Page 12 of Stage Dive: Short Stories & Novellas
“Rock star’s gotta do what a rock star’s gotta do.There’s a fine tradition of trashing hotel rooms and riding motorcycles through hotel lobbies for us to live up to.”Hands clean, Mal started doing a slow-motion lap of the room with his hands in the air humming the tune fromRocky.Again.“I have conquered the nappy of death and ruin.Woo-hoo.”
“Good work.”I gave him a thumbs-up.“Is Tommy hungry again, do you think?”
“With babies it’s always a guess,” answered Ben, never stopping the gentle back-and-forth rocking motion and back rubbing.“But I think, if we turn the lights down and lower our voices, he might just go to sleep.”
“Quiet voices,” whisper hissed Gibby.
Ben smiled.“That’s right.”
Since his third victory lap took him by the light switches, Mal turned off the bulk of the lights, giving the room a shadowy, intimate atmosphere.And the swelling, amazing joyful feeling in my chest seemed so big that it might burst right on out of meAliensstyle.Messy, but potent.Just as Ben had prophesised, Tommy’s cries gradually quieted down to almost nothing at all.A hiccup and a whimper and the baby fell asleep.
“Do you want us to leave?”asked Ev in a whisper.
I shook my head.“Not if you don’t want to.”
“You all right, Pumpkin?”Mal slid onto the bed beside me.“Looking suspiciously teary there.”
“Probably hormones,” said Liz with a smile.“Though you’ve gone through a lot in the last day and a half.”
“No.”I shook my head, wiping a tear from my eye.“I love our family.That’s all.”
Mal smiled, planting a kiss against my forehead.“We do have a pretty great one.And now with Tommy as well…”
“Yeah.It’s perfect.”I turned my head and kissed him on the lips, soft and sweet.“Absolutely perfect.”
A Stage Dive Novella
“Idon’t believe this,” I bitched.“My Valentino boots are actually sticking to the floor.That’s how gross this place is.”
Lizzy just smiled.“Told you to dress casual.”
“I am.”
The smile widened.
“Jeans and a tee is casual.”
“A tee?It’s velvet, Martha.”She held a bottle of beer up to her lips, taking a sip.“I said we were going to a dive bar.You have only yourself to blame for the fashion faux pas.”
“But velvet is in!”
“Would you two quit talking?I’m trying to listen,” said my brother, Ben.The big hairy idiot was slouched back in his chair, bopping his head in time to the music.
Lizzy shuffled closer all conspiratorial-like.“I know why you’re all dressed up.”
I said nothing.There was nothing to be said.
Next her gaze went to the man standing at the end of the bar across from us.No, no, I would not turn my head.I would not fall prey to her bullshit.After all, I’d managed to successfully avoid him for the forty-eight or so hours since my not so triumphant surprise return to the West Coast.Even with us both being in the same house.A very big sprawling house, but still.
On the other hand, it should probably be mentioned that he looked awfully good tonight in jeans and a white T-shirt with a leather jacket.Samuel Rhodes, otherwise known as Sam.Not a pretty man with his harsh features and bull-like neck, but something about him appealed to me.As always, his head was shaved and his body was built and my idiot fingers itched to explore.
Okay.So I guess at some point I must have turned my head.And shit, he caught me looking.
The corner of his lips rose just a little, just enough to mess with me, before he returned to doing his job by casually surveying the packed room.My heart did not speed up due to anything done by him.Clearly, I hadn’t totally caught my breath from when we’d walked in half an hour ago or something.That was all.Interesting to note, he did none of the checking me out typical of a heterosexual male who might have been into me.In fact, he didn’t really give me any signals at all.Ever.
What did the odd almost smile mean?Not a hell of a lot.It wasn’t like he ran around all of the time anyway.Sam tended to be kind of scary as per the job description.No, Lizzy had to be wrong, the man did not have a thing for me.A small amount of chemistry and weirdness didn’t amount to a whole hell of a lot.Not if he wasn’t willing to act on it.Because God knows I wasn’t about to, not with my convoluted romantic history.
“Ooh, busted,” said Lizzy.“The bodyguard caught you looking.”
