Drew smiled, some of the worry melting away from his face. He kissed me softly. “I’ll work through this, Ellie. I promise.”
“I know you will. But right now, you have a rehearsal to get to.”
With a sigh, he reached over to pick up the pieces of paper he’d been studying when I arrived. “What’s that?”
Drew fanned the pages out in his fingers. “Song lyrics for the new album.”
“Ooh, can I see them?” I reached out to grab them, but Drew was too quick.
“No,” he answered, whipping them out of my grasp and opening the door. “You’ll have to wait a while. We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
We stepped out into the corridor. “Fine. While you’re working, maybe you could write a song about me.”
His eyes, which a second ago were heavy with worry, flashed with mischief. “What makes you think I haven’t already?”
Drew took advantage of my stunned silence to kiss me. I gently sucked his bottom lip, reinforcing exactly how much I wanted him. How much I wanted to do this with him forever. He let out another groan, forcing us to remember where we were. We both glanced up and down the hallway but, thankfully, there was nobody in sight.
“Yeah, I need to go right now.” Drew straightened up. “I don’t trust myself to stay any longer.”
“Me neither.”
The rest of my afternoon was spent on the phone to my mum, telling her my good news, then trying to work out how to pretend nothing had changed between Drew and me when we were around other people.
As it turned out, I didn’t get enough time with Drew for pretending to be a problem. I was late to the pub and after I fought my way through to the backstage area, there were only a few minutes until they started their set.
“Ellie!” Mack threw his arms around me. “Drew told us you got the illustrator job. Congratulations!”
Joey patted my arm. “Proud of you, Ellie. Let me know when I can buy a copy of the book.”
“Yeah, me too,” Mack added.
A vision of two long-haired rockers intently reading a book about a lost bunny sent me into a fit of giggles. “I’ll definitely let you know.”
“Are you ready to go?” Jason leapt to his feet.
The guys confirmed they were indeed ready, but before they headed for the door, they all paused, exchanging und
erstanding glances.
“This is it,” Jason said. “Our last small gig.”
Mack nodded. “I can’t believe how much things are going to change.”
“Or how much they’ve already changed,” Joey pointed out. “We can’t walk down the street without someone following us.”
“And this is only the beginning. From now on, we’ll be playing huge, sold out venues, and fighting women off with a stick.”
“Speak for yourself!” Mack laughed. “I’ve got a woman, and I don’t plan to swap her!”
“What about you, Drew?” Jason asked. “Are you ready for groupies sneaking into your dressing room?”
“We’ll have security for that kind of thing.” Drew’s eyes narrowed. A strange bubble of tension surrounded them, and then burst as if nothing happened.
What the hell?
“I’d welcome any groupie who wanted to enter my room.” Joey grinned.
Some colourful banter followed, but I blocked it out, wondering what was up with Drew and Jason. I shot Drew a questioning look, but he shook his head, as if to tell me it was nothing. Rubbish. It might only have been for a split second, but I saw it. I just didn’t know what it was.