Wild Chase (14 page)

And then there it is; front and center. My voice is back.

“I didn’t think you would remember me,” I begin, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear in a nervous habit kind of way.

Almost instantly his demeanor shifts. Avery shifts from shocked and confused into full on mad. His jaw visibly flexes and tightens, drawing my eyes almost instantly to his neck, distracting me with thoughts of kissing him there.

“What? How could you believe—do you have any idea how often I think—you really think I could forget…?” I listen as he sputters out a slew of unfinished thoughts, each one more heartbreaking than the last. I can’t tell what the look in his eyes means, but it’s just too much. A huge lump is creeping its way up the back of my throat but I am determined not to let him hear it in my voice. I try clearing my throat and turning my eyes from him for a moment to collect my wits before I lose what little I have left.

“So, how’s Olivia?” I ask softly, adjusting myself in his lap, just enough to remind him that I’m in quite the provocative position while talking about his soon to be wife.

Almost immediately, his face falls.

“What?” he stammers. The crease in his brow is so deep that he may have just aged ten years.

I keep my eyes firmly locked on his, praying that I don’t let my emotions take over and back out of this confrontation. I’ve been saying for so long that if I ever saw him again, I just had to know how he could lie, and why—why he would choose her over me.

“You’re girlfriend of the last four plus years? Or rather, more recently, your fiancé,” I say as my voice cracks.

Dammit.

“All right, guys, that’s a wrap! I think we got the shot we needed!” Angie’s voice cuts through our bubble like a ninja blade. I completely forgot that we were supposed to be posing, so the fact that she got a good picture is a miracle.

I immediately slide back and get to my feet, stepping down as fast as my high-heel clad feet will carry me, but Avery’s hand grabs ahold of my arm. I turn back to him, wondering what he could possibly have to say. His face relaxes as he steps down to the floor, trailing his hand down my arm until his finger tips are desperately trying to lace with mine.

Looking into my eyes, “Can we talk somewhere?”

The pleading look in his eyes completely throws me.

“You’re not skipping out on us tonight are you, Beautiful?” Jesse pipes in from beside us. I look over at his boyishly cute smile and it eases a little of the tension in the air.

“Um, well, see I…” I begin stumbling to come up with an excuse to just stay home and bury my face in a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and cry, but Avery interrupts me.

“Actually, Melanie here was just telling me about how excited she is to come out tonight, but you should probably ease up on the flirting, Jess. You’ll scare the poor girl,” he says, flashing his gaze from me to Jesse, quickly giving him a goofy grin.

What the hell? Did he just call me Melanie?

Jesse gives Avery a huge fake smile and then flips him a quick middle finger.

I’m still just standing between the two… uncertain of what to do or say next.

“Well, I can’t wait to see you there tonight. I was afraid that I was going to be the only guy going stag, but now I’ll have the most beautiful girl on my arm,” Jesse says, tilting his head to the side. His dark hair falls out of his face for a moment, long enough for me to see the slight pink across his cheeks that makes his baby blue eyes that much brighter.

I smile, finding it hard not to like this bassist’s insistent flirting.

Avery roughly clears his throat from my side and Jesse grabs my hand, “We’ll be at Avalon around nine. Don’t be late,” the blue-eyed flirt says, flashing his gaze down to my legs. He grins before pressing a light kiss to my hand and then nodding at Avery before walking off.

Still confused, I finally turn my head to Avery and I see his jaw is locked tight again as he watches his band mate walk away.

“Why did you call me Melanie? Why wouldn’t you introduce me—?” I start to lay into him, but he stops me, stepping up so close to me that I almost swallow my own tongue.

“You’re coming tonight, right? I can’t stay right now because we have to get over to the studio, but I have to talk to you. Please tell me you’ll be there,” he says, his voice trailing off in a raspy whisper at the end. If only he knew what that does to me.

I swallow hard, trying to decide what I should do. Do I even want to know what he has to say?

My head is screaming,
rip off the freakin’ Band-Aid already!
, but my heart is staring up into those gray eyes and I’m slowly losing sight of any real reason not to go.

As if seeing the hesitance all over my face, he leans in close to my ear and breathes, “Please, Chase.”

As soon as my name leaves his lips, my head is already answering ‘yes’ for me.

Damn body betrays me every single time.

“So are you going to talk to me or just sit in your room and be a bitter Betty all night?” Vic says from my doorway, unable to hide the enormous smirk across her face.

I set down my guitar, pluck out my headphones, pick up a throw pillow, and chuck it in her direction; all I hear is a fit of laughter.

“Jeez, Chase. I half expected a dang thank you by now! That man still has a bone for you. My god, couldn’t you tell? I felt like I was invading your privacy watching you two earlier, not like that would have stopped me but still,” she says, still giggling as she jumps onto my bed, slapping playfully at my legs.

I roll my eyes at her, even though I’d been lost on that same thought since we got home from the photo shoot.

“It doesn’t matter how he feels or how I feel. There’s another person involved now and that changes everything. Why are we even talking about this?” I whine, sighing loudly. I grab for my headphones but she snatches them first.

