“If Amanda can come to our shows, then so can Melanie,” Gabe said, his ire rising so quickly it surprised him.
“Not Melanie. If you have a thing for her, of course, she’s welcome.” Jacob reached behind Melanie and yanked Nikki out by one arm. “Her! What is she doing here?”
Nikki straightened her spine and started hissing. Gabe wondered where the docile please-protect-me creature had wandered off to.
“What? Did you forget my name already, asshole?” Nikki spat, blue eyes narrowed, her fists clenched.
“No, darling Nikki, I didn’t forget your name, but you can’t be here. I don’t want you here.”
She bit her quivering lip, and Gabe was sure she was about to burst into tears.
“I invited her,” he lied to Jacob. “I invited both of them, okay? It’s none of your concern.” He was definitely starting to remember why the band had made that no-women-on-tour pact. With women came drama. Being trapped with the same four dudes for six months was bad enough without the added roller-coaster ride of outside romantic relationships.
“So they’ll double up on your dick, but not mine?” Jacob asked.
“You are the biggest pig I’ve ever met in my life!” Melanie bellowed at Jacob. “I don’t know why anyone would do anything with you other than kick you in the nuts.”
Gabe snorted. Jacob’s faint smile had told Gabe that he was only teasing, but evidently Melanie hadn’t gotten the joke.
Until that moment, Gabe had completely forgotten what had so quickly turned him on to Melanie in the first place—her complete disdain for Jacob “Shade” Silverton’s typically irresistible sex appeal. Now that was hot.
“Can I talk to you?” Nikki asked Jacob. She seemed for once to be the most reasonable person in the vicinity.
“No,” he said simply. “I have nothing to say to you. If I had, I would have called you.”
Melanie gnashed her teeth and rounded on Jacob. Gabe would have probably cowered at the look on her face if she’d turned it on him, but Jacob, being Jacob, was used to women berating him. In this particular instance, he deserved it, but that wasn’t always the case.
“You have no problem fucking her in a public hallway—”
“Or a sauna,” Nikki added helpfully.
“Or a sauna,” Melanie echoed several decibels louder than her friend, “but you don’t have the common decency to carry on a polite conversation with her?”
“That about sums it up,” Jacob said. He turned on his heel and stalked off.
Melanie screeched in fury and started after him—no doubt to have it out on his nuts—but Gabe stopped her with a firm arm around her shoulders. He drew her against his chest, stiffening slightly when her elbow gouged him in the side in her struggle to throw him off.
“Easy,” he said. “You’ll only hurt your toe.”
She jerked out of his embrace and glared up at him, redirecting some of her anger. At him.
“What are you talking about?”
“When you kick Shade in the balls,” he said. “You’ll just hurt your toe. They’re made of steel, you know.”
Her jaw dropped. She blinked at him, closing her mouth with a snap, and then snorted before breaking into laughter.
“She got a bit wound up there,” Nikki said as Melanie tried to calm herself with deep, gasps for air between laughs. “She always cracks up after an explosion.”
Yeah, he’d gotten that from earlier.
“Oh, Gabe,” Melanie said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “You do have my best interests at heart, don’t you?”
He grinned. “Well, of course. And Nikki’s too.” His lifted both hands in surrender. “But not because I want to get in her pants or anything.”
“Why don’t you?” Nikki asked, her head cocked to one side as she studied him closely. “They’re great pants to get into.”
Ask anyone, he added silently.
“Because,” he said, “I have a thing for your smart, charming, and beautiful friend. The one who isn’t attracted to Shade Silverton.”
“I’d say it’s because she has bad taste,” Nikki said, her gaze skimming over his body with obvious interest, “but she likes you, so she must not be totally lacking in that department.”
“Thanks,” Gabe said, rubbing Melanie’s smooth back, which was still jerking intermittently with her giggles. “I think.”
Melanie finally quieted and wrapped her arms around his waist to relax against him. Nikki’s presence seemed to take a lot out of her, and he completely understood why. The woman seemed to draw drama the way stink draws flies. Gabe shifted Melanie closer to the wall so that they were out of the flow of intermittent traffic using the hallway to prepare for the concert. She felt perfect tucked against him. He rested his cheek on her soft hair and closed his eyes, giving himself a moment to experience the feel of her in his arms. This is how he’d prefer to spend their time together. Just like this. Close. Not dealing with other people’s problems and insecurities. He was sure if Nikki hadn’t tagged along, they’d be spending the entire evening just like this. Except maybe they’d be a little more naked. Thinking of Melanie naked had his hands roaming her back, slipping under the hem of her blouse to seek bare flesh. How was he going to make it another several hours without feeling the press of her warm skin against his? Maybe he should call in sick. Would anyone notice if the drummer didn’t show up for the concert?
“I’m sorry I got jealous,” Melanie said. She drew away and stood on tiptoe to kiss his jaw. She held his gaze, so he knew she was sincere. “But I’m not sorry I want to kick Shade in the balls.”
