Fletcher
Sexy rockstar vortex.
It had been years since had been recognized in such a public setting, years since he was asked to join a band on stage to perform a song. Years since he’d stared into Micah’s eyes and sang anything at all. He was honored to be singing “Mermaid” while the inspiration behind the song stared up at him. What he didn’t expect was for it to also be slightly unsettling. Especially when he saw the expression on her face change from adoration to shock. He hadn’t lied as much as he’d omitted telling her all of the truth. When they talked about their respective mermaid tattoos, he should have said something. Instead, he climbed onto stage, confessed to her in front of everyone, and sang the damn song.
The band stole his attention when they came in on the chorus, their voices harmonizing with his perfectly, and he lost track of Micah. When he looked out at the crowd again, she was gone. In her place stood a young couple singing the song to each other. As the performance came to an end, the crowd cheered so loud it rattled in ’s chest. Forcing a smile, he let his eyes do another sweep of the audience before mumbling a thanks into the microphone. He then turned to the band and thanked them for bringing him on. Handing the guitar over, he hopped off stage and peered around hoping that Micah was somewhere close by.
Then she appeared, head down and eyes still a little watery.
“Come on,” he whispered, running a hand down her arm to link their fingers as he pulled back to look at her. Her eyes were fixed on their hands, but as he moved, she followed. She finally released his hand and walked towards a section of the mural they hadn’t explored earlier. The artist had drawn two people facing each other, hair and clothes fluttering in the wind. The only contact between the two people were their hands, the tips of their fingers touching the other. Musical notes and brightly colored flowers were wrapped around them. If there was a piece of art that could describe him and Micah, it was probably that one.
When he came up behind her, Micah let out a shuddering breath and said, “I heard that song everywhere I went for years and never once connected it to me. I was jealous, you know? When I first heard it. That someone else made you feel deeply enough to write a song about them.”
Only Micah would think that she wasn’t worthy of a song, that she wasn’t worthy of the best words the universe had to offer. His hands itched to touch her, to comfort her.
“You left your underwear in my hotel room when you snuck out in the morning.”
“I didn’t sneak out, I had to go home.”
He smiled at her obstinate tone. “I woke up alone in my hotel bed. There was no note, only three things that you left behind,” he told her, waiting until she looked at him. “Your mermaid underwear, a hair-tie and a couple of bracelets.”
Micah’s eyes widened and nodded, then watched as her gaze slid down to his arms. “Where are they?”
“Developed an allergy six months in.” He laughed at the memory of how much his wrists itched when he wore the beaded leather bracelets. “The hair-tie ripped pretty much after the third or fourth use.”
“And my underwear?”
“With all my prized possessions.” She made a face and looked up at him. “They were washed and then framed in a glass case.”
“What?”
snorted and shook his head. “I did wash them, but didn’t frame them. You can have them back if you want.”
She shook her head and for a long moment, didn’t say anything. Her eyes were fixed on the ground and sighed as he watched her. It was a lot. They’d just come back into each other’s lives and now he was laying this on her. It was probably more than she ever imagined she would be subjected to.
“It sucked to leave you alone in that bed when I left,” she admitted softly. “I had an amazing night, you know this. But you were famous and I was a twenty-two year-old college senior who was still trying to figure out where she fit into the world. I couldn’t figure out if I was in love with you or harboring this ginormous crush, so I split.
“I thought about joining your tour the next year, but life got in the way.” Micah sighed heavily, her head tilting to the side. “For a few years, I avoided everything to do with your music. Once I was divorced and Emery was old enough, I raised her on The Rescuers. Told her about the greatest drummer in the world. And now here you are, singing a song you wrote for me in front of strangers after filling me with so much wine and joy.”
Her voice had taken on a wobbly tone and he didn’t have to look at her to know that she was crying. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tugged her into his chest, sighing softly as he rested his chin on top of her head. Her arms slid around his waist and they held each other a long moment, everything else around them fading away. He knew the band had taken a break, but even the standard music or the people gathered behind them no longer existed.
“A part of me fell in love with you that night,” finally said, his hand loosely wrapped around the back of Micah’s neck. “Every night we performed that song, I felt like you were standing in the crowd, staring up at me. Who knew that a rock ballad would get so much attention?” He felt Micah’s shoulders bounce with a laugh and pulled back to look at her. “You were… are my mermaid, Mick.”
“Were you pining for me, Fletch?”
Every single day, sweetheart. “For a while.” Because it would be a lie if he said that he’d waited for her all this time. He had thought about it, pushed the thoughts away and then buried them deep after he met Alice. “All these years, believing that you were doing all right, had found someone good to be by your side kept me going. To have you standing in front of me, looking even more beautiful than you did that night is rocking my world right now.”
