She took hold of the wine glass I shoved at her chest. “You want to visit Romania? Do you even know where that is?”
“Of course I know where Romania is. Seriously, do I look that stupid?”
She smothered a laugh. “Well…”
“Oh shut up,” I hissed. I paused for a moment to think, taking a sip of my wine. “It borders the Black Sea, and Serbia and Ukraine.”
“Is it even safe to visit there right now?”
“How would I know? I haven’t consulted my daily friendly travel guide today.”
I sat my wine on the counter and opened the fridge door to examine the contents. According to Henry, it was my turn to cook dinner tonight, and usually that coincided with there being no food in the house. This usually meant having to conjure a mealtime miracle with only an orange, two eggs, a tin of creamed corn and a packet of chicken noodle soup from nineteen-ninety-four.
“So are you going to tell me how it went today because frankly, I’m not getting good vibes. Did you run over a cat on the way home?”
“Travis drove.”
“Did Travis run over a cat on the way home?”
“Hey!” I heard Travis pipe up from the couch.
Travis sat up and shuffled tiredly into the kitchen, and I immediately felt bad. It was no doubt he had a million things to do, but instead babysat my ass all day long after likely working half the night. His clothes, usually cooler then even Jared’s, looked wrinkled. I’m sure he used to have a life once that included things like manly sporting activities and well, the like.
I gave him his wine and a sympathetic smile. “Stay for dinner?”
“Sure. Whatcha making?”
“Hello?” Mac almost shouted, waving her hand in front of my face.
“What?”
“Oh hang on.” She frothed with sarcasm. “I’m just going over here to have a conversation with this wall because it’s less likely to provide a nonsensical reply and more likely to tell me what happened today than you are.”
I gestured to the wall in a go ahead hand wave and watched as she sucked in a deep breath.
“Where’s Hussy?” she asked.
“Next door with the Rice Bubbles.”
I pulled out an onion and a chopping board and began slicing. Travis sat up on the bench next to me which was nice. I liked to have company while I faffed about in the kitchen. It made the whole task more like a social activity rather than a chore.
My phone beeped a message.
J: How did today go?
“Ah, I don’t think so.”
Mac, reading over my shoulder, snatched the phone out of my hand and tossed it into the lounge room.
“Mac!”
I went back to slicing the onions.
“Evie!”
“Okay.” I popped a pan onto the hot plate and added some olive oil. “Oh, the CD is in my bag. You should go put it on.”
“It’s done?” Mac rummaged through my bag on the dining table and plucked it out. “How many songs did you get through?”
“Just two,” I told her as I tossed the onions in the pan and stirred them around.
“Can I help?” Travis asked.
“Absolutely. You can help by sitting there and relaxing.”
Mac cranked up the music to body pounding decibels. My phone managed to cut through some of the noise. “What do you think? Get my phone.”
“It’s awesome and no. Finish telling me about today first.”
“Marty is a mixing genius.” I sliced the rind off the bacon. “Is it safe to give raw bacon rind to Peter Travis?”
Travis raised his brows. “What do you mean safe? Like would he choke?”
Mac shrugged. “Could he choke? Google it.”
“Maybe I should just grill it for him?”
“Grill the rind?” Mac repeated.
“Well, yeah.”
Travis laughed. “You’re going to grill bacon rind for your dog? Bet Jared would love that.”
“Listen up, people.” I pointed my little chopping knife meaningfully at Mac and then at Travis. “All Jared needs to know is that the bacon in this pasta is rindless okay? No telling him where the rind went.”
I flipped on the grill and added some pasta to the boiling pot of water I had going as Travis’s phone rang.
“‘Lo? Yeah, here, in the kitchen. No that was Mac. Uh huh. I think she said pasta carbonara. Hang on, I’ll check.” Travis put his hand over the speaker. “Jared’s on his way over. Wants to know if you need anything for the salad.”
Um, I hadn’t planned on making salad. I spun around and rummaged through the fridge. “Ahh, lettuce, tomatoes. Oh, I’ll do a Greek salad. Tell him to get some olives and feta, too, please.”
Travis relayed the message and gave Mac a stern look before speaking to me as he placed his phone back in his pocket. “You know, you really need to answer your phone when Jared gets in touch. He was worried for a minute.” He folded his arms to emphasise the seriousness of his point and Mac look suitably chastened.
“Sorry,” I murmured.
I finished putting the pasta together as I told Mac about our day at the recording studio. “Anyway, the big news is that mixing miracle man Marty revealed Sins of Descent might be considering us as one of the supports for the Australian leg of their world tour.”
“Holy shit!” Mac shouted. “Holy shit!”
She picked up her wine and did a fast waltz into the lounge room and back. Peter, sensing fun, roused himself from the couch and barked at her feet. I slipped him a grilled piece of bacon rind when he hit the kitchen.
