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“Um, hello?” Morgan held out the ends of her hair, which were about the same color as the suitcase.
Reese laughed and then surprised even herself by throwing her arms around Morgan and squeezing. “I’m not much of a hugger. But this is for you. For helping me find things and just being here. I’m glad we met.”
“I can’t breathe,” Morgan rasped.
Reese laughed and let her go. “Sorry. I guess I don’t know my own strength.”
“It’s okay,” Morgan said, grinning. “I’ll take a death-hug from you anytime. Now, let’s get out of this place and back to our hotel so we can put you in some fabulous new clothes.”
Reese trailed behind Morgan, pushing the cart. She felt warm from the hug and the conversation and just the idea of having a friend on tour. As long as they didn’t broach the subject of feelings for Sterling, anyway, she would have a friend.
Chapter Eight
Being on stage, even just for a sound check, reminded Sterling of exactly why he did what he did. Any questions or doubts fled the moment the lights hit him with a guitar in his hands and a mic in front of him. The familiar rush of adrenaline washed over him as they went through some of their set while the sound guys did their thing.
Retire? Get a normal job? He had been crazy to even think about it. He belonged here.
The average person had no idea how much relied on a good sound check and an excellent sound engineer. When he first started doing bigger shows, a sound guy named Riley gave an explanation that always stuck with Sterling.
“When we eat sausage, we don’t think about the way it’s made or what goes into it. We don’t want to know—we just want the final, delicious product. Same with sound. If it’s done right, no one gives it a second thought. But there’s a lot of sausage,” Riley had said. “The sausage is what they don’t see to give it the final, amazing product.”
As Sterling waited for the front-of-house sound guy to adjust the levels on his vocals, he couldn’t help thinking about that. Looking out over the empty amphitheater, Sterling imagined the way it would transform in a few hours. The energy would shift with a few thousand moving bodies out there to something palpable and hard to describe.
Some shows seemed to have a kind of magic that connected him to the audience. It was something he couldn’t always predict and couldn’t force. More often than not, Sterling felt it. But at his worst shows, something inexplicable felt off and he had to mentally talk himself through the rest of the show. It was hard to recover from that lack of energy.
There was definitely a lot of sausage in a good show.
Movement to his right had Sterling glancing over. Reese stood on the stage, a phone in hand. She was close to Moby, who was already smiling, but her eyes were on Sterling. When his gaze landed on her, she shifted her weight back a bit, as though she was nervous.
“Do you mind if I post some live videos of the sound check on social? I know we haven’t finished the whole branding thing, but fans always love the sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes.”
Sterling swallowed. He knew she was right, but he had never been big on posting to social himself. Especially not live videos. He couldn’t keep up with the chat and got totally distracted by the comments and emojis and questions that flew by the few times he had tried live videos. But if he wasn’t the one filming, people wouldn’t expect him to answer. It would just be a way of showing the public some of the sausage. He smiled.
“Yeah, that’s fine. You may want to wait for Mike to get the sound situation figured out.”
In his earpiece, Mike cleared his throat. “I heard that. Didn’t realize I was dealing with a diva. I’ll have your sound done in just another second, Princess.”
Sterling laughed and could see Moby smiling and shaking his head. All of the guys had ear pieces and floor monitors so they could get a better sense of the mix and hear themselves. Before the show and between songs, Mike could also let them know anything they needed. But after this, they shouldn’t need to worry about it.
“All set,” Mike said. “I added a ton of reverb to your voice. I think it will sound really lovely.”
Sterling shook his head, smiling. “Perfect. As long as you’ve got the autotune on.” Laughter came through the earpiece.
“You use autotune?” Reese looked shocked.
Sterling pointed to his ear piece and smiled. “Just joking with the sound guy. I’m not a boy band.”
“This is my first tour,” Reese said. “There will be a lot I don’t know. So, it’s okay if I drift around and do some video of y’all warming up? I’m thinking Facebook and Instagram stories. You’re not on Snapchat, right?”
“That would be a hard no to Snapchat. Feel free to film whatever.”
“Just make sure you get my good side,” Moby called.
“Which side is that?” Sterling asked.
“All sides,” Moby answered.
Reese shook her head. “This is the kind of stuff I want. Just do what you’re doing and ignore me.”
