~You can’t bring Griffin Marsh on the event shuttle OMG you’ll cause a riot.
I stared at the reply from Yolanda to my update of~Griff and I heading to the motel. U ready to go? Meet at the bus?
Before I could respond, she added,~Don’t worry about me. I’m going to stick around and see the last band. You two have fun but find a safe way to get there.
I angled my phone at Griffin who sighed. “She’s not wrong. Most of the time, folks don’t recognize me these days. But an hour after I got off the stage at a rock fest is different.”
“Ideas? I’d say call Lyft or Uber but the town’s so small, I heard the few people who do that are swamped out of their minds. They turn down most requests and charge a fortune for the runs they do take.”
“Let’s go back to the Chaser bus and see if anyone has options.” Griffin held out his hand to me.
I’d never held hands with anyone in public, but tonight, I wanted that contact as much as he did. That moment when he’d closed his arms around me was the best feeling I’d ever known. And yes, I included sex in that. Although I couldn’t wait to getback to the motel and do a side-by-side comparison. Plus front to back, front to front, top to bottom…
Griffin wiggled his fingers at me. “Coming?”
“Not yet.” I took his hand. “I’m still reeling a bit. You love me?”
He raised my hand and kissed my knuckles. “Six ways from Sunday.”
“It’s Sunday. I expect a demonstration of those six ways.” I let him guide me through the dim maze of buildings and buses. “Did you tell your friends about me?” I couldn’t help worrying what they’d think of the guy who dumped their friend, even if we were un-dumped now.
“Not by name. Nothing specific, either. Just that I met someone and it didn’t go well.”
“Most of it went excellent. Just a wobble at the end.”
“I’ll explain that to them.” He paused outside one of the few buses left in a center row. The Chaser Lost logo slashed across the black-painted exterior and a group portrait of the band stared at me from beside the door.
“That’s huge. Do they own it? Stupid question with their pictures on it, huh?”
“Not stupid. You can rent a tour bus and have a logo wrap put on temporarily. But yeah, Pete owns this one and the crew bus parked behind it, too. The amount they tour, comfort’s worth guaranteeing.” He punched a code in by the bus door and a moment later it hissed open. “Come on.” He led the way up the steps.
Surreal was perhaps the best word for climbing up into the bus of a world-famous band and seeing the musicians lounging around in sweats with their hair tousled and beers in hand. Pete Lebraun raised his beer can at Griffin. “There you are, bro. How’d it go?” Then he spotted me and sat up straighter. “Oh, hi, welcome to the bus.”
“Thank you.” I licked my dry lips and moved closer behind Griffin.
“Guys, this is my boyfriend—” Griffin broke off and glanced back at me. I nodded vigorously. “—boyfriend, Lee Robertson. Lee, the Scooby gang.” He ducked as the keyboardist flung a pillow at his head. “Also known as Chaser Lost. That’s Pete, Shondra with the vicious pillows, Quinn, Zoe, Ulrich. And their awesome techs, Kane, Vic, Royson, and two folks whose names I never got.”
“Terrison.” A big dark guy saluted me with his beer.
“Vanessa,” the blond woman called out. She was the one who’d come to fetch me and Yolanda before the hour that had just changed my life.
“Vanessa.” Griffin put his palms together and bowed to her. “I owe you a big one. Seriously.”
“De nada,” she said.
“Good to meet all of you,” I told them.
Griffin went on, “Much as I want you folks to get to know each other, right now I’m trying to find a way to get us back to Lee’s motel in town without creating a riot on the shuttle bus.”
Ulrich wolf-whistled and laughed when Shondra elbowed him.
Vanessa pushed to her feet. “I drove my own car up here. I get carsick on buses. I can give you a ride.”
“Seriously?” Griffin smiled at her. “Now I owe you my second-born as well as my first-born.”
“Unless you know something about gay sex that I don’t, I won’t hold my breath.” She dug under the table and came up with a fanny pack.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Ulrich told Griffin.
