29. Torren
29
TORREN
“You’re backstage tonight.”
“What?”
“For the show. You’re watching from backstage.”
Callie blinks a few times, licking her lips nervously before responding. “Why?”
I give her a small smile. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
Her gaze flits away from mine, and she nods. “Sure. Whatever you want.”
She brushes past me without another word, and I watch her back until she disappears into the girls’ dressing room.
I haven’t spoken to her since everything blew up last night. I tried once, and she asked me to give her space. She said she was tired and overwhelmed, so I backed off. I left her alone for the rest of the night. I didn’t seek her out this morning. In all honesty, I needed the space, too.
My mind is still reeling from everything that was revealed last night.
On one hand, I’m glad everything is out in the open. But on the other hand, I just can’t fucking believe our label pulled that shit right under our noses.
Though, I suppose a lot could have happened over the last few years without us knowing. We were a fucking mess. It was all Hammond could do to keep us from falling apart and self-sabotaging. It shouldn’t surprise me as much as it does.
No wonder Callie fucking hated me. I’d hate me, too .
Truthfully, I kind of do now.
How many bands did we screw over? How many dreams did we crush? How many lives did we irreparably alter? It was all I could think about last night. That, and the look on Callie’s face when she told me about my band’s role in ruining hers. Pain . There’s no other way to describe it. She was in pain. She’d been holding on to it for years, letting it fester, believing that I’d betrayed her in that way. She hated me. She blamed the band. And truly, she had every right to.
While I didn’t have a direct hand in the label’s actions, it still happened because of me. Because of The Hometown Heartless. We’re all guilty by association, and I know it’s going to take a while to repair the damage that was done in our name.
Tonight, though...
Tonight, I’m going to work on repairing the one thing only I can fix. The thing I care about the most. Tonight, I start winning back my Firebird.
“We’ve got a little surprise for you all tonight.”
The crowd cheers loudly and Sav laughs into her mic.
“Oh, you like the sound of that? Good. Because you’re going to hear something never before played in public.” Sav pauses dramatically, letting the roar of the crowd climb higher and higher before she laughs once more. “But to play it, we’ve gotta switch some things up.”
One of the roadies comes walking out to the stage with an acoustic guitar. Sav slips her electric off and trades it with the roadie for the acoustic as the venue practically shakes from the sounds of the crowd’s excitement. Instead of putting the guitar on, though, Sav turns to me.
“Hey, Tor?”
I grin at her and speak into my mic. “Yeah, Savvy?”
“How would you feel about taking the lead on this one?”
Sav’s such a fucking showman, and the crowd eats it up. I can’t help but laugh at her theatrics. There are multiple reasons why she’s our frontwoman, and one of them is how well she works a crowd. They start chanting my name as I set down my bass and walk up next to her. When she hands me the guitar, another surge of screams floods the stage.
“Thanks, Sav. ”
She winks. “It’s all you now.”
Sav saunters over to my mic stand, so I turn and look for Callie. I find her standing in the wings of the stage, right where I wanted her. I lean into the mic, speaking to her but broadcasting it out into the stadium.
“I don’t suppose I can get you to come out here with me?” Her eyes widen comically as she shakes her head. I chuckle into the mic. “Didn’t think so. Well, just stay right there then, because this one is for you.”
When she nods once, I turn my attention back to the roaring crowd.
“This is a song I wrote a few years back after meeting someone at a music festival. We’ve never played it live until tonight. It’s called, ‘Firebird.’”
As I begin to play, the crowd’s cheering grows softer, everyone eager to hear this never-before-heard song. I keep my eyes on the wings of the stage, never taking my gaze off Callie, and when I start to sing, the first verse flows out of me as smoothly as an exhale. It feels like I’m sharing a long-kept secret, finally revealing it to the one person for whom it was meant.
When I reach the chorus, the tears welling in Callie’s eyes start to trickle down her cheeks, and I watch her laugh. I wish I could hear it over the music and the crowd.
A few months after ArtFusion, I’d discovered lyrics scribbled in a notebook. A song I’d been writing over the course of the five-night music festival, inspired by a gorgeous woman backlit by glittering flames. We never recorded it, partly because I didn’t want to share it, but we will now. I already talked to the band. “Firebird” will be on the next album, and tonight is its hard launch.
By the second chorus, the crowd is singing along, and Callie is swaying lightly to the music. She’s still crying, but she’s also still smiling, and it makes me want to rush to her. When the last notes fade out, the venue erupts in cheers and whistles and praise, but instead of bowing, I slide the acoustic to my back and walk toward Callie.
With every step toward her, I brace myself for her retreat, but she stays put. She doesn’t move, so when I’m finally within touching distance, I thread my fingers through her hair and bring her lips to mine.
Fuck, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this kiss. About her. About how much I need to feel her mouth on mine. Our tongues tangle greedily, and she doesn’t shove me away. She doesn’t break our kiss. She pulls me closer. She threads her fingers in my hair and tugs, making me groan. My dick aches, and I press my growing erection into her body.
God, I want to fuck her right here. I’d do it on stage in front of everyone. I don’t even fucking care.
“You have to get back out there,” Callie says against my mouth. “The crowd is getting antsy.”
“They can wait.” I bite her lower lip and she laughs, pressing lightly on my chest.
“Go. You’ve got three songs left. I don’t want the media to start saying the show ended early because of me.”
I pull back and smile down at her, rubbing my thumb over her swollen lower lip. “Did you like the song?”
She smirks. “It was okay.”
