Jeff snuggled down onto his side and curled his knees up. The bed felt too empty, which he didn’t have an excuse for. It wasn’t like they’d even gotten as far as being in one together. “That’s rough.” He paused. “I miss you too.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Carter promised. “I mean—I will, right? I know you have to go out West after this.”
Jeff should stay in Toronto, but after fifteen years of waiting, he wasn’t willing to sacrifice another minute. “I’ll be back before I head out there. At least for a day or two.”
“Good.” He sighed. Or maybe it was a yawn. “I should let you get to bed. I know you have to be up early.”
“And you need to go back to sleep.”
“I told you, I was awake.”
You shouldn’t have been.“Good night, Carter.”
DESPITE THElate night, Jeff woke up refreshed and ready to face the world—or at least, he would be after a shower and some coffee. Even Toronto was quiet in the hazy liminal light of predawn. Jeff got in the car to find Tim’s PA waiting for him, which was a mixed blessing—she’d brought a lemon-honey tea and a breakfast sandwich, but she also had an agenda. Tim sometimes sent her in his place because Jeff wouldn’t hesitate to push back against Tim, but he felt bad doing it with Dina. It wasn’t her fault Tim asked her to do his dirty work.
“Morning,” Jeff said, resignation creeping into his voice despite his best efforts.
“Morning,” Dina chirped back as she handed over his breakfast, blithely unaware of—or at least not reacting to—his mood. “So I’m supposed to prep you for the show. The hosts sent a list of topics they want to cover, questions they want to ask, that sort of thing. I’m here to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
She was here, Jeff thought sourly, to convince him to make verbal commitments about the album progress he had so far been unwilling to make to Tim or anyone at the label. He sipped his tea. “Let’s hear it.”
“Right. Well, first, obviously, details of the concert tonight. Limited tickets are still available, it starts at eight. Echo Beach.”
Tonight would be a smaller, more intimate affair, and outdoors too. Hopefully the weather held; outdoor concerts were Jeff’s favorite to play.
But he knew all the information about the concert already, because he was a damn professional. “Right,” he said, motioning her to go on.
Dina’s smile didn’t dim. “They’re also going to want to promote the Canada Day concert, especially since that’ll be televised on CBC. They have all the details for that, so you just need to make some nice comments about how you’re looking forward to celebrating the birth of our country.”
Ugh, that sounded pretentious. Jeff knew his job, and alienating white Canada by pointing out that the country had a long way to go before it was anywhere near as great as it liked to think it was was something he could do artistically in a song but not in plain language during an interview. Unfortunately.
But he did like a party, andeverybodyliked a day off work, and giving a free concert to hardworking people who liked music was something he could get behind. He’d become a master of strategic phrasing. “Got it.”
Dina scrolled down on her phone. “Next order of business. Max’s, um, incident.”
“I’m not handling that,” Jeff said flatly. “If Tim expects me to smooth that over, he can kick rocks. That’s what PR firms are for.”
Flattening her lips, Dina tried again. “We’ve asked the hosts to avoid the subject, but should it arise, we’d like you to play it off as a harmless mistake. Max paid his fine. No one was injured—”
“Except the half a dozen people who had to see his dick when he whipped it out in public,” Jeff said. “Getting high out of his mind in a public club was a ‘mistake’ when he did it seven years ago. Now it’s a habit. If they bring it up, I’m leaving it for Max to handle.” No matter how well Max had behaved himself last night.
He could see Dina clenching her jaw, but she could obviously sense he wasn’t going to budge, because she just said, “Let’s move on. With the tour set to wind down in the middle of summer—which is already unusual—people are going to be wondering when you might be in the studio next.”
Jeff bit into his breakfast sandwich and made himself chew it twenty times before swallowing so he wouldn’t grit his teeth.
He still kind of wanted to bite her head off instead. Well, Tim’s by proxy. “If they ask about it, I will tell them the truth, which is that we haven’t started writing it yet.”
Dina cleared her throat. “It’s been eighteen months since the last album—”
Yeah, Jeff was aware they’d been touring on this album for a year now, hence the lighter schedule, thanks.
“—and you’re under contract. Your fans want some good news they can sink their teeth into. Something they can look forward to.”
“You mean the label wants to squeeze another record out of us and they don’t care about the personal cost.”
“Jeff—”
“Dina.” Jeff hated to be the guy who interrupted, but this line of conversation wasn’t going to get them anywhere. “You can tell Tim that he does not want to know what will happen if the label pushes this issue right now. Yes, we’re under contract for another album. I’m aware of that. I’m not going to make up details about progress on it because there hasn’t been any, and I’m not going to lie.” There were probably too manyIstatements in there to get away with without raising suspicion, but if people weren’t suspicious about Jeff’s commitment phobia by now, then they weren’t paying attention.