Driving Tempo

by Thomas, Raine

  She imagined she would discover the same thing while working with Rosemary on wedding planning. It had only recently sunk in that there was much more involved in planning a wedding than picking a venue, inviting guests, and saying, “I do.” Lily had no idea how it was all going to come together within a couple of months...a potentially stroke-inducing timeline she had yet to share with her sister.

  There was a good reason behind the short engagement, or so Dane had convinced her. He would be heavily involved in filming a major motion picture after the beginning of October, and once that ended he would be filming a few television projects, including a guest stint on their friend Rick Kingston’s medical drama Sacred Grace. From the way things were going, there would also be another tour for The Void in the near future.

  In short, it was either get married now or sometime after Lily turned thirty.

  She had decided to choose the first day of autumn for their wedding. It seemed fitting to celebrate such a huge moment in their lives on the day welcoming the season of change and transition. She would celebrate her twenty-fifth birthday the week before that, and twenty-five seemed like a fine age to get married...or so she told herself when doubts about how quickly this was all happening started to plague her.

  Even the little she knew about wedding planning told her that they were stacking the deck heavily against themselves by trying to get everything planned in just two months. That’s why she hadn’t shared that detail with her sister yet.

  Let her have one fun evening, Lily thought as Rosemary cheered beside her.

  She turned her focus back to the concert. Wedding planning would wait until tomorrow.

  They had a great time. The Void rocked it, leaving Lily a little hoarse despite her efforts to contain herself. Rosemary and Sydney were in just as bad shape when they reached the green room to get changed for the after-party.

  “You do that every night?” Rosemary croaked, opening one of the bottles of water sitting on the refreshment table. “How can you still speak?”

  “Not every night,” Lily said after swallowing some water of her own. “But most nights.”

  “I’ve wondered how Archer does it,” Sydney admitted as she unwrapped a fruit and nut protein bar. “He never seems to tire out.”

  “He drinks lots of water, takes vitamin supplements, exercises religiously, and uses a portable humidifier if his vocal chords need the help,” Lily explained. “Even then, I swear he’s got a store of extra energy somewhere.”

  Rosemary chuckled. “Well, I’m impressed. I’ve enjoyed listening to The Void’s music on the radio, but seeing them live was a whole other level of experience.”

  “Now you get to see them interact with their fans,” Sydney said.

  “Which means it’s time to get changed,” Lily added.

  Once upon a time, changing before the after-party was optional. Now with them on camera at every after-party and Lily having a celebrity persona to maintain, it was essential. That evening she would be wearing a knee-length Carolina Herrera lace cocktail dress with a scalloped V-neck that would show off the platinum and diamond bow and arrow necklace Dane had given her a few weeks ago. The dress was five times more expensive than anything she would have dreamed of owning before this tour. It was just one of many things that had changed in her life in a matter of weeks.

  “That skirt has a detachable floor-length chiffon over-skirt, Rosie,” Lily said, walking back over to the wardrobe rack. “You can wear that, switch from your boots to these heels, put your hair into an up-do, and you’ll be good to go.”

  Rosemary’s eyes went wide as Lily extended the shoes towards her. “Are those Louboutins?”

  Struggling against instinctive discomfort, Lily nodded.

  “Holy shit.” Rosemary’s eyes didn’t reduce in size as she accepted the shoes. If anything, they went even wider.

  Lily sighed. “Just wear them. And you might want to get ready sooner rather than later. Caroline and Bridgette have been known to make their way back here before the party to try and hone in on the extra attention they get when they enter the ballroom with me and Sydney.”

  That dashed the reverence right out of Rosemary’s eyes. “That sounds like them, all right.”

  “They’ve been rather entertaining to have around,” Sydney said as she slid into her soft ocean blue vintage dress. “I think they’ve made a play for every male on the tour so far.”

  Lily agreed. It had caused her no end of stress headaches and stomachaches over the past couple weeks. She was highly aware that her reputation was indirectly tied to her sisters’. There was no telling whether someone from one of the tour’s acts would be tempted by their provocative antics and engage with them in something inappropriate.

  Seeing Rosemary’s frown, Lily considered how her sister had reacted to Sage when they met so abruptly earlier. Was Rosemary upset now because Caroline and Bridgette had flirted with The Void members?

  Taking a guess, she said, “No one in The Void would ever do anything with either of them, Rosie. They respect me too much and don’t have any interest in them.”

  The relief was evident in Rosemary’s gaze, telling Lily she had been right. She’d have to keep an eye on Rosemary and Sage. If she was right about the spark she saw between them, they just might have to rename this tour The Summer of Love Tour.

  Chapter Three

  In the green room next door, Sage walked over to his personal effects and checked his cell phone. It was the first thing he did after every concert and had become a habit throughout the day over the past few weeks. His band mates had all given him a hard time about it.

  Especially his best friend.

  “Anything?” she asked him now, looking over his shoulder at the phone in his hand.

  “Hey,” he said, twisting so the screen wasn’t visible. “Give me some space, Bubbles.”

  “Sorry.”

