My cell rings on the small night stand, and my eyes pop open. Relief engulfs me when I roll over and see the other half of the bed empty. I grab the phone and answer it as I sit up and run my fingers through my tangled bed-head.

“Good morning, sunshine.” Aubrey says in a sing-song voice.  

“What time is it?” I question and flop back on my pillow. The motions of the moving bus are steady and very sleep inducing. Must be why I slept so late.

She laughs into the phone. “Someone had a late night? It’s nearly noon. Tell me, any action with that sexy rocker yet?”

“Ugh. You would not believe what that asshole said to me last night.”

I rehash all the grimy details of how it seems like Noel is a crazy lunatic only interested in getting into my pants. Of course, I leave out the details about how amazingly hot he is when he becomes so suggestive because knowing Aubrey, she’ll encourage me to take him up on the offers because she knows it’s been a while for me in that department. 

“So tomorrow my flight comes into Dallas at two thirty. I’m renting a car so I can drive myself over to the hotel while I wait on you to get there.”

I sigh. “You don’t know how excited I’ll be to see a friendly face.”

“Pssssssssssh. Whatever. After that story you just told me, sounds like you’ve been seeing plenty of ‘friendly’ faces between Noel, Riff, and that sexy British dude.”

“You mean Striker?”

She giggles. “I need to Google him, even his name sounds yummy.” I hear Aubrey tapping on the keys of the desktop computer in our little apartment and I suddenly feel a little homesick. “Ah, there we go. Let me just…Oh yeah, he’s fucking edible. No bag needed for that one’s head. That’s for sure.”

I shake my head. “I doubt he’ll ever call me. Noel chased him off before I could make a good impression.”

“Noel’s just jealo—Oh-my-god, Lanie have you searched your own name in the last twenty-four hours?”

“Um, no. Does anyone really look themselves up that often? Why?”

“Go get your laptop and search your name, and then call me back.”

“Wait. Aubrey. Why?”

“Just go do it.”

After I promise to call her right back, I hop off the bed and change into a pair of jeans and black t-shirt. I grab my computer from the cabinet and boot it up. I’m surprised to find there’s a Big Bertha Wi-Fi signal. After a failed attempt to connect, I make my way out to the front of the bus, laptop in hand, where all the guys are up eating breakfast. 

“What’s popping, Lanie?” Trip asks before he takes a huge bite of cereal. 

Tyke and Riff are locked into some battle on the game system attached to the flat screen TV in the sitting room. Noel sits to the side watching them go at it, ignoring that I’m in the room. 

“Trip, what’s the Wi-Fi password for Big Bertha?”

He wipes his chin with the sleeve of his shirt and grins. “It’s kinkysexgod69.”

I roll my eyes. “What is it with you guys and your obsession with sex?”

I sit my laptop on the counter next to Trip’s bowl and type in the password. Once it’s connected, I type my name into the search engine. A couple milliseconds tick by and my name accompanied by pictures pop up in the results. I click on a picture, and it redirects me to a celebrity gossip site where Noel and I are the prime story with a headline reading: Black Falcon Front Man Caught with Secret Lover. My eyes widen as I take in the picture with Noel holding my hand in the airport. 

“Shit,” Trips says next to me.

Noel looks up from the game. “What?”

“There’s pictures of the two of you on the internet. They are calling our girl Lanie here, your secret lover.”

Noel practically leaps from his seat and comes behind Trip and I to check out the screen. “Fuck!" he growls. 

I flinch. Am I really that embarrassing to be seen with? How can pretend that he’s so into me one minute, and then be pissed cameras have caught us holding hands the next? “What’s your problem? It’s a harmless picture. Who cares? We both know it isn’t true.”

He paces in the kitchen a few seconds and then darts up to the front of the bus. Noel doesn’t say another word to me. Instead, he rushes past me and into the other room to retrieve his cell phone, and then plops down in the seat next to the driver. Big Bertha takes the next exit and pulls into a truck stop. 

I watch as Noel shoves his hands through his hair as he waits by the door for the bus to fully stop. 

