a seat on one of the couches.”
I look at Tyler with wide eyes, and while he’s not actually laughing out loud, his eyes are twinkling.
“Have you ever played drunk before?” he asks me.
I giggle and shake my head. “I can’t even type out a text when I’m drunk. And for the record, I’ve been this drunk probably less than a handful of times in my entire life.”
Yeah, even I can hear the slur to my words.
He laughs. “Sweet. Looks like I’m winning this one.”
I swat his arm. “I can do it.”
“Sure,” he says, raising both brows, and we stand and head toward the basement—a place, by the way, I haven’t yet been since the door has been locked.
When we get down there, we find a large, carpeted room with plain white walls. It’s mostly empty except for a few couches and several instruments. A piano rests in one corner. There’s a drum kit set up with two electric guitars on stands nearby and huge speakers. Eight bass guitar cases are lined up neatly on a rack by the wall, and I spot mine somewhere in the middle.
We grab spots on one of the couches, and Tyler tosses an arm around me. Gage is just out of my line of sight, so I can’t tell how he feels about it. He didn’t seem happy earlier, that’s for sure, but I sort of lost track of him as I kept drinking.
I draw in a deep breath.
I could really use some water.
“We’re going to test four of you at a time, so we’ll have two rounds,” Dax begins. “On my go, you’ll need to find your bass, bring it to one of the marked spots over here, and plug in with the cords next to the marked spot so we can isolate your sound and listen to just you. We’ll start playing one of our songs over the speakers about ten seconds after I say go, and you’ll need to join in with no sheet music. The longer it takes you to get your ass over here, the more of the song you’ll miss and the less we’ll have to judge you on. Once the song’s over, the challenge is over.”
He pauses, and I glance at Tyler, whose eyes are wide as he listens to the instructions. I stifle a giggle.
“There are multiple things we’re looking at, including testing your knowledge of our music library. We’ll play a different song with the second group. Any questions?”
Nobody has any, and I’d be willing to wager a bet that most of them already forgot what the heck we’re supposed to do.
“The first group will be Gage, Colt, Lexi, and John. Group two will be Tyler, Tim, Decker, and Blaze. Group one, go!”
I scramble from my seat and run to grab my bass. My fingers are clumsy as I try to quickly unzip my case, and I wonder how much clumsier Gage will be because of all the salty food he ate today. I giggle at the thought as I hear the song start, but I don’t chance a glance at my competitors because I’m forcing myself to focus.
I finally get my guitar out of its case and rush over to one of the marked spots. I may be a little tipsy, but I’m still nimbler than the guys I’m fighting against because a quick glance tells me they’re all still fighting with their cases to break their instruments free.
I plug in, and I close my eyes and listen for a few seconds to the song they’re playing. It’s just the instruments, no vocals, and I recognize it right away. But closing my eyes was a bad idea.
I’m swaying on my feet, and the rush of the sour mix catches up with me.
I feel it rising in the back of my throat, and I don’t know if it’s because I drank too much or nerves or some combination of the two, but I refuse to lose this battle.
I swallow, forcing the gross feeling to go away, and draw in a deep breath as I open my eyes. I start plucking the strings as I figure out the rhythm, and it’s a little messy as my fingers slip or I forget to mute a string so the sound bleeds into the next note.
I catch on fast, though, and I realize that even though I’ve had more to drink tonight than I’ve had since...well, probably the night I met Gage, I can still play bass.
I can play this instrument in my sleep.
I see the others coming from the corner of my eye, and I smell Gage as he passes by me. That same clean mix of soap and sexy man is almost more of a disruption to the task at hand than the fact that I’m drunk on whiskey sours, but I power through. I slip up again, but I keep at it.
The song is four minutes long, and then we unplug, put our guitars back in their cases, and sit on the couch. Group two performs, and I can’t help but watch Tyler the whole time...even though Gage is sitting right next to me.
I’ve largely been avoiding him.
I’ve had to.
But now that I can smell him and can remember what it was like to kiss him, and I can practically feel the heat coming off him so dang close to me...I can’t avoid it. I can’t avoid him.
I glance over and find his eyes on me.
They’re hot.
Full of lust.
Or maybe I’m drunker than I thought.
“You’re really into him?” he asks softly.
That soapy smell is mixed with whiskey, and somehow it makes him even sexier.
I purse my lips and look away. I nod as I watch group two perform.
It was all there in his eyes, and my own fill with tears at the very thought of it.
He’s hurt.
What Tyler and I are doing...it isn’t just a distraction. It’s hurting him. That wasn’t what I set out to do.
And suddenly, tipsy and fun, giggly Lexi becomes drunken, emotional, hot mess Lexi.
