Last Song (Chasing Cross Book Five) (A Brothers of Rock Novel) (rockstar contemporary romance) by Karolyn James Page A

acting as
though Sarah was either his property or that he thought because of his drinking
and drumming, he’d get to spend the night with her. With his arm around her,
Rick talked to a small crowd around him. He took his arm away for a few minutes
to sign autographs and take a couple pictures.
    Rick order another drink,
offered the same for Sarah.
    She waved the drink off.
She needed to drive Susie home and then herself.
    “What did you think?”
Rick asked with his lips next to Sarah’s ear.
    “Very good,” Sarah said.
“I liked it.”
    “Better than Chasing
Cross?”
    “I can’t...”
    “I’m messing around.”
    Rick faced Sarah and his
hands weren’t shy. He touched her shoulders and then he touched her arms. When
his fingers touched her wrists, Sarah felt herself shudder. However, staring
into Rick’s eyes she knew this wasn’t the Rick from before. The nice guy who
was opening up. This was the Rick that stayed up until one or two in the
morning, drinking and making noise in the garage.
    Sarah wanted nothing to
do with this Rick.
    His fingers ran along her
hands and when he tried to interlock his fingers into hers, Sarah pulled away.
    “What’s wrong?” Rick
asked.
    “Rick, this isn’t the...”
    “But before was?”
    Sarah felt her face burn.
The kiss before was Rick being Rick. That Rick was a man worth kissing, but
even then Sarah wasn’t sure what had gotten into her. She never did that
before. She never just kissed someone or let someone kiss her. It had just been
one of those moments. Hearing Rick talking about life and decisions and how to
make those decisions, it made sense to Sarah. That’s how she felt most of her
life... but now she stared at a drunk Rick, a man who used drinking to cover up
those raw emotions that had attracted her earlier.
    “Listen, I have to get
going,” Sarah said.
    “No you don’t,” Rick
said.
    His right hand shot out
and touched Sarah’s lower back. He tried to pull her but Sarah wiggled away.
    “I have to check on
Susie. Right now.”
    “Don’t go,” Rick said.
    His eyes flickered with
that pain and honesty from before, but it was gone as fast as it came. He got
angry.
    “Rick...”
    “Yeah, I get it,” Rick said.
“I’m just a burned out rockstar. Too good for a vet, huh?”
    “I never...”
    Rick pulled his hand away
from Sarah and backed up.
    Sarah hated herself in
that moment because she wanted Rick to touch her again. She’d take the drunk
touching, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t become that woman. Not with her
neighbor. Not with a man that she was just getting to know.
    She couldn’t.
    Rick reached for the bar
and grabbed a drink. He lifted it in the air, staring at Sarah.
    “To great nights and true
friends,” he called out. Then he smiled. “And neighbors.”
    Sarah turned and found
herself on the brink of crying.
    Why?
    That bothered her even
more. Why the hell was a man like Rick getting to her? Sarah told herself the
next time she heard noise at Rick’s house she was calling the police. If Rick
wanted to get drunk and loud he could go back to wherever he came from. Back to
his lifestyle of partying and not caring.
    Sarah looked for Susie
but couldn’t find her. She began to panic and lunged at the bar, asking the
bartender if he’d seen her. The bartender smiled and pointed to the women’s
bathroom.
    “Shit,” Sarah whispered
and hurried towards the door.
    She opened the door and
heard the sound of Susie getting sick bouncing off the tiles. Sarah found her
best friend hunched over a toilet in the middle stall.
    Sarah touched Susie’s
back and said, “It’s just me. Are you okay?”
    “Just fine,” Susie
managed to say. “There goes thirty bucks worth of drinks.”
    “Don’t feel bad,” Sarah
said, “I feel like I could puke too and I haven’t had a drink in hours.”
    Susie took heavy breaths
and stood back. Sarah helped her from the stall to the sink and cleaned her up
the best she could.
    “I have to go