A Sound Like Hope (Fallen Tuesday #3) Read Free Page A

night. He had been sitting at the bar,
trying to relax with the locals. Sharing drinks, stories, and laughter, it had
been one of those rare times when Trent didn ’ t
feel like a celebrity rockstar. Sometimes it felt good to just be a person who
wanted a cold beer after work. To be a guy who wanted to watch something sports
related on the television and let the night slip away.
    Then someone had touched his
shoulder.
    When Trent turned and saw Chloe ’ s face and that damn smile, he
almost fell over. She looked the same, just older. The same bright brown eyes.
The same small nose. The thin lipped smile. Oh, and the same way she bit on her
lip when she was nervous.
    It was like Trent had taken a sip
of beer and was thrown back in time. Back to learning how to play guitar to
impress a girl. Back to the awkward conversations, dates, and all the awkward
moments of touching and exploring each other.
    Trent thought he had done the right
thing that night, but he still ended up in jail. Now, in the silence of the
flight, he began to wonder why he hadn ’ t
just scooped Chloe up, taken her to a hotel, and showed her what it was like to
be with a real man all night long. Trent would be a liar if he said it hadn ’ t crossed his mind from time to
time what it would be like to run into Chloe now. The last time she saw him, he
was just the bassist in a band that didn ’ t
make money.
    Trent closed his eyes again and let
out a deep breath. Next to him was a man in a suit with headphones on. Next to
that man was another man in a suit, sleeping. It surprised Trent that he
managed to fly from California to New York without being recognized once.
    But then something happened.
    Landing in New York and stepping
from the plane, Trent saw a frenzy of a crowd waiting for him. There had to be
at least twenty people standing there, cameras, recorders, and notebooks ready
to capture whatever saga was happening in Trent ’ s
life.
    Trent made a phone call.
    To Luke.
    He kept the conversation short and
to the point.
    “ Listen,
Luke, I ’ m at the
airport. I ’ m here. I ’ m back in New York. I need a
ride because there ’ s
a group of reporters looking for me. ”
    Trent slipped from the crowd and
snuck away along a back wall. He worried he would look suspicious in the
airport with sunglasses on and a hood up over his hat, but it was a chance he
had to take for the moment. Trent made it down the first set of escalators and
then someone spotted him. A fan screamed his name, and that brought on the
attention of the reporters. Trent kept his composure as he signed the fan ’ s autograph and then he had no
choice but to go out the main doors of the airport and face the music. The
reporters gathered around him as he stood there. They all shouted questions at
him …
    Where are you flying from?
    Why did you leave your band?
    Fallen Tuesday did a radio
interview without you. Did you hear it?
    Were you in a rehabilitation
center?
    What will come of the charges
against you?
    Can Fallen Tuesday survive this?
    Will you be replaced in the
band?
    Trent looked down the road and
waited for someone to come get him. There were dozens of cabs around, most of
which were readily available. But he wasn ’ t
in the mood for a cab ride and he especially didn ’ t
want to put a cab driver's life in danger having to navigate through the crowd
of reporters looking for one more picture of Trent.
    When the reporters wouldn ’ t stop, Trent finally looked over
his shoulder and smiled.
    “ We ’ re all good, ” he said. “ I ’ m
here to get back in the studio and finish recording the album. It ’ s all for the fans. They ’ re the ones who know the truth. ”
    The questions flew at him again.
    Do the fans believe you ’ re innocent?
    What kind of example are you
setting for your fans?
    Do you have a drinking problem?
    Do you have a drug problem?
    Trent started to walk and it was
just in time, because a black car came speeding down the road. The