Chapter 42
42
JORDAN
M y alarm blares nearby. Time to get up.
But I’ve been up for a while already.
And I’m kinda busy.
I moan against Bronson’s mouth, our naked bodies uncomfortably smashed together in his bunk. While I’m still not too keen on this spot for regular sleeping, the cramped nature of it makes sex feel more intimate, somehow. More urgent, too.
Anyone could walk onto the bus at any moment.
“Bronson,” I moan on top. I bounce and roll my hips, grinding on his cock while my alarm continues. “Fuck.”
“Ignore it,” he grunts. His fingers dig into my skin. “You’re so close.”
I laugh. “How do you know?”
Bronson kisses me hard. “Because I’m about to do this...”
He moves his hand over my ass, pushing his fingers between my?—
“Fuck!” I bury my face in his chest, unable to stop the rush of pleasure firing through my core. “I hate when you do that.”
He chuckles. “Liar.”
With a wiggle of his finger, I fall far over the edge. Everything tightens as I come. Just as quickly, my entire body turns to jelly and I ride the ecstasy in his arms.
“That’s my Jordan,” Bronson says in my ear, his voice so deep. So delicious.
Every breath ends with a moan. As soon as I have control again, I resume the grinding roll of my hips, wanting to make him feel as good as I do.
Bronson drops his head to the pillow. His eyes flutter closed, and he groans in pleasure. “Yes,” he whispers. “Jordan, you feel so...”
I kiss his neck. “So...”
He squeezes my ass, his abs flexing beneath me. A deep, guttural groan quivers in his throat, which I leave light kisses against as I watch him finish.
“So...” Bronson catches his breath. “Fucking good.”
I chuckle, tasting the sweat on his skin. “Good boy.”
He wraps his arms around me, holding me tightly against him. A few deep breaths. A few even deeper kisses. “I love you,” he whispers.
I smile, feeling so very loved. “I love you, too.” I kiss him again and sigh. “I should probably shut off the alarm, though.”
“In a minute,” he says, smiling. “I wanna hold you for a bit longer.”
I don’t move. I don’t even question it. Resting my head against him, I listen to his heart thumping in his chest.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I smile, tingling all over, feeling his firm hand drift up and down my back.
“I love you, too,” I say.
“You said that already,” Bronson says, a smile in his voice.
“I know. I just want to say it over and over again.”
He kisses my head and we lie still for just a little longer. After a minute, the sound of my alarm becomes insufferable and I ease off him, carefully planting my feet on the floor. As I step out of the bunk, the morning Miami sun hits my eyes. I squint, raising my hand to block it from view.
Fucking Florida, man.
And I thought Las Vegas sun was bad.
With shaking ankles, I throw on my shirt and jeans from last night as I walk toward the table where I left my phone.
I turn off the alarm.
Time to start the day.
Time to go home.
Twenty-four shows down. Zero to go.
My stomach tightens with a little bittersweetness. There’s a point in every tour when I start counting down the days until it’s all over. When that day finally arrives, it always leaves me feeling a little empty deep down.
What’s next?
The next show. The next tour.
We go home, and then we do it all over again.
For the first time, however...
Jonah’s wedding.
The Battle of the Bands.
There’s so much new on the horizon and with it comes... so much uncertainty.
Bronson walks up behind me. His arms curl around my waist from behind and I smile, feeling safe and warm again. “Stop that,” he says.
“Stop what?” I ask.
“Whatever you’re thinking about.” He kisses my shoulder. “Stop it.”
“Hey, if I stop thinking, then who’s gonna make the decisions around here?”
“I’ll do it,” he says.
“Oh, will you?” I tease.
“Yeah, I’ll manage the band for a while. You can play drums.”
I roll my eyes. “Pretty sure I have the rhythm of a drunken mule.”
“I’ll teach you,” he says. “It’s easy. If I can do it, so can you.”
I turn myself around in his arms. “Thank you for the vote of confidence,” I say, offering my lips to him.