“It’s an amazing song, Fletch. I mean…” she huffed softly and with a finger, traced the tattoo on the inside of his arm. “Maybe a part of me knew you’d written the song for me.”
“Not for you, Mick. It’s about you.”
She blew a raspberry, tears filling her eyes again. pressed his thumb to the spot behind her ear and gently tilted her head back so they could look at each other. When she closed her eyes, he chuckled. “Look at me, Mick. Please.”
“No, you’ll suck me back into your sexy rockstar vortex and I’ll leave more underwear behind and then you’ll write another song and I won’t even kno—”
cut her rambling off by covering her mouth with his. A startled sound came out of her and after a few seconds of hesitation, she kissed him back. He wound his other arm around her waist, pulling her flush against him. He felt her lips curl into a smile before her tongue swiped out to brush against his mouth. Parting his lips, he cradled the back of her head and flicked his tongue out at hers, moaning as they made contact. And then he was lost to the kiss, the hungry way Micah kissed him and the way her fingers gripped his hair. Honestly, he didn’t even care that they were in public, because the minute he had her full attention, he’d been thinking of when he could kiss her. And now that he’d tasted her lips, known what it felt like to have her back in his life, he was never letting her go.
She pulled away first, his mouth chased hers and bumped against her nose, which made her laugh softly. He smiled at the sound and opened his eyes to look down at the woman who did have him hook, line and sinker.
“Sexy rockstar vortex, I knew it,” she whispered.
snorted. “Seductive mermaid call.”
“Should print that on a t-shirt.”
“Or just get it inked onto my skin.”
“Sounds like a damn good idea.” She traced the mermaid tail on his arm and leaned into him.
“Sorry for not asking before I kissed you,” he whispered and she shook her head.
“Never apologize for kissing me like that. You’ve had some kissing practice.”
“I’m not as nervous today as I was that night.”
“You were not nervous.” She scoffed.
“I’d spent a good part of a tour watching this beautiful woman sing along and mosh to songs I was performing, then managed to get her backstage, where she proceeded to announce she wanted to be railed by a rockstar. So when I got her into my hotel room that night, I was nervous as fuck, because I never did that. I was never the member of the band women wanted to be with and honestly, I was okay with that. But this woman…” He trailed off and found her watching him with wide eyes. “You made me so nervous that night, Mick. I wanted it to be the best night of our lives, so yeah, my kisses were a little sloppy, I might have tripped over my own feet while trying to take my clothes off. All because I needed to impress you.”
“I was impressed, Fletch.”
“Thank god,” he said dramatically, laughing as she poked him in the chest. “Never thought I’d see you again, but I must admit that having you back in my life…you are back, right? In my life?”
Micah tilted her head and the brightest smile graced her lips. “I don’t know, Fletch, what do you think?”
“Answer the question,” he growled.
“How about you tell me what you think the answer is.”
“Stubborn woman,” he mumbled and she grinned, like she was proud of herself. “You are back in my life.”
“Duh. But , there are some conditions.”
He nodded, because he was expecting that. He couldn’t imagine what it was like to date when you were a single parent and he was sure that she had laid down this law with every person she dated. Nope, don’t think about other people she’s dated. That is none of my business.
“How do you feel about getting out of here and finding somewhere to eat?” she asked. He held out a hand, smiling when she slid her fingers between his and squeezed.
“I’d go anywhere with you, Mick.”
Thanks to Harriet’s suggestion, they’d found a local hole in the wall that served all of the greasy food one could eat. The place didn’t have a sign board or more than four tables and while that would usually concern him, Micah making a beeline for the last empty table was enough of a sign that it was where they were eating. A youngster with multiple piercings approached their table and rattled off the specials, then turned to with wide eyes.
“You’re Kelley.”
“Best drummer in the world,” Micah supplied with a grin and the youngster nodded, flipping their order pad over and holding it out to him. “Would you also like a picture together?”
“Yes, please. I’m sorry, Mr. Kelley, could I get your autograph? I don’t mean to lose my shit, but you’re like…the coolest person to ever visit us.”
was glad his beard hid most of his blush, but he signed the pad and leaned in for a photograph. With shaky hands, they took down the order for food and hurried off, leaving and Micah alone.
“Who would have thought a small town like Sirena Beach would be filled with your biggest fans?”
“Not me,” he grumbled and leaned forward as Micah did, their arms bumping on the table. “It’s surreal that people know who I am.”
“You might have sat behind the drums for years, Fletch, but you’re fucking famous for being so good at what you do. And also for being the most down to earth musician of your time.”
