Chapter 8 #2
The corners of his eyes crinkle in amusement. “So are you going to tell me how the hell you, a ball-busting academic, ended up married to a guy once known on campus for wooing his female TAs for better grades?”
“Wait. What?”
“You didn’t know this?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t really know him as an undergrad.”
“Well, I did, unfortunately. He had this thing he would do with his female TAs. Sometimes it was flowers or a date. But what he really loved to do was give them a necklace. One with a—”
“T,” I finish his sentence, feeling queasy all of a sudden as I remember those first few tutoring sessions.
Tanner flashes a grin as he leans over the arm of the chair in the study lab. “I got you something.”
“What? Why?” I blurt out. Why do I feel so nervous around this man? I’ve tutored dozens of people, and none of them has ever made me feel this…anxious.
Like, I have no idea what he will do from one second to the next.
I can’t tell if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.
“Because I wanted to.” He simply shrugs and produces a tiny blue box from his pocket.
My eyes widen as I look up at him. “No,” I find myself saying. “It’s too much.”
He laughs as if he finds this notion ridiculous. “It’s not.” And when he opens the lid and I see the tiny gold T staring back at me, I feel my insides melt. “And it would mean the world to me if you wore it.”
Was anything between us real?
Hendrix must sense the turmoil in my gaze because he suddenly shifts the conversation and blurts out, “I want to offer you a job.”
Did he say…
“A job?” I give him a puzzling stare. “You do remember what I do for a living, right?”
“Yeah, I know. That’s exactly why I’m here. I’m looking for a doctor, and I want you.” The last part of that sentence sends a shiver up my spine. He said something similar the other night.
God, I want you, Zara.
“For what, exactly?” I clear my throat. Is it hot in here?
“To go on tour with me.”
My eyes widen. “Like a concert tour.”
He nods.
“The loud kind, right? Not the string quartet kind?”
“Yeah, definitely the loud kind.” He smirks.
“For how long?”
“Five months.”
“Five months!” I screech before adding, “Wait, with who?” Please say Taylor Swift. Please say Taylor Swift.
“Manic at Midnight.”
Dammit. I figured he was going to say that. Their music is catchy, and that Scottish lead singer is hot as hell, but who wouldn’t wish it were Taylor? She’s iconic. Wait…
“You’re in Manic at Midnight?”
“No.”
I stare at him, confused. Finally, he answers. “I’m a hired gun for the tour.” I double-blink, confused again. “I’m filling in for the bass guitarist, Evans. He’s taking a leave of absence. Personal stuff, I guess.”
So Hendrix would be there. Five whole months of…
This is insane. “I can’t just up and leave.” He looks at me with a raised brow, as if he’s waiting for me to finish that sentence, and I’m trying. I really am, but I’m coming up empty because, in the last six months, my life has turned into a bit of a shitshow. “I can’t leave…my sister.”
“Your sister? The traveling model?”
Dammit. I forgot I mentioned her on Saturday. He licks his bottom lip, clearly trying to stifle his amusement.
“Yes. I just moved into that apartment with her,” I ramble, as my face goes flush, remembering all the places those lips had been. I swallow. “It would be rude of me to just leave after she graciously allowed me to stay there. Plus, she gets…lonely.”
Violet is the type of person who has a lover in every city. She is never lonely.
“Well, lucky for you, we don’t leave for two weeks. So you’ll have time to…settle in.” He grins.
“You think two weeks is enough time to settle in?”
“Isn’t it?”
I throw my hands up in frustration, annoyed by how chill and confident he’s being. He acts as if I’ve already said yes, or at the very least, I’m about to. “You haven’t even told me anything about the job. Why do you think I would even be interested?”
“Why wouldn’t you? It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“Um, because I already have a job and a practice,” I state, throwing my hands up in a frustrated gesture. “Or didn’t you see the sign when you came in?” Had. I had my own practice. Man, when is that going to sink in?
“Your practice is named after a tree,” he replies dryly. “And you mentioned something about wanting to leave your practice the other night.”
“I did?” Why can’t I remember anything other than…I avert my gaze. “Right,” I say quickly. “Well, I haven’t exactly made up my mind.”
