Chasing the Music: For the Love of Music Book 0.5 (24 page)

“Of course, yes.”

“I really am impossible, Griff. I don’t give people chances to explain. I can be a wreck before a show. I need to unwind after… I’m…”

He squeezed her hips. “I know you, Lita. I’m not afraid.”

She nodded once.

“What happened with Bridget?”

Lita sighed. “We need space from each other. I think that’s the easiest explanation.”

“So I’m supposed to sort of fill Bridget’s shoes.”

Her hands slid up his neck and her thumbs slid across his cheeks. “Sort of.  But I have one condition.”

“Only one?” he teased.

“Okay.” She rolled her eyes. “Maybe a few.”

He cocked a brow, waiting for her to continue, loving the closeness of her.

Biting her lip, she tried to hold in her smile. “There might be some sexual harassment involved in your job, if you’re up for it.”

“Isn’t that horribly politically incorrect of you?” he teased.

She grinned. “Yep.”

He squeezed his hands again, letting his fingers touch the warmth of her skin in that spot just above the waist of her jeans. The spot he vowed to kiss before long. Along with a lot of other places. “I’m up for it.”

“And I don’t… I don’t want to be afraid to tell you things. I don’t want to worry that I’m going to feel humiliated later. Like I did when Stacy came.” There was so much determination in her words. Force. Strength. All the things Griffin had seen in her right away, but that had taken Lita a while to recognize.

“And the one thing I learned with my split from Stacy is to be honest—even when you’re worried what the other person will think.”

“So that lesson goes for both of us, huh?” Lita asked. “This feels so…
real
, real.”

“Raw,” he agreed. “Which I think is good.” Or totally amazing because they were both moving into whatever they were going to be, fully aware of one another’s flaws.

Lita relaxed and sat on his leg and Griffin immediately wrapped his arms around her waist. This was okay now. The relief at holding her without the guilt helped give him the courage to place a kiss on her cheek. It felt new, but also comfortable in a way he never thought she’d feel.

“At the end of the tour, I’m going to give you a bonus, and you
have
to take it.” She pressed a finger to his chest.

He pulled back. “What?”

“I’m serious.” She leaned in closer and loosely wrapped her arms around his neck. He felt her warmth, breathed her in. Something light and floral and…sweet. His brain began to fuzz at the nearness of her. Of someone new. Of someone he could really see himself with—the adult version of himself.

“Yeah. Whatever.”

“So…” she trailed off, her lips amazingly close to his. “We have a deal then?”

“Yes.” Griffin slid his hands up her body, cupped her cheeks and carefully pressed his lips to hers, letting the feel of her run through him in a wave of heat. “We have a deal.”

Twenty-nine

Lita slumped in her backstage chair. “I just… The thought of the hair and spray and the stuff… It feels like too much tonight.”

“So leave your hair down,” Griffin suggested as he stood near the door. He may have been there to help Lita, but he also had the guitars to worry about.

She frowned into the mirror. “I’m not sure I can.”

“Of course you can. You’re Lita James.” He winked. “You can do whatever you want.”

A corner of her mouth pulled up. “I’ll go crazy with makeup then.”

Griffin gave her a short bow. “I have my phone. Text if you need anything else. I shall prepare the lady’s guitars.”

Lita snorted as she shook her head with a smile. “You’re such a dork.”

He blew a kiss at her. “You love it.” And stepped into the hallway. The local band was finishing up, so he had to hustle. So far he’d been managing well, and even Lita’s father had begun to send him texts to ask about his daughter. That was a closeness Griffin really wanted to have with the way he was felt about her.

“About time your lazy ass showed up,” Ryker teased as Griffin slid Lita’s guitar out of its case.

“Yep,” Griffin agreed. “About time.” For a lot of things.

Lita spoke into the mic just before she would normally do her last song. “I have this friend who takes care of my guitars, and takes care of me a little, and he wrote this killer song. Same guy who wrote the last killer song. Would you like to hear it?”

The crowd went insane, and even though the show was almost over, she had at least a little bit of energy left. Just days of eating healthier and she felt like a new person.

Lita glanced over at Griffin who was shaking his head.

The crowd went insane as she beckoned to him again.

“Come on, Griffin,” she sang.

In that second she knew that pictures of her and Griffin onstage the last time had flown over the Internet, even though she’d played him off as a nobody. This time she wasn’t going to play him off as a nobody and the pictures would really fly. She didn’t care. No matter how careful she was, someone was going to find fault or want to talk. That could not be the thing that drove her forward. At least not anymore. And her hair flying around her onstage had been a nice break from the stiff near-mohawk she’d had through the tour. He was right. There were a lot of things she had control over.

The crowd started chanting his name and he smiled wider and finally slowly ambled onstage.

They screamed so loud, Lita found herself covering her ears.

“Instead of doing my normal encore, me and Griff here are gonna sing you a song!” she yelled over the crowd. “It’s one he wrote for a friend back home, and I’ve only played this one once, and never for an audience, and never with Griffin, but we’ll
try
not to ruin it for you.”

More cheers.

Lita handed him a guitar and whispered, “I’m sure it’s tuned fine.”

“It is.” His eyes scanned the crowd and his hands shook as he sat. “What song are we doing?” His chuckle was nervous.

“The
I Still Love You
one, whatever it’s called.”

“That’ll work.” His voice almost squeaked, and she loved the idea that he was so nervous to be out there.

