Chapter 22
Xander
I was feeling pretty damn good about the world as I walked into our greenroom at Croke Park. The memories of last night ran through my mind in vignettes. Harper by candlelight at the restaurant. Holding her in my lap at the club. Fucking her in the back of the limo on the way back to our house. And then again in our room. And in our shower this morning. I should probably drink more water—I was probably low on fluids.
“It is way too early in the morning to sound so goddamn chipper,” Noah groaned from the couch on my left. “New rule: no whistling in the greenroom. Or hell, no whistling, period. That’s fucking annoying as hell.”
I hadn’t even realized I’d been whistling. “What crawled up your asshole and died?”
Because he looked like hell. His hair was so dirty he looked like a brunette. Bloodshot eyes. Was he thinner? We’d only been in Ireland for ten days, but Noah’s shirt didn’t seem to fit him in the chest like I’d remembered. And he also wouldn’t maintain eye contact.
Fuck.
“I slept like hell, all right? Chase and Shay have the room next door, and apparently he has something to prove. When they weren’t banging, he was singing ridiculous lyrics about her tits and ass. I know way more about their relationship than I ever wanted to.”
“Why didn’t you switch rooms? There’s the extra one next to me.”
“I know.” Noah turned and gave me a deadpan look. “Congrats on the conversion by the way.”
“Conversion?” I repeated with a frown.
“From fake relationship slash friends to the real deal. Sounds like you really enjoyed it. Harper too.”
“Fuck.” I winced. I thought with the buffer of the bathroom between us and the other room the sound wouldn’t carry. Clearly I was wrong. “Sorry. And uh, best not to mention that to Harper. Any of it.”
“Do I look new?” Noah scoffed.
“What did you get up to yesterday? You were MIA when we left for the group tour.” I guess at some point I’d chosen the let the shit he’d said yesterday go.
“Me and Diego went to check out Temple Bar. Listened to a few trad seshes. Got invited onstage with a local U2 tribute band—Us4. They were pretty good. I got home at a sensible hour and got like an hour of sleep before the entire house started rocking.”
“Again—sorry, man.”
He shrugged and closed his eyes. “It’s not like I didn’t expect it. I set you two up, after all. I knew it was just a matter of time. Although I didn’t expect it to impact my fucking sleep this much, especially since we’re not on a bus this tour.”
I winced even as I fought back my laughter. I had a feeling Noah wouldn’t appreciate it just now.
“And hey!” Noah’s eyes opened to slits so he could glare at me. “We’re all getting separate buses next tour. I do not want to hear whatever lyrics you decide to come up with to wax lyrical about Harper’s tits. No thank you.”
“Ass.” I chucked a random t-shirt at him as I left the room. Maybe if I was lucky, I could find Harper and an empty closet or office in the building. Apparently, it’d come in handy for Jesse on the last leg of the tour.
But I saw Kelly stomping down the hall instead.
Fuck.
I pivoted to head back to our greenroom, but she shrieked my name.
“ Alexander! Don’t even pretend you didn’t see me. Or hear me! We’ve got shit to discuss!”
Groaning, I slumped against the wall behind me. “What do you want?”
Kelly huffed as she stopped a little too close for my comfort. “That’s no way to greet someone.”
I gave her an unimpressed look. “I don’t have time for your shit. Just say whatever you have to so I can get on with my day.”
“Eager to go play fake relationship with that blond roadie?”
“That’s a fucked up way to refer to our tour manager.” I laughed. “Am I supposed to be intimidated by that? Is it some kinda veiled threat or something?”
“I think it’s her attempt to get under your skin,” Noah drawled from the doorway next to us. “Little does she know you and Harper visited (K)nave last night.”
“What?” Kelly’s face went pale and she took a shaky step backward like one of us had punched her. “You took her to the club?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You know I don’t talk about my business. Especially with someone who’s proven they can’t keep their mouth shut.”
“B-B-But this was all fake.” Kelly shook her head. “I know it’s a fake relationship. I had proof. Or a witness or whatever. You can’t be really dating her.”
“Why the fuck are you worrying about what I’m doing? Aren’t you supposed to be playing house with what’s-his-face? Your manager?”
Kelly glared at me. “You know his name. Everyone knows Jay’s name. You’re just doing that to piss me off.”
“That’s handy because it looks like it’s working,” Noah muttered.
Kelly turned her glare on Noah. “You might want to watch what you say to me. Gossip has a way of turning on bitchy people. If you know what I mean.”
She might’ve phrased it like a question, but she said it like a threat.
For all the sense it made. I was lost. And way beyond done with her bullshit. “I don’t think anyone knows what you mean. If you’re here to change up the duet— again —I’ll tell you one more time—it ain’t happening. Move on, for Christ’s sake.”
“You think you’re so smart. You can’t even see what’s going on in front of your face. But I’ll be damned before I toss you a scrap. You’re just as petty and ugly as you were the last time we broke up.”
“Sure, let’s go with that.” I waited a beat but when she didn’t say anything else, just stood in front of me glaring, I leaned forward. “Was that it? Or did you have more venom you wanted to spew?”
