Chapter 5
ROSS
It was a busy morning as I tried to come up with a plan for the band.
The most obvious option would be to postpone the show and add it to the end of the tour.
The issue with that was that we had a full schedule with a European leg set to begin at the tail end of the US leg, but the dates weren’t set in stone yet, so adding on could become problematic. Plus, it took months to prepare for their world tours. This was their first major tour since Devyn had joined the band, and she added a slightly different dynamic, so there were details to sort out that had nothing to do with the music itself. Putting any major changes into place now could add a level of complication no one needed.
I made a handful of phone calls to people I knew, but no one was available to drop everything and come to Phoenix for the night, which left me back at square one.
After lunch, I knocked on Tommy’s door, hoping we’d hear something from Kingston sooner rather than later. Devyn had texted that the wait would probably be a couple of hours, so we still didn’t have any answers.
“Hey.”
Tommy opened the door looking like he’d just woken up.
“It’s after one,”
I told him, arching a brow. “And we didn’t even play last night.”
“Well, we didn’t play music,”
he said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “That doesn’t mean Harley and I didn’t go out.”
I chuckled. “She still asleep?”
He shook his head. “No. She was up with River and took him to the playground.”
He looked at me over the brim of his cup. “You want a cup?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
I sank into a chair by the window.
“Still no word from King?”
“The place is busy, so they’re still waiting.”
“We leave for soundcheck in a couple of hours,”
he pointed out needlessly.
“I don’t know what we’re gonna do,”
I said, “but we’ll have to decide in the next hour. If we’re going to cancel, we want to do it before people actually leave for the show.”
“It’s going to depend on how long it takes King,”
he replied. “I hate to cancel, but not much we can do if he can’t sing.”
“I tried to find a singer, but no one was available.”
“I can sing a couple of songs, but I don’t have his register,”
Tommy said thoughtfully. “Devyn and Z sing a little too, but not enough to carry us, and I don’t think Kellan has the range to pull off a whole set either.”
“It might be best to just call it,”
I admitted. “And not even bother making it up at the end since we don’t have much time.”
“I hate that for our fans,”
Tommy said. “Especially since this is the first full tour since Carter.”
It was hard to think about the bass player we’d lost, but Devyn was amazing and the band’s new album was killing it.
“It’s a new era for us,”
I said quietly. “You’re all married now, with women and kids on tour… It feels different.”
“It’s good, though, don’t you think?”
He cocked his head curiously.
“Well, it doesn’t change a lot for me. Except, you know, not having to check the IDs of the groupies now that all you boys are wifed up.”
“You almost sound jealous.”
“Nah. It’s not easy to be in a relationship with what I do.”
“That why you’re still single?” he asked.
“Well, that and the fact that it’s hard to meet nice women who want to be with a guy who’s on tour for two years at a time.”
There was no reason to deny it.
“Wynter’s single. And she’s a very nice woman.”
I hesitated.
She was definitely a nice woman, but her infatuation with Ross & The Rockets bothered me, so I didn’t know if it would work out.
“She knows who I am,”
I blurted out. “Or, you know, who I used to be.”
“Oh.”
His eyes widened. “Shit.”
I’d exaggerated when I’d told Wynter that no one knew who I was.
The band had done a full background check before hiring me, and when they asked about it, I’d simply let them know I wasn’t interested in talking about or reliving the past. They’d taken me at my word, and it never came up again.
“What’d you tell her?”
“The truth. That it was my past and I didn’t want to talk about it.”
“She’s wonderful,”
he said slowly. “She deserves someone who’ll love her and take care of her emotionally. I don’t think she’s worried about you being on tour.”
“I barely know her,”
I protested.
“Yeah, but you think she’s hot, right?”
He grinned and I chuckled.
“She’s beautiful,” I agreed.
“So, you’re interested.”
It was more a statement than a question, and I hesitated before nodding.
“Is the problem with her specifically or just where you are in life?”
“The bigger problem is that she brought up the Ross Rocket thing again when Kingston said he might not be able to sing. After I’d asked her to leave it alone.”
Tommy’s eyes snapped to mine, but I immediately shook my head. “No fuckin’ way, man. I haven’t sung in years. Even if I wanted to—which I absolutely do not—my voice is in no shape to do an Onyx Knight set.”
“What about a third of a set?”
he countered. “If King can sing some, and I can do one or two…”
He let the question linger unanswered, but I continued to shake my head.
“Me getting up in front of a crowd like that would reopen wounds that have barely healed,”
I said firmly. “It’s not happening. Please don’t ask.”
He put up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. It was worth a shot.”
Just then my phone buzzed, and I saw a text from Kingston.
“They’re back,”
I told him. “He wants to meet up in his suite.”
Tommy got to his feet. “Let’s go.”