I refuse to cry in front of him. We just had such a magical weekend together, and the two of us have done nothing but get in our own way since we found each other in this house.
Maybe I’ll feel differently in the morning, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea to keep up this ruse with Tyler. Not when it’s hurting Gage.
We’re released upstairs while the MFB guys deliberate over our performances, and while we wait, first I grab some water to try to dilute the alcohol, and then I pull Tyler into the food room while everyone else is waiting in the family room.
“I don’t think we should do this to him,” I say.
His brows dip. “Why not?”
“Because I still have feelings for him. That doesn’t just go away, and even though I’m royally angry with what he said, I still don’t want to hurt him.”
He tosses a
n arm around me, and I start to cry. He pulls me into him, and I sob into his chest.
I hear the door open, a muttered curse, and close again.
I look up, and Tyler’s face is shadowed. “Was that him?” I ask.
He nods.
“Oh, hell,” I curse. I can imagine what it looked like to whoever walked in since Tyler’s arms were firmly around me as I clung to him, but of course it had to be him.
“Maybe it isn’t a bad thing, Lex. What’s your end goal, anyway? Do you want him back?”
I shrug. I did, and then I didn’t, but maybe I do. “I don’t know what I want. I’m still so angry over the way he just blurted to the world that we hooked up. I’m hurt, and I wanted revenge by beating him. But I want to beat him fairly.”
“What if you and me...” He trails off.
My brows dip down. “What?” I ask.
He looks down into my eyes, and I swear a moment of heat passes between us, but then he shakes his head and looks away as he lets me go. “Never mind. We should get back. We don’t want to miss it when they announce who’s going home.”
We head back to the family room to join the others, but I can’t help wondering what that was all about. Is he interested in me? It sure seemed like it...but he’s the one who told me this would all be pretend.
And so far, it’s only been one night of pretending.
It must be the whiskey.
I keep trying to find ways to justify it, but I know what I saw there.
Does Tyler Caldwell want to turn this fake thing into something more?
CHAPTER 29: DAX
I blow out a breath of frustration. “Why isn’t it crystal clear who we want yet?”
Brody huffs out an annoyed chuckle. “Because none of them are Kane.”
Adam presses his lips together. “He’s right. I like everyone here, and I can see some of them fitting in with us, but it’s new. Whoever it is will grow to be part of our family eventually, but it’s not natural to choose your family. You know?”
Brody and I both nod because we do know.
“Any surprises for any of you?” Brody asks.
I nod. “Shocked Lexi could play so technically well when she was as wasted as she was.”
“Gage, Blaze, and Tyler, too,” Adam says.
Brody chuckles. “Tyler’s probably that wasted most weekends.”
Adam and I nod, conceding to that point.
“What’s your opinion of Colt?” I ask.
Adam speaks up first. “I think it would be too much of an insult to Kane if we kept him around. I already feel like shit for even letting him get this far.”
“Yeah.” I nod, tapping the eraser of my pencil on the table. Even entertaining the idea of allowing the guy who cheated on Kane’s woman before she became Kane’s woman into our competition felt a little scummy from the start, but Ashmark owns Colt and wanted him in the competition, so we gave him a fair shot. He didn’t rise to the challenge tonight, though. Neither did a few of the others, but it feels like the right time to let him go. “So it’s him tonight?”
Adam and Brody nod.
“I think so,” Brody says.
I want to ask a question, but I hesitate. It’s something Kylie brought up to me, and while I think it’s an incredible idea, I don’t know if these two will. Especially not after the rather bitter taste that’s still in both their mouths. But I blurt it out anyway. “What do you guys think of bringing Kane in as a guest judge sometime?”
Brody’s brows shoot up in surprise, and Adam sits back in his chair like I just knocked the wind out of him. I don’t say anything more, though. I wait for reactions. I’ve learned patience over the years, especially when I drop bombs like this. Hey, guys, what do you think about inviting back the guy who left us to help us choose his replacement?
Brody and Adam exchange a glance. “I don’t know, man,” Brody says.
“There are days I feel bad for him and days I feel bad for us. But there’s never a day where I don’t feel something over what happened.” Adam drains the rest of his beer can. “I suppose today, I think it isn’t the worst idea I’ve heard all day.”
I chuckle at his response then nod at Brody. “And you?”
He clenches his jaw for a beat, the muscles moving back and forth while he contemplates. “It’s only been, what, a month since he told us he was leaving?”
I nod.
“This shit all moves too goddamn fast for me.” He chugs down the rest of his beer, too. “A month ago, we didn’t have any of this on our radar, and now we’re in the middle of yet another reality show that was thrown together in two weeks.”
