This girl. This beautiful, tough girl.

She was fucking mine.

It took me a moment before I realized I was standing stock still, right in the center of the stage, watching her deftly wheel the giant guitar box up the ramp and wrestle it into place. She kicked it out, sliding it off the castors, then walked around the front to open it up. And as she did, she caught sight of me and slowly stood up straighter.

That grin spread across her face, something I'd been seeing more and more from her lately. I liked to think it was because of me.

She planted a hand on one hip, and narrowed her eyes. "You're staring at me again," she warned.

I nodded. "Right. I do that a lot, don't I?" I walked over, and planted my hands on either side of her face, pulling her in for the kind of kiss I hadn't considered possible only a month ago. And in public no less.

She made a small noise in my mouth, a half sigh, half groan, and then pulled back. "You do." She brushed her hand down my cheek, and then tugged at my shirt collar. "Why do you do that? It's not like you need to keep an eye on me."

"But I like to."

"Well, you don't need to, I'm not going anywhere, I work here," she said with a laugh.

I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and tipped her chin up. "No, I know. I just like to check that you're real every so often."

Her eyelashes fluttered, and for a moment I thought she was about to say something more. I wanted to know what she was thinking. I wanted to know everything about her.

But she just tossed her hair back. "I'm real," she said, with a reassuring pat on my shoulder. "And I have to hurry, the truck with the equipment got here late."

"Wait," I begged. I reached out, grabbing her by the arm, wanting to keep her with me.

She looked down at me, not really sure what I wanted. I wasn't really sure what I wanted either. "Do you want to do something?" I heard myself say. "With me?"

A dirty little smile tugged at the corners of her lips, and she flicked her little pink tongue teasingly. "I do a lot of things with you," she said.

"I know. But something more than that."

"There's more than that?"

"Cheeky little girl. I'm talking about like a date or something."

Her eyes flashed. "What do you have in mind?" she asked, and I knew she was interested.

I pressed my lips together. "I'm not sure yet. But I'll think of something." I leaned down to brush my lips across hers. "Something special."

Standing back up again, I gave her a quick swat on the rear. "Now hurry up and get that gear for me. You know how much I love watching you leave."

"Asshole," she shot back, but I definitely saw her shake her hips a little as she returned to the equipment truck.

"Another day, another fucking dollar," shouted Jules as he stalked his way down the clanking staircase from the VIP lounge upstairs.

"Fuck," Ewan said. "This is a huge, fuck-off country." He rubbed his forehead, raking back that ridiculously long hair of his. "Where in bloody Christ are we now?"

"Your hair looks like shit," I told him amiably.

"Detroit," Hudson said, jumping in before Ewan could start puffing up. "We are in Detroit." Then he blinked a second. "At least I think so."

Jules nodded. "Yeah, and tomorrow we're in Columbus, I think."

I looked over at him. "Ohio?" I asked, something tickling in the back of my brain.

Hudson's sighed a long-suffering, patriotically American sigh. "I'm going to give you all a lesson in US geography," he muttered. "Get some maps off of Amazon or something."

"I know enough already about the States. Your bloody TV shows took over all of ours. I grew up watching your telly," Jules reminded Hudson. "And you lot call us the colonialists."

Hudson snapped something back, and a scuffle ensued, but I wasn't paying attention. "Ohio," I muttered, yanking my phone out of my back pocket and pulling up Google.

Just as I vaguely remembered, it showed we'd be right by the border of Pennsylvania tomorrow night.

Slowly, like a photography negative developing from the chemicals, a picture emerged in my mind of the perfect date with Reese. The road, my girl, the back of the pickup truck with the stars overhead, parked in a hay field just the two of us. Just like she'd described.

Do you want to do something with me? I'd asked her, not knowing what it was. Now, I knew what I wanted to do. I just needed to figure out how.