I Thought I Knew You: Prelude Series - Part Four
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I Thought I Knew You
Prelude Series - Book Four
Meg Buchanan
Copyright © 2018 by Meg Buchanan.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Meg Buchanan /Junction Publishing - United Kingdom - New Zealand
junctionpublishing@outlook.com
www.junction-publishing.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the email address above.
I Thought I Knew You/ Meg Buchanan. -- 1st ed.
Contents
The Prelude Series
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Meg Buchanan
The Prelude Series
Book 1: Out of his League
Book 2: Song for Jess
Book 3: Highly Strung
Book 4: I Thought I Knew You
Book 5: Love Me Goodbye.
Author’s Note
I Thought I Knew You is the fourth book in the Prelude series and is Luke and Tessa’s story. You first met them in Out of his League and then again in Song for Jess and Highly Strung.
In this book, Luke is still Stadium’s lead singer. The band has been together for three years now and are playing at the pub in the weekends. They’ve had some success with Isaac’s latest number ‘Trainwreck’ but they haven’t made it big yet.
During the week Luke works for his father as a builder and is starting to question his choices. Does he want to live in the town he’s always lived in, run his father’s business, and marry a girl he’s known all his life? Or does he want to try and make music his career?
When he’s offered the chance to follow his dreams, what will he choose?
Thank you to all those who have read Out of his League, Song for Jess and Highly Strung and left those wonderful reviews or messaged me to say how much you enjoyed the books. I love hearing from readers on Facebook and Messenger.
If you’re not yet on my mailing list and wish to be added for updates on future books or just want to tell me something, email me at info@megbuchanan.co.nz.
I Thought I Knew You can be read as a standalone, but it’s even better if you have read the three books that came before it. When you’ve read Luke and Tessa’s story it would be lovely if you’d leave a review. Reviews help authors so much.
I hope you enjoy Luke and Tessa’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Thanks
Meg
Chapter One
Luke found Cole waiting inside the pub.
“You finally made it,” said Cole.
“Yep.” Luke went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. “Everything ready to go?”
Cole nodded. “Is Isaac here too?’
“Just getting his guitar out of the boot. Where are the others?”
“Making sure the new sound guy knows what he’s doing.”
Luke checked the mirror near the door. Black hat, brim pulled low over his eyes, faded jeans, white T-shirt, waistcoat. At least he looked like he sang in a rock band, not like someone who built things for a living.
Adam and Noah came in through the far door.
“All sorted?” Luke asked them.
“Yeah,” said Adam. “You’re cutting it fine.”
“We had trouble getting away.” Luke could hear the crowd in the main bar, that expectant sound an audience gets before the show starts. Isaac arrived carrying the guitar case. He put the case on the couch and opened it. He and Isaac weren’t really late, more like only just on time, and it sounded like Cole, Noah and Adam had everything set up. They’d been doing this for long enough, nothing got left to chance.
Isaac had his guitar by the neck. “Ready?” he asked.
Luke nodded, and the five of them wandered out the door that led to the darkened stage. “You got the playlist?” he asked Cole.
“No, why?” Cole sounded puzzled. “Have you and Isaac changed something?”
“No.” Nothing had changed. That was one of the reasons it was hard to work up any enthusiasm for tonight’s performance.
From the stage he could hear and vaguely see people moving around in the main bar. ‘Train Wreck’ was a success and the other numbers Isaac had written were great, but they’d perfected them weeks ago. The crowd loved what they were doing. Money flowed over the bar on Friday and Saturday nights, and Harry was happy. So why would they change anything?
He took his mic off the stand and checked the others were ready.
The spotlight drowned him in light. He lifted the mic and waited for Isaac to play him in. A hush came over the audience as the violin wailed out then drew back so he could come in with the lyrics.
They still began with ‘Stardust’. That hadn’t changed for three years. They didn’t want to get stale. Maybe they should try something new. He might talk to Isaac about writing something.
The crowd roared. The embers that had been damped down inside him started to glow slowly as he growled out the words. The contented sigh from the audience fanned the coals so they glowed brighter. He shifted into the next register and got into it. He might have to work in his dad’s building firm during the week, but he got to do something he loved every Friday and Saturday night. How many people could say that?
The flames ignited. Tonight, he’d give them the performance of his life. He leaned back and snarled the few next words. The crowd responded, and the darkness lifted.
