“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault, but I couldn’t believe it when I saw you sitting there.” He laughed ruefully, and she laughed, too.

“I just about had a heart attack.”

“Is Axel trying to get you back?” Tobias asked, sobering.

“I guess. He thinks he wants me back. But I doubt he’s really committed to it. He’ll return to the tour, be confronted with the next beautiful woman screaming out his name in the mosh pit and forget all about me.”

Although Axel winced at that assessment, he couldn’t claim it was baseless. Since he’d become famous, the many women who propositioned him were so damn tempting. Only lately was he beginning to realize that he’d been trading real gold for fool’s gold ever since he started cheating on Harper.

“Then he’s crazy, doesn’t know what he’s leaving behind,” Tobias said.

Except Axel did know. Or, at least, he was beginning to figure it out. That was why, as soon as he watched Harper kiss Tobias again and hug him and thank him for her bracelet—and then do it another time before she finally drove off—he got in the Range Rover and, before starting the engine, called Rory.

“There you are, man! How’s it going? When are you coming back?”

It was Christmas, and Axel was losing his family, and all Rory could ask was when he’d be returning to the tour? Was that how Harper had felt when she’d been trying to get his attention so they could save their marriage before it was too late?

“I’m not,” he said. “I’m staying right here until I’ve straightened out my life.”

“What?” Rory cried. “You can’t stay. It’ll kill all of our careers!”

“It won’t kill them. We’re big enough now that we can weather it. We’ll be fine.”

“But people are counting on us! Please. I don’t want to let them down.”

“We only have two shows left. I can’t fly back for those when there’s so much shit hitting the fan here.”

“Axel, we have more than the two shows. What about the publicity gigs the label lined up for us? The reason we agreed to stay an extra two weeks?”

“I’ll explain what’s happening to the label. You just break the news to Matt.” Matt wouldn’t like it, of course, but he worked for them. Axel wasn’t going to let their manager call all the shots, not when it came to something like this.

“Oh, God. He’s going to shit a brick. Our biggest show is on New Year’s Eve!”