Chapter 16
The bridge of “Hurricane” reverberated through the events center, the members of Midnight Storm barely audible over the screams of the crowd.
From Derek’s spot in the wings backstage, he could see Jackson kneeling at the edge of the stage, singing directly to a woman in the front row who was desperately reaching for him over the stage barriers, Gideon hovering nearby.
While the crowd at NostalgiCon was generally well behaved, Midnight Storm had seen one too many fans rush the stage over the years not to keep their security detail close at all times.
“You have to admit, they know how to work a crowd,” Kat said, her hips swaying to the music absentmindedly.
“The tour’s been greenlit,” Derek said.
Kat screeched and threw herself into Derek’s arms. “You did it!”
Derek chuckled. “Not me. We. I need you on this tour, Kat.”
“What?” She rocked back on her heels and shot a quick glance at the stage.
“No one is better with them than you. No one believes in them more than you.”
“You do.”
“Not like you. I worry about them and I try to control the chaos, but…” He shook his head. “Last time they tried to go on tour, I was distracted and look how that ended.”
“Derek, none of that was your fault. Please tell me you know that. Jackson made his decisions—Beckett too. And the consequences of those decisions are their own.”
“It’s not like when they were first touring.
I have Annie now. I need to put her first. And I can’t do that if I’m fishing Jackson out of a bar at two in the morning and bribing hotel front desk agents to look the other way when Nico brings someone back to his room.
They need someone who will make this tour their top priority, and I need to be able to step away when Annie has a parent-teacher conference.
I know I shouldn’t ask—you have your books and I know NostalgiCon was supposed to be a one-time thing—but they need someone to be their number one person on this tour. And it can’t be me.”
Kat twisted a lock of hair around her finger, her gaze drifting back to the stage where Beckett held the crowd’s attention for the final chorus. “What did the guys say?”
“I haven’t told them yet.” She startled, surprised. “I’m not sending them on the road without a tour manager I trust, and there is no one better than you.”
She shot him an incredulous look. “So, what? Either I go on tour with them or you call the whole thing off?”
“No, of course not. But when I tell them, I want to show them the entire chessboard. We have to do it differently this time. All the cards on the table.”
“You’re mixing metaphors.”
“They deserve to be a part of the decisions that shape the next phase of their career, and they can’t do that if they don’t know who’s on their team.
Before I ask them to sign on for something this big, they need to know—I need to know—who has their hand on the wheel.
I want it to be you, Kat. But if it’s not, I want to tell them from the start.
I don’t want phone calls from Beckett a week before they leave telling me to get you on board. ”
She huffed a laugh. “Becks would never.”
“He already did.”
Her eyes snapped to his. “He what?” she breathed.
“I told you this.”
“No, you didn’t. Your assistant said the label asked for me. Not Beckett.”
Derek leveled her with a look. “The label did ask for you, because Beckett asked for you. Would you have come if we told you it was him?”
She opened her mouth but no words came out and she shut it again, her gaze drifting back to the stage. “I need to think about it.”
Derek gave a crisp nod. “Fine. But think quickly. I’ll tell the guys after the show tonight, and I want to give them an answer about who’s managing this tour before we leave California tomorrow morning.”
“That’s not enough time,” she argued.
“It is. You already know what you’re going to do, Kat. So take the night to pretend you need to think about it, and then tomorrow give me your answer so I can promise the band they’ll be in good hands, even when I can’t be there.”
The private room at The Poison Place restaurant wasn’t all that private.
The entire wall facing the poison gardens was glass, the walls accordioning open to create an indoor / outdoor dining space.
Under normal circumstances, Derek would have had a conniption about the members of Midnight Storm choosing this venue to celebrate the news of their new tour, but since the restaurant sat in the heart of Forbidden Garden Neighborhood at the Hotel Bellwether, and all the cottages and villas were occupied by other NostalgiCon celebrities and their staff, he supposed it didn’t matter that their group was completely exposed.
Still, Gideon faithfully held his post by the restaurant entrance, other members of the security team flanking the patio where the band had gathered.
Across the table, Annie was curled up on Jo’s lap, half asleep, her fork slipping from her hand every few bites as she fought to stay awake.
His daughter should have been in bed hours ago, but she was so excited to celebrate with the band—and to have one more death by chocolate brownie before they left the hotel in the morning—that Derek hadn’t had the heart to send her back to the room.
Jo smoothed Annie’s hair and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head, and Derek’s chest constricted, his heart thudding painfully when his daughter nuzzled deeper into Jo’s arms.
He was in love with Jo. He wasn’t sure when it had happened, or how, but looking at her sitting there with his daughter in her arms, watching her laugh with Kat and tease Beckett, it was glaringly obvious. He was in so deep he couldn’t even see the surface anymore.
More concerning than his own out of control emotions, however, was the clear adoration on his daughter’s face whenever she was with Jo.
How comfortable she was with her, the possessive curl of her hand around Jo’s.
Somehow, in only a few days, Jo’s presence had filled in the cracks he hadn’t even known were there, smoothing them out, gluing them together.
And we’re saying goodbye tomorrow.
“When will we make the public announcement?” Logan asked, pulling Derek’s thoughts back to the task at hand—celebrating Midnight Storm’s nationwide reunion tour, not obsessing about how to soften the blow of Jo’s departure.
“The marketing team will put together an announcement in the next week so we can capitalize on the momentum from NostalgiCon,” Derek said. He turned to Beckett. “Are you ready for this?”
The tattooed twin nodded, his expression impossible to read.
“Jo, I have an idea for a video series to help promote the tour,” Zach said. “I’ve been messing around with doing some of our old hits in different keys—changing major to minor. We could do something about hearing the songs you love in a new way.”
