Musician's Monsoon Read online

  She thought of Zane’s departing words. After one more show and another night spent unwinding with laughter, good conversation and downtime in Zane’s arms, he had stood at the airport with her and promised he would call her. Yeah, right. And then he’d told her that he would come and see her after the tour was over. Double yeah, right. As much as she wished that might actually happen, she knew he would forget about her in time. How could he not? She wasn’t anything special.

  Oh, Sophie, stop being such an idiot. You know you meant something to him, and Zane’s not like that. Stop trying to turn him into a jerk just because it would be easier for you to deal with your dilemma if he was.

  She scowled and refused to acknowledge that meddlesome voice that kept creeping into her thoughts. She was too tired to deal with that right now.

  She made her way to the front door and let herself in. She flopped her backpack in the foyer and left it there, then went to her answering machine. She had three messages. Whoop-de-do. That’s how significant she was in the grand scheme of life. She was gone for almost five days, and she got three messages.

  The first one was from Lorraine. “Sophie, I still can not believe what you did to me. Sending me home while you stole my man and went running off with the band like some kind of skank groupie. I am so mad at you right now. I don’t even know when I’ll be ready to talk to you again, so just don’t bother calling me for awhile.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes and hit the delete button. Like not being able to talk to Lorraine was a real hardship.

  The next message made her eyebrows shoot up because it was from Zane.

  “Sophie, I wanted you to know how much you managed to change my life while you were here with me, for the better. I know you don’t believe I’m going to contact you after the tour, but I will. I promise you. Good luck getting rid of me now.”

  She deleted that one, also, as quick as she could, just because it was easier to get on with her life if she pretended he didn’t really give a crap. That and it was much easier to ignore the annoying voice in the back of her mind telling her that her place was with him instead of living a boring, predictable existence twenty-four-seven.

  The next message, to her shock, and to the dismay of the part of her that was in denial, was also from Zane.

  “I hope you have a lovely evening, Sophie. I am thinking of you, and wish you were here with me. I’ve gotten spoiled having you around to talk with after the show…and I miss holding you…desperately.”

  She didn’t erase that one. She couldn’t. In fact, she played it one more time before she sank to the ground and fought tears. Something strange had happened since she’d met Zane. Some dormant part of her had awakened—the part of her that apparently liked rocking it on stage to a screaming crowd—and she didn’t know how to go back to the life she had once known. How could she? Now that she had tasted that rush? Now that she had tasted Zane?

  She propped her elbows on her knees and put her head in her hands. Her whole life, she had been in control. Now she felt anything but. Now, she felt…lonely.

  What was she supposed to do with that? Especially when life went on and she was powerless to stop the inevitable progression of time?

  * * * *

  Sophie felt out of sorts as she made her way down the hall toward her classroom. She’d given herself the “get back to work and back to your normal life” speech about a hundred times, but it didn’t seem to be helping much. She felt dismal, and missed Zane, and hated herself for getting attached to him in the first place when she’d commanded herself not to. It seemed, as of late, she was having a very difficult time listening to her own common sense. That was not a problem she’d ever had before, and she didn’t like it very much.

  She pushed open the door with a sigh and jumped back in shock when hoots, hollers and shouts from her students greeted her. She frowned and looked over at all of them as they cheered.

  “Woohoo! Go, Ms. G!”

  “Yeah, way to rock it, Sophie Storm!”

  She blinked in bewilderment and went to set her things over on her desk. “What in the world are you all talking about?” she asked as she addressed her rambunctious students.

  Elliott, a charismatic, talented boy who leaned toward the metal end of the music spectrum, laughed. “Are you serious? Like you don’t know what we’re talking about. Shadows friggin’ Rising! How did you get that gig?”

  She stared. “You know about that?” She wasn’t quite sure if that was good or bad. She didn’t think her school district would have an issue with it, but still.

  “Dude, everyone knows about Sophie Storm!” Elliott’s best friend and partner in crime, Aaron, shouted.

  She frowned and put her hands on her hips. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

  “That’s what everyone is calling you!” Elliott cried. “You’re all over YouTube and Facebook, and I even saw a clip of you on Entertainment Tonight!”

  She felt the color drain out of her face. “Are you serious?” she squeaked.

  “Well, yeah. Kate quitting the band caused a feeding frenzy in the media,” Aaron said. “And now people want to know who this mysterious Sophie is that came out of nowhere and blew everyone’s minds!” He made a very dramatic “exploding head” gesture with his hands and jumped up on his chair in enthusiasm.

  “They’ve labeled you Sophie Storm,” Julie, Elliott’s girlfriend, supplied.

  “Why?” She hated how completely meek and passive she sounded. She didn’t like seeming pitiful or out of control in front of her classes, but…shoot. Entertainment Tonight?

  “Because you’re like a typhoon of rockness!” Aaron continued to perform, standing on his chair and doing some sort of Elvis hip-wiggle thing, which he followed up with some air guitar, a couple head bangs, and the rock-on sign with his tongue slithering out like a snake for good measure.

