The Problem With Heartache (6 page)

“Carly.” Her voice was breathless as she backed right into the trunk. “What now?”

“Lower your left leg slowly—slowly—and the branch is maybe just a little longer than your”—
ridiculously toned, amazing-looking
—“leg.”

“Ah!” She gave a girly squeal as her leg flailed about, her grip on the branch tightening. I pursed my lips, but she quickly gained purchase on the branch and I breathed again. “Maybe … Oh God, I don’t know if I can do this!”

“It’s okay, Carly, it’s cool. You got this. Just slowly move your other leg, your arms to the trunk …”

She extended her other leg and moved her arms so they were wrapped around the tree trunk as she lowered herself onto the branch below.

I quickly ran around to the other side of the tree, positioning myself underneath her. I would catch her if she fell. I could do that.

“So, distract me. What are you doing here?” Her voice was riddled with tremors.

“I …” And for some reason, I told her the truth. “I’m in a band, and we just got sent out contracts for a record deal.”

“That’s”—she shimmied her arms around the tree trunk—“good.”

“Yeah … there’s just … there are a few things that make me nervous about it, you know?” I moved around the tree a little as she attempted to lower herself onto a branch on the other side. “The advance … I mean, what if we don’t sell and we can’t make it back? What if I can’t write any more songs?” I chewed on my lip. “Plus there’s this whole—whoa!” I braced my arms in a cup shape as she scrambled for footing on a particularly thin branch.

“Shit!” she cursed, then righted herself again and continued her descent.

“So yeah. There’s this clause, right, that says we can’t have any negative media attention. I mean, how the hell do I control what someone else prints about us?”

She finally put her hands on the bottom branch and lowered her body, her legs swinging beneath her. I wrapped my arms around her knees, and she let me take her weight, dropping from the branch and jerking her arms to my shoulders.

I slowly lowered her down my body. Hers was warm against me, her flat stomach, her boobs … God, they were close to my face. I scrunched my eyes shut.
Don’t be the creepy guy in the park who licks a stranger’s cleavage.

“Why are your eyes shut?” she asked, and I blinked my lids open. Her face was inches from mine, her green gaze penetrating me with its intensity.

“I …” I paused. Her breath was warm, and it smelt like fairy floss.

“Did you just sniff me?” Her lips twisted up in a smirk, and I felt my cheeks heat as I let my arms drop to my sides.

“Oh my gosh, you’re blushing!” She moved her hand to hold the back of it against my cheek. Her fingers were cool as they touched me. Her other arm stayed wrapped around my neck. “That is the cutest thing.”

Another wave of fire attacked my face. This girl, the things she was doing to me …

Carly licked that luscious bottom lip of hers. Her gaze turned from mischievous to serious all in a second.

It happened before I realised. One moment she was looking at me, studying me, the next her lips were pressed against my cheek, dangerously close to the corner of my mouth, soft, warm and sweet. My arms worked their way back around her, pressing her curvy body against mine. This kiss went on a little longer than it should have, her lips murmuring against my cheek, and even though it was such a minor thing, it was better than any kiss I’d ever had. It was fresh. It was cool.

It was different.

I liked different.

“Sorry.” She jerked away from me and pulled her arms back, retreating into a Carly bubble that I had no place entering.

“It’s fine, it’s—”

“No, it’s not okay.” She shook her head and ran her hand through her cropped, blonde hair. “I shouldn’t have—I’m sorry.”

Her eyes turned a dark green, the light in them extinguished. She turned around and started walking away. I stood there, my arms still extended, as if at any moment she might morph back into my embrace.

“Thanks for saving me,” she called over her shoulder. A smile had returned to her face.

“No worries.” My voice was empty, hollow.

I studied her as she darted around trees, walking back in the direction of the main road. Of life. Of the opposite to this alternate universe we’d just shared.

“Oh, and Lee? It is Lee from Coal, right?” My mouth parted. How did she know my name? “Take the damn deal. You guys are an incredible band.”

My eyes widened. She’d heard of us? We’d only played a few gigs, nothing major.

“Trust yourself. I sure do.”

She didn’t look back again.

She was all I could look at.

It was in that moment I knew. We had a connection. She’d made me laugh, made me smile, made me really think. She made me believe.

Carly and I were meant to be together.

Present day ...

“A
LL PACKED
?” I asked Kate. She pulled a large, grey suitcase through her narrow front doorway, and I smirked. Rookie error. Once she was on the road, she’d realise how cumbersome luggage of that size can be.