“Close your eyes if it helps.” She sat next to him and leaned over. “Ready?”

His eyes opened and he took in the crowd.

“Not ready at all,” Griff said into the mic with a chuckle. “There are a lot of you out there.”

The crowd laughed and she watched him roll his shoulders back, trying to relax.

Lita started in the pattern she’d done for his song, and Griffin’s voice started slow and sweet in the love song that was maybe now her favorite.

“
There’s still sand in my shoes…from the first day I met you…who knew then, we’d go this far…”

And then Lita tapped his leg with hers as a sign she was going to do the next verse. “…
there’s still a smile on my heart, drawn by you at the small town park…”

And when they started the chorus together, the crowd went totally nuts.

“…
And every day I know again, I still love you like I did back then…and I guess I always will…I always will…”

He grinned, bumped her knee with his, and she knew he was hooked. Just like she’d been.

When they finished she grabbed him in a sideways hug and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Yes. This had been a very, very, good idea.

Lita didn’t rush back to her dressing room like she normally did after a show. As soon as the crowd had left, she sat on the stage floor, her legs spread out in front of her while Griffin helped put away the guitars, cords, microphones…
all
the onstage stuff that went with her show.

His body buzzed from being onstage with her. Singing with her. Singing a song that was a much quieter version of Lita than her fans had seen. He’d loved every second of it…once he’d gotten past the terror.

Griffin reached his hand down toward her to help her stand. “I think my first official command after being dubbed your PA is that—”

“
Clearly
, you don’t know how this works,” Lita teased before placing one of Griffin’s potato chips in her mouth.

Griff didn’t even slow. “Come out with the band. To Denny’s. I’ve already talked to Apelu. He’s ready. He’s waiting. So’s the band. They like you, Lita. They just don’t know you.”

He saw the panic in her eyes as she stopped chewing.

“It’s okay. It’ll be fine.” He squeezed her hand and she finally let him help her to standing. “At least know them a little before your tour is over.”

“Yeah.” She stepped forward. “Okay.”

He slipped his arm around her waist, already determined to do everything with her the right way. The honest way. The best way.

Lita shared another story about her mother showing her father how to mow the lawn. He’d grown up with money, her mom had not, and the table laughed with her again. Griffin was so glad he’d talked her into this.

She grabbed Griffin’s knee under the table and squeezed, her smile splitting her face.

He also noted that she’d eaten more again. Her mind was somewhere else. Her non-eating was definitely stress-induced, but he was still beyond thankful she was getting help for it once she was home.

“Okay.” Ryker stood, stretching. “It’s three am and this gorgeous man needs his sleep.”

Griffin threw a napkin at his brother, and the guys all stood to leave.

Griffin snatched the check, but Lita slipped it from his fingers and paid quickly as the guys slapped her shoulder and thanked her with smiles. Her paying was something he’d probably never, ever get used to—a hazard of being raised in a small southern town.

But Lita beamed as she signed the credit card slip.

Total success.

Thirty

Griffin shook out his wet hair, the early morning sun already lightening the horizon. He’d dropped Lita at her room for a shower, and promised to check in with her again before crashing. Using the key card she gave him, Griffin slipped into the suite, moving around the small couch and toward her room.

He paused at her doorway—the moment he saw her standing next to her bed in a small black robe, rubbing a towel over her hair. Griffin’s head tipped sideways until his body rested against the doorframe. This simple, simple thing… No huge gesture in the world would ever compare to being the guy who got to have small moments with her—even though he was just looking in.

Her eyes trained on his and she smiled. “Oh, hey.”

“Just…um…checking in.” His eyes floated down her body again, her robe stopping about mid-thigh.

“Checking in, or checking me out?” she laughed lightly.

Griffin took a tentative step into the room. “Both?”

She dropped her towel on the corner of the bed. “I should be so much more tired.” Her eyes still held traces of the thick liner and mascara, but her hair was damp, her face clean, and she smelled amazing… He pulled in a lungful of air.

Stepping around him, Lita closed her bedroom door and paused behind him, resting the side of her face on his back and sliding her hands around his middle.

“Can I tell you something that’s maybe the most embarrassing thing ever?” Her arms tightened.

Griffin shifted to hold her against his front, but she was immovable, still resting against his back. Instead of moving, he placed his arms over hers. “I’d love to hear the most embarrassing thing ever.”

“I’ve only had sex once.
Ever
.”

Griffin blinked. Thought of the guys he saw her with in the papers, and in that moment, he knew now how much of that had been total BS. “That’s not embarrassing.”

Lita scoffed, still not moving her head from his back, the dampness of her hair moving through his t-shirt. “When you sing and pretend and talk as much as I do, it is embarrassing. And now here with you… It’s a little embarrassing again.”

Griffin unlocked her arms from his waist and turned to face her. “Please don’t be embarrassed with me. I had the same girl since I was fifteen and know more about hair dye, treatments, and chemicals than any man should ever know.”

Her cheeks dimpled. “That’s cute.”

“It’s…
something
.”

Laughing her quiet laugh again she leaned forward until her forehead pressed against his chest. “One more confession for tonight.”

His hands found her sides, her cotton robe tantalizingly thin and tried to concentrate past his body shifting. “One more,” he choked out a whisper.

“I want you.” Lita sucked in a breath, amazed she’d gotten out the words, but wanting him more than worrying about how she’d sound to him or how he’d take her words, or what might happen later. She wanted him to know what she wanted, even if it didn’t happen.