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All I could do was promise myself I’d attempt to pry something out of her before Christmas.
* * *
The rest of the rehearsal was phenomenal.
We put the finishing touches on “Symphony of the Broken” in less than two hours. It came together so well we had to sit down and vote on whether or not to add it to the upcoming set list. That was how great it felt to play it as a five-person unit. I’d thought it sounded good with two of us on the piano, but with the rest of the instruments? It was going to blow people away. Hell, I was already itching to make this a single. If we could cross the rock and pop barriers, we’d have a very big hit.
My thoughts were swirling with the possibilities, but first we had to get through the holidays.
“We can put it in instead of ‘Cool Off,’” Z was saying as I tuned back in to the conversation. “That’s a fun one, but this one could potentially hit. Chicks love these broken-hearted heavy ballads. Especially when King gets all gravelly and raw.”
“That’s an idea,” I agreed, ignoring his comment as I glanced at Devyn. “What do you think, Dev? You want to play it live?”
“But no one knows it,” she said with a slight frown. “And people want to hear the stuff they love at shows like this. From a fan’s perspective, I get frustrated when I go to see a band I love and they play shit I don’t know.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, but this would be one song out of fifteen. And we throw new songs into the mix all the time. That’s partly how we decide whether or not they make it on to an album. We test them. And this one will resonate. Believe me, they’re going to love the fact that no one else has heard it yet. Trust me.”
I seemed to say that to her a lot, and she must have been thinking the same thing because her eyes twinkled when they met mine.
“You know I do.”
“Perfect. So, we’ll revamp the set for those last couple of rehearsals after Christmas and see how the fans react.”
“Then we’ll need a piano if we want to do it right,” Devyn said. “Can we make that happen at the eleventh hour?”
Tommy snorted. “Do you even know Kingston Knight? He can make fucking anything happen. He snaps his fingers and people jump to attention.”
I grinned. “I’ve been toying with the idea for a month or so anyway. So fingers snapped a while ago.”
“Sasha and Ross are going to kill you,” Tommy said, laughing.
“Ross already had a head’s up that I might want to go that route and Sasha doesn’t care. We’re not spending her money.”
We talked logistics for a few minutes and then everyone got ready to go, since Tommy was flying home to Wisconsin to see his family, Kellan had plans with friends, and Z and Presley were hosting a Christmas Eve open house. I was flying to Fort Lauderdale to spend a few days with my family, and my mom and younger brother would be there too. I’d been trying to convince Devyn to come with me, but she didn’t want to leave Greatty and said two back-to-back trips would be too much for her. The trip to London was more important, so we’d made the difficult decision to spend Christmas apart.
“I really hate leaving you at Christmas,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her once we were the only ones left at the studio. She moved against me, winding her arms around my neck.
“It’s just a few days,” she said softly, pretty blue eyes searching my face. “You’ll be back on the twenty-seventh, and we all leave for London on the twenty-ninth.”
We’d decided to leave a day earlier than originally planned since we had so many friends and family members flying on the private jet with us.
“I know, but it’s our first Christmas.”
“How did rock and roll’s biggest playboy become the world’s sweetest boyfriend in two months?” she demanded.
I’d been wondering the same thing the last few weeks.
“I dunno,” I said aloud.
“Send my best to your family,” she said. “Tell them I’m looking forward to meeting them.”
“You’re going to meet them via video,” I replied. “You don’t think you’re going to open your presents without me watching?”
“You bought me presents? Plural?” She looked horrified.
I laughed. “Duh.”
“Kingston! I didn’t get you anything. I thought we’d do something special in Europe or—”
