“What’s the light coming off the drum kit?”I’d screamed over the pounding beat.
“Drummer’s got a mini disco ball hanging off his kick drum. I told him to remove it, but he insisted.”
It took a second for the stage manager’s words—and their immense meaning—to populate in my head, but when they did, I was like a lovesick turtledove ready to mate for life. Rory had kept my namesake, the disco ball, hanging in his window from Camden Place. The one he’d admitted talking to when he was missing me. He’d hung it on his kit, to remind him… of me. That was when I knew Rory was lying about only wanting to be my friend. The dickhead still loved me. Sorry, still a little tipsy.
Grace
Who’s this?
Move your curtain and look to your right
I smiled so wide I thought my lips would fall off. Pushing the privacy curtain aside, I was rewarded with Rory’s handsomeness staring back at me, a cocktail of expressions on his face. A spritz of inebriation, a splash of pride, a squirt of amusement, and a drizzle of hotness that hurt my eyes. I wanted to drink him down. In a shot glass. Followed by a chaser.
His fingers moved over his phone.
Will you be my friend?
I already have a lot of friends. What makes you special?
He smiled, so cocky.
Because I just rocked the house. And I’m gonna be a star
Yawn
Oh. Right. Forgot I was talking to a McKallister where stars grew up in every other bedroom
Exactly. I need more
Matty’s drunken snore from below rocked my bunk.Rory raised his brows at the exact same time I did, which set off a rippling of muffled giggles.
More snores. A fart. More partially stifled giggles.
“Shut up!” Tucker grumbled. “It’s like sleeping in a porta-potty.”
And that, right there, was the reason Rory and me were texting our conversation from four feet away. The bunkroom had eight beds, with six of them occupied. Quinn, Matty, and Mike had claimed three of the four bottom bunks for themselves. Tucker, who would normally be traveling either by plane or in the crew bus behind, took the band’s offer to sleep in their bus because of his still-healing injuries. He’d taken the last bottom bunk. That left the two at the top for Rory and me. And since we couldn’t have a back-and-forth conversation without waking our roommates, texting it would have to be.
All right, then, what can I do to earn your friendship?
My eyes fluttered up to meet his. Oh, so much suggestion! And we both knew my Rory-induced thing for quick public fornication.
Grace
Show me some skin
No hesitation whatsoever as he lifted his shirt.
Higher
He obliged. I swallowed.
When did you get a tattoo?
I have a bunch of them
No you don’t
Yes I do
