Page 56 of Reverb
Her gaze drifted to Marly again. There were things she’d never tell anyone else, too. Parts she’d never share. Dollars to donuts that David would understandthat.
When she shifted, he stirred, propping himself up on his forearms. “What time is it?”
She had no idea, mostly because it didn’t matter. Or shouldn’t. Except they had plans to meet with the band today. “Don’t know.”
“Be right back.” David slipped out of bed. God, that body. There were more marks, too. On his shoulders and ass. She hadn’t realized how rough-and-tumble they’d been last night.
He headed into the other room, and returned with his jeans and cell phone, frowning at the latter.
That wasn’t the look of a relaxed lover. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just some emails from Adrian.”
Fuck. “They up already?”
He laughed, and the tension washed out of his body. “Well, it’s after eleven, but given these came in five minutes ago? I doubt they’ve been up that long.” He tossed his jeans onto a nearby chair and set the phone down next to Marly. “Gonna take a piss.”
She rolled her eyes. “Didn’t need the announcement.”
Another chuckle. “Didn’t want it to seem like I don’t wanna crawl back in bed with you.”
She waved him toward the bathroom. “Go, and go. I’ll order some coffee from room service.”
He got a look she knew—at one point, every member of Twisted Wishes had gotten it when one of them had suggested doing something abnormally expensive. “There’s a maker—” David pointed at the wet bar.
Yeah, there was. It was even one of those pod types, and stocked with better than average coffee. She scrunched up her nose. “After practically living with Adrian for this long, that coffee doesn’t cut it. Neither does the room service stuff, but it’s better, and there’s more of it.”
He shifted back and forth. “The delivery fee alone’s gotta be more than the coffee.”
It was, practically. “David. I’m a fucking rock queen.”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “Okay. Coffee would be good.” With that, he turned and headed into the bathroom.
She flopped back down onto the bed and groaned, regretting her last words. She loved being Mish Sullivan, loved her life, but she’d had a suspicion she’d opened up a gulf between her and David she desperately wanted not to exist.
Shewasa rock queen, though. No denying that. That hadn’t been her only existence, however. Twisted Wishes had fought their way up, and before that, she’d clawed her way to playing at bars and clubs. Before that...she’d been a teenaged daughter of a disadvantaged single mother with cancer.
That ache and nausea that came when she dwelled on her past too much crept into her gut and helped propel her out of bed. Yeah, coffee. And yeah, from room service, partly as a fuck-you to her past. If David couldn’t handle her present, then he wasn’t the right person for her.
She could explain her past to him—but she’d buried parts of herself with her mother, and those she didn’t want to unearth. She called down to room service and ordered the damn pot of coffee.
After she hung up, she sank onto the bed, this time on David’s side, and picked up Marly. The fake fur was soft under her fingers, especially the inner ear portion. The dog tags bore David’s name.
David’sname.
She was running her fingers over the text when he came out of the bathroom. She didn’t look up, just started talking. “I know it seems like a waste of money—the coffee—but it’s also a small pleasure. Past me would be horrified, too. But past me hasn’t gone through what I did.”
When she finally looked up, David nodded. He stepped lightly through the room, grabbed his briefs from his jeans, and put them on. Then he sat next to her on the bed, gesturing for the bear in her hands. She handed Marly over.
“We all have pasts.” David touched the tags on the bear.
She nodded at the bear. “Your name is on those tags.”
“Yeah. I had another set made after I transitioned. If my name weren’t on those tags, I couldn’t live with them now.” He stroked her cheek. “The past can stay where it is, Mish. Unless you want to share.”
She didn’t. She did. The past was a part of her, the foundation. The heart. She snorted, mostly to herself, but David raised an eyebrow.
“I was thinking about Dom and Adrian and when they met. Dom was so anxious about telling Adrian who he was, and I didn’t understand his fear. I really should’ve.”
