Page 8 of Rock Giant

“Fuckers,” Nash muttered.

“Man, there are limits to what I’m prepared to sacrifice to the gods of fame and fortune.They’ll be prying my lucky shirt off my cold dead corpse.Plus, we’re not toddlers, man.We don’t need our mammies to dress us.”

“Considering the shit mine used to pick out…” Lee shook his head.

Nash threw a bunch of shade at them, but it didn’t penetrate the shield of their mirth.If anything, his scowls made them mock all the harder.

Lee still had his arm slung around her shoulder.“You should come and see the bus.Height of luxury, it is.All mod cons.You’ll be amazed.”She didn’t have the heart to tell him it wouldn’t be the first tour bus interior she’d seen.That would necessitate diving into a part of her history she’d never shared with anyone.Still exerting his claim on her, Lee turned her about and nudged her towards their new home on wheels.

“Wait!I need to zip the tent up.”

She wriggled free of his hold.While it was unlikely that anyone around here would be interested in her stuff, the weather might change at a moment’s notice, and she’d rather her things stayed dry.The cats she confined to the inner pod.They’d be fine until she got back.They had everything they needed all set up how they liked it, and they were used to her wandering off.As long as they got their kibble and she didn’t howl over the occasional mousy-froggy-baby birdie supplement, they were no bother.

Lee reclaimed her, despite Nash’s attempt to snag her by the hand.“Where’s Jez?”she asked after the band’s drummer as they walked.

“You mean Pee-ter?”Nash said in a ridiculous voice, prompting chortles from both Lee and Balin.“Probably gone back to wallowing.”

“Wallowing?”

“Oh, shit!Hasn’t Curtis told you?”Balin stuck his head between them, only to about turn and level a tut at Nash.“How could you not tell her, man?”

“When?”Nash raised his hand in his defence.“I’ve barely had time to say hello before you two mugs arrived and commandeered her.”

“He told me about Black Halo,” Jodi said, and even managed to sound normal despite how jangly it made her feel inside.Shit!Did that mean they were here?

“Didn’t tell you about Rune though, did he?Fuckwit only went and dumped him, didn’t he?”

“No!No way.You’re shitting me?”Rune was Jez’s Norwegian boyfriend… ex-boyfriend.Painfully beautiful and painfully awkward.The pair of them had been inseparable the entire time she’d known them.They were so hopelessly in love with one another it hurt her head to think of them as separate entities.

“Why?”

She shot Nash an irritated look.Unless it’d literally happened in the last four hours, there was really no excuse for him not telling her.

“Wouldn’t we all love to know?”

Lee rubbed his smooth jaw.“Claimed it wasn’t going to work out, what with us being on tour and shit.”

“Rune would never have minded that.”Rune was the sweetest, gentlest, most amenable man she’d ever met, with one possible exception, but she wasn’t thinking about him.Especially not now.Were Black Halo here?“Please tell me Harry Storm didn’t have a hand in it.”

“Harry?Why would Harry have anything to do with it?”Balin asked.

“Nah, it’s all Jez,” Lee said.“Maintains he didn’t need anyone around cramping his style and that it’d been on the cards for a while, but let’s just say he’s not entirely convincing.Whatever the real reason, he’s keeping schtum about it.So, to answer your question, he’s probably knocking the hell out of a drum kit somewhere.”

“Or banging something else,” Nash said.

That was just horrid.Absolutely sickening.It made her belly flip-flop.And what did it say for her future with Nash if the hottest, sweetest couple around hadn’t survived even five months of one of them hitting the limelight.The echoes of all the snarky remarks levelled at her when people learned she was with Nash circulated in her thoughts again.

“He’s not actually out there shagging your fans though, right?”

Silence.

Damning silence.

Coupled with some awkward looks from Balin and Lee.Yeah… Seemed they’d all been scoring themselves some easy action.

“You’re gross.Yuck.”She shrugged Lee’s arm from her shoulders.

“Why, ’cause we’ve indulged in a few hookups?How’s that any different to before?I wasn’t gross when I banged that barmaid back in Valencia—”