  Noelle didn’t look sorry. Her dove gray eyes, not yet relieved of the heavy stage makeup she wore, had hardened to twin chips of stone, telling him she had seen the lack of texts in his inbox. A glance around had Sage noting the rest of his band mates seemed unnaturally focused on getting ready for the after-party. He knew they were just as curious as Noelle was.

  “Nothing,” he said to the room.

  There was the slightest sound, like a mutual exhale from the group. Keith frowned, not an unusual expression for him. Archer’s dark eyes reflected concern, but his expression remained contained. Sage chalked that up to his front man’s acting abilities.

  “Sorry, man,” Xander said, patting Sage on the shoulder with one of his large but surprisingly gentle hands. “There’s still plenty of time.”

  “Sure.”

  Ignoring the all too familiar pang of disappointment, Sage returned his phone to the room’s small safe. Christopher wouldn’t allow it at the after-party. Noelle opened her mouth to speak as he turned back around.

  “Not now, Elle,” he said. “Okay?”

  She closed her mouth. After a brief pause, she stepped closer to him and pulled him into a hug. His arms instinctively went around her. The painful pang eased as though it flowed from him into her. She released him with a small wink and bounced over to the vanity so she could begin adjusting her makeup for the after-party.

  It was a blessing to be understood so well.

  Unlike his band mates who sweated through their clothing during their performances, Sage didn’t have to change between the concert and the after-party. His dark jeans, gray T-shirt, and tawny suit jacket worked for both events. He did change from his more comfortable Converse into the Kenneth Cole oxfords that matched the suit jacket, and he made sure his signature glasses were clean of smudges and his hair was still neatly styled. Other than that, he was good to go.

  Since the meet-n-greet portion of the after-party could take a while, he helped himself to some cheese, crackers, and grapes from their refreshment table. He also stuck a Twix in his jacket pocket in case Noelle needed a boost later.


  He sat on the couch with his snack while everyone else finished cleaning up and changing. Christopher stuck his head into the green room just as Sage popped his last grape into his mouth.

  “Time to roll out,” their manager informed them.

  “Give us two minutes, Chris?” Noelle asked with a wave in Sage’s direction.

  Christopher’s eyes moved between them. “Two minutes.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  Sage got to his feet and watched the room vacate, leaving him alone with Noelle. “I still don’t want to talk about this, Elle.”

  She whirled, her colorful ponytails spinning out like a pinwheel. “You never do, but I’m tired of seeing you this way. I’m sorry, V, but she’s not worth this.” Holding a hand up when he started to speak, she said, “No. You said you don’t want to talk about this, so you don’t have to. I’ll do the talking. I know you love Kaila. Because you do, I hope you hear from her before the deadline. I really do. But she doesn’t deserve you.”

  The words deflated the hot balloon of anger that had filled his chest. In its place rose a deep despondency. He knew Noelle only had his best interests at heart. That should also have been true of Kaila.

  So why hadn’t she reached out to him yet?

  Noelle reached out and took his hand. “You know I love you, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s why I don’t hold any punches,” she said. “And it’s why I’ve come up with a brilliant idea for you to get Kaila’s attention even though I don’t agree with the dumb ultimatum you gave her.”

  His eyebrows rose, in part over her criticism of his attempt to get Kaila to commit to him and in part because she was proposing to conspire with him to win Kaila over. “You did?”

  “Yep. We should get going or Chris will rip us a new one.”

  He allowed her to tug him towards the door. His security specialist, Garrett Parker, stood outside the door and fell into step with them as they headed in the direction of the after-party. Sage had grown used to the other male’s presence over the past couple weeks. They’d even become something along the line of friends. So when Garrett’s sharp blue gaze cut from Sage to Noelle, the specialist didn’t bother with a greeting and instead turned his attention to the hallway ahead of them.

  “What’s your idea?” Sage asked.

  “Don’t shoot me down until you give this some serious thought, okay?” she began.

  He gave her a wary look. “What scheme are you cooking up now?”

  “Not a scheme exactly. Just an attention-getter.”

  She beamed at him when his expression got even more doubtful. The glittery turquoise tear she had affixed to her cheek winked in the overhead lights of the hallway. Between that, her hot pink leather miniskirt over black Batman tights, and her black tank top with “Nothing But Trouble” written on it in hot pink glitter, she looked like an odd blend of schoolgirl innocence and dangerous mischief. He wondered which way this scheme would lean.

  “Look,” she continued when he didn’t speak, “Kaila has little motivation to reach out to you right now. She’s around the world somewhere with God-Knows-Who and you’re over here waiting for her like you’ve done since you first met her. You’ve never given her any reason to fight for you.”

  Should I really have to?

  The thought came and went before he fully registered its significance.

  “You need to give her something to think about,” Noelle urged, elbowing him lightly in the side. “Get yourself in the press with a pretty woman on your arm. Stir up the media with rumors of a torrid love affair...something that will reach Kaila. I guarantee you’ll hear from her within twenty-four hours of her seeing something like that.”

  The very idea of it made him shift uncomfortably as they waited for Garrett to open the door to the meeting space where the after-party was being held. “I’d never cheat on—”

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” Noelle interrupted with a roll of her eyes. “I’m not saying you’d have to actually do anything with this other woman. It’s all an act. You just need Kaila to understand that she’s got some competition so she realizes what she’s missing by not meeting your terms.”

