Feuds and Interludes (Rock ‘n’ Romance Legends #1)

Chapter 19

Nineteen

S hane

I’m not too proud to admit that I cried after Boone fell asleep. The whole night was too heavy not to, with all these feelings . He’d seen me, he let me be myself, he didn’t judge, he let me in and seemed as genuinely moved as I was by what was happening between us. He said he’d be mine, and I believed him. Mostly. Although lying in the dark, sobbing quietly while trying not to disturb him, I ran my fingers lightly over his gorgeous pale skin and wondered how the fuck the planets had aligned to let this supernova go off in my hands.

What would happen in the light of day? Would he roll over in the morning and give me that blissed-out smile? Would he open those big blues wide and say it was all a mistake? Would it be awkward, us tripping over each other to get some space?

Would he be upset?

Fuck, Shane, get it together. He’s not like them.

He’s just as sensitive as you.

I stroked his hair and he stirred against me.

“Switch.” He rolled over and held out his arms. God, how had he known I’d needed to be held like that? I went gingerly into his arms, not wanting to squish him, and as soon as I settled with my cheek on his chest, he rubbed his lips on the top of my head and sighed.

“Can this be every night?”

I wasn’t sure I heard him right, and when I went to speak, he let out a snore. The cutest fucking snore I’d ever heard, all high-pitched and shit. I wanted to look at him, but he had me trapped.

Good. I was where I wanted to be, come what may in the morning.

What I didn’t expect the next morning was a lot of cursing prior to getting smacked in the face with a pair of jeans.

“Goddammit, Butler,” he muttered. “I swear to God!”

“What did I do now? I’m not even awake yet.”

Boone screamed, slipped on a t-shirt on the floor, and fell onto his ass. Hard.

“Babe! Are you all right?” I scrambled out of bed and over to his side, getting my feet tangled in my pants from the day before, and I caught myself before I face-planted in his lap. I looked up at him to apologize…but he was beaming.

“You called me babe.”

I laughed and got to my knees. “I did call you babe. Are you okay?”

“I’m great now.” Then his smile fell. “No, I’m not, actually. Shane!”

“What’s wrong?” My heart was thundering. It was too early for this.

“Rocktoberfest! We have to come up with a set list like now so I can be sure I know all the songs! I don’t want to make any mistakes! I was looking for my notebook, which I’m pretty sure I’d left on the bed before you brought me back here and seduced me?—”

“Whoa, wait a minute?—”

“But I had this nightmare right before I woke up that we were right in the middle of ‘Paisley’ and I forgot the next chord and I couldn't catch up to you and you were mad and?—”

I pulled him into my arms and kissed the top of his head. “You’re fine, we have plenty of time?—”

“And I was naked onstage and everyone saw my hickeys.” He lifted his head and gave me a wicked grin.

“Really? This early in the morning, you’re gonna mess with me? I haven’t even had my coffee yet.”

“I really did have a dream about Rocktoberfest, though. But my hickeys were gone by then.”

“I can make sure you have more.”

This led to tickling and kissing and wrestling and laughing until we couldn’t breathe. It was all fun and games until Boone started to cough.

“Shit, I’m sorry. You need your inhaler? Oh, man, is your glucose monitor okay? I didn’t mess it up, did I?”

He smiled at me. “I’m fine. But I really should get to work.”

“Okay. If I can find my clothes, I’ll get out of your way.”

“Shane?” He stopped me with a hand to my chest.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…did you have a good time? With me? Like, was it all right? Last night?”

I brushed back his hair and kissed him until he melted against me.

“It was incredible. Perfect. I’d love to do it again.”

He exhaled with so much relief, I frowned.

“Were you actually worried? Come on, Boone! Last night was?—”

“I just needed to hear you say it. It was one of my best nights. Being with you. Thank you.”

He sounded so unsure, I couldn’t believe it. How could he think I didn’t feel the same?

“It was one of my best, too, babe. It was perfect.”

His eyes flared. “Babe.” His cheeks flushed and he spun around in a circle. “Okay, what’s on your agenda?”

“Welp, a whole lot of business stuff. But hey, if you need me for that song?—”

“Oh, please. I’d love that. If you have time. And then dinner? I’ll have to find something to cover my neck.”

I rubbed at my mustache. “I’ll still know it’s there.” I glanced around at the room. He’d pretty much wrecked it before I came in, but we’d done more damage. “Never trashed a hotel room before. Guess being with you means really living that rock star life.”

He shrugged. “See if you can keep up.”

We split up after a few more kisses, a frantic search for my left shoe, and more kisses. Boone would say he needed to get into the shower, but then he’d grab me again, suck my bottom lip into his mouth and tease me.

I could get used to this.

I found Lydia at breakfast with Unice, and she and I made a game plan. First up, hire a new manager, then fire Jeff. That was easily done when she contacted her manager, Arthur Frye, who was a partner with the firm where Jeff worked. She laid out the tale and told him Jeff had conspired against me. Turned out Dean had already told Jeff the band wanted to quit, and he’d suggested they wait until the album was done so he’d get his cut. Jeff knew I’d be pissed when I discovered we were double booked with Stellar and he’d still let it happen.

