Page 63 of Hard Rock Temptation
I opened my mouth to immediately sayyes, but something inside me made the words die on my tongue.
I wanted to shoutof course I would, I love you now and I always will, nothing could ever change that.
But… a part of me thought Kay might be right. If she clung to her idealistic notions, her illogical convictions, and the band broke up because of it, would I still look at her the same way? I loved her, yes, but was love enough?
Kay sighed, her breasts heaving against me as I clutched her desperately, as if she were at risk of slipping out of my arms, like grains of sand in an hourglass.
“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “All I know is that I want to be with you.”
“I want to be with you, too,” I said urgently. “Forever. I don’t want anything to come between us. Not even this.”
“Can we really make it through this?” she asked. “Even if the band breaks up?”
“I—” My voice faltered.
Imagines of rings and me down on one knee and Kay in a white dress flitted through my head. I straightened my back.
“Yes,” I said, trying to sound as firm as I could. Many relationships broke up over differences in values, but not all of them. Some always survived. “We can make it through this. It will be hard, but all relationships are hard. We need to try. Okay?”
Kay was quiet in my arms. Then she spoke up.
“Okay,” she said. I could tell she was trying to firm up her voice as much as I had. “I want to try.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, but that relief only lasted for a brief second before the anguish and panic set in again.
Kay and I were going to try and work through this.
But could the same be said of the band?
TWENTY-SEVEN
KAYLEE
Afundamental difference in values.
That was what risked coming between me and Micah. We were taking a few days apart so we could think about things, but we had both agreed to try and get past it. To work through it and stay together.
But that didn’t solve the real problem.
The band was split in half over that difference, and I really didn’t know if the six of us could overcome it.
We had all gotten so angry. We had all said things we hadn’t meant, things I knew we would regret. But there had been a grain of truth in everything we said, too. We all knew each other so well, it had been easy to attack sore points and weak spots.
It was true when they said that the ones you love are also the ones who can hurt you the most.
“Need some help?” Chris asked as he came up behind me in the kitchen.
I was on my tiptoes trying to reach my favorite coffee mug. One of the cleaning staff we brought in did the dishes three times a week and kept putting it on the highest shelf, which of course meant I could never reach it without straining something.
Anya was down in the kitchen several times a day to satiate her caffeine addiction, so she was usually around to help me out. But I hadn’t seen Anya in a week. It wasn’t unusual for her to hide herself away in her room for days to work if she was caught up in a flurry of inspiration, but I knew that wasn’t the case this time.
I had a feeling none of us were feeling particularly inspired at the moment.
“Thanks,” I told Chris, pointing to the dark purple mug with cat paws on the rim and a tail for the handle. “I really need to get a footstool.”
“Always happy to help,” he said.
It came out sincere, not snarky or joking like Finn or Zain might have said it.