Gabe chuckled. He had a million things to say about why Jacob had acted that way toward Nikki, but because the woman in question was standing right there examining her fingernails with obvious boredom, he decided to keep those thoughts to himself until he and Melanie were alone. And even then he’d have to guard what he said about women with pussies more hot and ready than a Little Caesars’ pizza. He didn’t want Melanie to get mad at him for inadvertently insulting her friend, so he’d watch what he said about her. He only hoped Melanie could get comfortable after they ditched Nikki. He’d just have to suck it up until then.
When the three of them entered the band’s dressing room, Gabe noticed Jacob talking to their tour manager, Sally. Sally was a black-haired bombshell with big breasts that she liked to show off in skintight, low-cut shirts. Talking to her was distracting—you just had to gawk at her boobs. It couldn’t be helped. Man, woman, child, or monk, you had to stare at them, wondering if they were real and if your hand was big enough to hold one properly. Jacob was no exception. It didn’t matter that he was happily involved with Amanda or that Sally was happily married to one of their road crew—Kris, a giant, weathered biker with a huge heart—it was impossible not to stare at Sally’s endowments. Gabe had fallen into the same trap many times himself. So when Nikki saw Jacob paying undo attention to another woman’s chest and bristled, Gabe didn’t see any reason to correct her false assumption that Shade was not interested in her tonight because he was already hooking up with Sally. Nikki would probably understand that arrangement. It might even cause her to keep her distance.
Or it might make her storm across the room, shove Sally in the shoulder, and jerk on Jacob’s arm. Seriously?
Fuck.
“Control your friend, Mel,” Gabe said exasperatedly.
Melanie rubbed the center of her forehead with two fingers. “I think we’re going to have to go to the hotel after all,” she said. “This isn’t a good environment for Nikki in her present state of mind.”
Nikki had varying states of mind? Since when?
Gabe watched Melanie cross the room to interfere with the three-person shoving match going on in the corner. He wondered why watching her walk away had his heart panging unpleasantly in his chest. It was obvious who was more important to Melanie. He knew that she had known Nikki for a lot longer than she’d known him, but that didn’t make the realization that Nik
ki was her top priority any easier to take.
Realizing he wanted to be Melanie’s top priority wasn’t easy to take either. He wanted to be the only thing on her mind tonight. The entire weekend. As long as she’d have him. Seriously?
“Fuck,” he said.
Chapter Eight
Melanie was done. Done running interference. Done preventing catastrophe. Done picking up the pieces. Done.
She grabbed Nikki by the arm and without a word dragged her toward the exit. They were out of the dressing room and halfway down the hall before she stopped and turned to confront her friend. Friend? More like soul-sucking leech.
“You are going to the hotel right now,” Melanie said, providing no opportunity for argument. “I am going to the concert by myself and I am going to Gabe’s house in Austin tonight without you. Do you understand? You are not going to weasel your way into accompanying us.”
Nikki opened her mouth to protest, and Melanie lifted a finger of warning at her.
“I’m sorry it has to be this way,” she said, “but sometimes I have to think about myself. There is no reason for you to be here. You saw Shade. He doesn’t want to see you. You knew he wouldn’t, but you came anyway. And right now, I don’t want to see you either.”
Nikki released a pained gasp and Melanie had to force herself not to look away. She didn’t like to hurt people and she’d just shredded Nikki’s heart. Melanie could see the devastation in every tense line of Nikki’s face.
“If you’d rather go straight home, you do that. Figure out how to solve this problem you created, Nikki. I’m not giving up my shot at happiness because you need someone to take care of you. You need to take care of you. Got it?”
Nikki’s eyes pooled with tears and Melanie softened her tone—partly because she couldn’t stand the look of anguish on Nikki’s face and partially because her throat had tightened with emotion to the point of strangulation.
“I can be your friend,” Melanie said. “I want to be your friend. But I can’t be your knight in shining armor. I have my own ass to rescue.”
Tears began to flow freely down Nikki’s cheeks and yeah, Melanie’s vision blurred as her own tears threatened to overflow. She wasn’t good at doling out tough love. It wasn’t her thing. Tough love was so much harder than enabling, but she had to do this for Nikki’s good as well as for her own sanity. Nikki wouldn’t see it as beneficial. She’d see it as Melanie being mean to her. And yelling at Nikki made Melanie feel mean. She felt like a horrible person for hurting someone who had been hurt so many times already—broken, used, and abused by those she should have been able to trust—but Melanie couldn’t back down on this. Not even if it elevated her to megabitch status.
Heart thudding and eyes stinging with the threat of tears, Melanie pivoted and started back toward the dressing room. Don’t look back. Don’t let her see you’re about to crumble. Melanie hadn’t taken three steps when a body careened into her and a pair of arms tightened around her waist.
“You can’t leave me, Mel,” Nikki sobbed against the back of Melanie’s shoulder. “You just can’t. I have no one in this world but you. I have no one. No one.”