“Argh!” she screeched. “You are so goddamn frustrating. I don’t even know why I bother.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Me neither.” I turned to Noah and asked, “You wanna go grab something to eat? I’m hungry.”
“Sure. Sounds good.” Noah sighed. “Clearly I’m not going to get any sleep around here. Between you guys last night and Kelly here now, the screaming just won’t stop.”
I didn’t have to look to know that Kelly was flouncing away.
* * *
It was almost impossible to surprise Harper. Her fingers were literally in every part of my life on the road—from sound checks to meet and greets to our travel schedule.
But somehow I managed it.
“I, uh, I don’t know if you all heard that there’s a new woman in my life.” The crowd in Croke Park cheered and booed in response. I laughed. “Yeah, well, um, she’s pretty great. I’m glad I found her.”
“Way to rub it in,” Noah snarked from behind his drum kit.
“Are you feeling singled out?” I asked with a smirk.
Noah groaned and shook his head. “Really, man?” He mimed driving his drumstick through his heart.
“I thought he was talking about your stupid wordplay,” Chase snarked. “You guys wanna wrap this up? I think they want to hear us sing.”
“Weird, that.” Jesse smirked.
I glared at the assholes. “If you all would shut up, I would!”
The guys all mimed locking their lips.
“I swear sometimes I feel more like a babysitter than a rock star.”
The crowd cheered for some reason.
I just shook my head. “Right, new girl, old song. I’m not going to trot her out on stage, but Harper, this one’s for you, angel.”
I stepped back and strummed the opening chords of ‘ Feels Like the First Time .’ And unlike our usual parts, this time I stepped into my microphone and took the lead vocals.
My eyes searched the crowd, and I grinned down at Ella recording my love note to my girl before I pivoted and searched the wings of the stage for her. With the lights in my eyes, I couldn’t find her in the dark backstage area. Shit, had I planned this so well that she wasn’t even in the fucking building?
Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw Marisol waving a hand at me then pointing next to her side. Because standing right next to her was my beaming angel.
A grin stretched across my face, and I tossed my girl a wink as I sang the chorus. Harper grinned back at me even as her face flushed red.
I ran through the rest of the concert on autopilot. My mind wasn’t really in the game. I couldn’t stop thinking about that look on Harper’s face—her awe and joy at the special song I’d sung for her.
“Thank you for worshipping with the Tin Gods tonight, Dublin! We love you!”
The crowd roared back, I tossed my guitar at a tech, and then ran offstage to find my girl.
She was in the wings, barking orders at techs and roadies. So fucking hot being all in command and assertive.
I grabbed her around the waist and kissed her hard. Harper gasped into my mouth before dropping her tablet and wrapping her arms around me.
We kissed and kissed while everyone cheered around us. It was like something out of a movie. A few camera flashes lit up our dark corner backstage.
“Xander. Xan Man! Come on, we have to do the encore before you can hump your girl to oblivion.”
I broke away from Harper to glare at Chase. “Hey, put a little respect in your tone. She’s the fucking tour manager, not some groupie.”
Harper took a step back and raised her palms. “There’s so much misogyny to unpack there. But first, get your asses back out on that stage.” She paused and sent a dark look my way. “Then maybe we’ll have a little group meeting about respecting all women.”
“Ooh!” Noah crowed, jumping on my back.
“Someone’s in trouble!” Jesse sang.
“Yeah, all of you assholes will be in trouble if you don’t get back on that stage.” Harper glared at each of us before sweeping an arm down to grab her fallen tablet.
“Hope you get out of the doghouse before your balls turn blue.” Chase laughed as he patted my back.
“Judging by the way your woman is glaring at you, I won’t be there alone,” I retorted as I grabbed my guitar from a tech.
Chase glanced over his shoulder and cursed under his breath. “Fuck. I blame you.”
“I don’t think that defense will hold up in court.” Noah slapped Chase’s shoulder. “That girl is going to make you work for it.”
“The best ones always do.” Jesse blew a kiss at Ella standing nearby with her camera.
Ella lifted her camera and captured the moment. “Oh yeah! That one’s going all over social media.”
Jesse narrowed his eyes at his girl. “You’re fucking up my rep here, sweetheart.”
“Zero regrets.” Ella grinned.
“What’s the holdup?” Harper hollered. “Get back out there before they riot!”
Sure enough, the roar of the crowd in the distance grew louder and more raucous. The whole building felt like it was vibrating with the force of their yells and stomping feet.
The guys all filed past me to the stage, but I took a sec to press another kiss against Harper’s sweet lips. “Not going to apologize for making sure the guys treat you with respect.”
“Not what I’m expecting an apology for. We’ll talk about it later. Get your firm little ass back on that stage.” Harper slapped my ass as I took a step away.
I swung back and pointed a finger at her. “Speaking of respect…”
She raised her eyebrows.
“Nah, I’m just playing. More please.” I bent over and wiggled my ass at her.
“Christ, you’re starting to sound like Noah. Get your ass out there!” But she was laughing as she said it.
And I was grinning as I returned to the stage. Life was pretty damn awesome.