Chapter 26 #2
“Like chattel,” Jez retorted.
“Shut the fuck up. Like you wouldn’t ask questions if your fiancée had spent the afternoon with another guy.”
“But I don’t have one,” Jez said, his lips curling into a cruel sneer as he held Nash’s gaze.
“Guys, enough.” Balin inserted himself between them. “Sit down, Nash. Quit provoking him, Jez. Jo, what ink did Rock Giant get?”
“A Celtic knot,” she replied. The truth.
“See, not even vaguely the same. So, can we just can the pointless squabbling?”
Brian stuck his head around the door. “An hour thirty until show time, boys. We all good?”
“Fabulous, Brian,” Balin said, conjuring up a convincing we’re all delightfully untroubled expression.
The minute their tour manager left, Balin snatched the jacket from Jez’s lap and stalked towards the door. “I’m going to go hang somewhere else… find some chill.”
Jez catapulted off the sofa and followed him.
There was no need for Jodi to speculate about what they intended to do. Find some girls.
Willing girls.
The kind who were happy to suck off a couple of relatively unknown Brits in exchange for front row tickets to see Black Halo. Not that the Ghost Boys were without fans, but the crowds were here to see the main act.
Quiet descended after they left, to Jodi’s relief, until she realised Nash was still scowling at her.
“You could at least fucking apologise,” he said.
If there’d been anything to apologise for, then sure. “I haven’t done anything wrong, Nash.”
He gave another wounded huff and shook his head.
“We agreed you were going to stay away from him.”
They hadn’t agreed that. They hadn’t talked about it, or him.
Most of the time, it was like Nash took pains to excise Rock Giant from existence.
Like any room he occupied, Nash patched over with an alternate no-Paul-Reed-present version.
He’d yelled about the handfasting right after it happened, but they hadn’t properly talked it out.
“Everything’s been shit since he showed up.”
Lee leaned around her. “Tone it down, Nash. You’re being a git.”
“It’s okay, Lee.” Jodi patted his knee where it was poking through the hole in his jeans.
“Nash, if you’re accusing me of something, then just go ahead and say what it is.
Otherwise, get over yourself. I’m not apologising to you for getting some fresh air, or, oh my God, talking to another man.
And if you can’t trust me to be alone with one, then—”
“He’s not just another man though, is he?”
Jodi shoved him away from her, blood pounding in her head.
“I’m really sorry if your afternoon wasn’t as pleasant as mine, but that’s not my fault.
I’ve said all this to you already, but I’ll say it again now, and maybe you’ll actually hear me.
If I wanted to be with him, I’d be with him.
I’m not. I’m with you. God help me, I’ve agreed to marry you.
Right now, the way you’re behaving, you’re making me feel like a fucking idiot for even contemplating that. ”
She left him chewing on that. Having slammed the dressing room door, Jodi slouched against the wall outside it, fuming. It’d been a nice day until this point. A blissful day. Why did he have to be so petty and spoil it?
“Are you trying to push her away?” she overheard Lee ask Nash.
“Stay out of it, Lee? It’s bad enough having my bandmates constantly fawning over my fiancée without having the damn Black Halo yeti trying it on at every opportunity, too.”
“You don’t even know that’s what was happening.”
“I’ve seen him look at her.”
“Yeah, and I’ve seen you look at Balin. And I’ve seen you look at Jez.
Shall we talk about why Rune’s not around anymore?
Shall we? Because if we’re going to play the accusations game, I reckon I’ve a few good grenades I can lob.
That woman goes out of her way to make you happy, and you give her nothing but crap. ”
“I had nothing to do with Jez and Rune breaking up.”
“And Jodi isn’t screwing Rock Giant.”
She heard footsteps coming towards the door.
“And only one of those things is definitely true.”
Jodi shuffled along the wall. Lee came out. He caught sight of her and offered a rueful grin. “Wanna hug.”
“I’d love one.”
Lee smelled of woodsy cologne, and something peppery. His hair got into her mouth. She wiped it away, while he ticked a calloused fingertip against her cheek. “I’m sorry about him.”
“It’s not your fault. I take it the sound check went well?”
“Oh, yeah. Amazingly well.” He kissed the top of her head.
“A shit ton of niggles that on another day wouldn’t faze anyone, but today on too little sleep it was like we were being shat on by elephant birds.
” He yawned into his hands. “I need either an enormous cuppa or a power nap. Maybe both. Thank God we’re just the support act.
The crowd won’t give a shit if we’re shit.
They’re here to see Black Halo, whose sound check took a fraction of the time ours did, even accounting for their AWOL bassist.”
They ambled along the corridor as far as the door to Black Halo’s dressing room. Lee knocked. When there was no answer, he grinned and turned the handle. Silence greeted them as they stuck their heads around the jamb.
“Looks as if no one’s home. I’m pretty sure they’ve gone out to get something to eat. Something more nutritious than a greasy burger or yet another hotdog.”
Jodi’s stomach rumbled again.
“I’m sure they won’t mind us gatecrashing for a few.
” They claimed a sofa each. Lee stretched full length on his.
Within minutes he’d dozed off. She hadn’t had nearly enough sleep either, which meant she ought to be as tired as the guys.
Evidently, there was too much nonsense tumbling around her head, because her brain refused to rest.
Was she being an idiot for sticking it out with Nash?
No. They’d been happy with one another until she’d screwed things up by hitching herself to Rock Giant.
Their present discord was on her, and unlike all the previous times when she’d screwed up her life, she wasn’t going to run.
She’d stick it out. Figure it out. Compromise, like adults did. Work at it, and fix shit.
After another few minutes of fruitlessly trying to nod off, she rose and started poking around.
This dressing room was far larger than the one down the corridor.
It had a homely feel to it and wasn’t littered with empty cans and food wrappers.
A laptop sat on a counter before a well-lit mirror, various kohl pencils beside it, along with multiple cans of deodorant and expensive aftershave.
She amused herself spraying them and attempting to work out which one she thought belonged to whom.
By yet another mirror, she found an assortment of rubber bracelets printed with slogans, and a couple of bananas that someone had doodled on with a black sharpie.
The best find, though, was Rock Giant’s crocheting hook, complete with a tail of pale-yellow wool.