Closing my eyes, I let her comfort wash over me. At least there was one person on earth who gave a shit about me.

Chapter 3

No Rest for the Awesome

Anna talked me into staying for rehearsal. She said I could play with her lady parts when we got home if I sucked it up and stayed. I think she was hoping we’d all get over the argument before we called it quits for the day, and then we’d all be best buds again. Her plan might have worked too, except I purposefully stoked the chip on my shoulder and goofed off the entire practice. Matt yelled at me three times to pay attention, but I didn’t care. They’d already said I didn’t respect the art form and they were never going to give me an opportunity to change their minds, so I might as well live up to their expectations. Or lack of expectations.

By the time we parted ways, everybody was frazzled and irritated. Good. I shouldn’t be the only one. Matt scampered out of the room the second we were done, Evan following closely on his heels. When I was alone with Kellan, he let out a long sigh. “Was that you letting it go, Griffin? Because you seemed to be doing everything you could to piss Matt off. You were even more obnoxious than usual, which is really saying something.”

I shook my head at him. “I never said I was going to let this go. And besides, Matt’s the one with the stick up his ass. Maybe the band should pool together and have it surgically removed.”

Kellan let out another weary exhale. “He’s under a lot of stress right now. Maybe you could see things through his eyes for once, and cut him some slack.”

Scoffing, I tossed out, “Because of the proposal thing? If just the idea of taking the plunge is turning him into such a douche, then maybe he shouldn’t propose to Rachel. Not everyone is meant for married life.”

“What?”

A soft, squeaky voice to our left drew Kellan’s and my attention that way. Rachel was standing there, holding her laptop to her chest and looking like she might pass out. Her eyes were wide as she stared at us, shocked. Great. “Fuck,” I muttered while Kellan gave Rachel a nervous smile.

“Hey, Rach…didn’t see you there,” Kellan said, running a hand through his famous hair.

Rachel stepped forward with just one foot, like she was afraid to get any closer. “Matt is going to propose?” she asked, her eyes sparkling with hope. It was clear, even to me, that she was going to say yes when he did ask her.

Still irritated about today’s events, I told her, “He was going to, but then he realized he couldn’t handle being tied down to just one girl, so he changed his mind.” There, Matt. How does having a dream snatched away from you feel?

Kellan snapped his eyes to mine, and I glanced at him with a What? expression. Matt asked for this.

Rachel sniffed, and I looked back at her. Her eyes were filling with tears. Damn it. If she talked to Kiera or Jenny, and they talked to Anna, Anna was gonna kill me for saying that. Trying to save myself from getting my ass handed to me, I quickly amended with “But hey, if you don’t say anything to anyone, maybe he’ll change his mind again. He’s a wishy-washy asshole like that.”

Twin tears rolled off her cheeks and she looked down to hide her face. “I better…get Matt his stuff. He left it behind.” She grabbed a jacket and a set of keys on a nearby table.

Elbowing his way around me, Kellan started saying, “Rachel, wait…” but the chick was fast. She was out the door before he could finish.

Looking back at me, he shook his head. “What did you just do?” he muttered, his voice disbelieving.

Pursing my lips, I shrugged. Got Matt back. Kind of. “What? At least now it will still be a surprise when he asks her.”

Kellan’s lips twisted in annoyance. “Yeah, if she doesn’t break up with him first.” I shrugged again. Wasn’t my problem. That was something for the lead guitarist to worry about, and that was clearly never going to be me. Kellan scrubbed his eyes. “I have a headache…”

While I was pissed off at Matt, I was all right with Kellan; at least he’d tried to make peace with me. In thanks, I gave him a helpful hint for his migraines. “You should have more sex. Works for me, I never get headaches.”

He frowned at my suggestion. “I’m going to go find Rachel and attempt to fix this. Stay here, and try not to piss off anyone else.”

With a mocking salute, I barked, “Aye, aye, Captain.” He rolled his eyes before he left. I waited a minute and a half, then I left to go find my wife and daughter so we could go home. Kellan had never said exactly how long I needed to stay there, and ninety seconds seemed more than adequate. Besides, he was perfectly capable of smoothing things out with Rachel. He was on the job. He’d work his Kellan Kyle magic on her, and she’d forget everything I’d just said, and all would be right in the world. Except she’d still be marrying Matt…the prick who was holding me back.

The next morning I was still fuming, but I decided to take Kellan’s suggestion and let it go. Whatever. Matt was just being Matt. I could rise above. I’d been doing it my whole life. Besides, never didn’t always mean never. I’d just have to be more creative if I wanted to shine. And if I was anything, it was creative. Just ask my wife.

Rachel didn’t show up to the next few rehearsals. Matt said she was busy helping Jenny with her grand opening, but Kellan pulled me aside and told me that she was ticked about what I’d said and didn’t want to see me for a while. Whatever. Like a typical girl, she was totally overreacting.

“She knows he’s going to ask, but she doesn’t know when, so don’t say anything, okay? Maybe we can still keep part of this a surprise.” Kellan pinched the bridge of his nose like he had another headache. Guess he still wasn’t getting laid enough then.

Shrugging, I told him, “Not a problem. I don’t know when he’s gonna ask her either.” And I didn’t really care. Why should I invest in Matt’s life if he wasn’t going to invest in mine?

Dropping his hand, Kellan gave me a blank stare. “The gallery opening. Remember? We’ve discussed this so many times…” Holding his hand up, he stopped talking. “Never mind. Just try not to say anything to anyone for the next week or so, okay?”

I zipped my mouth shut with my fingers and nodded. I could be quiet when I needed to be, and not talking to the guys right now was fine with me.

The week before tour, Matt was all nervous and shit, so he cancelled rehearsals. I almost told him it didn’t matter, that Rachel already knew the proposal was coming and I was pretty sure she was going to say yes when he finally got the balls to ask her. He didn’t need to stress out about any of it. But then I remembered the look on Kellan’s face when he’d asked me to stay quiet. It was a look that clearly said, I know asking this is pointless, since you’re just going to find a way to mess it up, but here goes…It was an expression I had seen on him one too many times, on all the guys. None of them had any faith in me. Fuckers. Well I would show them. I wouldn’t spoil anything. All I would do was thoroughly enjoy every minute of my newfound free time.

And there was nothing I liked better than killing time with Gibson and Anna. Especially Anna. She was randy as all get-out lately, constantly touching me, massaging me, whispering dirty things in my ear. Keeping her satisfied was almost a full-time job. A fucking fantastic full-time job.

“Yeah baby…play with yourself, just like that…”

Anna was straddling me on the bed, teasing me by rubbing my cock against her soaking wet pussy. The look on her face was needy, like she was going to explode if I didn’t sink inside her soon. I felt the same way. She was riling us both up by only giving me a brief taste of what I wanted. I fucking loved it. “Yeah, just like that…”