  “Oh please,” she muttered, trying to get some kind of grip on this situation before her face ignited and Aaron decided to start sacrificing pigeons or something. “Zane’s a friend. I was trying to help him out.” That was…basically right. “It’s not like I’m part of the band now.” She hated how her heart twisted in protest at her even saying those words. “They were in a bind. I just happened to be there…”

  “You know Zane Blake?” Elliott screeched. “He’s your friend?”

  Her face burned, but she managed to nod. Friend was such a weak word for what she felt for Zane.

  “I didn’t know you played electric guitar, Ms. Gilkins!” Julie added.

  Sophie smiled, and an overwhelming wave of joy surged through her at the thought that, for one second in time, she had actually been somebody. She bet Lorraine really wanted to kill her now. She’d never thought recognition would matter, but it did. Especially from her students. “Well, I don’t tell you guys all my secrets,” she teased. “Now, enough playing around.” She pointed at Aaron. “Get down, Ozzy. We have work to do.”

  The students laughed, and she went over to grab her sheet music so she could begin the lesson. Her heart felt warm where it had been empty and aching only moments before, and she realized that, regardless of how everything ended up, she had had an experience of a lifetime.

  And she was grateful for her adventure.

  Chapter Ten

  Four months later

  It was a day like any other. Just like they’d all been since she’d first returned to work and reality after her brief stint as stand-in rock star. She’d gotten back into her routine and went about her business as she always had, but she still hadn’t been able to banish the small hole in her heart that had been there since she’d left Shadows Rising. It was like Zane had taken a little piece of her that she would never get back again. She didn’t know what to do with that. Get used to it, she guessed.

  While he had called her rather diligently for the first two months after her return to Flagstaff, she’d heard relatively little from him since their tour ended. Figured. She couldn’t pretend that it didn’t hurt. Even
though she’d tried to prepare herself for this inevitability, it still sucked. Especially since they had gotten to know one another so much better over his telephone calls. Because of that, her feelings for him had only deepened instead of diminished.

  “Get over it, Sophie,” she muttered to herself as she made her way to her room for the after-school rehearsal of the fall concert. “It was a nice little reprieve from your predictable life. That’s all. You knew this was going to happen, so deal with it and be happy your paths crossed at all.”

  She stepped into her classroom and was startled to see all of her students already in there. Usually it took them awhile to meander in after their last class when they did rehearsals like this.

  “Ms. G!” Elliot shouted, jaunting over to her with Aaron and Julie in tow. “Come on, we have to go to the gym.”

  She blinked rapidly. “Why?”

  He fixed her with a look. “The special assembly.”

  She frowned. “Special assembly? What are you talking about?”

  He arched an eyebrow. “You know, the special after-school assembly everyone has been talking about for like a month now.”

  Was she losing her mind? Had she completely forgotten about an assembly and scheduled rehearsal on top of it? She searched her memory and couldn’t place ever hearing about an assembly of any kind. “Elliott, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Come on, Ms. Gilkins!” Julie interrupted. “We’re going to miss it, and it’s supposed to be really cool!”

  Sophie’s frown deepened. Julie was a pretty level-headed girl. If she was saying this assembly was real, maybe Sophie really had spaced it. “What is it even supposed to be?”

  “Something to help the arts and music program. Come on!” Elliot insisted.

  “Okay, okay, fine. Let’s go to the gym.” She followed her excited students to the gym, all the while wracking her brain about this mysterious assembly, and coming up short. She was so involved in her own thoughts that, when she walked through the double doors into the gym and was met by uproarious cheering, she screamed and almost hit the roof she jumped so hard.

  She looked over at the bleachers bursting with kids, teacher and parents first, then slid her gaze over to the stage that had been erected in the middle of the basketball courts. Her heart did backflips and cartwheels as she spotted a very familiar tall, blond man making his way toward her with the biggest grin she had ever seen.

  “Wh…” She swallowed hard and tried to remember how to verbalize. “What…what the hell?” she whispered.

  Elliot and Julie exchanged surprised glances. “Holy crap, Ms. G just swore,” he murmured.

  Sophie was trembling when Zane approached her, and was thankful for his ever-present poise because she felt like she was going to poop her pants. He chuckled, which meant she must have looked as shocked at she felt.

  He lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, “Hello again…Sophie Storm.”

  She felt heat flood her cheeks. Of course. If she wasn’t in a perpetual state of red around Zane, he would think she was sick.

  She reached out to place her fingertips lightly on his chest, to assure herself that he was real, that she wasn’t dreaming. “What are you doing here?” she squeaked. As she looked past him, she could see the other band members tuning up on stage. She frowned. What in blue blazes is going on? She looked back up at Zane and her heart melted, much to her chagrin. He was just as beautiful as she remembered, and she turned into a blushing groupie around him.

  He reached down and took her hands in his, never losing his smile. He was the picture of confidence, the picture of talent, the picture of the man of her dreams. “Sophie, I want to discuss something with you.”

  “Discuss? For starters, discuss what your band is doing in my gym!”

  He chuckled. “We’re putting on a show. It has been very difficult keeping it a secret from you, but I had some good help.” He threw Elliott, Julie and Aaron a wink.

  Sophie frowned and turned to her students. “You all planned this behind my back?”

