Rock the City: A Midnight Fate Novel (3 page)

“I hope you’re right.” Even though Lane and I have shared some of the most intimate moments I’ve ever had with a man, we haven’t had a lot of time face to face. My heart craves him, but my body is so nervous it’s already trembling.

“Dude, if you don’t get laid soon, I’m finding you a hooker,” Easton says as he knocks the newspaper out of my hands and sits down at the table across from me.

“What the fuck?” He’s been on my ass about everything since we left Texas, from the toilet seat to the beer in the fridge. “I have a girlfriend, jackass.”

“Then why are you so uptight lately? Your nose is always stuck in a book, you’ve barely scratched the surface with the song you started writing, and if you don’t stop moping around here like a sad little puppy, I’m going to have to find out if you still have a dick between your legs. And you don’t want to know how I’ll do it.”

“You’re a sick fuck, East.”

“I’m right and you know it.” He kicks his feet up on the edge of the table, crossing one black boot over the other. “Admit it. You miss Noelle.”

“I miss Lark. You’re an asshole when she’s not around.”

“Now you’re dodging the question. Come on, lover boy, you’ve been as irritable as a teenager. You’re quieter than usual, and I’ve heard you talking to your girl in the middle of the night. It’s so damn sweet, that little kissing thing you do right before you hang up. It gets me every time.”

With the back of my hand, I push his dirty-ass boots off the table. “I’m not sure how you can hear anything over all the phone sex you’ve been having with Lark since she went back home.”

He doesn’t bother denying, just shrugs. “What I do with my wife really isn’t any of your business.”

“But my sex life is your business?”

“Eh, touché. I’m just trying to bring you out of this miserable funk you’re in.”

“I still can’t believe you’re fuckin’ married. I’d have put money on Dom and Gina long before you.”

“What can I say? I’m irresistible.”

“So I’ve heard—pretty much every day of the tour. I don’t know about you, but I’m more than ready for this break.” Not to mention I’m ready to be in the same city as Noelle. To have her in my condo, my bed, and anywhere else she’ll let me have her.

“Are you sayin’ you’re sick of me, Lane?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. When Lark isn’t on the bus keeping you in line, you’re a real pain in the ass.”

“She keeps us all in line, and we’re damn lucky to have her. Don’t you forget it.”

“I can’t—you went and married her.”

“And you’re probably next. You may not say much about Noelle, but I can tell you’ve changed, too. If you ask me, she’s probably the best thing to ever happen to you.”

He’s right, she definitely is. “I guess we’ll see. If we can stop arguing long enough to get anywhere.”

“You argue because you love her. If you didn’t, you’d still be quietly sitting in the corner writing songs on napkins. But she has you so distracted, all you can do is sit and wait for her.”

“She’s different, East.”

Noelle’s like no one I’ve ever met. She’s so badass, she’s not afraid to go toe to toe with anyone. Her dirty mouth can get her in trouble, but she’s so sarcastic, you can’t help but laugh.

And I’ll take the good with the bad because from the second I saw her, I felt her tiny hands wrap around my heart and squeeze the life back into me. For the first time in years, I felt my pulse in my throat.

She’s had me every day since.

Not that I need Easton’s approval, but when he says, “That’s why she’s good for you,” with as much confidence as I wish I had, I want to believe him. “I don’t see her ever running, Lane.”

I want to believe that, too, but while Easton knows about my demons, he doesn’t have a clue how deep they cut. I’ve scratched the surface during some low points on the road, times when all I wanted was to throw in the towel and get wasted. And, like the best friend he is, he was there to talk some sense into me before I threw it all away for one night of numbness.

Alcohol and drugs may take away the sting, but as soon as the high wears off, the pain slams into me ten times harder. I don’t see that changing unless I accept the past and leave it there, but that would mean I’m okay with it—and even ten years isn’t enough time to separate reality from the shit show I had to deal with.

“I’m trying,” I tell him, hoping I say it with enough conviction for him to believe me.

He could be right about Noelle, and even though we need more time together, instead of living through phone calls and the Internet, I want her to be everything I think she is.

“Take it from the married guy—the right ones are the scary ones. They’ll fuck with your head as much as they’ll toy with your heart. But the making up is just as fun as the fighting.”

I smile, picturing how Lark had him so tied up when they first met he could barely remember his own damn name. He’d miss the intro to the next song in the set because he was thinking about her, screw up lyrics to songs he wrote because he was too busy staring at her in the crowd. He was fucked seven ways to Sunday.

I didn’t get what the fuss was all about at the time, but now that I have Noelle to get lost in, I get it. Fuck, do I get it. “Even though I’m scared as hell to want her, I want her anyway. It makes no sense to want more of something that could do you in if you lost it.”

“Even if you lose it, you get it back. You’ll screw it up, Lane—it’s what guys do best—but she’ll be there even when you piss her off. Sure, you’ll have to buy her something special and grovel way more than you’re comfortable with, but you’ll do it anyway and never regret it.”

“Noelle’s a little nuts.”

“I can’t argue with that. But imagine how fun it’s going to be trying to tame her.”

“I don’t know, I think I like her the way she is. Might even be what drew me in when I met her. She was so pissed off, but she had this look in her eye like she could either talk to me or rip my balls off and be happy either way.”

“Pfft, that’s something special.” Easton grabs an apple out of the basket on the table, taking a bite then spitting it out.

“Fake one?”

“I don’t get it. Lark stages this damn bus like it’s a house for sale. We’ve never even had real fruits or vegetables until she moved in. Now I have fake one’s busting my teeth.”

“Is this all part of the ‘taming her’ process?”

“Oh, fuck off.”

Laughing, I reach behind me and grab a real apple off the counter, handing it to him. “See the difference now, chief?”

“If you tell her about this, I’ll make you regret it. Don’t think I don’t have ideas, Lane.”

“It’s already forgotten.”

“Good. So, how long is Noelle staying with you? I need to know what I’m in for. I’ll either have Lark all to myself, since you two will be fucking like rabbits, or she’ll want to hang out with you guys as much as possible before Noelle leaves and I’ll get shit.”

“Don’t know what to say about that, but two weeks was all I could get her to agree to.”

“You, my friend, need a grand gesture. Something she can’t say no to.”

When Noelle agreed to two weeks, it seemed like a lifetime considering all we had were short Skype sessions online. Now that I’m about to see her, all I can focus on is how fast those two weeks are going to go—and what we’ll do when it’s time for her to leave.

Our bus driver takes some of the weight off my shoulders when he yells, “We’re pulling into your building, fellas.”

Knowing I’m only a couple days away from seeing Noelle makes coming home that much sweeter. Generally, ending a tour leaves my head spinning; after having every minute of every day planned out for months at a time, I usually struggle to get back into a normal routine. With her here, all I want to do is get lost in her for as long as she’ll let me.

I’m ready for the lights to dim and the rest of the world to fade away.

“Come on, Lane. Leave your OCD on the bus!” Dom yells from the inside of the elevator he’s holding open for me.

Even though he’s in a hurry, I take my time. While they’re ready to go to their places and fuck around before the girls get home, my condo is going to be the same way I left it—dark and empty. “It won’t kill you to wait another minute.”

“I spend more of my life waiting for you than I do for my own girlfriend.”