He’s acting like a complete fucking lunatic. 

The rest of the guys hop off the bus and then start towards the convenience store. The second I step off the bus I glance around. Noel’s at the back of the bus talking on his cell. Whoever he’s talking with is obviously arguing with him. I can’t make out what he’s saying, but the wild gestures his arms are doing tells me he’s defending himself. 

He takes a breath and his shoulders slump before closing his eyes. Whatever the fight was over, he now looks relieved. Curiosity wins out, and I take another couple steps toward him. Noel notices me and straightens himself as I approach. 

Before I can hear more than him say goodbye to the other person on the line, he snaps, “How long have you been there?”

I shake my head. “I wasn’t eaves dropping.” Okay, so maybe that isn’t exactly the truth, but I didn’t really hear anything either. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. You rushed out of there so quickly.”

Noel stuffs his phone into his back pocket. “Everything’s fine—just business—nothing that concerns you.” 

I flinch at his snippy tone. “Sorry. I was just…concerned.”

He sighs and drags his fingers through his messy brown hair. “Fuck! I really feel like all I do is fuck things up when it comes to you. I shouldn’t snap at you. It’s not your fault I have bad shit in my life. I really don’t mean it. I’m sorry.”

This is the second time in less than a day Noel has apologized to me. I really don’t get how he can be so forward and overly sexual towards me, then flip the switch and tell me he’s sorry for hurting me. He’s like a man possessed by craziness.

“So…” He closes the space between us and holds out his arms for a hug. “Friends, again?”

I shrug and wrap my arms around his waist. “Friends.”

It actually feels good to get to this point. We should be able to be friends without all this weird tension between us. Two people who dated in high school should be able to look past that and have a healthy friendship. This is going to make working on the children’s literacy campaign so much easier. 

I rest my head against his chest, and he rubs my back. Noel holding me like this reminds me of when we were a couple and he was unbelievably sweet. I sigh and give him one final squeeze before I let this lingering hug between us get weird.

“Come on. I’ll buy you some of those sour-lemon candies you like so much.” He tugs my shirt. 

I grin. It’s funny the things people remember about another person. “Only if you eat some with me.”

He laughs and throws his arm around me as we start towards the store. “The thought alone of eating those things make me want to puke. I ate what—one hundred and fifty of those things in one sitting because you dared me?”

“It was four hundred and eighty-seven. The bet was five hundred remember? And you lost miserably.” I poke his stomach.

He grabs my hand and holds it against his chest over his heart. It’s a simple gesture, but a dangerous one. Something so sweet will wear down my willpower to resist him if he tries to tempt me into sleeping with him again. I know the Noel I use to love is in this sexy, bad-boy rocker somewhere.

I pull my hand away, and Noel gazes down at me with sad eyes. Desperate for a subject change I say, “My friend, Aubrey, is meeting up with us in Dallas tomorrow.”

“Is she the one that came with you to the show, when you…” His eyes dart away from mine. It’s like he doesn’t want to bring up the time I walked in on him with the two sluts back in Houston. 

Allowing him off the hook, I don’t even acknowledge his slip up. “Yeah. She’s from Texas, so she’s flying down to catch the show and driving to her parents place near Waco when we leave for the next city.”

He nods. “We’ll actually spend a couple days in Dallas. Our manager booked us all rooms so we can get off the bus for a bit.”

A smile creeps across my lips. “You think we’ll have time to drive home for a night? I’m sure your parents will be thrilled to see you.”

Noel stops in his tracks. “No. I promised myself I’d never go back there, not after the way Dad treated me.”

“But your mom…don’t you miss her?”

He sighs. “Of course I do.”

“Well, then come home with me.”

He raises his eyebrows. “What do you mean, come home with you?”

I turn my hands over and shrug. “My parents would love to have you over. We can drive down, invite your mom to dinner at my mom's house, and we can stay the night. It’d give you a chance to spend time with your mom without having to face your father.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Of course I would. You’re my oldest friend.”

Noel throws his arm around me and pulls me in close to his side just like old times, and I’m amazed how natural it feels.