Chapter Four

Cross

 

 

I really wished Dean hadn’t told me Indie was going to be at lunch with her dad. Vince Cinderstone—well, all of Kissing Cinder really—was intimidating enough without me being a dick to his daughter. And if he knew some of the thoughts that had run through my head since seeing her that last time… yeah, I’d be dead for sure.

Obviously, I’d been irritated during both my run-ins with her, but even that irritation couldn’t dim how beautiful she was. The fact that she hadn’t backed down to me or Drink took her beauty to a scorching level. And Drink could be scary. He was too big and too dumb to know when to back down.

“You ready?” Ransom asked, cutting through all the shit in my head.

“Yeah,” I said, giving my hair one last ruffle.

“Nervous?”

“Why the fuck would I be nervous?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, opening the door to our bus. “A certain blonde hottie who Drink may have indicated was a groupie?”

Fuuuuck. He had done that. “That asshole is gonna get us all in trouble.”

We stepped out into the sun. I slid on a pair of sunglasses as we went to join Drink and Dixon in the van that would take us over to the restaurant Vince had arranged.

“Yeah,” Ransom finally agreed. “We might want to start low-key looking for a bass player.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you honestly think it’ll be long before he fucks up so bad, we can’t keep it quiet?”

My stomach clenched. That was what we all feared and if we started looking now, we wouldn’t be left in the lurch.

“You’re not wrong,” I said. “Maybe we could talk to Lawson. He’d keep it quiet.”

Ransom nodded as we approached the van and the door opened, almost slamming into him as he leaned into to grab the handle.

“Get your bitch asses in here already. I’m starving,” Drink called out to us.

“We’ll do it later today,” I said before we climbed in.

Lawson got in the front passenger side and turned to look at us as the driver pulled out. He loved to use travel time, when we were all together in one vehicle, to cover band notes or lecture us. Which meant lecture Drink. The rest of us had a hell of a lot of fun, but we were also professionals when it came to the band.

“Best behavior guys, yeah?” Lawson said, but he looked hard at Drink in particular.

“Yes, Mother,” Drink said back.

“I’m serious. Cinderstone’s daughter joins us today and I want manners and everything.”

“Oh, we’ve met his daughter,” Dixon said with a chuckle. Lawson’s eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. He absolutely did not like Dixon’s tone.

“When?”

“Cross tried to kick her out of the venue,” Dixon said with a laugh.

“What?”

I rolled my eyes and slapped the back of Dixon’s head. “It was a misunderstanding,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.”

Lawson raised an eyebrow at me. I wasn’t usually the one he had to worry about. I didn’t often sleep with girls at the venue. Maybe once or twice. It just wasn’t my thing. I had a few beers once in a while but wouldn’t touch a drug no matter how much someone paid me.

That might not be rock and roll, but that was me. My mom insisted I wouldn’t be like her brother, who’d died of a heroin overdose at twenty. From her no-means-no talks and the dangers of overindulging, I found I’d rather be in a relationship than hookup. Though the one-nighter sometimes still happened.

“Stay away from Indie,” Lawson demanded. “She doesn’t need you assholes fucking with her for the next four months, got it?” Lawson’s tone was that of a father lecturing his sons on prom night.

“Got it,” three out of four of us said together.

Then Dixon gave Drink a hard nudge, but still, he said nothing. His smile much too satisfied for any of our liking.

“What the fuck did you do?” Lawson asked, glaring at Drink.

“Hey, man… ” Drink put his hands up in front of him defensively. “I didn’t know she was Vince’s daughter.”

“Shouldn’t fucking matter.”

“He said something about her being a medic and told her he’d like to dig in her hole,” I told him because I wasn’t covering for Drink and Lawson had to know where his attention was most needed. This tour was big for him as well.

“You don’t treat women like that, asshole.”

“Won’t happen again,” Drink said, sounding annoyed.

Not sure any of us believed him.

We pulled up in front of this little Chinese restaurant. The kind that most people would pass on as the best place to get food poisoning. However, traveling the country, you quickly learned that these were some of the best places to eat.

Good food, cheap, and no fans.

Inside, the place was empty with the exception of a line of square tables that had been pushed together in the middle of the room. Moments later, as the five of us just stood there because we didn’t know what else to do, Vince and company loudly burst through the door. They were already laughing and Cody, their drummer, had his arm dangling around Indie’s neck.

I wished I hadn’t noticed that. Not because I thought they were together. Cody was married and seemed pretty happy about that. But I shouldn’t have been noticing anything that had to do with Indie Cinderstone.

After some greetings and small talk, Vince said he was starving, so we situated around the tables to eat. I wanted to be as far away from Indie as I could be. So, of course, she took the chair directly across from me. Damn. I thought she would’ve sat closer to her dad.

