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“Sorry, Zig. Ignore him.” At least Jinx had the decency to sound more sincere. They disappeared from the hall, and I had to assume Jinx had pulled the asshole back to their room. I wanted to yell out something about Miami being whipped, but I didn’t. I let it go. I could take his harassment. It was meant infun. I knew that. These guys were family. And like any family, we had our tiffs and teasing, but we dealt with it all. But fuck…I wanted my man.
And to get the fuck off this bus.
At least I wasn’t hard anymore.
seven
Stopping in Richmond
Where the fuck are you?
I glanced at the text from Ziggy as I jogged through the crowd, jostling people along the way, but I couldn’t get to the stage fast enough. They were about to go on. I’d missed soundcheck and them getting ready. This was an outdoor fest, so no dressing rooms. They had to get ready on the bus, but I hired golf carts to drive them to the stage. The thought was to elevate them from the other acts. Midnight Hunt wasn’t the headlining band, but they were the last band playing before F-Holes hitthe stage. And that band was incredible, with not one but two cellists. So I wanted our guys to stand out. Give them the royal treatment as much as possible.
Even though I came up through the performers’ entrance and the back side of the stage, there were still a lot of people lingering. Security, other bands and their entourage, roadies. Our crew had a lot of people too, so I got it, but I needed them all to get the fuck out of my way. It had been too long, and I needed to lay eyes on Ziggy. Like now!
“Excuse me. Heading to the stage. Please, move.”
A big guy turned around, and for a second, I thought he was going to crush me, but I recognized him as one of our security staff, thankfully. “Mr. Coleman.” He smiled politely.
“Hallelujah! Get me to the stage.” I grabbed his arms, desperately.
“You got it. Come on.” He turned toward the stage and stomped through the people like a machine. “Make way. Move. Clear out.” No pleases or thank yous. But the people moved and finally, I was at the edge of the stage and walking up the side steps.
Ziggy was pounding out the beat, shaking his head, sweat flying. Fucking glorious. Seeing him in the zone like that when he played was probably the first thing that seized my heart and had me falling for him in the first place. He was fucking spectacular. They were cranking throughTattoo You, so I put that about halfway through the lineup for this one, but it was a guess. They were professional and could rearrange what they were going to play in a heartbeat. Miami read the crowd and if he turned and gave them a sign to change it up, they did.
Miami screamed out the last line, “Standing on the brink…Tattoo you.” His voice echoed through the crowd. That was what I had been after when I first called him up. That voice, Jinx shredding on guitar, and their chemistry together had dollarsigns written all over it. But when Ziggy slammed out the last few beats, hitting the toms hard, I knew that’s why I stayed. I didn’t have to, and it had nothing to do with money, but these guys were amazing, and Ziggy was…
He turned his head, zoning in on me as if he could hear my thoughts. And smiled, lighting up not only his face but his whole fucking body. He stood like he wanted to come over but remembering where he was, changed plans. He flung a stick hard, and it sailed out into the audience, making the crowd scream and scramble for the prize. He winked at me, grabbed another set of sticks, dropping his single, and counted off their next song,Still A Person. I was expectingMore Like A Ballad, but with this crowd and shorter time to perform, perhaps they dropped that one.
Still A Personwas shorter and was fantastic for them, though. Donavan Sebert, brother of Wolf’s partner, stepped up next to me and threw his arm over my shoulder, shaking me. “I love this one. Yeah!”
I didn’t know what to say. “Right.” I didn’t know the kid well, but I probably shouldn’t call him kid. He was now a full partner in Harrison’s legal practice. Entertainment lawyers. Harrison was also Jinx’s ex, which was how he met Wolf in the first place. What a triangle there. Donavan actually took over the Midnight Hunt account because Harrison was too close. I respected that. They were the best in the business, and both traveled with the band.
