Musician's Monsoon (2 page)

It very well could have been the look on her face. While she didn’t move her body in vigorous display like the rest of the crowd, her expression was one of complete appreciation and rapture. A small smile stayed on her lips throughout the show, and he got the distinct impression that while everyone else heard the music and liked the sound, she was really listening, like she felt it and could put her finger on the pulse of the message. Her subtle look of bliss meant more to him than anything else in the entire venue.

It was the last song before the encore, and Rhonda started talking to the audience about how great a crowd they were. Zane seized the opportunity to take a long drink of a beer he’d had sitting on the floor. It tasted warm, which was sick. Because of that, he decided to give it to one of the fans. He aimed for the black-haired twins because they were so into the show, but he changed his mind at the last minute when his gaze fell on that girl again.

He stepped to the edge of the stage and extended his hand, but the woman he aimed for was shoved out of the way by the blonde with the bad hair. She stretched over the barrier, extending to the point that Zane seriously thought she might dislocate her shoulders. He frowned and pulled the beer bottle just out of her grasp, then purposely held it toward the sandy-haired girl, who was elbowing the blonde in the ribs as she pushed her way back in again.

Zane smirked and met the woman’s eyes, then indicated that he wanted to give the beer to her. She blinked, arched an eyebrow, and looked around in confusion, as if thinking he had to be motioning to someone else. He grinned and held it toward her again, giving a nod and a wink to let her know he meant her. The blonde, meanwhile, had managed to extend her arm over to him again, and the sandy-haired woman shoved her hard, reached out, and accepted the beer bottle. She met his eyes for a second and smiled.

Zane’s heart began to beat double time, and he returned her smile. He chuckled under his breath when the blonde beside her pouted like a child. He walked over to the other side of the stage and touched the hands of a few screaming fans before heading back toward the keyboard for the next song.

It was at that precise moment that he glanced back at the woman he seemed to be so enamored with, and instead of his gaze falling on her face, it fell on the blonde next to her. His eyes widened as she managed to climb over the barrier and, with impressive speed and strength, launched herself onto the stage. He didn’t really have time to react, and he wished he had. If his reflexes had been better, he would have run—fast.

The material masquerading as her shirt came untied and fell down. And her two behemoth breasts loomed straight at his face. All he really had time to do was put his hands up and gasp, thus inhaling a mouthful of silicone and falling backwards while she tackled him. A guitar smashed to the ground, and feedback squealed from the amp. He heard frantic footsteps all around, and he felt hands attempt to tug the Amazonian nightmare off of him, which he was grateful for…because he was suffocating.

A security guard finally managed to haul her away. Correction:
two
security guards. They yanked her off Zane, and he scrambled into a standing
position before he fled to the back of the stage. His friends surrounded him,
asking him if he was all right, but all he could do was shake his head and try to
understand what had just happened. Death by boobs. Regardless of what any
man said, that was
not
a good way to go.

“Zane!” the drummer, Billy, called. He shook him vigorously and forced Zane to look up at him. “Are you okay, man?”

Zane blinked and shook his head, trying to dispel that awful image from his mind. “Y-Yeah,” he stammered. “They were so…big.”

Kate and Billy exchanged a concerned glance. “Did you hit your head, dude?” Billy questioned.

He cleared his throat. “I’m fine. I was just…” He shook his head again and tried to regroup. “I’m fine. Let’s finish the show.”

“Are you sure?” Rhonda asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I promise.” He forced a smile. “That’ll be something I won’t forget anytime soon.”

“That’ll be something
none
of us will forget anytime soon,” Matt grumbled.

Zane smiled, this time a little more genuinely, and he pushed away from his friends, resuming his place behind the keyboard. The crowd cheered, and he held his hands up to assure everyone he was all right. His eyes instinctively returned to the place where the sandy-haired woman was, but his heart plummeted.

She was no longer there.

With a sadness inside him he couldn’t accurately explain, he forced himself to finish up the set of songs, went out for the encore, then filed backstage with the rest of the band feeling weary and battle-worn.  He grabbed a water bottle on his way to the dressing room and briefly wished it was whiskey.

“Whew!” Matt exclaimed, flopping down into a chair in their dressing room. “Well, that was not your typical performance.” He ran his fingers through his unruly brown hair and made it look even messier than it already did.

Kate snorted as she sat down next to him and pulled a colored hairpiece out of her chestnut locks. “I’ll say. Not every day your keyboardist gets attacked by flying cleavage.”

Zane rolled his eyes. He suddenly felt like the room was suffocating him. “That woman was something else.” He paced around the room restlessly for a few moments while the rest of his band mates shared everyday conversation and talked about highlights from the show. He half listened, not really paying attention. For whatever reason, he couldn’t get his mind off that woman in the crowd.

“Hey, Zane. You in there, man?”

He moved away from Matt, who was waving his hand in his face. “What?”

He arched an eyebrow. “What? We’re heading out. You plan on chilling in the dressing room all night?”

Zane frowned and glanced at the rest of the band, all in the entrance of the dressing room ready to make their way to the bus. He felt antsy and his mind was muddled. He didn’t want to go back to the hotel room and watch people get wasted…again. Everything inside of him felt tumultuous and chaotic. If he didn’t get a moment to himself, he was going to explode.

“You guys go. I’m going to take a walk.”

“By yourself?” Rhonda screeched. “At least take a security guard with you or something.”

He pushed past them with a barely contained growl, needing to be out of the confined space before he lost his mind. “I’m a big boy. I think I can handle it. I’ll meet you guys later.”

