T he gravel crunched under my boots as I stepped out of the limo. Ewan and Jules raced back up to be with their women, but I dragged my feet as I walked slowly back up to the villa, feeling like I was making the biggest mistake of my life .

With each step, I moved slower and slower until I finally came to a complete stop .

What the fuck was I doing? I wasn't some desk monkey, tied to my job .

I'm a fucking rock star .

"Oh my god, I am such a fucking idiot," I said out loud .

Niall had been hanging back too. He was on the front step, fiddling with something in the soil of one of the hanging plants. Waiting for me - maybe. "You okay?" he mumbled and I could tell what it was costing him to ask me this .

I looked up at him, blinking. "I'm a rock star," I said .

He turned to face me head-on and raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Did this just occur to you?" he deadpanned .

I shook my head. "No." Then I shrugged. "Yeah. Maybe ."

Niall opened his mouth and then closed it. He planted his hands on his hips and looked down at his feet, then I heard him clear his throat. "Right," he said. "Ah, I have no idea what you're trying to tell me right now, mate ."

I shook my head, looking down. "She's a pretty amazing girl ."

"Don't have to tell me that ."

"I love her, Niall ."

"Yeah," he swallowed gruffly. "You mentioned that ."

My voice was rising. "No, I like, really fucking love her ."

Niall looked at me, blinking. "She's got school," he said slowly, like he could hear what I was about to say before I said it .

"I know." I paused for a moment, wondering what I was about to ask for. In all the time I'd been singing for Wreckage, I'd never pulled the diva card. Even though it was my face on the posters, even though it was my voice on the records, even though I was out there in the front of the line-up, working the crowd every night, I had never once asked them to put me first .

An idea suddenly dropped in my brain, fully formed and already worked out. "Band meeting," I declared, and rushed past him into the main room. "August!" I called, my voice echoing through the house. "Band meeting !"

"Again?" she grumbled, coming back out of hers and Jules' room. She was tugged her shirt down, which I dutifully ignored by staring at the ceiling, but her ever-present clipboard there in her hand .

"Your timing sucks, mate," Jules echoed, half a step behind her .

"Do I have to?" Ewan bellowed from down the hall .

"Get your skinny Scottish ass in here," I yelled, ignoring the look of utter shock that Niall was pinning me with. "Give me ten minutes. No. Eight ."

Ewan finally emerged and shuffled past me with a black look on his face. "Seven," he corrected and plopped down on the couch .

"It'll take one for me to tell you the plan," I promised .

It took forty-five seconds .

The three of them sat there for a moment once I told them. My leg bounced up and down and I glanced at the watch Tallula had given me. Just like our relationship, it had started out as a lie and now it was something I needed .

"Guys, I don't have much time," I reminded them after they'd processed for exactly two minutes .

"Honestly though?" Ewan finally said. "It makes a hell of a lot more sense than the way we do things now. We're not some schlubs in the back of a touring van ."

"Seems like cheating if you ask me," Jules said. Then grinned. "And I was never one to play fair ."

"I could still be there," I reminded them. "For every date ."

"And I could see Celia way more too," Ewan mused, glancing towards the door where his fiancée was getting ready to leave. He nodded and looked back at me. "Things have changed. We all have roots now, yeah ?"

"Hubbing," Jules repeated. He shook his dark hair. "Sounds pretty fucking dirty if you ask me ."

I glanced at my watch again. "So should we vote ?"

"No need. It's a yes for all of us," Niall said, and for the first time in days, he smiled at me. I knew what he was thinking even before he said it, but Niall hated secrets so he said it anyway. "Glad you're doing right by her ."

I nodded and then looked at my watch. Tallula had been in the air for forty five minutes. I still had two hours .

"August!" I cried, whirling around .

"On it," she hissed, phone already in hand. Jules gave her an admiring look .

I nodded. "I'm going now," I told her .

She held up a finger. My heart pounded in my throat. Then she nodded again. "Right, thanks." She stabbed a button and looked up at me. "It'll be there," she declared. Then grinned. "Go get her ."