He takes them with a sweet kiss. “Come on,” he says after. “Let’s head inside and pretend like we were there all night.”
I laugh, and off we go.
After meeting up with the band for a long breakfast at the Botsford Plaza Miami, we all take our time checking out and making our way to the tour bus. Free from time crunch, our schedule wide open, everyone seems a little lighter. A little calmer.
Except Jonah.
Only twelve days until his wedding.
Speaking of counting down the days.
“I can’t believe your wedding is less than two weeks away, Jo,” Katrina says to him as he steps aboard the bus.
“Yeah,” he says, his shoulders tense. He releases a heavy sigh as he passes. “Me neither.”
I smile at them from my table as I chug my coffee from my faded golden travel mug.
“Are you excited?” she asks.
Jonah sits down in his usual seat. “I don’t know if excited is the right word,” he says. “I’m nervous. The day always felt really far away, but now it’s so close.”
She nods, understanding that.
“But also…” Jonah pauses, his eyes full of love beneath the rim of his blue beanie. “It feels like everything is falling into place. Like this is all happening exactly the way it’s supposed to happen. You know?”
Katrina nods.
“It’s her,” he adds. “Marla. It was always her.”
My heart expands in my chest. Leave it to Jonah to put into words everything I’ve been feeling recently.
Bronson.
It was always him, wasn’t it?
“That’s beautiful, Jonah,” I say.
“Yeah, Jo,” Mac says from the driver’s seat; forever the eavesdropper. “You’re gonna be a real good husband.”
Jonah chuckles, but he doesn’t reply. Instead, he sits back and pulls his notebook out of his pocket. Within seconds, his pen races across the page, his thoughts and feelings becoming notes and lyrics. All thanks to Marla. Thanks to his muse.
Chrissy hops on board next. Alone.
She swings around the table and takes the empty space on my right, exhaling hard as she sets her things down.
“Uh-oh,” I say. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” she answers. “Well, something. Nothing major. August and I just had the talk.”
“The talk?” I ask, arching a brow.
“The usual hey, it’s been fun and everything, but it’s time to wrap it up. The relationship, I mean. Not his dick. Though we did do that a lot.”
I tilt my head with sympathy. “Oh, Chrissy,” I say. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she says, nodding with no real enthusiasm behind it. “I’m fine. I’m cool. You know? That’s what I am. I’m cool. I’m totally fine with it. I mean, this is what I do.” She bites her cheek. “It’s just…”
I smile. “You like him.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “No, it’s not that. It’s more that… I dunno. It was temporary. It was always temporary. But it’s like I expected there to be more time. I thought we had more time, but then this morning these words started coming out of my mouth and the whole time I was thinking, what are you doing what are you doing stop talking stop talking, but then the next thing I knew, August was nodding his head and agreeing with me, so…” She shrugs a shoulder. “That’s that.”
“I’m sorry, Chrissy.”
“It’s okay. I’ll be okay. I just need some time to process it, I think. In fact, by the time we reach Vegas, I’m sure I’ll be a…”
Chrissy’s voice falls too low to hear as August steps up onto the bus. Even I go quiet as he looks over, his stride briefly halting before he continues forward with a to-go coffee in each hand. He walks toward the table and silently sets one coffee down in front of Chrissy.
Chrissy looks up at him and smiles.
He nods once, then continues past, choosing to take a seat in the back and starting a friendly conversation with Jonah instead.
Chrissy throws on a pout as she picks up the coffee and gives it a sniff. “Damn,” she says.
I smile. “You like him.”
“Yeah,” she says with a sigh. “I do.”
“He likes you, too.”
She sips the coffee once and licks her lips. “You think so?”
“Talk with him again,” I say. “There’s still a whole country between us and Vegas.”
To that, she says nothing. She merely hugs the coffee between her palms and stares at it for a while.
Harvey and Addison arrive next, hand-in-hand. She stands tall with a skip in her step and a smile on her face. Him, on the other hand…
“Oh, boy,” I say, recognizing that look. “How did your first tour go, Harvey?”