Lydia found all this out from Rose, who’d heard Drew and Dean talking about it while she was taking a smoke break. Arthur assured me he would handle Jeff, which Lydia told me meant Jeff would be finding new employment. Arthur set me up with his protégé, Audra, and I immediately liked her.

“Don’t worry, Shane,” she assured me. “We can unfuck this situation.” She said she’d draw up an agreement and send it over and then we could have a longer talk.

Lydia and I spent the rest of the day listening to my demos together and talking over which ones had promise and which ones I should scrap. We were in complete agreement. There were only three that made the cut.

“I want to take advantage of this clean slate,” I told her. “I want to try some new ideas.”

That led to us jamming together for hours, and by late afternoon, we had the beginnings of two new songs.

Boone opened the door around four and peeked inside. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“Not at all,” I said, gesturing for him to come in as I got a load of his outfit. He was wearing a tight, almost sheer black button-up shirt with the top two buttons undone and those low-rise flared rust-colored corduroy pants. To finish off the outfit, he wore the pair of sparkly gold Converse high-tops he’d worn to the Rock Hall gig. Damn, he looked hot. He sidled up to me kind of shyly, smiling at Lydia.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him to me for a kiss, which made his cheeks all kinds of pink.

“This is quite a development,” Lydia said, hugging Boone. “I thought hickeys were, like, a middle school thing.”

The collar came up high, but my love bites peeked out when he moved. I liked it.

Boone blushed again but I pulled him against my side. “Can't help it. I get carried away with him.”

Boone’s eyes widened as if he were shocked I’d be so open. He had a lot to learn if he thought I would be closed-lipped about how I felt. Maybe with the press, but with friends and important people, he deserved my honesty.

“I just wondered if you were ready to meet Gran and Bruce?”

“What time is— Oh man, I lost track of time. Yeah, babe. Let me pack up.”

He smiled nervously and waited by the door. “I’m sorry to interrupt?—”

“No, no,” Lydia said. “Don’t keep them waiting on my behalf. Can’t wait to see what you guys put together for Rocktoberfest. I’ve heard it’s pretty wild out there in the desert.”

“We’re open to suggestions,” I said to her. “I gotta let the promoters know about the change. Audra said she could handle all of that. She’s awesome. Thanks for setting me up with her.”

Lydia clapped hands with me and pulled me in for a bro hug. “You got it, Butler. Nice work today.”

My heart felt so much lighter, and a lot of that was thanks to her.“Thanks for everything, Lydia. Seriously.”

She gave a bow and twirled her hand at me before waving to us and heading out the door of the cabin.

“I’m sorry if you weren’t done?—”

“Come here,” I said, standing from my stool. I held out a hand to him, and he took it. He stepped close to me with a timid smile. “Goddamn, you look good.”

He tucked his hair behind his ear and ducked his head.“Yeah, well, Gran is still going to have a coronary.”

“I’ll take full responsibility.” I leaned down to kiss him, and he gave a soft sigh that made my belly go liquid. All I wanted to do was get him back into his bed— “Oh, hey,” I said, lowering my voice. “Are you feeling okay?”

He stared at me blankly. “What do you mean? Yeah, my asthma’s been fine. My blood sugar was a little high this morning, but that’s not abnormal for me. Oh, you mean?—”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling a little awkward. It’s not like I was some hung beast or anything, but we’d gotten pretty intense last night, and I knew sometimes things—parts—were angry the next day.

He raised an eyebrow. “You mean am I suffering any aftereffects of being splayed out like a spatchcocked chicken and used heartily by one Shane Butler? Is that what you mean?”

I exhaled and planted my hands on my hips. “I see that smart mouth of yours has been working up to this moment, so please. Enlighten me.” I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing.

He crossed his arms and kicked out a hip. “I’ll have you know that no amount of stretching or CBD cream could come close to dulling the ache from doing the splits without properly stretching. Which is my fault, I really need to do better from now on.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Anything else bothering you?”

He licked his lips and looked me up and down before kicking his chin up. “No, actually. Someone took really good care of me, so besides being the slightest bit tender, I’m perfectly fine.”

“Good.” I stepped closer to him and ran a hand over his ass, cupping him gently. “That’s good to know. I take care of what’s mine.”

Boone looked up at me with those hypnotic ocean-blue eyes and his lids fluttered.“God, that’s hot,” he moaned. “But seriously. I feel mostly great. Just, ah,” he said, his gaze darting away. “I thought about you all day. I don’t want things to be weird or anything, but I wanted you to know.” He offered a nervous smile. Again with the skittishness.

“You’ve been on a constant loop in my head. Every call I made, every song I played, I wondered what would Boone think, or how would Boone sing this, play this… Is that weird?”

Boone beamed. “Not at all.” Then he shook himself. “We should probably get going. Did you need to?—”

“Yeah, let me run up and change real quick. Want to meet me in the bar? I’ll grab keys from Rose?—”

“Oh, I did already. Need help carrying anything?”

“Nope. Just going to lock up. Let’s go.”

He paused a second and put his hand on my chest. “You sure you’re okay?”

I put my hand over his and breathed easier than I had in a long time.

“I’m great, Boone. Really. Now let’s go be the grownups. I’ll tell you everything on the way.”