land in his bed in no time.
Caleb dragged a hand through his hair, pinching his neck as he stared at me, nodding absently. “Okay. Okay then. If that’s what you want. Let’s end it on a high note, shall we? Pal?”
Chapter 25
Caleb
My head wasn’t in practice that day. Memories of my conversations with Kelly and Elizabeth earlier in the week kept swimming around my head, but luckily, I could pretty much play the set list in my sleep by this point, so I got through practice without anyone picking up on my mood or my lack of concentration.
When we were finished, Jared strode up to me, dodging the crew that were streaming onto the stage to complete the setup for the next session and stopping to have a quick talk with the sound guy. He clapped the man on the shoulder once he was done and kept moving across to me.
“You ready for the next show?” he asked when he got close.
“Always.” Turning my thumb up, I raised it to him and turned to leave. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Jared. I had enough to think about.
Mistaking my hurry to get away from him, Jared laughed. “Where’s the fire? Kelly’s not going anywhere, you know? She’s on tour with us for the foreseeable future.”
“Not going to see her,” I clipped out. I would’ve loved it if I was, even if only to get answers, but she was done with me. Out of fucking nowhere.
Jared’s laughter stopped abruptly, and he whistled low. “You’re not hanging out with Kelly tonight? Why not?”
“We’re over,” I told him, my eyes narrowing as irritation over his interrogation started rising from my stomach. I loved my brother, but the guy really had to stop meddling.
Surprise flashed in Jared’s eyes, and he stepped back, raising his hands in surrender. “Woah. Okay, how the hell did that happen?”
“The usual way.”
“Caleb.” His voice was low. This was Kelly we were talking about, his fiancée’s sister. He wasn’t letting me off that easily. I sighed and turned toward him.
“Remember I told you she wanted me to meet with Elizabeth?”
Jared’s hands dropped, and he jutted out his chin, tension suddenly taking hold of his shoulders and radiating from him. “Christ. Please tell me you didn’t—”
“I didn’t fuck her,” I insisted, slightly disgusted that he’d even asked. I would’ve been pissed, but the reality was that I hadn’t exactly given him any reason to think that I wouldn’t have.
He didn’t respond immediately, looking me up and down until he gave a slight nod. “I believe you. What happened?”
“I called Liz up, invited her to the hotel,” I started, every detail vividly replaying in my mind’s eye as I told him what happened. “She agreed, came over. We talked. I finally got closure, just like Kelly said I would.”
“And then?” Jared angled his head slightly to the side, folding his arms. He wasn’t going to make this any easier on me.
“And then nothing. She asked me never to contact her again, and she left. Kelly calls me up the next day, asks if she can come over. I said yes. She shows up, we talk about Elizabeth and what happened with her, and the next thing I know, she’s telling me that she’s happy for me, but that she wants to end things with us on a positive note. Then she’s gone too.”
“End things on a positive note?” he repeated flatly. “That sounds like bullshit. What’d you do, bro?”
It was times like this that Jared made me want to grab him by his Imperial Inspection Tour T-shirt and shove him against a wall, and perhaps shove my foot up his ass. He stood completely still, unmoving until he plucked his sunglasses from his shirt and sucked one of its arms into his mouth, still staring at me.
Crews were starting to give us curious glances, not used to us hanging around for so long after our practices and certainly not used to us having personal conversations while they were around. They’d all signed non-disclosure agreements, I was sure, but that didn’t make me any more comfortable having this conversation here.
“I didn’t do anything,” I grumbled at Jared and then jerked my head to the backstage area and the privacy that lay beyond it. “Let’s walk.”
Jared nodded and followed me down the stairs. We were both quiet as we wound our way through roadies and crew, dodged the brave few who dared approach us, and made our way out of the venue.
Today’s