Tessa sat with Keira, Dana and the others and watched Luke perform. His voice caressed and sobbed, soothed and invited.
When the first number finished, she watched as he turned and spoke to Adam at the keyboard. She didn’t hear what he said, but the way he moved, the way his hair fell into his eyes and he flicked it away with his hand, the shape of his cheek, curve of his lips, his smile, his body, everything about him took her breath away.
One day the rest of the world would notice how good Luke and the rest of Stadium were. She might have to share him then, but right now he was hers.
She watched him as he held the microphone and waited for Adam. She loved him so much and she loved being his fiancée. Revelled in it. Jess might be married to Isaac, and Dana had a thing going with Noah. Keir
a and Cole seemed to be together now. But she had Luke. He’d always been hers. They’d grown up together, and she couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. He was sweet, funny and kind, and, in a tall skinny blond way, lovely to look at.
Then the stage darkened, and a single spotlight lit up Noah with the violin. She heard the wail of ‘Train Wreck’. She knew all their numbers. She could tell if anyone missed a cue or something went wrong.
A couple of tables along, a man she hadn’t seen at the pub before watched Stadium too. He was in his mid-thirties and this was student pub, so he looked out of place. More corporate somehow.
She went back to listening to the music. ‘Train Wreck’ was still the best thing Isaac had written. Something about it mesmerised the crowd. The way Noah played the violin, so it sounded like a train in the distance, then the mournful whistle. Isaac underpinning it with what he played. She still could hear the genius of it.
Then Luke came in, his voice just a deep murmur. It filled the room, but you could only just make out the words under the spoken lyrics from Isaac.
Luke kept up the energy as Stadium worked through their repertoire. He never let up. He talked to crowd. He roared. He murmured. He strode from one side of the stage to the other. He took requests. He pulled a girl up onto the stage with him to sing just to her.
It mightn’t have been the performance of his life, but it had to be close. And everything went right. Even the new sound guy in the booth seemed to be working out.
Then they went to the first break and headed for the side room. Once they’d caught their breath, they’d go out and join the girls for twenty minutes or so. Harry wasn’t too sure about the breaks they took in the middle of the show, but it worked for them.
Cole pulled five bottles of water out of the fridge and handed them around. “Fuck, what are you on?” he asked Luke.
“What do you mean?” Luke took a swig of water.
“We had trouble keeping up.”
“I never changed anything.”
“No, but everything you did was on steroids.”
Luke grinned. “Impressive eh?” Then he watched Tessa come through the far door, long slim legs, red high heels, tiny dark purple strapless dress, and long honey blonde hair framing her face. He was so used to having her around he sometimes forgot how amazing she looked.
When she saw him, she ran across the room and launched herself at him. “You were so late, Luke, I was starting to think you and Isaac wouldn’t make it in time.”
“Hey, Tessa.” He caught her, then settled on one of the couches, rearranged her, so he could get at his water, then kissed her.
Tessa came up for air. “I missed you this afternoon.”
He ran his hand up her leg. “Sometimes I have to work.”
She wiggled in closer, and he felt her thigh muscles relax willing to go along with whatever he wanted right then. If he slid his hand up under her skirt and pushed his fingers inside her she’d go along with it. Even with the others in the room.
“Poor Luke.” She kissed him again. “We could make up for lost time. It’s been a whole week.” Her hand dug down between them, and she caressed his cock through his jeans.
He considered taking up the offer and carrying her into the passageway and having sex against the wall, her clinging to him, those long legs wrapped around his waist.
If they took too long, Isaac, Cole, Adam and Noah could do the next couple of numbers without him. Or once they’d gone back on stage, he and Tessa could make use of this couch Harry provided. It wouldn’t worry Tessa if everyone knew what they were doing.
Better not. “Save that thought,” he murmured.
Tessa giggled and slid off his knees as he stood up. They followed the rest of Stadium out to the main bar.
“Do you want me to get you something to drink?” Tessa asked when they got to the table. She’d kept a chair for him the way she always did. She slid her red purse off the seat and onto the table top littered with glasses and little coloured umbrellas. The girls had been drinking those coloured drinks again. He didn’t know how they could stomach them. All that juice and sugar.
He lifted the bottle of water. “No, I’m fine.”
“You were brilliant up there,” she said.
“Thanks.”
Dana had kept a chair for Noah too. Cole, Adam and Isaac grabbed a few from tables nearby, and they all settled around the big table at the back. The table was pretty much accepted as theirs. Anyone poaching it got moved on.
