One More Time - Ali Parker Page 0,24

would anyway. Glancing at the clock again, I chose a shot at random and raised it. “Time to start. May the best man still be able to call for a ride later.”

Jared chuckled and downed his shot as I did mine. Already, I was getting a nice buzz going, and since it’d been a while since it’d been just me and Jared, I was enjoying the time with my brother. As the hours passed, we pounded back enough alcohol to take down a horse, but neither of us were backing down.

We were drinking to oblivion if it came to that, and I was perfectly okay with it. Jared had passed into the reminiscing stage of drunkenness, talking about a show we’d had back when we were first becoming known.

The crowd had been terrible that night, wondering who the up-and-comers were and booing each song they didn’t know, which at the time had been most of ours, if not all of them.

“Those fuckers took some working,” Jared said. “God, I thought I was going to have to fuck someone on stage to get them interested.”

“But you didn’t have to,” I reminded him. “You always know just what to do to get them eating out of the palm of your fuckin’ hand.”

“Nah, I just flash ‘em some skin and moan into the mic.” He laughed, miming his signature move of teasing the audience that he was about to take off his shirt.

“Well yeah, mostly that. But you’ve also just got it, man. You know how to read ‘em and give them what they want. I’ve always been kind of jealous of that.” It seemed I was passing into the brutal and embarrassing honesty stage of drunk. I slammed another shot and hoped to pass into belligerent soon.

“You, jealous of me?” Jared asked, incredulous. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. The press call it natural charisma. You got it, dude. I don’t have it for shit.” It was the first time I’d said those words, in as many words, out loud. Drunk as I was, a weight lifted from my shoulders at the admission. “There’s a reason they call you the Emperor.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jared mused, his words becoming slurred. Mine were too, so I couldn’t exactly judge. “I just sing, man. You. You’re the one with the real talent. You’re like… you’re the Emperor of Guitar.”

Both my eyebrows raised, despite the pleasant buzz I was getting from his praise. Not that I needed it or craved it, but it was easy to feel overlooked sometimes. “Emperor of Guitar? You’re way drunker than I thought.”

“Me? No. I’m serious. You’re the backbone, Caleb. Without you, none of this would’ve happened. That’s why I don’t get why you’re so hung up on the past when you should be focused on our future. You’re so convinced that everything’s going to end that you’re not enjoying it before it does. Besides, even if it does end, it doesn’t matter. We’ve had our fun. We’re about to go on a world tour. If it ends, fuck, look at all we’ve done. Either way, our future looks fuckin’ great, so get out of the past. It’s too much of a depressing place.”

It was a depressing place. That much was true. Jared had a way of looking at things that I’d never quite understood, but in this instance, he was right. Sort of. We’d already achieved so much more than we’d set out to.

Maybe just this one night, I could let it all go. Adopt Jared’s stance and just think about fun in the here and now. And when I thought of fun, big green eyes and a halo of blonde hair popped into my mind’s eye. Kelly and her voluptuous curves were suddenly all I could think about.

Drunk as I was, even the memory of her was enough to make my dick stir. It was insane how attracted I was to her. I needed, like, almost zero recovery time with her. I hadn’t slept with the same chick twice in forever, but just that week, I’d fucked Kelly time and time again. I liked sleeping with her, and I definitely wanted to do it again.

But that was all it was. Sex. That was all it could ever be. It wasn’t a relationship. I didn’t do hearts and flowers and romance. Never again.

Chapter 10

Kelly

“So, talk romance to me.” The three men sitting across the coffee table from me stared at me dumbly, almost like I’d said a word that they didn’t understand. “Since Jared