“No worries, dude. She literally just left, maybe you can catch her.” I pointed again to the side door.
“Thanks!” He didn’t give me a second glance before dashing outside.
“Rainier! Wait!” a gravelly, sexy voice called out from behind me.
My head whipped around just as Jace, the super-sexy shirtless wonder drummer, skidded to a halt next to me.
“Fuck!” He sighed crossing his arms across his cut torso.
Knowing this was my opportunity, I opened my mouth to confidently captivate the object of my affection. Unfortunately, instead, I stood mute, staring at him, slack-jawed. I really couldn’t be blamed, though, considering that his cargo shorts hung dangerously low on the “v” of his hips, revealing a happy trail. His bulging biceps sported the most amazingly intricate and colorful tattoos, and his eyes. Lord, his eyes. This man’s eyes were the most striking, hypnotizing light-green orbs rimmed with dark lashes. And they were trained right on me.
“Hey, did you happen to see where the singer of my band went?” He looked around the room but directed the question to me.
“Um . . .” Mute times two. So much for being Fonzie.
“Never mind.” Jace sighed and turned away. “Sorry to bother you.”
“Wait! I think he went to talk to my friend, Zoey.” My voice came out in a weird, breathy tone as I pointed with my thumb to the door.
“Huh.” Jace smiled at me. “Really? You have no idea how weird that is.”
“Crap. Is he a serial killer?” I mimicked a shocked face.
His outer-worldly green eyes crinkled as he laughed deeply. “Jesus, no. About the furthest you could get from a serial killer, more like a serially clumsy puppy.”
I giggled at his surprising sense of humor. “That’s funny. He just followed her out that door, but she had called an Uber, so I don’t know if he caught her.”
“Only one way to find out.” He started toward the door. “I’m Jason by the way, but everyone calls me Jace.”
“Alexandria.” I followed him to the door. “Everyone calls me Alex.”
“Nice to meet you, did you like the show?” His deadly, killer smile was complete with two dimples on each side of his full lips.
“It was amazing, it’s the first time we saw you guys live.” I gushed in full fan-girl groupie mode. “But I watch your YouTube channel all the time, and your Instagram feed is off the chain!”
“Cool. That’s awesome to hear.” Jace opened the side door and I peeked over his shoulder. There was no sign of either Ty or Zoey.
“I guess she went home. She still has a curfew.” I mentally thwacked myself at revealing how young we were. Again. I was so not cool.
“How old is she?” Jace turned back to me.
“Um . . . why?” I wrinkled my nose.
“How old are you?” He cocked his head.
“Eighteen,” I answered honestly, even though it had only been two months since my birthday.
“Huh. Okay. Goddamn it. That fucker.” Jace scrubbed his strong hands through his long hair. “Where the hell did he go?”
“Should I text her?” I tried to look out from under my bangs in the flirty way I practiced in the mirror.
“Hmmm.” He considered for a minute. “Nah, odds are he just went home if he didn’t find your friend. He’s a slippery mofo. He knew that I was going to film him for our Instagram.”
“Do you do LTZ’s social media?” I was surprised.
“Guilty.” Jace rubbed his decorated arms absently.
“Jay-ceeeee.” A curvy redhead with smudged, smoky eyeshadow and glossy pink lips teetered over in a zebra-striped tank dress and black stiletto booties. “When are we leaving?”
“Jesus, Cassie.” Jace looked pained. “I thought I told you to go home.”
“I was waiting for you,” Smudgy pouted.
“All right, fine. We’ll drop you off at home.” Jace walked away before turning around. “Well, thanks for coming to the show, Alex. I’ve gotta head out.”
“Sure,” I called out, but he already had forgotten about me as he walked away toward the rest of the band by the stage.
Holy shit. I just missed my shot and let him walk off with some skank. I stood staring, frozen in place while the band gathered and loaded the final items of their gear out the back exit. I raised my hand to wave goodbye but none of them, including Jace, looked back before the steel door shut behind them with a loud bang.
A few hours later when I was snuggled under the covers in bed obsessively playing and replaying some of the videos of the show that were uploaded to LTZ’s YouTube channel, my phone buzzed.
Zoey: Ru up?
Alex: Y WTF happened?
Zoey: Squee!!!!
Alex: Did u hook up?
Zoey: He jumped into my Uber, came all the way home w/me and met the rents.
Alex: Shut up!
Zoey: We made out omg so good . . . dying
Alex: So cool, will u see him again?
Zoey: yes def
Alex: The drummer was looking for him.
Zoey: Oooooooohhhhhhh realllllyyy?
Alex: He’s not interested, but lord he’s killer sexy.
Zoey: I don’t believe he’s not interested.
Alex: believe – gotta go gotta be up in a few hours for mom
Zoey: Ok, ping me tomorrow.
Alex: (emoji hearts)
Zoey: (emoji hearts)
Damn! I felt super happy for my bestie, but also a little blue for myself. Oh well, the summer wasn’t even here yet and there were plenty of dudes to hook up with. Plus, if Zoey’s hookup with broodypants became a thing, I’d have plenty of opportunities to be around the band. Jace-the-drummer wasn’t going to know what hit him.
Chapter 3
JACE
“You owe me big time, pretty boy,” Connor growled from the back seat of our beat-up green van where we were sitting.
“I know, I know.” Ty smiled back at our grumpy bassist from the passenger seat. It was nice to see our singer happy, he hadn’t been able to keep a shit-eating grin off his face for weeks. We all knew that his home life was terrible, but Ty never wanted anyone to know about it and he certainly never, ever discussed it.
“Do we have to stay long?” I
