Page 52 of Taste of Surrender
“Remember the first time we were in a hotel together?” I asked as I slid next to him on my side facing him.
“How could I forget? It was my first time having sex.”
“Mine too, with a guy.”
“I remember.”
I lightly grazed the crescent tattoo on his wrist with my finger. “How are you liking life on the road so far?”
“A lot better than I expected.”
“What do you mean?” My brow furrowed.
“Nothing.” He turned his head to look at the wall next to us.
“Did you think you weren’t going to like the job?” I wondered.
“No, I knew I’d like that part.”
“Then what was it?”
Letting out a deep sigh, he looked back at me. “I was afraid of seeing you again.”
I balked slightly. “You were? Why?”
He shrugged but didn’t answer.
“C’mon, you can’t say that and then not explain.”
“You really want to know?”
“Of course.”
“Because seeing you had the potential to make me fall in love with you again.”
“Again?”
He nodded, and my breath caught. He had been in love with me? Back then, I thought I only had loveforhim, but after winningThe Band Showdownand knowing he was going to Paris, I had realized I was missing him because I wasinlove with him. I’d tried to fight my feelings and tell myself it wasn’t true, but I found over the years that when I wrote songs, most of the lyrics were about him.
He continued. “I knew back then what we had could never be more than a secret relationship, but that didn’t stop me from falling in love with you.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I was in love with him too, but instead, I sealed my lips against his and got in another round before he had to go back to his room so no one caught him sneaking out of mine.
15
Jasper
We wereon our way to Montreal and my mind was a jumbled mess from the night before. While the night before had been amazing, it had also left me with a lot of questions. Were we rekindling something and going to be together again? Had it been a one-time thing? Were we going back to sneaking around like we had when we were younger?
I also couldn’t forget how I admitted I had been in love with him years ago. It wasn’t as though I had planned to tell him, but when he’d asked me what I had been worried about, I’d felt as though I owed him the truth. What I didn’t say though was those feelings were rushing back much faster than I expected.
“So, what’s the plan today?” Garrett asked as he sat across from me while we rolled down the highway.
Besides Garrett and me, eight other people traveled with us. Our bus had a kitchen, a small dining table where we were currently sitting, and a couple of couches at the front. In the middle were twelve twin-sized bunk beds, and just past that, there was another entertaining area with a wraparound couch. Itwas a tight fit, but getting to travel and see new places made it all worth it.
“After lunch, we need to make another grocery run. I’ve got a list of all the snacks everyone likes, and we’ll buy everything for tonight and tomorrow and start working on the large crew dinner when we get back.”
Since it was a show night, we would be cooking for a crowd. Preparing food on the road was a lot different from doing it in a home or restaurant. One of the vans traveling with us, towed a mobile kitchen we would use to make most of our meals. One of the biggest challenges was storing the cold items we purchased. Even though the trailer had a large refrigerator inside, I didn’t want to risk the generator not working properly while traveling and losing a bunch of food in the process. Instead, I decided we would make frequent trips to the store to buy what we needed and keep it all in the fridge on the bus.