  “I wanted it to be a surprise,” Zane interrupted. “If you’d known ahead of time, you probably would have rationalized it until there was no juice left. This needed to be fueled by pure emotion, because only then are you honest with yourself. If anything, I have learned that about you over the last several months.”

  She would have protested, but she couldn’t…because he was right. Plus, at that precise moment, he reached up and took her face in his hands, and she was lost. She had missed his touch, missed his presence, missed everything about him.

  “All the proceeds from ticket sales tonight are going directly to the arts and music program here at your school.”

  She looked up at him and felt tears burn her eyes.

  “In addition to that, I have an offer for you.” He pointed to the stage. “Over there are three musicians ready to put on a rock concert, but we’re minus a bass player. Now, we have Dan, the guitar tech, who is sufficient, but lacking in the stage presence department. Not to mention the fact that all of our fans keep asking for a certain woman with a natural ability to command the stage, regardless of what she tells herself.”

  Sophie’s stomach rolled, and she stared up at him in both horror and intrigue at what he was about to say. Part of her rejoiced. Part of her was terrified.

  His eyes softened and turned to a warm, smoldering emerald. “Sophie, I know you tell yourself that this isn’t what you want, that your life is safe while mine is too spontaneous and wild, but I know what I saw and what I experienced for the several days you were with us. I know you love this as much as I do. And aside from all that, having you around calms me, steadies me, gives me a bit of normalcy in my chaotic world. Perfect balance, remember?” He threaded his fingers through her hair and sighed. “If you crave this the same way I do, you have a place with us. I know it would be life altering, but we want you to be a part of Shadows Rising, and if you’re willing to take the leap, I promise I won’t let you fall. Trust me, Sophie. Please.”

  She continued to stare because she didn’t know what else to do. He may as well have been speaking Swahili. All of this was so outlandish.

  “If you decide that you don’t want this, it’s all right. I’m not going anywhere, and we can figure something out. But if you decide to listen to yourself, to that voice deep inside of you, and if you decide that you can trust me to make sure everything is all right…” He spanned his arm behind him to indicate the stage. “We’re waiting for you to take your place.” He leaned down and pressed a soft, chaste kiss to his lips, then left her there while he went back over to the others.

  Sophie stood there, not knowing what to do and feeling more lost than she ever had. He was offering her a once in a lifetime opportunity. To be a member of her favorite band, to see the world, to play music every night of her life! To be with him…

  But her students… She couldn’t leave them behind. Besides, what was she thinking? Was she out of her mind? She couldn’t just go off and become a rock musician in a metal band. She had obligations. She had a life here. It was silly to even entertain that thought. She was not the rock-star type. She was a teacher. She had gone to school to become a teacher, not a rock star.

  She shook her head and tried to get a clue even while that meddlesome voice in her head was telling her that she was out of her mind for blowing this opportunity. You want Zane, and you want some of the fun that life has to offer. It doesn’t mean you’re going to become a drug addict or an alcoholic. You can still be responsible, but be so doing something incredible that you never imagined you would get the chance to do! And you would be able to do it alongside the man you love!

  Love? Wait, love? She couldn’t love Zane! Was she a complete lunatic? She barely knew the man!

  She squashed that annoying voice, squared her shoulders and turned to her students. “Okay, guys, let’s go find a place to sit for the show.”

  Elliott frowned. “You mean you’re not going to j
oin the band?”

  She snorted. “Of course not. I have a life already. Let’s go.” She tried to shoo them away, but he was having none of it.

  “Ms. G!” he exclaimed. “Are you mental? Anyone would kill to have this opportunity!”

  She frowned, not liking that her seventeen-year-old student was trying to lecture her. “Yeah, well, I’m not anyone. Now, come on. You couldn’t possibly understand where I’m coming from.”

  His eyes narrowed and he folded his arms across his chest. “Yeah? Why, ’cause I’m only a teenager?” He scowled. “Well, I’m smart enough to know that all you ever do is preach to us about how, if we have a dream, we need to make it happen. We have to go for it or else we’ll regret it for the rest of our lives. We need determination and strength and blah blah blah. You go ahead and tell yourself that you already have a life and that’s why you’re giving up this amazing chance, but I know, and everyone else is going to know, what the real reason is.”

  She frowned at him in question.

  “The real reason is that you’re a total coward. You don’t have the balls to do it because it’s so foreign to you. Tell me something, Ms. G. How can you lecture us when you won’t even walk the walk yourself?”

  Sophie felt like Elliott had socked her in the gut. He may as well have for the way all the air left her lungs. She felt nauseous for half a second as his words hit a place deep inside her heart she had been trying to run from. It was true. Everything he said was true. She hid behind her safe life because it was just that…safe. She had learned to rely on it. Zane and Shadows Rising was out of her comfort zone, foreign territory…dangerous.

  She shot a glance toward the stage to where he was talking to Rhonda, and smiled as she remembered their bizarre and random meeting. Her cousin’s chest and one antenna ball later, and he’d swept her off her feet and into his world of music and adventure.

  She had only intended to have the one adventure, but who was stopping her from having more? Only herself.