“Thrown together?” I ask calmly. Never mind the fact that my wife, who should still be on maternity leave, jumped into this with both feet to help us find our replacement right away. Never mind the fact that people at Ashmark worked twenty-four-seven to get this show off the ground in time.
He rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean. I know everyone’s working hard, but I’ve barely had time to process the fact that Kane’s really gone and we’re already trying to figure out who should play in his place. No one should play in his place.”
“That’s beside the point, Brody. We can’t change the fact that he left. We can only change our reaction to it. Do you want to hate him forever? Or do you want to man up and move forward with the rest of us?”
He glares at me a little, but he finally surrenders. “Fine. Invite him. See how that goes.” His tone makes it clear he thinks it’s a bad idea.
“I’ll talk to Rascal and have him invite him based on their schedule,” I say. “Moving on. Who won this one for you?”
“Lexi,” Adam says.
Brody nods. “Lexi. Hands down.”
I nod, and it’s nice to find something we can all agree on. Lexi’s name has come up quite a bit when we’ve been discussing top contenders. We haven’t talked about it on camera at all, but in private and including both Rascal and Kylie in the discussion, we’ve talked about our reservations with having a woman join our band.
Our decision will be made based on a lot of different things. It won’t be based on gender alone, but none of us can deny it’s still a factor.
But she’s so damn versatile. Ethan talked us into listening to the music she put out with Electric Red Summer. She’s got a hell of a voice, she’s got the look...she brings a lot to the table that some of the others just don’t.
But Gage is really fucking talented, too, and so’s Tyler. Decker, Blaze, and John are on our radar, too.
Tonight’s challenge told us a lot, though. For one thing, Colt lost a lot of his talent with a few beers. Tim had maybe one drink, and we had to wake his ass up to come down for the challenge. I have a feeling he’ll be the next to go. Besides, he’s got red hair. According to Rascal, this band only has room for one ginger.
It’ll be a tough battle between the other six, but I already know who the top three are.
Now it’s just a matter of weeding out the rest so we can take a hard look at those three.
CHAPTER 30: GAGE
“We’re sorry to say that Colt, you lost this battle. You won’t be MFB’s replacement bassist.” Dax looks around the room after Colt says his goodbyes to the rest of us.
He says some shit about Colt and how he was a good bass player and why they just couldn’t let him continue with the competition. I sort of zoned out after Dax announced it was Colt heading home and not me.
And not Lexi.
But also not Tyler.
“We’re down to seven,” he says, clearly wrapping things up. “And I know how drunk you all are, so we’ll get out of here so you can pass out.”
Raucous laughter follows the band out the door, and then we pretty much do what he says.
A loud-ass siren pulls me from the clutches of sleep. It’s still dark, and I think that might be the fire alarm or smoke detector but I’m still pretty drunk and definitely not sure what I’m hearing.
My first inclination is to
ignore it.
I roll over, bury my head under my pillow, and try to pass back out.
But then the siren seems like it gets louder, and someone starts pounding on my door, and holy hell I need to piss.
I heave out an extremely annoyed sigh, and I think I can smell whiskey on my own breath.
I flip the covers off, and when I open my door, Brody is standing there with what can only be described as flashing lights from the top of a police car, and Dax is across the hall holding the siren.
Sleepy faces appear in several of the doorways.
Including Lexi’s.
She and Tyler are sharing the doorway, and I’m suddenly wide awake as my sensibilities come back to me. They’re sharing a room...but did they share more than that tonight?
And how do I make it stop?
“What the fuck?” I mutter under my breath. I don’t know if it’s in response to Brody and Dax being assholes or if it’s in response to Lexi and Tyler looking so goddamn cozy together, but none of it is adding up to anything good as the noise of the siren pierces my skull.
“Good morning!” Adam says cheerfully once Dax makes the hideous noise stop.
“What time is it?” John mutters from across the hall.
“It’s four-fifty-one, and this is your wake-up call,” Brody says. “You have five minutes to get down to the basement for your next challenge. See you there!” He’s nearly gleeful, and even though I respect the hell out of him, a small part of me wants to punch him in the throat.
I hear a bunch of muttered curses before everyone disappears back into their bedrooms. Thank God I don’t have to share my bathroom with anybody. I take care of business, brush my teeth, and chug probably half a gallon of water in some attempt to wake myself up. I’m in desperate need of some coffee—something, anything to sober me up, but unfortunately it looks like I don’t have time.
And so I head down to the basement. I’m among the first few guys there as I join Tim, who looks no worse for the wear because he didn’t fucking drink anything, and John, who looks about like how I feel. Noticeably absent are Lexi and Tyler, presumably because they’re sharing a bathroom and also because they’re going to make their grand entrance together, which is just exactly what I need at this moment in time.
