“I’m going out to the garage to warm up before practice,” I said, turning to walk out of the kitchen.
“Tanner said he would drop by,” Natalie announced. I knew she had a crush on Tanner and had since the second she met him.
I loved the boy like a brother, but he wouldn’t get anywhere near my sister with that dick if it were the last thing I did. Tanner seemed the absolute opposite of a rocker. He was our All-American boy who had women throwing thong panties on the stage at him. He looked like he could’ve been the quarterback of the high school football team nailing the head cheerleader, but Tanner could play a kick ass bass guitar. He had not a tattoo or a piercing anywhere. We swore we were going to corrupt him someday, but he still refused.
When she saw the expression on my face, she waved me away. “Stop it, Beau.”
“You deserve better than someone who sticks his dick in anything that walks.”
Natalie laughed. “Beau. Seriously, stop. I’m not doing anything with Tanner.”
“But you want to.”
At a glance, he and Natalie would be amazing together. They both looked like they just stepped out of a preppy magazine. She’d been approached to model over the years, although she had turned it down to keep managing our band. But the number of girls I’d seen him take into bathrooms, back rooms, tour buses, and God knows what else over the last few years made me never want to see him touch Natalie in any way.
“Go practice. You sound paranoid.” I didn’t miss the blush on her cheeks as she turned away, though.
“How the fuck are ya, man?” Johnny fist bumped me as I passed him.
“Hangin’ in there, man. How are the kids?”
Johnny’s eyes found Bex, just as he always did anytime she was around. She sat on a stool, tuning her guitar and warming up her voice, her toe tapping on the ground. “The most amazing fucking thing I’ve ever had, bro. I can’t believe I get her and those two precious babies.”
I cleared my throat, not liking the emotion he brought out in me. I didn’t want a wife and kids, not now and not ever, but seeing the way he looked at Bex made funny things happen to me. Bex, at one time, had been my foster sister in the shithole we’d both been placed in, but now she was so much more. When we’d left the home with Natalie, and she’d wanted to start a band, I never thought we’d be where we are now. I’ve loved to drum for as long as I could remember, having been handed drumsticks as young as one year old to bang with my dad on his set. I now know he played to keep the demons away, because it was the same reason I did.
“I bet Jaden is getting big,” I remarked, trying to rid my mind of those impending thoughts about my dad. “Does Lennox still love him?”
Johnny put the strap of his guitar over his head and began strumming the strings. “She loves him too much. She thinks she’s his second mommy. It’s adorable, but Bex is always worried she’s going to try to pick him up or something.”
Bex turned, and a small smirk played on her lips. “You talking about me over there?”
Johnny smirked back at her. “What if I am? What are you going to do about it?”
Tanner groaned from behind me. “Please don’t start. If I walk into a room one more time and find you two going at it . . .”
We all laughed, one because Tanner saying that was ironic seeing as how all of us had seen his ass at one time or another, and two because it was true. Johnny and Bex were always sucking face or being obvious about what other activities they were doing.
The door to the studio slammed, and Natalie breezed in, stopping the ribbing of Johnny and Bex’s love life. The expression on her face stopped everyone from talking. She flung her purse on a chair and turned to us, a smile taking up her whole face. “I have news.”
“We gathered,” Bex said, laughter in her voice. “I take it that it’s good news?”
“Fabulous,” Natalie said. She pulled a pack of papers out of her large purse and walked toward us. “I talked to Allan earlier.”
Johnny stepped up next to Bex and slung his arm over her shoulders. You could hear a pin drop as we waited for Natalie to fill us in.
“Today, Nat,” Tanner said, his hands on his hips.
Natalie glanced over at Bex. “There’s this huge benefit in Orlando next month.” Orlando was only a few hours from us, so that meant whatever they wanted us to do we wouldn’t have to go far. “They’re building a children’s hospital and want a band to headline their fundraiser. It’ll be an outdoor concert on the site of the hospital. They’ll be doing tours of what they’ve done so far, as well as explaining what else needs to be done.”