A hand suddenly clamped down on my shoulder. I turned to see Andrew standing behind me.
“You okay, man?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“You heard that?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I did. That was shitty of him.”
“Now you know why I don’t like him.”
Finally, it was clear to someone else what an asshole Jonathan was. He might have been a hell of a manager, but he wasn’t a good person when it came down to it.
“I know, but I also know that Emily loves you,” Andrew assured me, and I knew he was right. “I’m not sure what kind of game Jonathan’s trying to play, but she wouldn’t leave you for him.”
“I know.”
Andrew clapped me on the shoulder a few times. “Don’t let him get to you. He’s not worth it.”
I nodded. “I know. Thanks man.”
* * *
“You were incredible!” Emily said as she flung herself into my arms when I walked off-stage to the cheers and roars of the crowd.
Yeah, I had a big, fucking smile plastered on my face. I’d played my heart out that night, because every single song I sang was for Emily. I wanted her to feel what I felt for her and know that what we had was real, that she shouldn’t doubt it. Ever.
I picked her up and spun her around, my guitar smashed between us.
“I love you!” I cheered, the crowd still making noise out front. They were cheering for an encore.
“Zack, you guys should go back out for one more song,” Jonathan said, interrupting our moment.
I wondered when he’d appeared. He was always lurking around Emily, and I couldn’t stand it, especially after what I’d overhead after sound check. No doubt they’d watched the whole show from backstage, standing next to each other, and I’m sure he loved every second of it.
While we’d been in Charlotte, he’d pretty much stayed away from her after our conversation in his car, but over the past three weeks, he’d crept back in. I constantly found them laughing together while we were rehearsing, or she was texting him at night, telling me it was band-related, but I didn’t always believe her.
Then at the launch party, he’d taken to dragging her around introducing her to anyone in the industry that she didn’t know. Sure, I knew it was great for her career, but it didn’t mean I enjoyed seeing his hand on her arm or her lower back as he guided her to the next person. And she always laughed at his jokes, leaning toward him and swatting him on the arm playfully. I wasn’t even sure she realized she was doing it.
It wasn’t like I didn’t want them to be friends. I didn’t care about that, but the flirting I minded. He was a little weasel, and I knew he wanted her. He’d basically told me as much. And even if he said he had some model girlfriend, I wasn’t buying it. Earlier he’d been hinting that he was the right guy for Emily, even if she hadn’t realized it. I had. I saw right through his fake, caring, ‘I’m just trying to be a good friend’ façade.
But I tolerated him, because he was our manager, and he was doing the right things for us. We needed him, as much as I hated to admit it. I just wished Emily didn’t like him so much and he wasn’t trying to tear us apart.
“Which song do you want us to play for the encore?” I asked.
He grinned at me for a few seconds. “Play Swept Under the Rocks. Adam just called and let me know it’s the next single you guys are putting out. It’ll be out on November fifth.”
Damn. As much as I really hated to admit it, as far as managers went, Jonathan was the man. He’d gone to bat for that song with Adam, wanting it to be our next single. We originally hadn’t included it in the set list since Adam wanted us to focus on our stuff that the crowd would recognize and intermix things that were catchy and easy to love from the new album. Swept Under the Rocks was a different sound, but the song rocked.
I looked over at Andrew and caught his eye. He was grinning just as widely. We both loved that song. We’d written it together, working on it all summer off of a beat I’d heard in a song by an obscure band from the late nineties that Andrew liked. He’d played me some of their stuff, and I was hooked. An idea had formed, and we’d written Swept Under the Rocks over the next few weeks.
I looked back at Jonathan, the grin eating up my face. “That’s so awesome.”
He returned my smile, probably glad that I wasn’t scowling at him. “Then get out there and play it. That crowd is getting restless.”
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Andrew said excitedly, bouncing up on the balls of his feet, his eyes shining.
I could literally see the adrenaline coursing through him, and next to him, sweat-drenched and grinning was Derrick. Even Leo looked like he was buzzing. It was in that moment that I knew we’d shattered any doubts we had that we were going to have long careers in the music industry. We were so going to kick ass and take names.
The four of us turned in unison and headed back on-stage to a crowd that went completely wild. I grinned at them as I stepped up to the mic.
“Okay, one more song, just because you guys have been a kick-ass crowd tonight. This one we pretty much just wrote in time for the new album, and it’s freaking awesome. It’s kind of a different sound from what we’ve done in the past, and there’s nothing else like it on our albums. So if you like it, they’ll be more of the same on the next album. But first you have to prove to the label that we rock and buy the shit out of Devil’s Countdown. Download it, burn it, tell your friends it’s amazing, because we so want there to be another album.”
The crowd cheered even louder.
“Okay, this one’s a ballad called Swept Under the Rocks, and it’s for that person in your life who’s gotten under your skin in a really good way, and you can’t stop thinking about them.”
With that, because I’d poured my heart out enough and would be pouring it out even more in the words I was about to sing, I glanced back at Emily who was smiling at me in such a loving, adorable, way. Then I turned back to the crowd, strummed the first few notes as the other guys joined in. I sung until my lungs hurt.
