Runaway Rock Star
Page 10
LATER, AFTER all the family was gone and the food put away and the kitchen cleaned, Brandon sat at the kitchen table, tired and trying to find the strength to go up and go to bed.
His mom came into the kitchen to put something in a cupboard. She shuffled over and sagged down into a chair next to him.
“Phew! So glad that is over for another year! So much work!” She chuckled but got no response from Brandon.
She put her arm around him. “And you, my favorite son, I’ve hardly even got a chance to talk to you. How are you, baby?”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
She made a humming noise. “If you’re fine, then why do you look like you lost your puppy? Come on, sweetie, what’s up? I don’t like when my baby is so sad.”
He didn’t say anything.
“Does it have to do with Lucas? He was so nice, and he looked like he was having a good time.”
When he still didn’t say anything, she continued anyway.
“Something going on between you two, isn’t there?”
Brandon’s cheeks heated up. “No,” he finally answered. “Not really. He’s in the closet, and his dad manages his career and his life. He’s not even allowed to play the kind of music he wants to. He’s not happy, but… I don’t think he can escape his life. So… no, nothing’s going on between us.”
“Oh baby.” She squeezed him a little tighter to her and stroked his hair. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for him too, that he is stuck in that situation. Hopefully he’ll figure his way out of it someday.”
She turned his chin so he was facing her. “And you’ll be okay too. It’ll just take a little time.” She kissed him on the forehead.
He shook his head but smiled at her. “Thanks, Mom.” He gave her one more hug, then headed up to bed.
HE WAS woken from sleep by the sound of his phone buzzing incessantly. He looked at it through bleary eyes. Three missed calls all within… the last five minutes? The buzzing started again, so this time he answered it.
“Yeah?” he mumbled.
“Harris, wake up! Get your arse down here.”
He sat up in bed and looked at his phone in confusion. Then he put it to his ear again.
“What do you mean ‘down here’?”
“I’m outside your front door, and I’m trying not to wake your family or the whole neighborhood. So get your arse down here, love.”
The phone call cut off. He blinked, confused, for a second. Then he jumped up, slid on some shoes, and ran downstairs.
WHEN HE opened the front door he found a huge, shiny black tour bus on his street, still running, with the headlights on. And Lucas was standing on his front steps.
Brandon stepped outside and shut the door behind him.
“Lucas… what’s going on?”
He was grinning and twitching with excitement. “I posted that video you shot of me, playing the new song. Which I finished by the way! On my drive to the arena, it all came to me and I worked on it before the show. It’s so awesome! Anyway, I posted the video and it’s exploding with views and responses. All of them positive and encouraging. People like the new direction. So I told my dad I’m not signing a new record contract. I want to make the music I want. And I’m going to do it my way, no record company or manager telling me what to do. I want to start over, I want to travel the country and play cool places like the Newport, and I want you to do it with me.”
He took a big breath, finally. Brandon stared at him, unbelieving of all he had just heard. “You want me… to help you, to go with you? As your… what?”
“My manager! You’ve got great ideas and great taste. You’ll know exactly what to do with my music. You get me. We’re a perfect match!”
Brandon’s heart started to sink. “So I’d be your manager… only?”
Lucas stepped closer. “More like manager… with benefits. Lots and lots of benefits,” he said huskily. “I told my dad I met someone amazing. And that I was done hiding. Christ, Harris,” he moaned. “The way you make me feel. I know it’s crazy, and we’ve only known each other for a weekend. But I couldn’t walk away from this. I want us to give it a go, see where the road takes us.”
Brandon was still unable to say anything.
“What do you say, Harris? Will you take a chance? I mean, I have to finish this tour first, but I want you to come along. And I want us to do that other tour, of little venues, just you and me and the road. What do you say?”
It was a lot to take in, but Lucas’s eyes had that desperate pleading look again, the one Brandon’s heart could never resist. Lucas was serious about this.
“I say… yes!” Brandon’s mouth finally formed the words.
Lucas put his head on Brandon’s shoulder, and his body sagged in relief as he wrapped Brandon in his arms. “Oh thank Christ,” he said softly.
He lifted his head to face Brandon again, and Brandon saw tears brimming in his eyes.
Brandon reached up and swiped them away with his thumbs. “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay,” he whispered. “You don’t have to run anymore.” And then they kissed. And kissed. And kissed.
They kissed until the porch light came on. And his family peered out the screen door.
“Oh my God!” squealed his sister.
His dad flicked the porch light off and on twice. “Son,” he mocked. “It’s past curfew.”
His mother giggled, then caught herself.
“Come on, you two.” There was some shuffling and the closing of the door. The light switched off and they were in darkness again.
Brandon started laughing and couldn’t stop.
Lucas frowned. “Am I in trouble with your dad now?”
That set Brandon off laughing again.
Lucas shut him up with more kisses.
More from C. J. Anthony
When Jack Frost’s aunt dies and leaves him her house in the tiny town of Great Falls, Jack seizes the opportunity to escape the rat race of Chicago for the quaint village he loved as a child. On his first night he’s welcomed by a baseball bat and a trespassing warning from Nick St. James—longtime Great Falls resident and infamous curmudgeon.
Jack wants to give Nick the benefit of the doubt—he can’t deny his attraction to the big man—but after several run-ins with Nick’s grumpiness and closed-off heart, he’s ready to give up. Only after discovering the secret Nick’s been covering up for years does he vow to break through Nick’s walls to find the loving man hiding behind them.
C. J. ANTHONY grew up watching soap operas and reading piles of books. She attributes her love of reading and romance to her mother, who not only taught her to read but also made countless trips to the library lugging piles of books home for her. It wasn’t a far jump to start writing her own stories, early childhood tales about flower families and traveling to the moon with her best friend.
C. J.’s favorite stories to read and write include “opposites attract” pairings—couples who appear to be an odd couple to the rest of the world, but fit together perfectly, finding their own happily-ever-after with a little hard work and a whole lot of love.
Not surprisingly, C. J. is a big lover of rom coms—she’ll gladly take Julia Roberts standing in front of Hugh Grant asking him to love her over car crashes and shoot-em-up movies any day. She also watches way too much TV and every singing reality show there is. She loves music of all genres and attending live concerts.
She spends most of her time juggling a day job and a commute and freelance and falling asleep on her couch, dreaming of a day when she can write all day in her pajamas while living in a house by the beach.
E-mail: cjanthony70@gmail.com
Blog: www.cjanthony.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/cjanthony.writer
Twitter: @C_J_Anthony
By C. J. Anthony
Falling for Santa Claus
Runaway Rock Star
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Publ
ished by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Runaway Rock Star
© 2017 C. J. Anthony.
Cover Art
© 2017 Anna Sikorska.
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63533-577-4
Published May 2017
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America