“What if you and me...” He trails off.
My brows dip down. “What?” I ask.
He looks down into my eyes, and I swear a moment of heat passes between us, but then he shakes his head and looks away as he lets me go. “Never mind. We should get back. We don’t want to miss it when they announce who’s going home.”
We head back to the family room to join the others, but I can’t help wondering what that was all about. Is he interested in me? It sure seemed like it...but he’s the one who told me this would all be pretend.
And so far, it’s only been one night of pretending.
It must be the whiskey.
I keep trying to find ways to justify it, but I know what I saw there.
Does Tyler Caldwell want to turn this fake thing into something more?
CHAPTER 29: DAX
I blow out a breath of frustration. “Why isn’t it crystal clear who we want yet?”
Brody huffs out an annoyed chuckle. “Because none of them are Kane.”
Adam presses his lips together. “He’s right. I like everyone here, and I can see some of them fitting in with us, but it’s new. Whoever it is will grow to be part of our family eventually, but it’s not natural to choose your family. You know?”
Brody and I both nod because we do know.
“Any surprises for any of you?” Brody asks.
I nod. “Shocked Lexi could play so technically well when she was as wasted as she was.”
“Gage, Blaze, and Tyler, too,” Adam says.
Brody chuckles. “Tyler’s probably that wasted most weekends.”
Adam and I nod, conceding to that point.
“What’s your opinion of Colt?” I ask.
Adam speaks up first. “I think it would be too much of an insult to Kane if we kept him around. I already feel like shit for even letting him get this far.”
“Yeah.” I nod, tapping the eraser of my pencil on the table. Even entertaining the idea of allowing the guy who cheated on Kane’s woman before she became Kane’s woman into our competition felt a little scummy from the start, but Ashmark owns Colt and wanted him in the competition, so we gave him a fair shot. He didn’t rise to the challenge tonight, though. Neither did a few of the others, but it feels like the right time to let him go. “So it’s him tonight?”
Adam and Brody nod.
“I think so,” Brody says.
I want to ask a question, but I hesitate. It’s something Kylie brought up to me, and while I think it’s an incredible idea, I don’t know if these two will. Especially not after the rather bitter taste that’s still in both their mouths. But I blurt it out anyway. “What do you guys think of bringing Kane in as a guest judge sometime?”
Brody’s brows shoot up in surprise, and Adam sits back in his chair like I just knocked the wind out of him. I don’t say anything more, though. I wait for reactions. I’ve learned patience over the years, especially when I drop bombs like this. Hey, guys, what do you think about inviting back the guy who left us to help us choose his replacement?
Brody and Adam exchange a glance. “I don’t know, man,” Brody says.
“There are days I feel bad for him and days I feel bad for us. But there’s never a day where I don’t feel something over what happened.” Adam drains the rest of his beer can. “I suppose today, I think it isn’t the worst idea I’ve heard all day.”
I chuckle at his response then nod at Brody. “And you?”
He clenches his jaw for a beat, the muscles moving back and forth while he contemplates. “It’s only been, what, a month since he told us he was leaving?”
I nod.
“This shit all moves too goddamn fast for me.” He chugs down the rest of his beer, too. “A month ago, we didn’t have any of this on our radar, and now we’re in the middle of yet another reality show that was thrown together in two weeks.”
“Thrown together?” I ask calmly. Never mind the fact that my wife, who should still be on maternity leave, jumped into this with both feet to help us find our replacement right away. Never mind the fact that people at Ashmark worked twenty-four-seven to get this show off the ground in time.
He rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean. I know everyone’s working hard, but I’ve barely had time to process the fact that Kane’s really gone and we’re already trying to figure out who should play in his place. No one should play in his place.”
“That’s beside the point, Brody. We can’t change the fact that he left. We can only change our reaction to it. Do you want to hate him forever? Or do you want to man up and move forward with the rest of us?”
He glares at me a little, but he finally surrenders. “Fine. Invite him. See how that goes.” His tone makes it clear he thinks it’s a bad idea.
“I’ll talk to Rascal and have him invite him based on their schedule,” I say. “Moving on. Who won this one for you?”
“Lexi,” Adam says.
Brody nods. “Lexi. Hands down.”
I nod, and it’s nice to find something we can all agree on. Lexi’s name has come up quite a bit when we’ve been discussing top contenders. We haven’t talked about it on camera at all, but in private and including both Rascal and Kylie in the discussion, we’ve talked about our reservations with having a woman join our band.
Our decision will be made based on a lot of different things. It won’t be based on gender alone, but none of us can deny it’s still a factor.
But she’s so damn versatile. Ethan talked us into listening to the music she put out with Electric Red Summer. She’s got a hell of a voice, she’s got the look...she brings a lot to the table that some of the others just don’t.
But Gage is really fucking talented, too, and so’s Tyler. Decker, Blaze, and John are on our radar, too.
Tonight’s challenge told us a lot, though. For one thing, Colt lost a lot of his talent with a few beers. Tim had maybe one drink, and we had to wake his ass up to come down for the challenge. I have a feeling he’ll be the next to go. Besides, he’s got red hair. According to Rascal, this band only has room for one ginger.
It’ll be a tough battle between the other six, but I already know who the top three are.
Now it’s just a matter of weeding out the rest so we can take a hard look at those three.
CHAPTER 30: GAGE
“We’re sorry to say that Colt, you lost this battle. You won’t be MFB’s replacement bassist.” Dax looks around the room after Colt says his goodbyes to the rest of us.
He says some shit about Colt and how he was a good bass player and why they just couldn’t let him continue with the competition. I sort of zoned out after Dax announced it was Colt heading home and not me.
And not Lexi.
But also not Tyler.
“We’re down to seven,” he says, clearly wrapping things up. “And I know how drunk you all are, so we’ll get out of here so you can pass out.”
Raucous laughter follows the band out the door, and then we pretty much do what he says.
A loud-ass siren pulls me from the clutches of sleep. It’s still dark, and I think that might be the fire alarm or smoke detector but I’m still pretty drunk and definitely not sure what I’m hearing.