“You said that too.”
I blink back at him as a conversation from Saturday night before starts to come back to me. We were driving back to my place, and I was nervous. Really nervous. So I just started to talk, and talk.
I told him about my sister the model, and how amazing she was to let me stay with her. I told him how weird it was to live with her after all these years, especially since we were polar opposites.
I mostly skipped over my divorce because I didn’t want to be the person who talked about their ex, but I did mention the practice and how much I loved my patients. I left out the part about how I was now my ex’s employee and said I was thinking about moving on to something else.
Eventually.
After the morning I had with Tanner, though, I’m not sure I can hold out for “eventually.”
“So what do you want to know?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at me.
I scoff. “Uh, everything?”
He grins. “I’ve got you invested now, don’t I?”
I open my mouth to protest, but before I have a chance, he produces an envelope from…Actually, I don’t know. Had he been holding that the whole time?
I look down at it. “What is this?” I ask.
“A job offer,” he says in an amused tone.
“Wow, you’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” I stare down at the crisp white envelope in slight shock.
“You thought I was joking?”
I give him a half-shrug. “No, I just didn’t expect you to be so…organized. Don’t they have people who do this sort of thing?”
“Yup. That’s me. I’m one of those people.”
I stare at him, confused. I feel like that’s all I’ve been doing since he got here. He points to the address at the top of the envelope.
The Creed Agency.
“I work for my dad,” he explains, his expression tight, like admitting that cost him something. “As his assistant. This offer comes with his blessing. Everything you need to know is in there.”
“And your dad works for the band?”
“He represents a few of them, yeah,” he answers. “But the band as a whole has their own manager, Ridge, who you’ll meet on tour. My dad is just helping facilitate a few things.”
“Like a doctor?”
“Yeah.” He smiles. “Like a doctor.”
“Why does the tour need a doctor, exactly?” I ask, watching as he leans back in his chair.
He seems to swallow the whole room with his presence.
I can’t tell if it’s his tall, muscular frame.
Or just him. But either way, my office has never felt smaller.
Or hotter. “It isn’t typical, is it? To have a dedicated physician travel with the band?
” I know it’s not. Otherwise, I would have heard of it before now, especially living in a place like LA.
“No,” he admits with a shrug. “Not usually. But Zander, the lead guitarist, made the request, and—”
“What a rock star wants, a rock star gets?”
That amused expression is back. “Something like that.”
“Right, well what about…” I’m grasping at straws because, honestly, the idea is both tempting and terrifying.
I don’t want to stay here and work for Tanner or his family, but I don’t exactly have any viable alternatives at the moment.
Why couldn’t that somewhere else be a tour with a group of rock stars and—“What about us?”
He cocks his head to the side. “Us?”
“We’ve slept together.”
A slow grin spreads across his lips, and that grin ignites all kinds of feelings in my libido that I attempt to ignore. “I remember.”
“Well.” I swallow, trying to calm my racing heart. “Don’t you think that’s a bit of a conflict of, um…interest?”
He shrugs, acting far too nonchalant. I can’t tell if it’s an act or if he really is this casual about…casual sex. “It’s not against the rules, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I just don’t want things to be awkward. I’m not…” I puff out a breath of air. “I’m not looking for anything serious.”
His blue eyes stare into mine for a moment before he gives a firm nod. “Good, then we’re both on the same page, because neither am I. This tour could do big things for my career, and I’ve got to stay focused.”
“Right.” I shift in my seat, my hands tightly clasped together. “Understandable.”
“And I’m in peak physical health, so I doubt we’ll even see that much of each other.”
“All right.”
“But just to be safe…” He holds up a finger. “Maybe we keep it to ourselves. The guys may look like stone-cold rock stars, but they gossip like a bunch of middle schoolers.”
“You’re assuming I’m even taking this ridiculous job?”
His eyes fix on me for a moment before he stands.
I watch him rise to his full height, taking a moment to appreciate the way his jeans mold around his thick thighs and tight ass.
“I know you, Zara,” he says, which causes my heart to race for some reason.
“And whether you realize it or not, you’ve already made up your mind.
” He steps toward the door, his hand closing over the handle. “See you soon, Cupid.”