Page 54 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

Lots of mistakes.

“It’ll be fine,” she heard herself say. “This bus was fitted for what, ten people? And there are only six of us.”

Now.

“Plus, if it’s my understanding, these couches both pull out into an attachable king, or something fancy like that. So, plenty of room.”

Oh god, now she was thinking about all the ways they could put that big bed to use.

“I think there are a lot of nooks and crannies we need to find in here,” Henry said with a smile, glancing around the bus with approval stamped on his face. “I’ve been on my fair share of these things, and this is one of the nicest ones I’ve seen. You must be something special.”

Emerson snorted and sent her a teasing glance. She met him halfway with a glare, rolling her eyes at the silent jab. “Don’t even start,” she warned, pointing a finger at him. “You’re welcome.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he drawled, lifting his hand to study his nails as if he didn’t have a care in the world. But when his eyes slid to the corner to take one last glance at her, she knew better.

And it was a relief. Oddly enough.

Both Adra and Emerson had been quiet the past few days leading up to the tour. At first, she’d feared she’d done something wrong, rubbed Emerson wrong in one of the many sensitive spots he seemed to have. If it was just nerves setting in, she had the cure for those in a neatly packed airtight container.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts as Desi peeked her head in. “Oh. My. God,” she breathed, each word hissed with a step up the short stairs. “It’s… cramped. But I love it!” She squealed with excitement, and just having the beta there seemed to cut the tension in half. Even if it was just imagined on her behalf, Lyric was grateful for her appearance.

She came to a stop and narrowed her eyes at their newest addition. “Who are you?”

Henry stepped forward, repeating the same routine he had with Lyric.

“I’m the new tour manager, Henry.”

“Great, another alpha,” she teased with a wink as she shook his hand. “I’m just kidding. Mostly. It does seem rather… shoe-boxy with all you big guys in here.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh great, and we have Nohen too.”

“Someone called?” Nohen asked sweetly. Lyric heard his voice before she saw him. His boots clomped on the stairs as he joined them and came to a stop just inside the door. It was comical, watching him take it all in. He was tall too, though not quite at the same level as Adra and Emerson, or even Henry. But he was still taller than both her and Desi.

“Late, as usual,” Lyric greeted him.

“I know, I know. Who’s this?” he inquired and pointed his finger at Henry.

Lyric chuckled as introductions were made, and then silence settled as she realized the bus really did seem shoe-boxy with all of them in there. At least until Henry took a seat beside Emerson. It freed up the floor space a little, and Lyric glanced from couch to couch, to the compact counter, fitted with a sink and drawers, and to the right of that, a half-sized fridge filled with bottles of plain and vitamin water, plus coffee and energy drinks the others had requested.

“Wanna see the rest?” she asked.

She didn’t miss the look Emerson and Adra shared, and she rolled her lips in and turned her head to the side to avoid laughing.

“Are we sleeping in coffins?” Adra asked hesitantly, as if he was afraid of the answer.

Lyric fought and lost the battle to laugh, and waved her hand over her shoulder to motion for him to follow. “Come see for yourself.”

Once his footsteps sounded behind her, she gently slid the door separating the lounge from the bathroom and sleeping area into the wall. “Shower and bathroom here,” she said, and patted the front of the mirrored door.

“It looks small,” he commented, and frowned.

Lyric smiled and waited for him to walk forward a bit before she pulled the door open and pressed the light on. Immediately to the right in the compact space was the toilet, and to the left was a tiny, empty counter with white drawers above and below, each about two feet wide. The lights were thin LED bulbs that framed the square space and even trailed down the wall by the toilet for added illumination.

And they all shined on the glass doors that housed the shower. “It’s nicer than I thought it would be,” Lyric admitted. It had a detachable shower head as well as a regular shower head, and shelves were set into the walls with little bars across the middle to keep their items from falling out.

“Oh, wow. Not so bad,” Adra remarked over her shoulder.

She stepped back. “See? You’ll fit,” she promised.

He grinned and walked forward, gently easing the door open, and stepped down the stairs into the shower. “Okay, that’s perfect,” he said. “It even gets my hair.”