Page 88 of Rock Out Together
She nodded her reply.
He reached for the bottle of Cristal, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. He paused and stared down at it. Her touch sent a warm sensation through his body and made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, and he couldn’t move.
She lowered her eyes, but her gaze didn’t fall to her hand that was still gently cupping his forearm, it went to the glass he held in his other hand. “I’ll take the vodka.”
He didn’t expect her to choose hard liquor, which meant she must be more upset than he thought. Maybe last night affected her in the way he hoped, otherwise, she would’ve just brushed it off. If it was weighing on her mind, it had to mean she had at least some feelings for him.
She slowly retracted her hand, and it snapped him out of his trance. Knowing she preferred a shooter, he gave her a splash of vodka instead of a half-full glass.
She tossed it back in one gulp.
Her deep berry lipstick stained the rim of the glass, and his eyes were drawn to it. He studied the distinct lines of her lip print. There was no doubt those were Lizzy’s lips, and he wished they were on his body instead of the short rocks glass. An urge to steal the glass and tuck it away somewhere ebbed at him so he could have her lip print forever, because he had no idea where things would go with them. There was a distinct possibility that after tonight he’d never see her again. After all, that was the plan and what all four of them had been looking forward to since the beginning of the tour eight months ago. Except when he’d exclaimed, “I can’t wait until this tour is over so I don’t have to see any of your sorry asses again!” Lizzy wasn’t included in that exclamation.
Unable to stop himself, he picked up the glass and examined her lip print.
Her eyes immediately shot to him, brows pinched together wondering what the hell he was doing.
He put down the glass and met her gaze.
There was an uncomfortable silence which burned with the heat brewing between them, even though she was still playing the role of the Ice Princess. He had to be careful with her, though, or else he’d scare her off. He needed to slowly break through her hard exterior and proceed cautiously. “What are your plans for the future?”
She appeared surprised at his interest and didn’t react with suspicion, for once. “There is no plan,” she replied, matter of factly. “Blind Fury has been my life for as long as I can remember. I guess I’ll take a break while I figure it out.”
She was 21 when she joined the band, and he was two years her senior. Now they were at a pivotal point in their lives. They were teetering on the cusp of either being just young enough to start over or too old to make it work on a second go around as an artist. It could go either way. Their future was a coin toss, and, for the first time, he realized it was a scary situation.
They both turned toward the back of the car as Sid slipped inside, followed by Walter, the band’s manager. As usual, Sid was complaining about leaving for the venue so early, just like he did a million times before. If it were up to him, he’d show up five minutes before the show started.
Lizzy picked up her glass and drained the last drop of alcohol lingering in the bottom. “I never thought it would end this way. I probably should have seen it coming, but, the truth is, I was floored when we decided it was better off if we all went our separate ways.”
“We didn’t all decide,” Dillon reminded her. “Sid said hewanted out, and Zach said he was done with the bullshit. Me and you didn’t have much choice in the matter.”
She nodded. “They made the decision clear for us. In a way, I always knew it was coming. I just never thought it would actually happen, I guess.”
He loved that they were having a normal conversation for once and swore he wouldn’t let it get off track the way it usually did. Everything didn’t have to turn into an argument, and he wanted to prove it to her, especially since she was letting her guard down and expressing real feelings.
He recognized the regret and remorse in her voice, and it tore at his heart. More so because he was experiencing the same array of emotions. Lizzy had more animosity toward Sid and Zach than he did. A long, long time ago, they were his best friends. Bandmates since high school, they had spent all of their time together. When Lizzy had joined the band, it threw them off kilter. There was a beautiful woman in the mix, and Dillon wanted her. She never suspected that he had a thing for her. He had his eye on her since she first auditioned for the band, but it wasn’t until they started playing together on stage that she stole his heart. As drummer and bassist, the two were connected by the music. They were tied together by the rhythm of the songs.
She had worn a leather bra and short shorts on stage back then. He smiled at the memory. She had been sexy as sin. She still was, but she no longer let it all hang out. Sid had made some disrespectful comments when she first joined the band, and it was the first time that he and Sid had a real argument. After a long and heated discussion, where Sidswore Lizzy was going to turn the band upside down, Dillon realized he needed to take a step back and never let on that he had feelings for her. Now, the irony mocked him. In the end, it wasn’t a woman who ruined the band. It was fame.
Dillon tucked his long hair behind his ears and leaned back against the leather seat. He watched his bandmates, all sitting in the same vehicle and doing everything possible to avoid conversing with one another. It wasn’t always this way. In the beginning, they had a blast together. Somewhere along the way, fame distorted what was important to them. “It didn’t have to end like this,” he said, quietly.
“What?” Lizzy’s eyes probed him, seeking deeper meaning to his statement.
“The band. We could have gone on for another 30 years. We could have been performing like some of the greats, well into our sixties or seventies.”
“Lizzy pursed her lips to the side and gestured to Sid and Zach with her chin. “Not with those two over there. They could never last that long. I’m surprised they haven’t killed each other yet.”
“Me too.” The mood turned dark and the air heavy. There really wasn’t anything else to say on the subject, so they rode the rest of the way in silence.
LIZZY
Sometimes, the quiet tension was worse than the constant arguing. Whenever Lizzy stepped into the car, she wondered how long it would take before the shit hit the fan. It felt like a race against a ticking time bomb—Yay! Another five minutes without an explosion. Let’s see if we can make ten.
Her gaze traveled to Zach. He had so much talent on the guitar it blew her mind. And everyone else’s. Too bad the recognition and accolades went to his head because he constantly tried to run the show.
She shifted her attention to Sid, her biggest adversary. The guy wasn’t the best singer in the world, but his stage presence was unstoppable, and out of everyone in the band, he had the biggest following. But he clashed with everyone, especially Zach, and always worried someone was trying to steal the spotlight. His overinflated ego made him impossible to work with. And he was an egotistical, misogynistic asshole.
And then there was Dillon. He was less competitive because he was used to the back of the stage. He used the heavy beat of his double bass in a passive-aggressive ploy for attention, and the fans loved him.