“Thank you, Las Vegas for being one of the first stops on the Devil’s Countdown Tour! You guys rock!”
I threw my pic into the front row, turned and walked off-stage to the increased cheers of the crowd. Emily’s arms were around me the second I handed my guitar to one of the roadies and stepped out of view of the audience. Within seconds she was kissing me with complete reckless abandon. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight, relishing the feel of her lips on mine.
“Marry me,” I said against her lips.
She pulled back and looked at me. “You already asked me that, silly,” she said, a dopey smile across her face.
“Tonight,” I said, waiting until my intentions resonated with her.
“What? Here?” she questioned.
I nodded. “It’s the perfect night in the perfect place.”
She smacked my chest then. She actually smacked my chest.
“Zack, quit playing around. I can’t get married. Rachel and Chase aren’t here, and my parents and Keely. Lily and Jen and Kristin aren’t here. I’m not getting married without them.”
I leaned my forehead against hers, feeling desperate all of a sudden. “I only need you. Please. Marry me, princess.”
“What has gotten into you?” she asked, and I could tell she was considering it.
I pulled back and looked at her, my arms loose around her waist. “I just love you, and I can’t wait for you to be my wife.”
She smacked my chest playfully again and pulled out of my arms. “I love you too, but you’re insane,” she said, obviously thinking that I was still joking. Then she turned to me. “Do you want to mingle with the fans?”
We’d done that on our last tour, since we were the opening act. We’d watch the headlining band play while we hung out with the people who’d come out to see us. But things were different now. We weren’t play bars and small clubs. We were playing actual venues with several hundred people in atte
ndance and tickets with seat numbers on them. I wasn’t sure mingling was the best idea, especially in a town like Vegas.
I also had other things on my mind.
I stepped up to my fiancée again and took her hands in mine. All around us there were people. Frankie and Dwayne, two of our roadies, were carrying our equipment from the stage to the bus out back. Leo was plugging his ear from the noise as he talked to Kristin who hadn’t been able to make it to the show, and Andrew was talking to some guy who I suddenly realized was Cole. I had no idea where Derrick was. He was probably out making fan connections and scoring himself some ass for later that night. It was just what he did.
Then off to our left was Jonathan, and he was eyeing us warily. Just to piss him off, and because I could, I leaned forward and kissed Emily. It annoyed me that he wanted my girl, but he wasn’t getting her. She was mine.
“By the way, did you like the song?” I asked when I pulled back.
She nodded. “It was so beautiful. I loved it.”
“It was for you.”
“I know,” she said sheepishly, still embarrassed that I wrote songs for her. Then she shook her head. “Thank you. It was really sweet. I love you.”
I kissed her. “I love you more.”
I shifted my eyes to Jonathan who was still watching us before shifting my gaze back to Emily. “Doesn’t he have somewhere to be?” I grumbled under my breath.
She glanced over at Jonathan then, and when her eyes met mine again, there was trouble in them. “That was kind of mean.”
I shrugged. “He was staring at us – or you, rather – and I’m over it. He does it all the time.” No use holding back how I really felt.
She looked utterly confused. “He wasn’t staring at me, and he doesn’t do it all the time. Why on earth would you think that?”
I sighed. “Trust me, he does, and he’s not the only one who does it. I saw more men ogle your ass this summer than I cared to count, and only because I didn’t want to give you extra work did I not punch them in the face or gouge out their eyes.”
Okay, I was apparently feeling insecure in that moment.
She rolled her eyes. “There is no need to be violent, Zack. I’m not looking back at any of them, including Jonathan.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, hating that I was even for a second questioning her intentions.
Jonathan’s words of caution to her had affected me more than I’d initially thought, and the concept of losing her or of her questioning if we should be together was overwhelming me. I didn’t want to imagine it. Shit, I’d lived it, and I never wanted to do it again.
“Zack, what’s with you?” she asked, thoroughly confused. “Why are you acting so bizarre?”
Yeah, I had no idea why I was being so irrational in that moment, but anger and adrenaline and fear were pumping through me so fast I thought I was going to lose it.
I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Just marry me. Please. Tonight. We can do it again with our families, but I want to wake up tomorrow as your husband. Please, princess.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. Then her phone chose that moment to ring, and I wanted to grab it from the back pocket of her leather skirt that she knew drove me insane with want and throw it on the floor. Instead I stood there while she pulled it out, looked at the number and sighed.
“This is Emily Cole,” she said, her eyes darting to me for a second before she stepped away.
Emily Easton, was all I could think.
* * *
I waited around for Emily to come back, but after ten minutes, she must have still been on the phone, and everyone else had taken off. Even Jonathan was gone, but then again he might have followed Emily, so that wasn’t good. Maybe I’d see if Emily was in the green room. She might have gone there to find a quiet place to talk. I started to head there, but then I remembered I’d tossed the hoodie I’d been wearing during sound check into a back corner of the stage before we went on, and I didn’t want to forget it. It was one of my favorite ones.
