Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 271(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 271(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
I swallow, nodding quickly. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Great!”
She runs off, and when I turn back to Coach Stokes, he’s giving me a funny smile.
“Nah, you’re not ready.”
I frown. “Excuse me?”
He grins. “Not without your band you’re not.” He glances over his shoulder. “Hey! Knuckleheads! Get out here!”
And suddenly, there they are—Anders, Carson, and Griff, instruments in hand and their eyes locked on me as they step out of the shadows and over towards me. I shiver, and instantly, all the sadness, and anger, and betrayal I felt goes melting away, drifting off of me like smoke.
Coach Stokes smiles at me. “I’m gonna go find a beer. Kick some ass out there, okay?”
“I will,” I grin, my face flushed as I look at him. “And Coach Stokes?”
He raises a brow.
“Thanks.”
He smiles.
“Knock ’em dead, kid.”
He turns and marches past the three guys, giving Anders a clap on the shoulder before he’s gone.
“Zara—”
“Coach Stokes told me everything,” I say quietly.
“Even still,” Griff growls, stepping closer, his eyes never leaving mine. “Zara, we owe you a—”
“You don’t,” I whisper.
“Leaving you in the lurch like that was shitty,” Carson growls.
I shrug. “Maybe, but you’re here now.”
“Damn right we are,” Anders growls, and I gasp as all three of them move right into me. My breath catches as six hands suddenly slide gently over me.
“And we’re never leaving,” Griffin groans. “Not for anything.”
“Fuck, baby, we’re so fucking sorry that we weren’t here.”
I smile, biting my lip as I take one of Carson’s hands in mine and squeeze.
“Look, I get it, okay? Football isn’t nothing just because we somehow pulled off this band thing. What were you going to do, walk away from all of your other teammates who were depending on you?”
“Uh, yes?”
I giggle, turning and suddenly stepping up on my tiptoes to kiss Anders’s cheek.
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t.” I shrug flippantly. “And besides, I didn’t need you guy anyways to nail the show. I mean, we’re here at the finals, aren’t we?”
The three of them chuckle.
“You saying we’re just the pretty faces? The backup singers?” Carson grins.
“Yup.” I beam back at him. “I mean we all know I’m the talent here.”
The three of them roar with laugher, and suddenly, we’re all just crashing together. I moan as my mouth crushes to Anders’s, my head spinning as he kisses me fiercely. Griff is next, groaning into my mouth and making my toes curl before he pulls back and Carson takes his place. His kiss is wild and bruising, and when I pull away, my entire body is buzzing with electricity.
“You ready for this?” Anders grins.
I nod, my eyes burning into his, and then Carson’s, and then Griffin’s.
“Hell yes. But, I, uh…” I blush. “I need to tell you something first.”
“Yeah?” Griff grins.
“Yeah,” I breathe. “I just have to tell you that I love you. Each of you.” I shrug, blushing. “That’s all.”
“That’s all, huh?” Carson grins, scooping me into his arms as I giggle. “Well, just so you know, we love you too. I love you.”
“And I love you,” Anders purrs, kissing the back of my neck.
“And I love you, too,” Griff growls, gently pulling my chin around to crush his lips to mine.
“Ready to play?” he groans, pulling away slowly.
I take a shaky breath, my whole body trembling with adrenaline, and lust, and love, and excitement.
“Well, now I am.”
The three of them grin, and suddenly, I hear footsteps as the MC comes bustling around the corner.
“Zara? We’re ready for—oh!” She beams. “You found your band!”
“Yeah,” I grin, stepping back into all three of them. “Yeah, I did.”
She smiles broadly, clapping her hands. “Alright then! You guys ready?”
“Hell yes,” Griffin growls.
We follow her out, the lights go up, the crowd goes wild. I turn and glance at all three of them, feeling the love and the connection there as we all lock eyes and I count us in.
And then, we just play.
Epilogue
Zara
Okay, first things first, because everyone hates a cliffhanger, yeah, we won.
Oh, did we win.
We played our freaking hearts out on that stage. Honestly, it was the best we’d ever sounded, too. Maybe it was that we’d had a taste of the bitter—a dose of harsh reality and the pain of what not being together would bring. Maybe all good art needs pain to be good. Who knows? Whatever the case though, for fifteen minutes on that stage, we were something else. We were rock gods—ethereal beings playing with every single part of our souls.
And when the last notes played, and when the entire freaking place jumped to their feet to applause, I wasn’t even looking at all of them. I was looking at the three guys who’d stolen my heart.
As it turns out, the rumor was, there were reps at the show, too. Actually, there were a ton of them. There were so many that there was actually a fist fight between four different record label guys out in the parking lot after over who was going to pitch to us first. Yeah, that was an ego boost.