Page 35 of Fire

“Jesus Christ, Z,” she mutters. “You are ridiculous. No one is gonna be looking at my tits when they’re attached to our kid.”

He turns to look at the rest of the band, Ridge, and the other random people I haven’t met. Only a handful can hear what is happening, and it happens to be Hendrix, Darius, and Asher.

Hendrix holds up his hands, eyes firmly on the floor. “You know I’m scared of anything baby-related.”

I snort out a laugh. Why does that not surprise me?

Asher has his head buried in a book. I haven’t had much of a chance to check him out yet. We haven’t even been properly introduced, but I take this moment to observe him.

Okay, not so much observe as blatantly check out.

There is a reason this man is on the covers of magazines on a regular basis. He is like Harry Styles hot. His floppy brown hair is pushed behind his ear, showing off some seriously chiseled cheekbones. And he’s wearing glasses. That’s like a nerdy girl’s kryptonite.

He acts like he’s in another world, buried in that book. He doesn’t even bother to look up and just waves at Zander, as if he’s shooing away a fly.

Darius, on the other hand, has his full attention and tosses a hand in the air. “What if I told you my interests were purely academic?”

“Get the fuck out of here,” Zander growls.

“Yes, sir.” He jumps out of his seat and heads further down the aisle toward the bar, cackling like a lunatic the whole way.

Yes, a bar. This plane is ridiculous.

“You happy now?” Elena looks up at him. She sounds annoyed, but the grin she’s struggling to hide suggests otherwise. “Can I feed our daughter now, or do you need to question Zara too?”

I hold up my hands in protest. “Not into girls, but even if I were, I’m a doctor. And a professional.”

“Right.” Zander nods. “Yeah. Of course.”

He’s still staring down at his wife, but his somewhat insane caveman expression has softened as he watches her go through the motions of unhooking her bra and nursing their child at her breast. She looks up at him once Marissa quiets, no doubt soothed by the feel of her mother’s touch, and I find myself turning away.

The love they share is palpable, so painfully obvious in the way they look at each other. I can’t help but wonder…

Did Tanner ever look at me like that? I’m not so sure.

Because I’m starting to wonder if our whole marriage was nothing but a scam.

Chapter Eleven

HENDRIX

So far, being on tour is not exactly how I imagined it.

Don’t get me wrong. When we arrived in Miami yesterday and were shuttled over to the Kaseya Center, where legends like Beyoncé and U2 have all performed, I was fucking giddy as hell.

This whole thing didn’t feel real until I stepped on that stage. Over eighteen thousand empty seats stared back at me, just waiting to be filled. The biggest gig I’d ever done up until that moment wasn’t even a third of that, and this was just day fucking one.

We had been traveling all day, but at that moment, I could have strapped on my bass and played an entire set right from start to finish. That’s how pumped I was. How fucking honored I felt to be part of this tour.

But yesterday was just a walk-through, and before I knew it, we were whisked back to our hotel for a mandatory group dinner. Asher’s idea, apparently. Something about everyone getting to know each other and bonding or some shit.

I know I’m the new guy, but even I knew this was a total buzzkill. Asher may be a bit of a recluse now, but the rest of the crew definitely was not, and they were itching for a night out.Still, everyone stayed because we all love Asher. Surprisingly, the dinner wasn’t so bad. It might have even bordered on fun if I hadn’t spent the entire evening listening to Zara laugh at someone else’s jokes throughout the meal. Darius was a cool guy, but he wasn’tthatfunny.

Afterward, when a few of the techies headed for the club and asked me to join, I surprised the hell out of myself by saying no. Then I surprised myself even more by walking myself up to my room, picking up my bass, and practicing until my fingers went numb.

Because I refuse to fuck this up.

And now it’s finally game day. We just finished our final sound check, and I feel like I’m going to puke.