“That’s a great idea,” Jo said, shifting Annie in her arms, “but I won’t be running your accounts once we leave here.”
“Why not?” Jackson sat forward, turning an accusatory glare Derek’s way.
She looked uncertainly between the two men. “I’m only running the account for NostalgiCon. You’ll need someone who’s on tour with you to manage it.”
“Then come on tour with us,” Beckett said.
Derek’s heart leapt into his throat. Jo, on tour with them?
He hadn’t dared to imagine it, but now that it had been suggested, it was all he wanted.
They could have more time—without needing Kat to make up reasons for them to be alone, without worrying about what that time would do to Annie if it ended.
They’d still need to be discreet, of course, but they could sink into this feeling, roll around in it and make sure it fit, so that when the time came—if it came—to introduce her to Annie as more than the nanny, he could be sure.
They could have six months together, maybe even eight—
“I—I can’t,” Jo sputtered, and Derek’s heart stopped.
“Why not?” Nico asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Because I—I just can’t,” she said. “I have a job to get back to.”
Jackson blew a raspberry. “The Bay Breeze will survive without you. I, however, might not make it with someone new who doesn’t know my good angles.”
“I have a life to get back to,” she insisted.
Jackson flung his arms out to the side, knocking over a potted plant on the ledge behind him. “Everyone wants to live like this.”
“Jacks, she said no,” Beckett said firmly.
“Come on, JoJo. It’ll be fun,” Jackson said with a wink. “I’m sure bossman can make it worth your while.”
Jo’s face went white, her eyes darting to meet Derek’s and then skittering away again. Something cold and heavy gathered in Derek’s stomach, a sickly weight that threatened to pull him under.
“Jackson,” Logan said, a warning in his tone.
“What? Are we all going to pretend there isn’t something going on between you two? Come on. You picked her up at a bar and suddenly she’s the nanny?”
“Jackson,” Jo hissed, tilting her head meaningfully towards Annie, asleep but barely.
Nico shook his head. “Not cool man.”
Jackson took a sip of his whisky and leveled Derek with a smug glare. “What do you say, bossman? I don’t want to lose the best social media manager we’ve had in years. Are we still pretending she’s just staff, or do you have some extra benefits you want to throw Jo’s way to sweeten the deal?”
“Enough,” Derek barked. His voice cut through the chatter at the table and made Annie jump in Jo’s arms. The surprise on his daughter’s face as she woke soured in his stomach and he pushed his chair back from the table. He had to get out of there.
What was he thinking? Of course the band knew. Annie had slept in Kat’s room for the last two nights while her nanny stayed with him. They’d have to be idiots not to know. But he couldn’t have his artists gossiping about his relationships, making it out to be something tawdry.
You’re paying her, and you’re sleeping with her. It isn’t exactly wholesome.
He pushed to his feet and tugged Annie from Jo’s lap, lifting her in his arms like she was still a toddler.
Jo recoiled at the roughness of his movements before her expression went blank, a mask he recognized from her own social media accounts.
He wanted to wipe it away, wash away the makeup and the fake smile until there was nothing but him and Jo and Annie.
Annie. He had to get her out of there, away from whatever accusation Jackson was poised to lob their way.
If he hadn’t been so focused on watching her with Jo, he would have done the responsible thing and sent her to bed hours ago.
If he hadn’t been so selfish, he wouldn’t have had an affair with her nanny in the first place.
“Enough,” he repeated, more to himself than anyone else.
He was halfway back to their cottage before his heart stopped beating so loudly in his ears that he could hardly hear Annie soft voice, her head resting on his shoulder. “Daddy, what’s wrong? Don’t you want Jo to go on tour with you?”
He swallowed hard and shifted Annie’s weight in his arms. She said no. “It’s not up to me, peanut. Jo was always only going to be with us for a little while.”
“You should say please.” Annie’s voice was muffled by sleep. “I think she’d come with us if you said please.”
Would she? And did he even want that?
Yes. He wanted those six months. He wanted to watch her shine as the band’s social media manager. He wanted time to figure out if this thing between them could last, and he couldn’t do that if he was worried about making sure Annie didn’t get too attached.
Is she really the one you’re worried about getting too attached?
“You’re not coming on tour,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Because you have to go to school and grow that big, beautiful brain of yours.” He fished his key card out of his pocket and let them into the cottage, not bothering to turn on the lights as he carried Annie to her room.
“She could come with you when you visit me. She could be a part of our family. Just like my wish.”
He stilled, gently lowering his daughter onto her bed despite his sudden inability to breathe. “What wish?” When she didn’t immediately answer, he slipped off her shoes and tucked the blanket up under her chin, tracing the curve of his cheek with the back of his knuckles. “What wish, Annie?”
“I can’t tell you,” she mumbled, rolling over and burying her face in the pillow. “If I tell you, it won’t come true.”
He watched her until her face went slack with sleep, steadying himself with her rhythmic exhalations as a tempest raged inside his ribcage.
Derek was the responsible one, the person who put others’ needs before his own, who took care of everyone, but he hadn’t been responsible these last few days.
He’d put his own desires ahead of protecting his daughter’s heart, and now they both were likely to be heartbroken.
If he could convince Jo to go with him, to join the tour, he could salvage this. He could find a way to bridge the divide between a weekend fling and the emotions twisting behind his rib cage.
The soft snick of the front door of the cottage closing set his pulse racing. With one last kiss on his daughter’s forehead, Derek went to find Jo.
She stood in the kitchen, pouring a glass of wine. Her gaze darted to his as he entered the living room, and he knew. It was over. The wild look in her eyes, like a caged animal watching their captor approach…
It wasn’t the look of a woman who wanted to be asked to stay.