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His cell buzzed before he’d completed the second thing.
Heaving out a breath, he headed back into the bedroom and grabbed his phone off the nightstand. Ryan Waters, his favorite bandmate. Most of the time, he was his favorite anyway. When he wasn’t pissing him off by being so damn together all the time.
Fuck, was he late for rehearsal? He was almost sure it wasn’t until five. They’d be up late anyway, so no one wanted to start working early.
Except Ry. That guy made the early bird look like a slacker for not pulling an all-nighter.
“What’s up? You mad at me because I didn’t camp out in the rehearsal hall?” Michael asked, returning to the bathroom. Maybe he could finish his freaking shave. The halfway scruffy look wasn’t doing him any favors.
He’d just picked up his straight razor—he was all about the old school when it came to shaving—when Ryan’s desolate voice came over the line.
“Dude, I’m out. I can’t play.”
“What do you mean you can’t play?” Michael gripped his razor hard enough to open up a line in his palm. He barely felt it even as blood trickled down his wrist. “We have Vegas tomorrow night. Our biggest fucking show yet.”
“I sprained my hand. I’m out. Doc says I won’t be able to play the drums for weeks, depending how I heal.”
Michael couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. “What the hell happened?”
“That doesn’t matter right now. Man, we’re fucked.”
Chapter 2
Fucked in every way but the one that included an orgasm. Yeah, that about summed it up.
“I went biking, you know down at Shelby Ridge? Those crazy paths, up through the woods, and when I came down—” Ryan broke off.
“When you jumped down, you mean. With your bike. Because you’re a crazy motherfucker.”
His best friend cleared his throat. “Correct on all counts.”
Michael tried to relax the tension in his spine. It had been an accident. Stuff happened. He couldn’t say Ryan hadn’t granted him the same courtesy after his own numerous fuckups.
They’d been friends since the first day of college at Caltech, when they’d found themselves in the same engineering seminar and wondering why they’d thought that was the right career path when all they wanted to do was play music.
Michael knew why he’d been there, of course. Controlling, overbearing father, need to please, yadda yadda, pass the therapy bill. Next.
Ryan, though, had been battling his own concerns that music wasn’t a viable choice. His family had a business repairing instruments, and he’d always had a skill with them, but he’d fallen into the “I should be doing something more” trap. Especially since he had a genius level ability with math and science, which actually explained some of his ability to play just about any instrument since math and music were way more linked than most people realized.
It had taken them a few miserable, drunken months to realize that nothing mattered more than music and friendship and family, and making something out of all three. They were still trying, still finding their way, but they’d come far from those usually hungover, often philosophizing jerks they’d once been.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t kick Ryan’s ass for screwing up the best opportunity they’d had yet to make their mark.
“I get that biking is a release for you. I get you’re a thrill seeker. But did you really have to do that shit right before the biggest show we’ve ever done?”
“I know, man, I know.” Ryan’s voice lowered. “I was going to call Lila, but I figured maybe you could? Since you have the in.”
Michael dropped his razor and hung his shoulders, laughing at the absurdity of his life. It was either that or get rip-roaring drunk, and he wasn’t about to do that before rehearsal. He had standards, dammit. “Not sure you’ve noticed, but Lila isn’t too thrilled with me lately.”
“Because you’ve been on hardcore pussy patrol.”
“I wouldn’t say that, necessarily.”
“Uh, Tabitha Tremaine? Does that name ring a bell?
“One girl is not hardcore pussy, hate to tell you, bro. If it is for you, then maybe you need to up your game.”
“My game is on point. And all the rules go out the window when you’re banging a senator’s girlfriend and it’s all over the news. You can’t even say the band’s name without someone mentioning how Senator Dickless wants to take you out.”