During the break, it wasn’t like Harry missed out. With the lights on again, people bought drinks. There was movement and noise everywhere. And that new sound guy seemed to be keeping the music flooding through the bar. Harry couldn’t really complain.
“How come you and Isaac were so late getting here tonight?” Tessa asked.
“Dad wanted us to meet with this property developer. He could have arranged the meeting for any other time during the week, but he chooses three thirty on a Friday.”
“Like sabotage?” Luke’s dad had always treated his involvement with Stadium as a hobby. Like he was waiting for his son to grow out of it and take working in the family business more seriously. But she knew Luke didn’t want to finish up running his father’s business.
The crowd whirled around them and made it hard to talk, so she leaned closer. “Why’d your dad want you and Isaac to meet him?”
“He’s chasing this contract in Auckland. A big retirement village. A couple of hundred units, all top end. If we get it, we’ll have three or four years work.” Luke just wanted to sing and play the guitar, and he let his dad run his life like this.
He cupped her cheek and tipped her head a little to brush a kiss on her forehead. “Dad’s got this plan. If he gets the contract, he wants me to run the building side of it and Isaac to be in charge of the joinery.” And Isaac was as bad. They should take playing with the band more seriously. They were good, and they were wasting their talent.
His other hand stroked the bare skin of her shoulder. She loved the way he’d touch her and stroke her when he was talking. “He reckons he can run the rest of the business with Steve and oversee what Isaac and I are doing.”
“Aren’t you a bit young for that sort of responsibility?” Isaac and Luke were both only twenty-one, and neither of them had even finished their apprenticeships. They both still had a couple of months to go. “The job must be worth millions.”
Luke shrugged and pushed her hair back off her face. “Dad says he was younger than me and Isaac when he started the business. And by the time the job kicks off, we’ll both be tradesmen. He thinks we can do it.”
After a while Cole nodded at the stage. “Ready to go back on?”
“Yeah.” Luke finished the bottle of water and stood up. He wasn’t planning on wasting anymore of tonight talking about his father. All that could wait until Monday.
He followed the others back to the stage. As they made their way around the edge of the bar, a girl he’d seen dancing near the stage for most of the first set came over.
“Luke pick me next time you want someone to sing to.”
“Stay close to the stage. You might get lucky.” He might make a point of getting her up. She was pretty.
Isaac glanced back and snorted. “You could make her part of your harem.”
Luke looked at him. Jesus. Isaac should learn to keep his mouth shut.
“Tessa mightn’t like that,” he said.
Chapter Two
Half way through the next set, the man she’d noticed earlier stood up and walked over to Tessa. He’d sat watching intently for a good hour now. Not surprising. Luke was really on form. He held everyone’s attention tonight. Luke the showman, the consummate performer, sang, strutted, engaged the audience, played the guitar, played the keyboard, took requests, yelled insults.
“Is that Stadium?” the man asked and tipped his head towards the stage.
Tessa nodded.
“Who’s the lead singer?”
“Is he your boyfriend? I saw you with him.”
Tessa nodded puzzled. The man turned away and watched Luke again.
“Does he do this a lot?” he asked.
“Every Friday and Saturday night.”
“He’s good,” said the man.
“He is, isn’t he?” said Tessa.
“He’s great. They’re all great. So, they’ll be here tomorrow night too?” She nodded.
He went back to his table.
She watched Luke again and turned the engagement ring around on her finger. He pulled another girl onto the stage to sing to her. He used to do that to her. He’d sing to her as if he loved her. He hadn’t done that for a while. Maybe because these days she sat at a table and didn’t dance close to the stage.
At the next break Tessa twisted around. “See him?” She nodded at a man sitting at a table on his own.
Luke looked over. “Yeah.”
“He came over to me and was asking about you.”
“Looks a bit old to be a fan.”
“Too old and not female,” commented Isaac.
Tessa laughed. Luke swallowed some water. He might have a word to Isaac about the comments.
At the end of the night anything they didn’t want to take back to the flat, or small enough to go missing before tomorrow night, got locked in the side room.
Tessa helped clear the gear away. She took the bundle of leads Luke handed her, and he picked up the amp. She carefully went down the two steps to get off the stage. The shoes she wore to party in during the weekends weren’t the best for this sort of work but helping pack the stuff away speeded things up.