Page 14 of Love is a Lyric
5
Ben
The heat baked into the concrete surrounding the sparkling pool as Ben’s arms sliced through the water. It felt good to move, to sink into the stillness beneath the surface. On tour, when they weren’t performing, they were either sleeping or attending parties and events. There was little time to just be, to remove the rockstar persona.
He kicked over to the side of the pool facing Quinn. She sat on a deck lounger, hard at work on their newest hit song, lyrics that would make him fall deeper in love with her.
There were moments thinking about a future with her scared him, and then he remembered their music, the connection of her lyrics with his notes. Apart, they were mere singers. Together, they were stars, magic.
He smiled as he flicked water her way. She shot him a scowl.
“Come swim with me.” He lifted his sunglasses so she could see his eyes. “Please.”
She shook her head. “I need to get this song done.” She shrugged. “You know how it is when the inspiration hits. I can’t stop.” Her phone chimed, and she turned her attention to a text. That, she would stop for.
He drifted away from the wall as Conner sprinted from the house and cannon balled into the water with a Tarzan-like roar.
Ben held in a laugh as water splashed Quinn. Moments like this, he could forget that they didn’t have any songs for the new album yet, he didn’t have to think about Jo and what the pregnancy would mean for her.
There was no Blake Coleman to hunt down.
For a little while, he let himself just live in the moment with his best friends in the entire world.Fatewas lucky. There’d never been band drama, and they’d all known each other since they were young. If he had anything to say about it, they’d be making music for many years to come.
He wondered how many members of Rockstars Anonymous would still be standing years from now. This business beat people down with drama and constant attention from the media.
Conner exploded from the water, lunging toward Ben to tackle him and drag him under.
As they wrestled, Quinn screamed at them to stop, that they’d gotten her wet.
Neither of them listened to her as they struggled to breathe through their laughter. Two grown, twenty-nine-year-old men trying to drown each other was apparently not okay with their bandmate.
By the time they stopped, they both gasped for breath and floated on their backs. Quinn left them with a scowl.
“This house is sweet.” Conner stared at the blue sky. He liked big things, expensive things. Houses. Cars. Fancy clothes. He’d embraced every part of the lifestyle. “Piper hooked us up.”
Ben smiled at that. “Yeah, she’s the best.”
“Too bad we’re going to lose her.”
“You see that too?” Ben had hoped it was only him.
“Quinn is… a lot to handle. Don’t get me wrong, I like high strung, but Piper doesn’t seem like she does.”
“Those two have a complicated history.” It started with Quinn leaving for college two months after their parents died. Piper would never hold that against her. Grudges weren’t her thing. But Chase used to call him to tell him how much Piper struggled. Even at ten years old, Chase saw it and knew Ben would too. But Quinn… she moved on with her life as if nothing had happened, as if her little sister wasn’t being raised by people who weren’t their parents.
“I could woo her.”
Conner’s words shocked the breath from Ben. “Woo?”
“Yeah, man. Woo.”
“I don’t think people say that anymore but explain.”
“You know how easily women fall in love with me, right?”
He’d seen the trail of broken hearts Conner left on their tours. “Whatever you say, man.”
“I’m just thinking we can’t lose Piper. She kind of keeps us all together. I mean, I’d probably forget my drumsticks every time I took the stage if it wasn’t for her.”