He blinks, his face paler than usual. “Honestly, Jordan, I think it could have gone better.”
“It went great,” Addison argues, clearly for the hundredth time. “Seriously. Our first tour was a fucking joke. You got off lucky, Moon.”
The other members of Criminal Records audibly agree.
Harvey looks down with doubt.
“Don’t sweat it, brother,” August says from the back. “Come over here and we’ll start planning the next one.”
I smile.
Work, work, work.
We trained him well.
With a deep sigh, Harvey obeys and walks into the back to sit with him.
Addison sighs as well, but she’s still smiling. “Such a noob,” she mutters to us as she passes.
Chrissy and I chuckle softly, the sound quickly cut off by the stomp of Knox’s shoes as he climbs onto the bus.
“Where’s Harmony?” I ask him, the two of them usually attached at the hip.
“She’s on the phone,” he answers, “with her mother.”
I blink in surprise. “Really?”
“Apparently…” He pauses for suspense. “She’s leaving Monroe.”
Jaws drop all around.
“Yeah,” Knox says with a nod. “From the sounds of it, she was unaware of his new contract in New York.”
“And the plan to sabotage us by extension?” Katrina asks.
Knox touches his nose. “Offering her daughter a recording contract only to tear it to pieces ain’t exactly endearing behavior for a new stepdad. She is packing her bags as we speak.”
“Damn,” Addison says. “Don’t blame her one bit.”
“Neither do I. Fingers crossed she cleans the bastard out.”
“Look at you, Knox,” I say, grinning. “Rooting for Harmony’s mom.”
“Is this growth?” he jokes. “Am I growing?”
“I think so.”
He makes a cocky sound and plops into an empty seat near Jonah.
A few minutes later, Harmony catches up, dressed in an adorable hot pink top and black jeans. While Midnite Music did indeed reach out to re-offer her the contract that Monroe tore apart, Harmony turned it down, opting to stay indie for a little while until she figured things out. She’s far from the pop princess they wanted her to be, but she’s slowly started integrating her token pink back into her style. It suits her.
When Harmony Max eventually figures things out, her new Knox-influenced Wildfire sound is going to take the world by storm.
I can’t fucking wait to see it.
“Knox told us,” I say as she steps on. “How is your mom doing?”
Harmony catches her breath, then smiles. “Actually, I think she’s going to be okay,” she answers.
As Harmony moves to go join Knox, I take a quick head count around the bus.
Still waiting on one.
Bronson.
When he arrives just a few minutes later, he’s carrying a small shopping bag with him. He instantly targets me sitting at the front table and walks over, silently setting the bag down in front of me.
A Botsford Plaza gift shop bag.
“For me?” I ask.
“For you,” he says.
Ignoring the teasing noises from everyone else, I open the bag to see what’s inside.
It’s a golden Botsford Plaza travel mug. Shiny and new.
Just like us.
“I thought yours was looking a little worn,” he says.
I grin. “Thank you, Bronson. I love it.”
He leans over the table and kisses me, prompting an even louder wave of sounds and exaggerated smooches all around. I ignore them again, closing my eyes and taking in the moment with him. With my Bronson.
He walks off, taking a seat next to Addison across the aisle.
I set the new mug down next to the old one as I stand up. “Okay, guys,” I say, addressing the bus. “We ready to go?”
Not a single person says no.
I take one more long look at my friends, my family. All the same people we left Las Vegas with, but we’re returning home so very different. We’re returning with new music. With new lovers. With a few new enemies, too.
Chrissy told me once that the end of a tour can sometimes feel like the end of an era, and I feel that now.
Our Break the Rules era is over.
Tomorrow, we start a new one.
“Wave goodbye to the Atlantic, everybody,” I say.
As they all wave and blow kisses at the shining sea through the windows, I turn forward.
“All right, Mac,” I say. “Take us home.”