“Well it’s only gossip, Mac, but Marty’s grapevine is probably pretty solid. He reckons we’re a shoe in. Don’t say anything though,” I tacked on hastily. “He was telling us on the down low.”
Jared arrived, finding Mac doing a mock serious waltz around the lounge room, albeit this time with me. I stopped so he could plant a hard kiss on my lips, and then he dumped a shopping bag on the kitchen counter.
“What’s going on?” he asked Travis.
I abandoned Mac for the kitchen and started rummaging through the bag to make a start on the salad. “Skim milk feta? Are you serious? I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”
Jared reached in the fridge and pulled out two beers, handing one to Travis. “So, how did it go today?”
I told the story of our day over again and before anyone could mention the tour, I hustled Jared into the pantry, shutting the door behind me.
“Private chat, huh?” Jared grinned as he pushed me into the shelving.
“No, I’m serious.”
He started peppering little kisses along my collarbone. I tilted my neck and my breath came out on a long sigh.
“So talk.”
“I can’t when you’re doing that.” His mouth had moved up to tug on my earlobe and I moaned.
“Okay.” He pulled back just a little. “What’s up?”
My heart descended a little from cloud nine. Just because an invitation for the tour may be imminent, Jimmy being out there would surely make security almost impossible.
“Well...” I took a deep breath “...you see...” I mumbled the rest in a rush, “it misht be poble ther weir goiw on touw,”
I cringed slightly with an awkward scratch of my head before peeking up from underneath my lashes.
Jared looked amused, the corners of his lips curved up in that half grin of his. “Ah, what?”
I fidgeted with an unopened packet of brown rice while I looked everywhere but at his face. I’d just recently finished informing him, in a polite way, that he couldn’t tell me what to do, but in matters of security and Jimmy, he was the expert, so I needed to take his opinion on board. “It might be possible that we’re going on tour.”
“Are you for f**king real?” I looked up again and started at the grin splitting Jared’s face wide.
“Uh, yeah?”
“When? Where?”
“Next month, supporting Sins of Descent across Australia.”
Reaching up to tuck my hair behind my ears so he could see my face properly, he stilled as shadows fell across his eyes, changing them from brilliant emerald to a dark forest green. “Well, baby, that’s all kinds of awesome, but next month?”
“It’s nothing yet. Just a rumour from Mixmaster Marty, but apparently his grapevine is like, solid.”
“Mixmaster Marty?”
“The guy who did our songs at the studio.”
Jared nodded thoughtfully, and I held my breath as I waited for his response. “It’s not much time really, is it? For you to prepare. Could you manage it?”
“We’d be replacing another band, so yeah. We just have to step in is all.”
He nodded again and rubbed his chin, his mind ticking over. “We’d have to be in charge of your personal security, but I’m sure we can work something out.”
My heart lifted. “Really? So you’d be cool with this?”
He put his hands on my h*ps and pulled me close. “Well, I wouldn’t say cool because keeping you alive is something I happen to take very seriously. Let’s just say it’s doable, and I’ll deal with it because I know how important this is for you.”
The boys must have descended from next door because the chatter got loud and someone started cranking our CD, all two songs of it, loudly again.
“Can we eat already?” I heard Henry yell from the kitchen.
I ignored them as I wrapped my arms around Jared’s neck. “You know,” I whispered, “you’re important to me, Jared.”
As I pressed my lips to his, the pantry door busted open, flooding the little room with brilliant light. I shielded my eyes as Mac bore down on us, finger jabbing at us fiercely.
“Seriously? There’s food in here. This shit is not cool. What are you, rabbits?” She stalked away muttering something about bedrooms being completely underrated these days.
I giggled and we shuffled out because Jared was behind me, arms wrapped around my front.
My phone buzzed and I picked it up with a grin.
I missed giving you your xmas present. Hang tight. Better late than never, Songbird.
The grin slid from my face.
Chapter Nineteen
“Goddamn f**king f**ker,” Mac growled as she ripped the rollers from my hair with such savagery that even Coby visited the bathroom to make sure I wasn’t being tortured to death.
“Ouch,” I yelped for the five hundred and sixty-third time, give or take a few. I put my hand to my scalp to see if I was haemorrhaging blood. “Give it a rest, Mac.”
Mac had been on a rampage since the latest message. It seemed I wasn’t the only one not enjoying the threat Jimmy hung over my head with such sinister delight. How he couldn’t be found I did not know. All I knew was that it needed to be done because I had a weight on my chest that sucked the breath out of me. I worked at keeping it to the back of mind, but now and then it just spilled over.
“You’re trying to tell me what to do?” she growled, dumping another roller in the sink.
I shrank back a little in fear as her hands reached for my head. “No,” I squeaked. I changed the subject. “So tell me again what Gary said to you on the phone.”