This was not another case of Nikki’s fabricated drama. Nikki actually believed it, because it happened to be true. Melanie closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears from falling, but a fat droplet crept out from beneath each eyelid and streaked down her face.
“I’m not leaving you, Nikki. I’m leaving this situation you created.” And the guilt was already robbing her of breath. She knew Nikki didn’t have anyone. Melanie wanted her to be surrounded by caring people. She wanted Nikki to find more friends and a boyfriend who cared about her. She wished Nikki had a family that wasn’t completely dysfunctional and abusive. But if Nikki’s neediness was trying on their strong friendship, it was devastating to new ones. Nikki tried too hard to make people love her and went about it all wrong. She slept around because for the few hours she was with a man, beneath a man, she could pretend that he loved her. But no one could really love her until she loved herself. And Melanie knew how Nikki struggled to see her true self-worth after everything she’d been through.
God, I’m such a selfish cow. How could she have yelled at Nikki when she knew how much her disapproval would hurt her?
She was also a spineless coward, it seemed, because she was totally going to cave again. She could feel her resolve crumbling already. Melanie turned in Nikki’s arms and held her while she cried. Tough love was one thing. Leaving your best friend sobbing in a corridor in an unfamiliar city was another.
“Pull yourself together,” Melanie said gently. “It’s going to be all right. You want me to be happy, don’t you?”
Nikki nodded.
“Then give me this weekend with Gabe. Can you do that?”
Nikki hesitated and then nodded slowly, her tears still falling. At least she wasn’t sobbing and wailing any longer.
“Do you want to go back to the hotel or do you want to fly home to Wichita tonight?” Melanie realized she was treating Nikki like a toddler again, giving her two solid options and not an open-ended what do you want to do?
“I’ll stay at the hotel.”
“Are you sure?”
Nikki nodded again. “And can we do something together when you get back on Sunday, Mel?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
“Just the two of us?”
“After Gabe leaves.” She wasn’t going to make promises she was unwilling to keep.
Nikki sniffed. “I’ll stay here.” She took a deep, gasping breath. “Alone.”
“I’ll get you as far as the hotel and then you’re on your own for the weekend. You can handle that, right?”
Enabler, enabler, enabler, a nasty little voice seemed to whisper in her ear.
“I think so,” Nikki said, sniffing again.
“I know you can.”
Melanie pulled away slightly and waited while Nikki wiped her wet face on the hem of her T-shirt. Several curious men watched them, obviously wanting to comfort poor beautiful Nikki. Poor fragile, broken sex kitten Nikki. But the comfort those men had in mind was the last thing Nikki needed.
“Let’s go call you a cab,” she said. “Or maybe Gabe will let you ride in the limo.”
“Do I have to ride up front with Parker the penguin?”
Melanie laughed. “No, hon.” She cupped Nikki’s streaked cheek in one palm. “You ride in the back and drink champagne.”
“But I don’t like champagne.”
Melanie smiled and kissed the tip of Nikki’s nose. “Drink it anyway. Wait here,” she said. “I’m going to go talk to Gabe about the limo. Okay?”
Nikki nodded and the instant that Melanie stepped away, two guys tripped over each other trying to get to Nikki’s side, as if the first to touch her could claim her as a prize.
Melanie found Gabe slumped forward in a chair, his elbows resting on his knees and a bottle of beer between his palms. He was staring at the spot between his impressively large feet with a scowl on his handsome face. The high forehead, square jaw, and long straight nose would have looked good on anyone. His lower lip was slightly larger than the upper and just begged to nibbled on. Every visible inch of the man was long, lean, and hard. Masculine. Lord, he was gorgeous. And he was even better looking when he smiled; his perfect grin lit up his mesmerizing grass-green eyes from the inside. Melanie intended to put that smile back on his tasty lips as soon as possible and keep it there. She hated the glum expression he was currently sporting, especially since she knew she was responsible for it. It didn’t suit him. Or her.
She squeezed onto his chair, resting on one hip until he scooted over to give her more room. He gaped at her as if stunned to see her. He didn’t really think she was going to give up her weekend with him to coddle Nikki, did he?
“I need your help,” she said.
“With?”
“Nikki.”
“I don’t know any hit men, but Adam might. He runs in some rough ci
rcles.”
“Not to kill her,” Melanie said. “To get her to the hotel. Can she ride in the limo?”
“The rest of the band should be coming here from the hotel now,” he said. “She can ride back after the show.”
Melanie crinkled her nose and shook her head. That was not what she had in mind at all. “She’s leaving now.”
“And you are…”
“Staying here with you. But that’s why I need your help. I can already feel myself slipping up with my intentions to stay strong, just to make her happy. I need you to do my dirty work for me and make sure she gets to the hotel because if I see her looking all depressed and crying, I’m going to cave in to her wishes again and she’s going to end up sleeping between us and hogging the covers all weekend.”
His brow furrowed with confusion. “You want me to ride with her?”
“No, baby,” she said. “I want you to play your rock star card and get someone to do it for you.”