Page 100 of Hard Rock Desires

We all shared a look, knowing that this probably wasn’t the end.

As the guy packed up his briefcase, Chris headed back to the home gym and the girls took off to the practice room, so I went to Finn.

“Look, I know it sucks to get a scolding like a little kid from a teacher—” I started to say.

“I’m going to go work out,” he interrupted, then turned on his heel and left.

I stared after him. Well, whatever. He couldn’t stay angry forever.

“I see you and Finn have traded off the role of this week’s pissy drama queen,” Micah noted.

“Maybe we should all get a turn at acting like one,” I said. “Wallowing in angst is good music fuel.” I leaned heavily against the counter. “I could probably write a whole album after what happened this week.”

“I don’t want to see you wallowing in angst anymore,” Micah said.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll be fine.” Maybe. Probably.

I sighed to myself.Fuck.

Micah went silent for a moment.

“Would it help if you knew why I moved out?” he said slowly.

I cocked my head at him. “You wanted your own space?” I guessed.

Micah folded his arms across his chest. His cheeks turned pink. I eyed him. That was an interesting reaction.

“What do you remember happening just before I moved out?” he asked.

“It was months ago, lots of stuff happened.” I tried to think back. “We bought that huge TV. The label had us do an interview with that big music magazine. We rented out that whole karaoke place for a party. Which specific thing are you talking about?”

“Do you remember why we had that party?” Micah asked.

“We were celebrating Kaylee’s birthday,” I said.

She could have had a party anywhere in the world, and I meant that literally because Micah had given us permission to rent a private jet for the occasion if we wanted. And she chose a sketchy karaoke bar on the bad side of town.

“Wild night, right?” I chuckled at the memory of it, then the laughter died as I remembered that the suit had mentioned this night in particular while he politely reamed us out. “Well, at least the birthday girl had a lot of fun.”

“She did,” he said. “It was a milestone birthday for her.”

“Yeah, she turned eighteen,” I said.

Micah gave me a significant look.

“What?” I asked.

His face was turning purple. He looked back and forth as if to make sure no one was listening. He leaned in close.

“I think Kaylee has a crush on me,” he confessed under his breath. “And now that she’s eighteen, it’s like there’s nothing holding her back. She keeps trying to find excuses to be alone with me, or reasons to touch me, and I just—” Micah closed his eyes and let out a breath. “It was just better to get my own place. To give us both some space.”

My jaw dropped.

“Micah, if you start perving on sweet, innocent Kaylee, I’m going to punch you in the mouth,” I said.

“That’s why I moved out!” he said, frustrated. “It’s wrong for way too many reasons.” He took off his hipster glasses and rubbed his face with a weary hand. “I just need her to get over her crush, and everything will go back to normal.”

I highly doubted that. Kaylee was the most stubborn out of all of us. If she wanted something, she got it. And from experience, I knew that she could pull out all the stops when she put her mind to it.