Her Song

35 - Champagne Moments

I shrugged. "That my best girl is back on the road with us? That the venue security was so good last night that not even one groupie without a pass got past them? Or maybe," I let my eyes caress Kim's face, "we're celebrating the fact that the delightful social media personality Minty Beaumaris is officially free of that peculiar strain of cancer known as Richard Williams AKA Tricky Ricky. Or even better, so am I."

"She mentioned that she'd chucked him and thrown him out of her flat." There was something off about Kim's smile. It put all my senses on alert.

"Okay what? What am I missing here? Trust me I know just as much as anyone that things have been pretty shitty lately but things are getting better aren't they?" Neither of them would meet my eyes. "Aren't they?"

The tip of Kim's finger roved over my chest in tiny circles sending a shiver down my spine straight to my balls. I had to clap a hand over it so I could concentrate on what she was saying.

"It looks like the general response to the way you met me at the airport was that it was a publicity stunt in an attempt to help your reputation."

I blinked at her in confusion. "But wasn't it?"

Lucy gave a huff of frustration and rolled on to her back in the middle of Kim's and my bed. "Of course it was but it doesn't seem to have worked."

I glared at her. "Kim and I have to sleep in that bed, would you mind taking your shoes off?"

Lucy kicked off her shoes and gave me a 'happy now?' look. I raised an eyebrow at her – thanks a bunch – and asked Kim, "How do you know that?"

Kim sighed and curled her hand beneath mine to link our fingers. "Social media."

"Social fucking media?" The pitchy note in my voice was an indication of why it was up to Gray to hit any of the high notes when we sang harmonies in our songs. "What the hell are you doing getting grubby in the cesspit of social media?"

"My job?" Alert! Alert! Kim's tone held a clear warning to watch my next words very carefully. "Why, did you think the only reason I came back was to admire your perfect bone structure all day?" Perfect bone structure? I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about that one.

"I'm not sure, maybe it's my abs you're interested in? I do a lot of sit ups to maintain those so a bit of appreciation for the work involved wouldn't go astray."

Kim gave me a hazy look and tacked her hand between our bodies to fondle the abs in question. "Never doubt that I'm very appreciative of all your physical perfections." She gave her head a shake as if to clear it, and I couldn't help but preen at this sign of my effect on her, before continuing, "But I do also have a job to do."

"God, I need you to put a stop to all these public displays of affection when Bas isn't around to tend to my urges," Lucy muttered to no one in particular.

Kim gave a choking giggle in response and said, "You're just jealous because I'm finally one of the ands."

Lucy turned her attention from the ceiling and smiled at Kim, "I'm not jealous that you're an and, I'm just jealous that my and isn't here."

It seemed so long ago, that night when I'd come across Kim looking like a tiny Alice Cooper clone as she'd bemoaned having to go to dinner with the ands after her idiot boyfriend had once again stood her up. Sometimes it was hard to believe. And when I say hard to believe I mean it's hard to believe just how much of a douche canoe Bradley had turned out to be because I was all in when it came to believing that Kim was mine.

"Trust me Lucifer, he'll be here soon." Lucy scowled at me and made a cute little snarling sound when I used the nickname her cousin Sterlo had given her. It was probably a good idea that I didn't mention that I had a daily check in with Bas to confirm that all was good with Lucy. It was a measure of how distracted she was by what was happening with Kim's and my situation that she hadn't yet realised that one of the roadies whose only job seemed to be standing around winding cables was actually Lee's compatriot Joe and his real job was to act as Lucy's personal security. Bas had hired Joe and basically everyone but Kim and Lucy knew exactly who he was.