  “And just who am I supposed to rope into doing this?”

  She shrugged. “I never said I had all the details figured out.”

  Their conversation ended abruptly as they entered the room and pasted on their professional smiles for the many flashing cameras. The time had come to interact with their fans and the press. Personal stuff had to be tabled.

  Sage gave Noelle one last searching look before they joined their band mates at a signing table and began the routine of signing autographs, shaking hands, and posing for photos. He enjoyed this part of being a Void member, something he hadn’t expected when beginning his career. As a sound specialist, he had anticipated being heard but not seen. Archer wanted all of The Void members to share the spotlight though.

  Despite their front man’s efforts, there was no denying that Archer received the lion’s share of attention. He was the face of The Void. It didn’t seem to matter that he was engaged to Lily. The number of female fans waiting to see him after every concert never lessened. Even now, his side of the table had the longest line.

  That said, it did seem that Sage and Xander were receiving more attention than usual lately. With Archer and Noelle both engaged and Keith in a committed relationship with Sydney Ward, that left Sage and Xander as the two eligible Void members.

  Well, seemingly eligible, Sage silently amended.

  If it had been up to him, he would have broadcast his relationship with Kaila Gillespie all over the world. Instead, he was waiting for her to make up her mind about what she wanted.

  That reality was becoming harder to bear as the days wore on. Noelle thought his ultimatum to Kaila was ridiculous. He felt it was necessary. Kaila had to decide whether or not she would commit to an exclusive relationship with him by the end of the tour or he was officially ending things between them.

  It was easy for Noelle to judge his decision when she was engaged to the woman she loved. Sage had spent the past couple months watching her and Mandy, Archer and Lily, and Keith and Sydney as their relationships deepened. They were all experiencing everything he had once experienced with Kaila, everything he wanted to experience with her again. He’d been waiting for years for her to acknowledge she felt the same. He was getting damn tired of waiting.

  As the event wore on, Sage’s thoughts inevitably turned to Noelle’s cockamamie idea. Would seeing him with another woman really make Kaila jealous? Would it finally help her understand her own heart so they could be together?

  What did it say that it might take such a measure to get her commitment to their relationship?

  What did it say that he was desperate enough to consider the idea anyway?

  More to the point, who could he even convince to help him make such a plan happen?

  Despite his reservations, he paid closer attention to the female fans as he interacted with them. Like most of society, he would never compete with Archer when it came to attracting the ladies, but he had his share of dedicated groupies. Some of them followed the band from city to city and attended nearly every concert. They typically made it backstage to interact with the band, so he knew many of them by name. Before now, he’d never really given them much consideration. Would one of them possibly be willing to pose as a romantic interest without actually becoming one?

  After over an hour of fending off flirtations ranging from mildly curious to hands-on aggressive, he decided that avenue was hopeless. Any hint of interest on his part would immediately get misinterpreted as a desire to take things further than he wanted.

  Noelle was out of her mind, he thought as he signed one last autograph. He intended to tell her so the moment he got her alone.

  As he lingered behind the signing table waiting for her to finish taking a photo with a fan, he gave the room a scan. Suddenly Something’s table was directly
across from theirs. Keith’s ex, Nikki Calvey, was draped over Suddenly Something’s rhythm guitarist, Malcolm O’Dell. O’Dell, however, seemed more intently focused on a female fan with her breasts all but pressed into his face. A few other fans stood flirting with O’Dell’s band mates...not unusual. It looked like the signing portion of their evening was done.

  Although signing tables hadn’t been set up for the tour’s other opening acts, Genevieve Shaw or Brewer Street, all of the artists were interacting with the fans as they made their way around the room. Cameras from House of Archer also circled the room in search of good content, shifting from one group to another. Music pulsed throughout the event space, not quite loud enough to cause people to shout at each other, but with enough volume to lend energy to the room.

  Only two people weren’t interacting like the other fans in the room. One of them was Sydney, who sat at one of the round, linen-covered tables reading something on her phone. The other was the slender, dark-haired woman standing on her own by the buffet being set up by event staff. At first he thought it was a hungry fan waiting for food service to begin. Then she turned her head to speak with one of the uniformed staff and he caught her profile.

  He immediately identified her as Lily’s sister, Rosemary. The profile was unmistakable. She looked a lot like her sister. The main differences he had noticed after knocking her on her ass earlier were that Rosemary’s hair was a deep, burnished auburn rather than strawberry blonde like Lily’s, and her eyes weren’t violet like Lily’s. They were an enchanting forest green with soft cinnamon brown around the pupils.

  She had struck him as a shy librarian type when he saw her earlier. Now, however, her hair had been styled, she no longer wore glasses, and she was dressed like a fashion model. Not only that, but she appeared to be directing the event staff with quiet confidence. He watched as she adjusted the way the silverware had been set out in an almost absent way, as though it was habitual, even as she gestured towards the table where Sydney sat. The male staff member in front of her nodded and disappeared through a door.