Chapter Sixteen

Cross

 

 

Not trusting Eric Drinkswine was becoming the overall theme of this tour, but I wasn’t going to let it fuck with what little time I got alone with Indie.

Once we finished eating and I paid, we stepped out of the restaurant into a light patter of raindrops dotting the cement. I’d been so focused on her while we’d eaten that I hadn’t noticed it had started to rain. I wondered if she had.

“I’ll call a cab,” I said.

Indie lifted her face toward the sky. We were covered by an awning, so while she was making her decision, we weren’t getting wet. The rain wasn’t even heavy—just constant small drops.

“How about we walk?” she asked. “I don’t mind getting a little wet.”

A cough caught in my throat, making it sound like I’d groaned at the implication of what she’d said. My reaction was more surprise than anything else and for a brief moment, a few thoughts of ways I could make Indie wet passed through my mind.

“Let’s go,” I said.

We set a decent pace and when we reached the corner, I slipped my hand into hers, locking our fingers. Just holding her hand, knowing she was close, made my chest swell.

But then the rain picked up and we started to jog. Just as we turned the corner nearest the arena, the sky opened up and unleashed a typhoon of rain onto us. We broke into a full run at the same time. The sound of Indie’s laughter as we pushed ourselves faster made the rain irrelevant. I didn’t care what was happening as long as she kept laughing.

The fans outside were huddling together under three awnings to try to stay as dry as possible as we ran past them and through the door of the venue. She looked like a drowned rat and I could only assume I did, too.

“Well, that was an exciting end to a day,” she said as she twisted her hair again and again to wring out the water.

“I should’ve called a cab.”

“No way. That was fun.”

A moment passed between us where she was looking up at me with a small grin and I took a step toward her. I reached up to cup the side of her face and brushed my thumb over her cheek. Indie didn’t break eye contact. A lot of the time, in awkward moments like a first kiss, one of the participants would look away nervously. There was nothing awkward about Indie, nothing nervous. Everything around us fell away and all I could see, all I could think about was getting my lips on hers.

“What the literal fuck?” Vince Cinderstone’s voice boomed down the corridor.

I yanked my hand back like we were fifteen and her dad had just caught us making out on the couch. Well, that was sort of exactly what was happening. Though we weren’t fifteen, he was her dad. Indie chuckled silently, her body shaking against mine, so I took a half step back.

“Hey, Dad,” Indie said with a smile as she turned to him.

“Where have you been?” he asked her, but he was looking at me.

“Dinner.”

“With him?”

“Dad.” She sighed.

“Indie, you didn’t say anything about leaving today.”

“I didn’t?” she asked. “I meant to. We just went to dinner.”

“Is this why you asked about dating someone in a band before?”

I turned to her with my eyebrows sky high. She noticed and shook her head at me. Had she been talking about me? And would she admit it?

“Can I answer that later?” she said instead while pulling at the hem of her soaking-wet shirt. Apparently, there were things that made Indie Cinderstone nervous.

“I guess,” Vince said, then he looked at me. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Indie’s face tightened, her lips formed a strained little line, and her eyes were wide. She began shaking her head slowly and took a deep breath as if she was about to say something. I didn’t need her protecting me from her father. If he wanted to talk to me about her or anything else, I’d talk to him. Because I wanted another date with her and this kind of thing was inevitable.

“Yeah,” I said back before she could argue.

“I’m going to get cleaned up before the show.” She took two steps toward me and leaned into me. “Seriously, thanks for today.” Indie pushed herself up onto her toes and kissed me on the cheek.

It was such an innocent nothing of a kiss and on the cheek no less. I would’ve preferred to give her a real kiss, but her dad was standing right there. Not really the time or the place. Later, I promised myself.

“So what’s up?” I asked Vince after Indie had walked away. I couldn’t help but watch her leave.

“Listen.” He glanced down the hall and folded his arms in front of him. “Indie’s my daughter and as her father, it’s my job to make sure you understand that if you hurt her, I have to break your neck. Don’t make me break your neck.”

I swallowed hard at the clear threat, but his voice didn’t sound menacing in the slightest. He sounded more matter of fact. As in, he’d actually break my neck if he needed to. Or have Dean do it. That guy could for sure break someone’s neck probably without having to think about it.

“It’s not like that,” I said shaking my head but keeping the eye contact.

He raised his eyebrows at me. “Not like what?”

“It was just dinner.”

He grimaced, then glanced around. “Just dinner, huh?”

“Yeah, I uh… owed her.”

“Owed her?” Vince’s face blanched at how that sounded.

“Calm down. There’s nothing weird here. We had a misunderstanding and I took her to dinner to make it up to her. Nothing more.”

“OK.” He nodded. “But my statement stands. If this”—he pointed his finger at me, then swung it over to the door Indie had just gone out—“turns into more than just dinner, then you hurt her, I have to break your neck. Don’t be a dick and don’t make me break your neck.”

“I promise not to make you break my neck. I like my neck.”

“Glad we have that settled.” Vince clasped his hand on the back of my neck and pulled me along with him as he walked down the hallway. “You should take a shower. You’re drenched and you wouldn’t want to look like a wet dog for your fans.”

“Yeah. I’d hate that,” I said dryly.

He didn’t let me go until we got to my dressing room. Maybe he thought I was going to follow Indie to the bus, where she was probably already naked in the shower. Nope. Not a good idea to think about that while her father had a firm grasp on the back of my neck.

“See ya later,” Vince said almost mockingly before I shut the door.

The door swung open again almost immediately. “Did you just get an escort from Vince Cinderstone?” Ransom asked, coming into the room.

“Something like that,” I said as I pulled my wet shirt over my head. We already had clothes in the dressing room for the show, so I could take a quick shower, then get ready.

“What’d you do? I thought we only had to worry about Drinkswine.”

“Ha. Ha,” I replied dryly. “I took Indie to dinner.”

He jerked his head back and his mouth gaped. “Oh, really?”

“Stop it. It was just dinner and to make things up to her for that first day.”

“Is that all?”

“Yeah.” That was the story I was sticking with. Even with Ransom, my best friend.

“Oh, good. Because she’s hot as hell and I was thinking it might be nice to have a regular hookup on the road.”

Flames of anger burst through my chest and my hand begged to punch him in the fucking face. Instead, I stepped into my best friend’s personal space, our noses almost touching, and said, “Keep your fucking hands off her, Ransom.”

Ransom smiled. He smiled right in my face. “Just dinner, huh?”

Then he walked away, leaving me wanting to kick my own ass. Son of a bitch, if I hadn’t just made it obvious that I was into Indie.

I guessed sticking with the ‘just dinner’ plan was completely out the window.