“But Zane—”

He turned and looked back at Rhonda, forcing patience into his reply. He knew she just cared about him. “You guys, I really need to decompress. Alone. Okay? It’ll be fine. I’m a celebrity―all right, great, but I’m still a person. And I’m a person who needs a second to myself to figure out what’s going on inside my head. I think I’m entitled to that.”

“Just let him do what he wants,” Kate snapped. “I don’t have time to stand around here all night babying Zane. I have things I need to take care of.” She crossed her arms and scowled.

Billy and Matt exchanged a confused look at her out-of-character witchiness. “Dude, what crawled up your butt and died?” Matt grumbled.

Kate flipped him off.

Rhonda sighed visibly and focused her attention back on Zane. “All right. We’re just worried about you. You haven’t been—”

“Myself. I know. That’s why I need to be alone. I need to figure out where my self decided to go.” He pivoted on his heel and continued down the hall toward the exit. If he didn’t get some kind of control over the tumult inside him, he could end up blowing his entire career.

Because, right now, none of it really seemed worth it anymore. Not when his music was gone.

 “Are you out of your mind?” Sophie screamed after the security guard finished dragging Lorraine out of the venue. “Are you trying to get arrested?”

Lorraine snorted as she repositioned her shirt. “Oh please,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s not like I meant for my shirt to come off. That was a complete accident.” She sniffed and tried to smooth her hair. “Besides, it’s not like he minded. I mean, the guy’s mouth totally latched straight on.”

Sophie arched an eyebrow and folded her arms. “Given the circumstances, Lorraine, I don’t think he had a choice. You were practically smothering him.” She sighed and turned away from her cousin in exasperation. “That was so humiliating. I can’t believe I’m even related to you.”

“You can’t believe you’re related to
me
?”
She huffed. “Whatever. At least I’m interesting.”

Sophie let out a short, sarcastic laugh. “Interesting? Oh yeah, Lorraine, you’re one of a kind, all right.” She started to walk away through the parking lot of the venue and toward the manmade lake beside it.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Lorraine shouted after her.

 “Away from you!” Sophie spat back. “There are bars all along this street. Go get smashed or something. I’ll find you later when I’m not totally pissed at you.” She kept walking, trying to return to some kind of calm state. It was difficult to manage, considering Lorraine had completely ruined what had, quite possibly, been the best concert she’d ever attended. She didn’t even get to see the end, and on the way out, she’d accidentally dropped the beer bottle Zane had given her. It had shattered all over the ground. Now she didn’t even have a souvenir. And he had purposely given it to
her.
She had no idea why.

It didn’t matter now anyway. It was gone, and so was he...and what a beautiful man. He was breathtaking on stage with his long, golden hair and his commanding presence. She wondered what he’d be like in person. He always seemed so approachable in the interviews she’d seen of him.

She shook her head. Well, she’d never know, so what good was it to ponder on it? She stuffed her hands in her pockets and wandered aimlessly as the hot Arizona day turned into a sultry Arizona night. The monsoon had passed, traveling east, leaving a humid, sweltering, almost sensual night in its wake.

She sighed and meandered for a while, replaying what she had seen of the show in her mind and trying to relive it.

After a good forty-five minutes, she had calmed sufficiently, but her anger had been replaced with a dull kind of sorrow and a strange loneliness that was foreign to her. She never felt lonely. She was independent, self-sufficient, and enjoyed her life. She had no idea where the sudden wave of sadness came from, but out of nowhere, the thing she wanted more than anything in the world was to have someone look at her the way Zane Blake had from the stage. Like she was actually something special and not just a face in the crowd. Who cared if he was only a great performer and interacted well with his fans? He’d made her feel special. Period. And she hadn’t realized until now how insignificant she usually felt.

Regardless of the fact that he would never remember her past the moment he had handed her his beer, Zane had made her feel like a glittering jewel sitting in the middle of a bunch of sand.

With a sigh, she turned and strode back to the venue, which was now all but deserted. She headed toward Lorraine’s car, but stopped and frowned. She wasn’t ready to go find her delinquent cousin. Her aggravation was still too strong. Maybe she would walk down the street and see what she could see. It was the main downtown strip in Tempe, right next to the university. Plus, it was a Friday night. If nothing else, she could at least find something to eat. She was beyond famished.

Casting one more glance back at Lorraine’s car, her gaze fell on the stupid antenna ball. It was the girliest thing she’d ever seen. A smiley face with a blonde ponytail, gigantic sunglasses and a pink headband that said
Princess
on it in gold sparkly writing. It even had lips the size of Lorraine’s, painted an obnoxious shade of red. At that moment, Sophie hated the antenna ball with a fury that rivaled the Arizona monsoon. It looked like Lorraine, and she was the one who had ruined a concert Sophie had been waiting to see for a small eternity. Since she couldn’t physically do anything to her cousin, she took her rage out on the ball.

She yanked it off the antenna and thumped it against the side of the car a few times before turning and pitching it MLB-player style. She didn’t look to see if anyone was around, and she almost had an all-out heart attack as her fingers released the ball and her gaze traveled past it to see Zane Blake, of all people, standing directly in its intended path. Her eyes bulged, and she drew in a deep breath to shout out a warning, but it all happened too quickly.

The antenna ball connected—with great force—against his right eye.

The warning Sophie would have shouted turned into a scream of horror, and her hands flew up to cover her mouth as he staggered backwards and let out a slew of curse words. He held his hand to his eye and bent over.