One More Time - Ali Parker Page 0,14

away from us. As much as I hated to admit it, Jared was right when he said not to take it too far because it could easily blow up in our faces.

On the other hand, while I didn’t know Kelly well, I had read her blog after finding out that Alicia’s sister was part of the dreaded press, and she was good at her job. If she thought this idea would be good for the band, maybe it was my turn to take one for the team.

I would’ve been happy playing clubs and pubs for the rest of my life, but the others? They wouldn’t have. And they’d done a lot for us. Jared might’ve been my only biological brother, but the others were our brothers in every way that counted. I owed it to them all to do this if it would help.

Besides, Kelly was kind of hot. She was curvier than Alicia, but I liked that. Spending some extra time with her wouldn’t be all bad. Fucking her would probably also annoy Jared, and while I wouldn’t take things with the rivalry too far, I was kinda in the mood to annoy him just a little.

Chapter 6

Kelly

“So, Caleb. The tour kicks off here in L.A. in early December. That gives the fans just a little under a month to get tickets for the first shows, which are almost sold out already. The fans are chomping at the bit to get into those arenas you’ll be playing. How is the band feeling?”

It was way beyond weird to know that the stone-faced rocker I was in my first one-on-one interview for GNM with was going to be my brother-in-law in just a few short months’ time. But Caleb, aside from calling me by my first name when he said hi earlier, gave no indication that we knew each other outside of this professional context.

He sat cool as a cucumber in an ice bucket, in the seat across from me at one of the conference tables in Alicia’s office building. He leaned back in his seat like he owned the place, with his arms crossed and his one ankle resting on his knee.

Dark sunglasses hung in the “V” of his long-sleeved white shirt, the sleeves pushed up to his elbows to reveal muscled, tatted forearms. Navy jeans hung from his narrow hips. A few tears sat on the knees that didn’t look like they’d been artfully placed there by a designer. They looked like they were there from wear and tear.

Stubble dotted his square jaw, and my mind briefly flashed to what that stubble might feel like rubbing against the soft, sensitive skin of my thighs. But that was hardly the kind of thoughts that I should’ve been having during an interview, so I banished them as soon as they popped into my head.

His dark chocolate-colored hair looked almost black in the dim light with the rain clouds gathered outside, sticking up like he’d just rolled out of bed. Or maybe it had been styled that way. I couldn’t tell.

My eyes traveled to his, and I found his gaze fixed on mine, an amused look in his eye that told me I’d just been busted checking him out. Mercifully, he didn’t say anything about it. Instead, now satisfied that my attention was on his answer and not his body, he began speaking.

“The band is just as excited to start the tour as the fans are for us to do it, I think. It’s been a while since we’ve been on the road, and since the stage is our favorite place to be, we’re amped to get back out there.”

Caleb was speaking the words, but I heard Alicia in them. I knew she’d have prepped Caleb for this interview. I was just surprised that he was sticking to her lines.

For now, that was. Some of the questions I had coming up would be sure to rattle his cage a little.

“This tour will be your longest yet, if I understand correctly. How do you feel about leaving your home behind for so many months?”

“Honestly? I’m excited. We’re going to get to see a lot of places I never even would’ve dreamed of seeing, and we’ll be meeting fans from all over the world. It’s a dream come true.” The last sentence had sarcasm dripping off it in spades, and I made a note to return to that at a later stage.

“I would imagine so,” I said. “Thousands of bands across the country dream