“Oh, guys,” Vince said across the table, “everyone who's been with us a while knows this, but this is my daughter, Indie.”

She gave a little wave but honestly looked a bit uncomfortable with the attention.

“She comes on tour with us every summer and is a fantastic photographer,” Vince said, then looked at me. “Just want to make that clear. Wouldn’t want her to get kicked out or anything.”

Fuck. She’d told him.

Indie snorted across from me. At least she had the decency to try to cover her laugh with her hand. The table wasn’t wide enough for my tastes. I would’ve liked more distance from Indie because she was cute. Girl next door even. She’d pulled her blonde hair back into a ponytail since I’d seen her in the venue. Which I also shouldn’t have noticed, but if I’d have met her anywhere else in any other way, I would’ve asked her out.

Which was the entire problem.

For now, she was absolutely off-limits.

Yet I was particularly aware of every person she spoke to and each bite of food she took. I even noticed when she pushed her plate away, folded her arms, and laughed at something someone beside her said.

And then she dropped into the empty seat beside me.

When I glanced around, I began to wonder how long I’d been sitting there thinking about her and the date that could never happen. Must’ve been longer than I’d ever admit because people were still snacking on the food left on the table, but some were sitting, others standing. I heard Lawson talking to Garret, Kissing Cinders’ tour manager, about some of the stops coming up.

“Don’t worry about my dad,” Indie said.

“Excuse me?”

“I saw him looking at you earlier when he was talking about misunderstandings.”

“You told him about that?”

“Yeah. But in my defense, I tell my dad just about everything and I didn’t know you were… well, you. I thought you were a venue guy.”

I smiled. Kind of refreshing for someone not to recognize me. Damn, I liked the sound of her voice.

“Not a fan then?” I sat back and turned a little her way.

She gave me a small smile. “My college radio station plays you a lot and I usually look up the openers before I leave, but I was really busy with finals.” Indie wet her lips with her tongue.

I dropped my gaze to watch her do it, then looked back up. She raised an eyebrow. Damn. She noticed everything.

“But really, Dad’s just harassing you,” she said, giving me a pass on watching her so intently.

“Seriously?”

She nodded. “He told me to be nice to you before we got here. He just likes things to run smoothly when I'm touring with you guys. Like he’s afraid I’ll stop coming or something. And since this is the most time we get to spend together… ” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. Anyway, don’t take him too seriously.”

“Was your dad around when you were little?” The words came out of my mouth before I thought to stop them. I suddenly wanted to know everything about Indie, but it would’ve been safer to keep my distance. Still, every few seconds I glanced toward Vince to see if he noticed us talking. Which was ridiculous. We were both grown and could have a conversation. “I just meant it must’ve been hard with his schedule.”

“He was,” she answered, glancing around the room the same way I had. “But he toured a lot. Basically, he was doing what you are right now. They were a little bigger already when I came around, but he came to see me as much as he could. That’s why I started coming on tour when I was little. More time together.”

“Your parents weren’t married?” I asked, unable to stop myself.

“No. Mom was a summer intern with the rock magazine, Thunder Gods. They were doing a big spread on Kissing Cinder. She traveled with the reporter working the story, met Dad, and things I don’t want to think about happened from there.”

I chuckled a little loudly and scanned the room again. Nobody seemed to notice us talking. Except Drink. Our eyes locked and I wanted to punch that fucking smirk off his ugly face.

“They were a thing for a few months, and when Mom went back to school, she found out she was pregnant with me. They didn’t stay together, but he’s always been there. Always been my dad.”

She stood, then pushed the chair back in under the table. I did the same, as somehow I became the only person still sitting. When I pulled out my phone to check the time, I knew we all needed to get going for soundcheck.

“Do your parents hate you?” she asked.

I chuckled again. Such an odd question. “I don’t think so. Why?”

“Cross Rhodes.” Indie folded her arms under her breasts and I had to look away to keep from noticing too much. “That had to be on purpose, right?”

“My mom thinks she’s funny.”

“I might love your mom.”

My chest tightened. This was already more time than I should’ve spent with her and here she had a personality as attractive as her physical appearance.

“Uh-oh,” she continued when I didn’t say anything back. “Looks like your coach is about to turn into a pumpkin.”

No clue what that meant. I cocked my head to the side and furrowed my brows.

She sighed and rolled her eyes at me. “You have to get back for the soundcheck.”

“Oh, right.”

I let her walk away first. Once she was through the door of the restaurant, I headed for the door. Indie gave me a quick wave before climbing into their car.

I needed to avoid this girl at all costs.