Nobody Falls for the Opening Act (Break the Rules Book 2)

Chapter 14

Isqueeze into the dressing room between Knox and Jonah, almost immediately bumping into a large vase as I go. The room is filled to the brim with them, vases and pots sitting upon every surface stuffed with bright yellow roses.

“Who ordered the flowers?” I ask.

“Nobody,” Harmony says as she steps inside, her face pale. “This has Logan Shock written all over it.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Because he sent me a dozen roses just like these back in Portland.”

The rest of them trickle in behind us. Knox beelines straight for the bundle sitting on the coffee table in the middle of the room and snatches up the card lying there.

“For our favorite band,” he reads aloud, annoyance dripping off every word. “Break a leg tonight. We’ll see you in Austin. Love… The Electrics.” He tosses the card to the floor. “Can we get a garbage guy in here, Jordan? Our dressing room is covered in trash. And bugs.”

Jordan is nowhere to be seen, but Chrissy nods from the doorway. “She’s already on it, Knox,” she says.

“Fantastic,” he replies as he slides a vase off the table’s surface. It plummets directly into a trash can and shatters.

Katrina approaches the vanity next to me, her eyes soft on the bouquet sitting on top. “Bugs?” she asks.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Knox asks. “Fucker is probably listening to us right now.”

Katrina slides a yellow rose free and brings it to her nose. “You can’t be serious, Knox.”

“Oh, I’m serious,” he says, his face suddenly very serious. “That glam rock piece of shit secretly recorded my girlfriend and leaked it to Gossipa. I’m not about to give him the chance to do it again. In fact, everybody out.” He waves us toward the door. “I want this entire room scrubbed before the show. And whoever delivered the flowers fired.”

“You can’t have a delivery person fired, Knox,” Jonah says. “They were just doing their job.”

“Well, then I want the next slice of pizza they eat to be a little too hot, so it burns the roof of their mouth.”

I snort. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

Knox walks over to Katrina and snatches the yellow rose out of her hand. “Out,” he says, waving us away and crushing the flower in his palm.

Katrina gives him a glare before we all shuffle out. While we do, Jordan returns with a security guard and a few jumpsuit-wearing janitors to clear the room.

I bite my cheek in thought as I watch them work. “Anyone else get the sneaking suspicion we’re being duped?” I ask the band.

They all look at me curiously. Even Harvey, who”s been silently lingering nearby this entire time with August, pretending he’s not staring at me.

I was just giving you a goodnight kiss.

A friendly goodnight kiss between… friends.

I smother the smile that stupid little memory wants to bring as Knox asks me, “How so?”

“We weren’t even going to do the BNB Fest until Prissy mentioned it,” I say. “Now, we’ve got a dressing room full of flowers and a card taunting us about it.”

“Yeah.” Knox scans the others for clues. “So?”

“So… Logan clearly wants us to be there.”

“You think he’s planning on doing something at the festival,” Jonah says, getting it.

I nod. “Question is: what?”

“And why?” Katrina adds.

“Because he’s a fucking asshole,” Knox says pointedly.

“Okay, sure, but?—”

“No buts, Kat.” Knox shakes his head. “I know you’re all about seeing the good in people, but there’s no good in Logan Shock.”

Katrina looks down. I give her a comforting rub on the arm, which she accepts with a nod. She really is far too precious for this world, but that also might be just the thing that saves us all someday.

I glance at Harvey without thinking, and he looks away.

“Okay, guys,” Jordan says from the doorway, her trusty clipboard at her side. “Let’s all just chill. Take a few breaths and stick this on the backburner until after the show.”

“She’s right,” Bronson says.

We all look at him, surprised he’d even speak up here at all.

Jordan smiles pleasantly. “Thank you, Bronson.”

He nods before walking back into the cursed dressing room, ignoring Knox’s glare as he goes.

Harmony gives Knox’s hand a squeeze. He looks at her, and she smiles, somehow melting the stiffness in his shoulder. Without a word, he exhales hard and Harmony curls her arms around him before they kiss each other softly.

“All right,” he says, thoroughly taken over by some of that ooey-gooey romantic goodness I keep reading so much about. “Let’s go put on a show.”

Jordan claps once. “Yes!” she says, thrilled to move on. “Let’s go.”

I stand still as the others walk back into the room.

Behind me, I hear August telling Harvey that he needs to get warmed up. “Yeah,” Harvey replies. “I’ll, uh… be right with you.”

“With me… where?” August asks.

“I’ll meet you in the place I’m gonna warm up, okay?”

“What?”

“Dude, just?—”

I hold in a laugh as August finally takes the hint and leaves him alone.

A few seconds later, Harvey approaches me with his hands in his pockets. “Well, this is exciting,” he says.

I shrug. “Pretty typical night on the road so far.”

“Ah. So, this is just a taste of what I have to look forward to, huh?”

“Stay in the game long enough, you’ll meet your nemesis, too.”

“Cool.” He nods. “So, do you need to get changed or…?”

“I got dressed at the hotel.”

“Right. Of course. And you still look hot, by the way. Great,” he corrects himself. “You still look great.”

“Thank you.”

Harvey swallows. “I like your boots.”

I glance at them. “They’re really nice boots.”

“They are, yeah.”

“You okay, Harvey?” I ask, allowing myself to smirk.

“Who, me?” He nods. “Yeah, I’m great!”

“You seem nervous.”

“Nah. I mean, yeah. A little. Performance anxiety and all that.” He lurches. “Not that I’ve got problems performing or anything. I just meant?—”

“I know what you meant.”

“Right. Yeah.” He doesn’t move. “I still get a little nervous before going on stage.”

“You’re gonna be great, Harvey,” I say. “You always are.”

He looks down. “That actually means a lot. Coming from you, I mean. You’re a really great performer. I’ve learned a lot from you.”

“Thanks. You know, I still get nervous before going on, too.”

“Really?” he asks, surprised.

“Sometimes.”

“I thought you’d be used to all this by now.”

“I am. But it doesn’t matter how prepared you are or how much you’ve practiced. Anything can happen on stage.”

Harvey takes that in. “Anything can happen on stage,” he repeats.

“Sorry if that freaked you out even more,” I say, realizing I might have made him more nervous than he already was.

“No, that’s…” He smiles. “That helps.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s freeing, kind of,” he says. “There are things outside of my control. If something goes wrong, it goes wrong. Doesn’t mean it’s my fault.”

“Exactly.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“It’s kinda like what you were talking about last night,” he says. “Beneath the stars, you’re free, right?”

I glance around for eavesdroppers. “Yeah.”

He notices. “Sorry,” he says as he mimes a key on his mouth. “I’ll, uh… keep that to myself.” Before I can reply, Harvey takes a step back. “I’m gonna go catch up with August.”

I nod. “See you at shot time,” I say.

He bows his head and turns to leave.

“Hey, Harvey.”

He instantly snaps back around. “Yeah?”

“You still owe me that rematch.”

Harvey smiles, showing a little blush in his handsome cheeks. “I haven’t forgotten,” he says.

He turns and walks away.

I take a breath, shaking off the strange jitters in my stomach before making my way back into the dressing room.

Inside, I watch as Knox inspects the yellow roses one-by-one as the janitors try to get them shuffled out as quickly as possible.

And in the corner, I spy Katrina silently plucking a single rose free from a bouquet and gently hiding it away in the pocket of her sundress.

Yeah.

She’s far too precious for this world.