Page 44 of Hard Rock Temptation
“Maybe we should have stayed quiet, then,” Finn craned his neck around to look at me and grinned. “I’d like to see you lose your shit for once. I bet it would bemagnificent.”
There was a chance he would get his wish, if that asshole producer said anything again.
Kay and I were the closest out of all our bandmates, and I loved her more than was probably rational, but I was glad she had more people than just me in her life who loved and cared about her.
I couldn’t always be around to protect Kay, not that she would agree she needed protection from anything or anyone. Even so, I was glad she had guys like Finn and Chris. People who would back her up, people who would support her. I was grateful for them, and the rest of the band, too.
I was glad Kay had people to love her in the moments when I couldn’t be around to do it.
NINETEEN
KAYLEE
Micah, Finn and Chris were tense and on edge the entire interview, but it went well, thank god, with no mention of our love lives. It went on longer than I would have liked, considering I had some burning questions I wanted to ask Micah afterwards, but I sat through it patiently.
When they finally let us go I followed Micah out of the recording room, carefully making sure I didn’t get too close. I hated having to put distance between us when there had never been any before, but our circumstances were different now. We had to be cautious.
“Are you coming back to the mansion with us?” I asked him.
“Actually, I was thinking of driving over to my mom’s to pay her a surprise visit.” Micah lifted his eyes to mine, an oddly hopeful yet awkward look on his face. “Would you like to come with me? I know she’d love to see you. But if it’s too soon, I get it,” he hurried to add. “I know it might be weird since we’re together now. It’s totally cool if you’re not ready. No pressure.”
“Micah.” I said his name to stop the rambling, something he only did when his overthinking was starting to spiral out of control. “You know I love going to see Nancy. Of course I’ll come.”
The smile he gave me was so beautiful I would have said yes to anything if only I could see that smile every day.
Luckily, going to see Micah’s mom was a treat. It had been a while since I’d last seen her. Now that everything was resolved and Micah and I were happily together, I couldn’t wait to see Nancy.
It wasn’t until we were right outside her front door that I began to worry.
“Your mom…” I started hesitantly. “Is she okay with the two of us?”
Micah gave me a sly smile as he took out his keys and unlocked the door.
“See for yourself. Hey Mom!” he called out. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“Micah?” his mom called out from inside the house. “I wasn’t expecting you! What’s the surprise?”
Nancy came out from the kitchen into the front hall and saw me. She brought her hands to her chest and gasped.
“Oh, my darling girl,” she gushed. “Come here, come here, give me a hug.”
I beamed and bounced over to Micah’s mom, letting her envelop me in her arms. She was thinner than the last time I’d seen her and her face had lost some color, but her grip was strong as she held me to her chest.
“It’s so good to see you, Mrs. Tennant,” I told her when she finally let me go. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been well, darling,” she said. “And you know you’re supposed to call me Nancy. I’ve been trying to knock some sense into this one,” she continued, swatting her hand at Micah. “But the fact that you’re here means he finally got his head on straight.”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” I laughed.
Micah’s mom ushered us into the kitchen to feed us chocolate chip cookies, just like when we were kids. They were from a box, though, not homemade like she used to make, and I had to wonder if Nancy was as well as she said she was. Then again, she hadn’t been expecting company. Micah didn’t look overly concerned, so I took that as a good sign.
“So how are things with you, Kaylee?” Micah’s mom asked. “And let’s not talk shop,” she admonished with a wag of her finger before I could even bring up the interview, or the second album, or the new song I was composing with Micah. “What’s going on with you besides that band of yours?”
“Besides the band?” I blinked, taken aback. Nothing was ever really going on besides band stuff. There was just alwaysso muchband stuff, always something to do, always something to work on. Come to think of it, what was the last thing I’d done that wasn’t related to the band?
“Micah and I are together now, so that’s new,” I said.
“Yes, yes, but I already know about that.” Nancy waved a hand dismissively. “Tell me about you. What are you up to these days? What are you doing for fun?”