“Great seeing you, Coleman. Glad you’re here. If anyone asks, I’m going to hang out with the Bramble Punk guys. Okay?” He patted my shoulder as he shouted in my ear and left when I nodded. I thought something was up with our opening band’s lead singer, Kay, and Donavan. There was no huge announcement, and if it was true, they were keeping it on the down low. But there were signs, including leaving the side stagefor Midnight Hunt to go hang with our opening act. Bramble Punk was good. Jinx and Wolf had helped put them together, rallying around Kay, whose prior band was not good, but Kay had potential. And loyalty. They were still no Midnight Hunt. Not yet, anyway. They weren’t playing at this festival. There hadn’t been enough time or space on the docket. But I figured they probably would need a break at this point in the tour when I’d scheduled it, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were hanging out at the bus.
When the song was done, they kicked right intoWhiskey Gone, one of the newer ones. I sang along. Well, I mouthed the words while Miami sang and screamed in turn. I checked the time on my watch, noting they were probably on the last song, which meant they were either going long or they weren’t going to doDip and Grind. I didn’t know which.
WhenWhisky Gonewas over, they acted like they were leaving the stage for sure. Jinx flicked his guitar pic out into the crowd. Miami pulled his shirt off and slung it over the heads of the first few rows, causing the people behind them to scramble for it. I never understood why people would want a stinky, sweaty shirt, no matter who had worn it. But my fandom for this group had begun to center around Ziggy. And he held his sticks over his head, circled out from behind the kit, and the threw them one at a time out into the audience. He clapped his hands over his head and followed the others off the stage. I lost track of Wolf, who was behind him, because I only had eyes for my drummer boy.
He rushed over to me and jumped up and down like he was twelve. “Ohmygawd. You made it. I’m pissed at you for taking so fucking long. Fuck! I broke a mic during soundcheck, got busted jacking off in the bus and fucking hell, I didn’t think you’d ever fucking get here. Can we go to the hotel? Oh shit. We have to do one more song. Listen.” He’d run most of that all in one sentence without pausing for air.
“Breathe, Zig.”
“No. Listen. Guys. Miami,” he yelled over the crowd, which was getting increasingly louder. They were chanting something.
I leaned in so Zig could hear me. “What are they saying?”
He mouthed along with them, “Dip. And. Grind. Dip. And. Grind.”
Miami walked past us, strutting straight out to the stage, where he started goading the fans, playing with them in a way only Miami could. He did a little squat thrust along with the chanting. And unbelievably, they got louder. He chuckled into the mic. “I know you want that.” The surge forward made me suddenly concerned, but Miami had that shit. “Easy now.” He patted the air down in front of him and they quieted, settling a little. “We are out of time, but since you asked so nicely…I don’t know how we can say no. Guys? What do you think?”
Ziggy didn’t so much answer as jog back out on the stage. He practically bowled Miami over to get to the mic. “Hell yeah!” He wasn’t even to the mic yet, but it picked him up. The response of the fans was incredible. Miami shoved Ziggy off of him, pushing him toward the drums at the back of the stage. Ziggy turned and flipped him off with both hands before returning to his drums and grabbing another set of sticks. Miami kicked the air as if miming that he was kicking Ziggy. They played like that a lot, and the crowd loved it. The others had strapped in while they were fooling around. The problem here was that they didn’t have a big screen to show the video, and I didn’t know if they’d even queued up the recording. But the guys seemed to have other ideas.
Miami grabbed the mic still in the stand and pulled it to him. “Guys. We don’t have what we need for this one ready, so we’re gonna wing it. Jinx is going to do Pierce’s part. Are you okay with that?” The crowd roared. But they didn’t know how much trouble the guys were going to get into for this. They had acontract, and doing the song without the recording broke that. I shook my head and waved my arms, but Miami ignored me, and so did the rest of the band. Ziggy pounded off the funky beat, and Wolf joined in on the bass.
They went through with Miami screaming out the first chorus with Jinx picking up the verse.
Running like the wind as fast as
