already looked exhausted even though the night was young. I wasn’t sure how much sleep she’d been getting. Our first two nights on the bus together had been tense and wasn’t getting any better. Braxton walked on eggshells around us, and we around her.
“You okay?” I asked her when Houston finished berating her for disappearing this morning, this time alone but without security. She was sitting alone on the sofa, heels off, and rubbing her small feet with a grimace.
“Fabulous,” she grumbled without looking up.
The link between my brain and my body disconnected long enough for me to take the foot she was rubbing between my hands and kneed the pad of her foot. And I was painfully aware of the fact that this hadn’t gone unnoticed.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Loren storm off, bursting through a door marked “No Exit” and setting off the alarm. Thankfully, one of the venue staff ran over a moment later and quickly reset the security system.
“Is this okay?” I asked her once the usual chaos resumed. I was so nervous that you’d think I was fingering her pussy instead of rubbing her feet. Smiling softly, Braxton nodded before closing her eyes and resting her head on the back of the couch. “So I don’t know what happened after you and Lo disappeared,” I began as I massaged the arch in her foot, “and I don’t want to know.” Only partly true. “Whatever happened, my unsolicited advice is to put it out of your mind. At least until after the show. Those are not the kind of demons you want out there with you.”
Her eyes opened, and I could tell she was considering whether to confide in me.
This is historically the moment when guys too emotionally available end up in the friend zone. We become a shoulder to lean on and nothing more.
You don’t care.
And then I told myself to believe it like it was gospel.
“Do you ever get used to it?”
When I simply stared back at her, she gestured toward the stage. I listened for a moment as our opening band wrapped up and then switched to her other foot. I didn’t want to know what it meant that she chose to keep what happened between Loren and her a mystery to me. Instead, I concentrated on relieving the ache in her feet and ignoring the one in my chest.
“Fucking up is inevitable. No matter how good you get, you’ll always be human. It’s not until you screw up the first time and realize the world didn’t end that you stop worrying about the times that follow. You’re good at what you do, Braxton. You have a gift, and that’s something a few bad shows and bloodthirsty critics can never take away from you.”
“Wait,” she said, making me pause. “I have critics? Already?”
“That’s what you heard?”
“I’m human, remember?” she tossed back at me sweetly.
“So I’m guessing you haven’t been on Twitter lately.”
“No.” She winced and then grimaced. “Do I want to look?”
“No.”
I could see the curiosity burning in her brown eyes and knew the moment my back was turned that she’d find herself in the middle of a shitstorm. We were moments from playing our fourth show, and Braxton had been nothing short of amazing. She hadn’t reached Calvin’s level, but it was becoming clear that she’d surpass him.
It wasn’t enough, though.
She was currently being ripped apart from every corner of the earth, and until I let the cat out of the bag, she’d been oblivious to it. Quiet as it was kept, those critics were why Houston blew his top anytime Braxton was out of his sight.
Because he wanted what was best for those he cared about, even at the expense of himself. Neither of them knew it yet, but that now included Braxton.
The opening band was all smiles when they returned backstage. It was always our cue to get our shit together.
“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” Braxton murmured as she accepted her guitar from a roadie wearing one of our band tees. It was a new design that included one of the shots from the shoot we did weeks ago. The roadies seemed to prefer that one to the choice with just our names on it, and I didn’t blame them. Braxton wrapped around me sounded too good to pass up.
Loren reappeared through one of the designated entry/exit doors, and I stiffened when I saw that Houston was right behind him. I didn’t