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Mal shrugged and took his freshly poured mug of coffee back into the sleeping area.

Juliet just sighed and poked at the magazine between them on the table as if it were a dormant snake. “I’m sorry. I know you hate this.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is. I should’ve thought. I guess I’m still getting used to the paparazzi. Things with the band have just been so up and down that it’s hard to tell if we’re in or out this month. Most of the time, the press leaves us alone. Michael’s wild Vegas weekend wedding was our last big scandal.”

“I heard that,” Michael called from the other room.

“Maybe this isn’t a bad thing.” Randy touched the edge of the magazine. “If we try to see the bright side.”

“Oh yeah? What is that?”

Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed Molly was still twisting and bending so he rose and sat down in a chair beside Juliet. Whispered conversations seemed to be their best bet on this bus. “Tris gets itchy,” he murmured against her ear. “If we’re the public couple, that takes some of the heat off him.”

Juliet frowned. “What heat?”

“He likes being a bachelor.”

“So what? You think this way he gets to eat my cake and keep a slice on the side?” Immediately, she shook her head. “Maybe we should’ve laid down rules from the get, because no. No.” She pressed her lips together. “You haven’t done that.”

“No. But you’ve been the end goal all along.”

“What?” she asked softly.

Eh, fuck it. Might as well come clean.

Randy shrugged. “I guess you could say I was fixated, but I never thought I had a chance. You’re way out of my league.”

“No,” she said with the same amount of adamancy, touching his face until he had to meet her eyes. “You’re way out of my league, and I’m so lucky you don’t seem to know it yet.”

He smiled. “Don’t wait up on that one.”

“I won’t, because I don’t want you to ever wise up.” With a sigh, she snuggled against him as he curved his arm around her shoulders. “You know him better than I do.”

“Yeah, but not when it comes to this. We’re all on new ground, so I guess we’ll just keep feeling our way.” He tilted up her chin. “We’ve been doing pretty well so far.”

“Yeah, we have.” She returned his smile. “Wanna help me get dressed for rehearsal?”

“Change that to undressed and now we’re talking.”

She rose with a chuckle and held out a hand to him. Just as he was about to take it, his phone vibrated in the pocket of his jeans. He pulled it out and frowned. Derek was one of his head techs.

“Problem?” Juliet asked as he read the text.

“A small one, yeah. I gotta get over to The Fillmore. Sorry, babe.” He leaned toward her and gave her a quick kiss. It felt weird to not even try to be circumspect, though they’d clearly failed on that mission. “I’ll see you for dinner?”

“You know it. I’ll text you when I’m free.” She rubbed his chest before stepping back and giving him a little wave. A minute later, his shirt came flying through the doorway.

He caught it and laughed.

It was the last time he laughed until shortly before showtime. His day was long and stressful and the dinner he’d planned with Juliet fell by the wayside thanks to a short they couldn’t identify in the lighting grid. A whole section of bulbs had starte

d to misfire, and it taken them hours to sort through that mess. Then it had been time for soundcheck, which necessitated another series of checks on his end.

With the show looming, there was no time for breaks, and no putting things off. Not even for her. Not when the concert that mattered so much to her was on the line.

The band had shaken up their setlist and had added two new covers into the mix, showing off their grasp of music history. In an iconic venue like The Fillmore, that was necessary. Their opening act—well, the opening act that had been booked for The Grunge, before they’d bailed on the performance—did a lot of Guns ‘n Roses in their sets, so Warning Sign intended to ride the high of the audience knowing those songs.

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