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‘I haven’t told her yet. I have to ring her in the morning.’
‘She’ll be fine with it. Think she’s given up worrying about who we’re seeing. First public event though. Is Chloe prepared for what that means?’
Tate opens the crisps and stares into the bag. ‘Don’t think it’s sunk in yet. Not properly. We haven’t been out in public together. Just hope it doesn’t freak her out and scare her off.’
‘Hey. It’ll be grand, okay. We’ll keep an eye on her on Saturday. There’s no way she’ll be overwhelmed with all the celebrity bullshit with us four louts hanging around her.’
Tate has to laugh at that. Dillon has a point. ‘I just wanted to bring her. Let her experience one event like this in case we’re not nominated again.’
Dillon, Gregg, and Luke look at each other then over to him. Gregg holds up his glass. ‘We started this band in your parents’ barn. A few years later we’re headlining venues that hold thousands. No award is going to change that.’
Dillon taps his glass against Greggs, followed by Luke. They look over at him again and Tate slowly clinks his glass against the others. ‘Thanks.’
Gregg waves the comment away. ‘Don’t go getting all mushy on us. Besides, there’s nothing to say we won’t clean up this year. Chloe could be our good luck charm for the evening.’
‘Could be. So no more talking about dares or anything I may or may not have done in my past. The last thing I want to do is send her running for the hills... again. I’m already on my last life with her. I don’t need any more help messing things up.’
‘We’ve got your back, Tate,’ Dillon says. ‘She’ll never know about the karaoke bar incident. I promise.’
‘Don’t even joke about that.’
Gregg shakes his head and looks over at Tate. ‘Now I wouldn’t just go agreeing to that so fast, Dillon. I reckon we should see how much it’s worth for us to keep that particular embarrassing incident from Chloe?’
∞
Chloe tucks the duvet around herself and breathes in Tate’s seriously intoxicating scent. He’s still downstairs with the others but it sounds like they’re wrapping things up. She smiles as they burst into laughter. Tate’s deep rumble is clearly audible among all the others.
The last two days have been incredible, but she knows it has to come to an end. She’s starting work in a few weeks and he’ll be doing whatever he normally does when she’s not around to distract him. The new album will be released soon and from the conversations tonight, the second leg of the tour he had to cancel will be rescheduled for the upcoming months. That’s something she doesn’t want to think about at the moment.
She has no idea how touring works. She doesn’t know if he’ll be leaving for months and won’t be back until he’s finished or if he’ll be back every few weeks. She presumes he’ll stay in contact but will he give her his schedule or timetable or plan so she’ll know what city he’s in? Or what country. It’s all so alien to her.
And that’s before she gets to the whole famous singer part of the equation. Screaming fans. Meet and greets. Autographs. The dreaded groupies.
If she allowed herself to think about all that, she’d head down a rabbit hole she wants to avoid. She still hasn’t quite got her head around the fame part. It hit her again when he asked her to go to the awards evening with him. She doesn’t think of him as famous. It would have been a great idea not to actually ask if she would meet any famous people. Another comment to go down on the ‘Did you really say that, Chloe?’ list.
She hears footsteps on the stairs. Tate told her the guys always stayed the night when they came over. Probably because, in the past, they would have had a few drinks. The fact that all of them had stuck to soft drinks is a testament to their friendship. She seriously doubts Tate would have stopped them if they’d wanted a drink, but they hadn’t even suggested it.
As much as she doesn’t want to, she should probably go home tomorrow too. If she doesn’t get some clean clothes, he’s going to kick her out himself. Either that or insist she ditches her clothes altogether.
The door opens and she smiles as he locks it behind him. Tate undresses, his impressive body silhouetted in the dim light from the bedside table. He climbs in beside her and she wraps her arms around him.
‘I thought you were asleep. We didn’t keep you up with all the racket did we?’
‘No, you didn’t. I think I dozed off for a bit. Has everyone gone to bed?’
‘Yeah. They’ll be off early enough in the morning.’
‘I don’t think there’s anything for breakfast for them.’
‘Coco Pops. Always plenty of Coco Pops.’
‘Of course. How stupid of me. I was thinking I probably should go back to Gran’s tomorrow.’
He sighs and rolls onto his back, pulling her close to his chest. ‘I was kind of expecting you to say that. Guess I can’t keep you locked away in here forever no matter how much I want to. I can bring you back in the morning after the guys leave. I probably should sort things out with my folks too before they change the locks and completely disown me. I’m really not looking forward to that conversation.’
He kisses her on the forehead and tucks the duvet around them.
‘Tate? Can I ask you something?’