I retrieved it from the dark corner where it almost blended in with the black of the stage and the walls and headed back to where I’d been hanging out before, only to see Andrew had made it back there. Standing next to him and holding his hand was the blond guy he’d been with earlier. I knew it was Cole, and I was glad Andrew had brought him out to meet us. If he was as important to Andrew as I thought he was, I wanted to know him. I just hadn’t known he’d be in Vegas and wondered why Andrew hadn’t mentioned it earlier.
“Everything will be fine, I promise,” Cole was telling him. “Now relax. You look like you’re going to puke on me, and these are new shoes.”
Andrew did look nervous.
“I like them,” he said, his voice slightly shaky as he looked down at Cole’s shoes.
Cole tilted his chin back up. “I like you. A lot. Actually, I love you, but you already knew that.” Andrew blushed again, and Cole chuckled. “And I love it when you blush. I’m also going to love your friends, so stop worrying.”
Andrew got a goofy grin on his face that he tried to hide, but it was no use. Anyone could see he was equally as taken with Cole as Cole seemed to be with him. I felt like I was witnessing something private and intimate with the way they were staring at each other, and I had the sudden urge to make my presence known, so I cleared my throat.
Both of their heads turned my way.
“Zack,” Andrew said in surprise when he saw me. “Hey.”
I smiled, hoping to put him at ease. He was back to looking, as Cole had so artfully put it, like he was going to puke.
He was probably afraid we wouldn’t approve of Cole, but from what I’d seen so far, Cole was a good guy, and he made Andrew happy, so I knew I’d like him. I honestly wondered how Derrick would react. He’d been so cool with Andrew lately, but if he saw him holding hands with his boyfriend, would that change things? I was glad he hadn’t been back there to witness the little love exchange I’d just seen.
“Good show, right?” I asked.
“It was freaking awesome,” Andrew said, as Cole snaked his arm around his waist and kissed his temple. Andrew smiled even wider.
“Zack, this is Cole, my, uh, boyfriend.”
I smiled and reached out my hand to shake Cole’s.
He took it in a firm grip. “It’s nice to meet you, Zack. Andrew’s told me a lot about you. Thanks for being there for him when he was trying to figure out if he should give me a chance or not.”
Andrew’s cheeks flushed at that comment.
“Anytime,” I said. “I can see how happy you make him. I’m glad he made the right decision.”
“Me too,” Cole said genuinely.
“So what did you think of the show?” I asked him.
“You guys were great,” Cole said and looked reverently over at Andrew. “I couldn’t keep my eyes off of this guy, but the rest of you sounded good.”
“I’ll take that compliment,” I said jovially. “So, did you watch the show from the audience? Drew, you could have given him a backstage pass.”
Andrew rolled his eyes playfully. “Yeah, I would have done that had I known he was coming tonight.”
Cole’s arm tightened around his middle. “I wanted to surprise him, so I paid top dollar for tickets in order to be in the front row. I didn’t want him to miss me.”
Andrew laughed. “Trust me. I didn’t miss you. I almost missed a chord change when I saw you standing there, but you, I didn’t miss.”
Cole and I laughed. He seemed like a good guy, genuinely interested in Andrew.
“So have you met anyone else yet?” I asked him. “I know they’re around here somewhere.”
“Just Leo,” Andrew said, and I could see that he was visibly nervous, probably wondering the same thing I was about Derrick.
“Derrick’s probably out front,” I offered. “I can go find him for you if you want.”
“No, it’s fine. We’ll find him,” Andrew said, but his voice sounded c
hoked, like he definitely wanted to avoid introducing Cole to Derrick.
“Babe, don’t worry about it. From what you’ve said about Derrick, he’ll be fine, and if not, we’ll just tag-team him and kick his ass together,” Cole said, grinning at Andrew who smiled back at him.
“Yeah, that’s true. I took him alone, but the two of us together would be lethal.”
“It would,” Cole said, grinning at Andrew.
“So what do you two have planned tonight?” I asked, afraid they were about to slip into their own little world once again.
Cole pulled Andrew back against his chest and looked at me over his shoulder. He was just a few inches taller Andrew. “I think we’ll probably just go back to Drew’s room and relax.”
“Got it,” I said, knowing exactly what that meant. “How long are you in town for?”
“Until you guys leave tomorrow morning, I guess, so not long.”
Andrew looked depressed for the first time. “It’s not long enough,” he muttered, and Cole kissed his cheek.
“I know, babe. I know.”
“Well, I’ll let you two start your evening since we have to get up pretty early tomorrow. I have to find Emily anyway.”
“Nice to meet you, Zack. And thanks again for being there for Andrew. It really means a lot to me.”
I nodded and smiled. “Drew’s been there for me more times than I can count,” I told him. “I figured I owed him.”
Andrew just grinned and leaned back against Cole’s chest as I left them and headed down the hallway. I ducked into the room we’d hung out in before going on-stage, expecting to find at least Leo. I had no doubts that Derrick was still mingling, but my cousin should have been around somewhere. Instead I found Emily and Jonathan sitting on the couch deep in conversation.
Emily stopped talking as soon as I walked in, and she looked up at me in surprise.
Broken Fairytales Series Box Set (Broken Fairytales, Buried Castles, Shattered Crowns) Page 87