Shaking his head, he dropped his eyes to their arms. When he was young, he wanted to be a famous musician. When he joined The Rescuers, he wanted to make music that he loved. Now in his forties, he simply wanted to exist and maybe even love the woman sitting across from him. It would never not blow his mind that people recognized him or claimed he inspired them to start playing the drums. And to have Micah look at him the way she did, it was icing on the cake that was his life.
Their drinks—bright pink lemonade for Micah and a ginger ale for him—were set on the corner of the small table and the youngster scurried off. Micah chuckled at his confused expression and he shook his head, not bothering to understand how that kid, who was definitely too young to have heard his music, knew who he was.
Pulling his glass towards him, he leaned back to look at Micah. “So, conditions.”
“Right.” She took a long pull of her drink, eyes screwing up briefly before she blinked them open to focus on him. “Emery is my priority. I haven’t dated a lot because I don’t want to introduce someone into her life and have them walk away like her father did. I know things with us might be different, but I don’t want to assume that it’s all going to be smooth sailing.
“She already knows that we’ve met before, that we have history, but I’d like for us not to put our relationship on display around her,” Micah explained, twirling her straw and he nodded. “I want us to give this a shot, Fletch, but I don’t want to give Emery hope yet.”
“I get it, Mick. I won’t make promises, but you are important to me and in that line, I don’t want to hurt Emery either.”
Micah nodded, her eyes searching his. “We can’t sneak around my house, but anywhere else is fair game. No kissing or excessive touching when she’s around. As far as Emery is concerned, we’re friends.”
He didn’t like the idea of their relationship being a secret, but he could also see why she wanted to be careful. Clearly her ex had hurt her in ways that would take years to heal. Between marrying Micah out of obligation and abandoning his kid, hated the man. While he had no guarantee of how long this relationship with Micah would last, he would show up for Emery every time she needed him.
“I can do that,” he told her, flipping a hand over. When she put her hand in his, smiled. “This means you’ll have to spend more time at my house or you know, we can run away on the weekends.”
“I definitely want to see how a former rockstar lives now.”
“In a house that was once owned by his favorite uncle,” he told her and she snorted loudly, playfully smacking his hand.
Their food arrived and after some more fumbling and mumbling, he learned that their waitstaff was named Pia and she had been raised on music by The Rescuers. That her father had once been a drummer and considered the best of the best. After signing something else for her father, Pia thanked him and then ran away. The whole time, Micah sat there and watched him with a smug smile on her lips and realized that she was right—he needed to accept that once upon a time he was good enough that people flew all over the world to see him and his band perform.
“Was there ever a Mrs. Kelley?”
jerked back at the question and stared at her for a long moment. They’d talked actively about her ex but he’d never been interested in talking about Alice. He should have known that she’d ask.
“Uh, she never took my name, but for a bit.”
Micah nodded, eating crinkle fries one at a time. “What was she like?”
“We don’t need to do this, Mick.”
“Of course we do. You know all about Geoffrey and what an asshole he was. Besides, we’re now a couple and I want to know about you .”
We’re a couple , he thought to himself giddily and watched her for a long moment. “Can’t we talk about our favorite ice cream flavor and best movie ever made instead?”
“Fletch.”
“ Fine ,” he groaned. “Alice and I met through some friends during a break. A lot like you, she didn’t care that I was an award-winning musician or that I was going through a weird looking phase. We uh…it was good at first, then it got boring and we finally realized that maybe we were better off not married anymore.”
“I’m sorry, Fletch.”
He shrugged and looked up from the sandwich he’d ripped apart. “I wasn’t as upset as I probably should have been. Last I heard, she got married to someone else, so I guess she moved on well enough too.”
“Divorce, when you love your partner or not, is hard,” she started and he used the break to eat his food. “I was glad to get away from Geoffrey, but it did hurt when everything fell apart. You’re allowed to miss her.”
“I don’t,” he said without hesitation. “I missed you , though.”
“Really?” She smirked, eating another crinkle fry.
He chuckled, pushing his plate aside to rest his elbows on the table. “I wrote a fucking song about you, Mick. I think it’s pretty clear that I missed you. A lot.”
She leaned forward, still grinning as she stretched a hand out to him. “Is it wrong to feel powerful knowing all this information?”
“You’re ridiculous,” he told her with a shake of his head and slipped a hand into hers. “But everyone knows that you’re the powerful one here.”
“Damn right I am.”
Once their drinks and food were gone, they shared a large slice of chocolate cake and then drove her home. If Mrs. Cannon, her neighbor and Emery’s babysitter, hadn’t walked out of the house at the same time they reached the front door he would have kissed her stupid right there. But they’d made a deal and he was going to honor it. A quick wave, wink and blow of a kiss was all he got, but it was enough given how the rest of the day had been everything he’d hoped for and more.