“It was for you. It was always for you.”
“I know.” Callie smiles softly and presses a kiss to the pad of my thumb. “I remember.”
I kiss her once more, this one quick and chaste before finally stepping back toward the stage. “See you in three songs, Firebird.”
“I’ll be here.”
I hand the acoustic off to a roadie, then leave Callie standing in the wings to walk back to my spot on the stage. We play the rest of our set. We do the whole leave then return game for the encores. Then, when the show is finally over, I rush off the stage to find Callie.
I avoid everyone else. I don’t speak to anyone. I don’t look at anyone. The only thing I care about is Callie, but when I find her backstage, my feet slow to a stop, and the high I’d been riding moments earlier rapidly declines.
“Thank you,” she says, giving me a wry grin as she closes the distance between us. “But you know calla lilies are really popular wedding and funeral flowers, right? I never understood why my parents named me after a funeral flower, but I guess it could be worse. They could have named me Glory Bell.”
I narrow my eyes at the bouquet of flowers in her arms, every warning bell in my body sounding loudly. “Where’d you get those? ”
“Some roadie brought them to me.” She studies the bouquet with a furrowed brow. “I thought they were from you.”
I shake my head. “No. Is there a note?”
“Yeah...” She plucks a small white card from inside the bouquet and hands it to me. “It doesn’t say who it’s from.”
I take the card from her and look it over. The outside has CALLA LILY SUNRISE JAMES typed on it, and the inside just says FOR YOU . No name. No company. Nothing.
My first thought is that it’s Jonah trying to fuck with me, but the moment my furious eyes land on him, I change my mind. If he’d done this, he’d look smug, but I call out to him anyway.
“Jo. D’you send these to Callie?”
Jonah arches a disinterested brow. It’s all the answer I need, and I quickly take the bouquet and gesture for Damon. When he’s next to me, I hand him the bouquet.
“Someone gave Callie these flowers. I need you to find out who.”
“He, um, he was dressed as a roadie, and he looked like he was about my age. If that helps.”
Damon nods at Callie. “We’re on it.”
When Damon stalks away, Callie turns concerned green eyes on me. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure yet.” I put my arm around her shoulders and tug her into my side before leading her toward the dressing room. “Could that bouquet have been from your mom? Or maybe someone else?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
Jealousy swells in my chest and I breathe through it. “What about your ex?”
Callie huffs out a laugh. “Becket wouldn’t have sent me flowers.”
“You sure? He didn’t seem too happy at the club.”
“Yeah, because I’m allegedly dating the douche who torpedoed his music career, not because he wants me back or whatever other bullshit you’re thinking.”
I glance down at her and arch a brow. “Allegedly?”
“Don’t think you’re off the hook yet, King. It’s going to take more than one secret song sung in front of an audience to win me over.”
I stop walking. “Sung in front of a packed stadium,” I correct. “There were nearly fifty-thousand people in that audience. ”
She shrugs. “And?”
“And...” I lower my hands to her waist and walk her backward slowly until her back is against the wall, then I rest my forearms above her head, caging her in. “I got you tattooed on my fucking leg. And I’m going to fix the mess our label caused you. And I like you, Calla Lily Sunrise James.”
She tips her head up, her lips just inches from mine. “You like me, huh?”
“I do.”
“Hmm. I might be starting to like you, too.” She folds her lips between her teeth, bouncing her eyes between mine before giving me a small smile. Then she slides out from under my arm cage and turns to face me. “But I don’t trust you.”
I tilt my head, considering her words carefully. If I can understand anything, it’s how difficult it can be to trust someone with your heart. Especially after that person has already caused you pain. It’s taken me a long time to come around to the idea of actually allowing myself to fall for someone again. To trust them completely. I can’t expect her to accept me overnight.
“Do you think you could, though?” I ask finally. “Do you think you could, eventually , trust me?”
She purses her lips, then gives me a one-shouldered shrug. “Maybe.”
I grin. “I can work with that.”
I take her hand in mine, give it a squeeze, then walk her back to the dressing rooms. I’m about to drop her off and head to my own dressing room when Hammond comes stomping up behind me.
“Inside. Band meeting.” He brushes right past us, so we follow behind him. As soon as we’re in the room with the others, Hammond speaks again. “We found the kid who gave Callie the flowers. He was paid one hundred dollars in cash and didn’t get a name. Can’t remember a face.”
“Someone gave you flowers?” Sav asks Callie, alarm in her voice. “And you don’t know who?”
“No.” Callie shakes her head. “Honestly, I thought it was Torren.”
Sav pulls her lower lip between her teeth, then she looks at Hammond. “You think it’s him? The stalker?”
Hammond shrugs. “I don’t know. We don’t have any reason to believe it would be. He’s never made contact with anyone but you before, and sending flowers isn’t in his bag of tricks as far as we’ve seen.”
“Maybe Callie’s got a fan,” Mabel chimes in. “But, like, a nice, normal fan. Not the stalker kind that Sav has.”
The suggestion is said lightheartedly, but it makes me frown. Fan or not, the whole situation is creepy, and it doesn’t sit right with me. I glance at Levi, who has been standing with his arms crossed behind Sav like a third security detail.
“How long are you staying?”
“As long as I have to.”
“And Brynn?”
“She’s staying with Sharon.”
“Good,” I say with a nod. I was expecting that. Now that he knows about Sav’s stalker, there’s no way she’s going to convince him to go back to North Carolina. Then I look at Callie. “You’re moving in with me.”