“Yep.” She smiled back. Her hair was piled high on her head in a topknot, and she was wearing denim shorts and an oversized soccer T-shirt. I stared at the insignia, trying to work out what team she supported.

“What?” She folded her arms across her chest and my eyes snapped back up to her face. Shit.
What if she thought I was staring at her boobs?
“I like to wear comfy clothes when I travel, okay?”

“It’s cool.” I shrugged. Her golden eyes gleamed at me. There was something captivating about them, something that made me so utterly incapable of looking away. They made me feel naked. Isolated. “Was just … forget it.”

“I’ll take that.” Benny stepped forward and grabbed her suitcase, turning and pulling it toward the car. Thank God someone was being a gentleman around here.

Kate’s parents hovered in the doorway. How had I missed them before? I hoped they hadn’t seen me staring at their daughter’s rack.
Way to instil confidence pre-overseas trip, dickhead.

“My baby girl!” Deborah pressed her lips together. There was a glossy sheen of tears in her eyes.

“Mum.” Kate wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist, resting her head on top of her shoulder. Deborah’s auburn hair splayed on top of Kate’s brown locks. It was sweet. Touching.

I couldn’t think of the last time I hugged my own mother like that. It had been too long. And I wasn’t entirely sure which of us to blame.

“You … take carrrrre of … my girl.” Paul, Kate’s father, staggered forward, extending an arm to me. I took his hand and shook it, a firm gesture. I wanted to impart as much solidity toward this man as I could.

I always used to think that with my dad. If I could just be steady and still enough around him, it would help him somehow get a grip on his own shaky problem.

Turned out, it often just made it worse.

“I will.” I nodded, smiling. “I’ll bring her home to you safe.”

He gave me a grin, then turned to Kate, arms outstretched. “C’mere,” he growled.

Kate launched into his embrace and closed her eyes, her eyelashes resting on her cheeks, a hug so tight I could see his shirt puffing out around her fingers on his back. Once again it hit me. She was such an amazing girl. Such a supportive daughter.

She has such sexy eyelashes …

I dug my finger into the pressure point on my palm.
Do not think sexy thoughts about Kate.

I was doing this to help her. To help her family. And I couldn’t hit on her, no matter how much I wanted to.

She was way too real for me to risk.

“I’ll email you … all the time,” Kate whispered in her dad’s ear.

I shuffled forward, scraping my shoes against the concrete footpath. Moments like that felt too private for me to overhear. After all, this was a very tight family.

Family. It was something I worked hard to protect.

Because I had to atone for ruining not one, not two, but three.

T
HINGS
I Have Learnt About Coal:

1. They are the least organised group of individuals I’ve ever met
   
2. This is despite them having a cast of thousands to help keep them in line
   

“Lee! Lee, I love you!”

“Can I get your autograph?”

“Come to New York!”

“Overwhelming, right?” Lee flashed me a grin, and I looked up at him and tried for a smile.

“Overwhelming would be one word for it.” I pulled my shoulder bag around so it rested closer against my body as one particularly confident fan reached out and touched it over the airport barricade. “Noisy would be my first pick though.”

“Ha! You get used to it.” Lee raised his hand, as if he was about to give my shoulder a rub, then jerked it back and scratched his head instead, as if he’d realised the error of his ways. Cameras flashed in the crowd, and I nodded. He was a smart guy. I’d no doubt that a picture of him with his hand on my shoulder would quickly go from Lee being a nice guy and comforting his new employee, to Lee Brings Home Aussie Souvenir on the front page of whatever gossip rag bid the highest for it.

“This way please, Mr Collins.” A big guy in a black suit opened a door that took us away from the screaming hordes in the airport terminal and over to a giant bus. The back of it was open, and guys in tanks and shorts were loading equipment in by the eerie white glow of several temporary floodlights. I spotted my suitcase being thrown in the back, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d been wondering how on earth we’d get our luggage from the baggage claim area and avoid getting mobbed at the same time.

The bus door was open and Lee half-walked, half-galloped up to it. He climbed the stairs and turned and waved to a few fans, who were craning their necks over a fence to see us.

“Bit of a joke, right?” A shoulder nudged mine, and I looked up at Xander, the drummer. His dark eyes flashed to the crowd in the distance and then landed back on me. He wasn’t smiling. His lips were thin.

“It is what it is.” I shrugged. “I mean, I guess you kind of have to play up to it, right?”

He looked at me, really looked at me, so penetratingly it felt as if he were seeing me naked. Or, as if he wanted to, anyhow. “I’ll protect you, you know. If you need it.”