“We’re talking about this because it’s time to start getting ready to go out. And don’t even argue with me, because it doesn’t matter what you think or say, I obviously know what’s best for you. And if he’s moved on, Chase, then dammit, you deserve the same thing! You can get all pissy with me because I talk about how you fell head over heels in love with a rock star and have spent years pining for him, but never actually doing anything about it because you’re a big giant idiot. Now, you can get your sexy-self dressed up to go out, and shake your cute ass for him to pine over, and maybe, possibly, oh, I don’t know, move on with his equally hot ass friend that seems to have a massive hard on for you,” My friend huffs all of this out in one of her usual southern rants that end with a huge grin.

I just stare at her with my mouth hanging open, something I’ve done a lot of today.

“I thought you were crazy, but now I’m certain,” I say deadpan.

Rolling her eyes, she smacks at me again, “Seriously, come on! You know you’re going to come anyway, so stop with the sulking already. You said he wants to talk, so get the answers you want. You don’t have to stay after that but at least do that for yourself.”

Looking at her big brown eyes, I stick out my bottom lip in a pout. “Why do I put up with you?”

She smiles. “Because I’m awesome, always right, and you love me. Oh! And I’m cute as shit!”

We both laugh as I follow her out of my room and into hers to decide on what to wear for the evening.

“Don’t be so nervous, woman! For god’s sake, you were just in his lap, practically naked, not even ten hours ago!” Vic laughs at me as we pause toward the front of the club, scanning for a certain group of guys. I tug at my attire again, trying to pull down the tight, retro nautical slip dress, ignoring her completely. I remember exactly what I’d been doing with him earlier, no reminder necessary!

“Oh there he is. Hot damn, that is one gorgeous man! Kennedy!” Vic hollers across the loud bar. She grabs my hand and we start for a curtained off section toward the back of the room. Out of the corner of his eye, Kennedy must have spotted Vic. He gives a shy smile and raises a hand as we approach.

“Don’t be so crude and forward with him, Vic. He seems shy,” I whisper before we get too close. She waves me off and seems to walk even faster. Damn her and her long, Amazon legs.

Before I know it, we are behind the thick, red, curtains and standing before a big round booth holding the boys of Vengeful Honor.

I take quick note that there are no ladies at the table. None. Not a single one. I try not to smile, but I can’t help it.

Jesse jumps up and takes my hand, his other hand skims my waist and makes its way to my lower back.

“You look incredible. I’m so glad you made it. Can I order you a drink?” he asks with a lopsided smile that’s hard not to admire.

Avery stays in his seat at the back of the table next to Adam who is furiously texting someone on his phone. Jesse motions for me to scoot in and of course, I’m in the middle of a bassist and lead singer sandwich.

I can feel my sweat glands go into overdrive. Discreetly I fan myself, trying not to think about being in between these two men in any fashion. The thought alone even has my glands freaking out.

“Hey you,” I hear in my ear as I scoot into the round booth. Goose bumps, like dominos, run their course all over my body. I coyly look over my shoulder at Avery, and whisper hello back.

I feel the brush of a hand over my thigh and I jump, hitting my knees on the table. Hard. Avery laughs softly as I try to forget the last minute just happened. It’s not every day a girl like me gets to embarrass herself in front of a table of rock stars.

“Yeah, a drink would be great. Anything sweet,” I finally answer Jesse with a smile. He barely has to raise a hand before someone rushes over. Almost instantly, some kind of pretty pink drink with a flower in it is sitting in front of me.

The three guys closest to me start talking about their day in the studio while Vic and Kennedy are actually flirting like crazy on their side of the table. Well, at least one of us is having a good time tonight.

“It’s just bullshit. Plain and simple. I say we fucking drop them,” Adam says, setting his beer down on the table and licking his lips, winking in my direction.

“We are not dropping them. We just have to fix whatever the hell it is. We don’t get it either, bro,” Avery says to his drummer.

Jesse shakes his head, “Nah, I get it. Something’s wrong and we need to figure it the fuck out—and soon.”

I wrinkle my nose and ask, “What’s bullshit?”

Adam laughs and Avery smiles, but Jesse’s the one that talks.

“Our record label has rejected the new album twice now. We don’t know what they want, but apparently it’s not what we’re giving them.”

“That sucks,” I say, sipping on my drink, noticing that Avery has taken his phone out of his pocket and is frowning at it.

“Yeah, it does. You’re friend said you’re a musician, right?” he asks, pushing a piece of my hair out of my face. I blush, not sure how to answer him.

“Not like an aspiring one. I just want to find a job where I can be surrounded by it. I have no intentions of ever being in the spotlight, but I love music more than anything,” I finally say with a small smile.

“Maybe you can help me figure this out then. Like—this song,” Jesse says, pulling out his phone, but Avery stops him.

“I’m sure she doesn’t want to hear about all of this,” he asserts. He knows damn well how much I love music.

Ass!

“No, actually I’d love to hear about it,” I say, turning back to Jesse with a grin, sipping my drink again.

He chuckles softly as he plays with his phone for a minute.

“Like I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted, this song we recorded twice now—they keep telling us it’s just not good enough. I know it’s good, but I do know it’s missing something. I just can’t figure it out,” he presses play and hands me his phone. With a surprised face, I hesitantly take his phone and hold it up to my ear.

Avery’s voice soon rings out and I’m lost for the next few minutes. When it’s over, I open my eyes and realize that the three boys are staring at me, especially Avery. The look in his eyes almost turns me inside out. I laugh nervously, “Sorry, I kind of wander off in my head sometimes. Can I hear it one more time?”