Buried Notes (Brothers of Rock #4) Read Free Page A

bus.
    Chris showered and drank and drank
and showered, mixing up the order how he felt. He washed the show off his body.
The sweat, the hope, and the love from the fans. They were all on their way
home now. Their ears ringing, probably listening to their favorite Chasing
Cross songs to compare the CD version to the live version. They were sweaty,
tired, worn out, but left with a memory that would last forever.
    Good
for them , Chris thought.
    He finished showering, took another
big drink from the bottle, and then wrapped a towel around himself when he
exited the shower. He faced his bandmates as they all sat on the bus, waiting
for him.
    The look in their eyes spoke more
than Chris could have expected.
    The four of them - Johnnie, Davey,
Danny, and Rick - they were his brothers. They were the most important people
in his life. From the early days of longer hair, ripped jeans, and cheap beer
to the massive shows, tours, and buses. They were everything to Chris.
    “We’re here when you’re ready,”
Johnnie said.
    Chris looked at Danny and Danny
shook his head. The silent promise that Danny hadn’t said a word about Chris’s
secret.
    Chris drank again. The whiskey felt
warm and really good now. His body was loose but his heart still achy and
broken.
    “You guys don’t know this,” Chris
said. “Well, Danny does and he’s kept his mouth shut for me.”
    “Thanks for that,” Danny said.
    “Sorry,” Chris said. “But Danny was
there for something a little while back. At our first show when things settled
after Bakersville.”
    “What’s going on?” Davey asked.
“Are you in trouble, man?”
    “No. I’m just going to get a
divorce I guess.”
    Rick, Davey, and Johnnie all looked
at each other confused.
    Rick asked, “Divorced?”
    “Don’t you have to get married to
get divorced?” Davey asked and laughed.
    That’s when it hit the rest of the
band.
    “No way,” Johnnie said. He stood
up. “Chris... who did you marry?”

(4)
     
    “Rebecca? Where are you?”
    Rebecca Danielsons (Hailor to
others who did not know she married a rockstar) looked over her shoulder as she
stood at the kitchen sink of her mother’s house. The kitchen table was scattered
with pictures and memories that couldn’t speak a word to a life that was now
gone.
    “I’m in here,” she said.
    A second later, her sister Rachael
came into the kitchen and rushed to Rebecca’s. She looked at the cup of tea
that Rebecca held, still with a tea bag in it.
    “What?” Rebecca asked.
    “Let me see this,” Rachael said.
    She grabbed the mug and smelled it;
her nose crunched and her eyes watered.
    “Want some tea with this booze?”
she asked Rebecca.
    “Haha. So funny.”
    “Are you really going to do this tonight?”
Rachael asked.
    “Do what?” Rebecca snapped.
    “This. Sit here and look at
pictures all night. Pour brandy into your tea and get drunk?”
    “How do you know it’s brandy?”
    “Because that’s all Mom drank when
she did the same thing to her tea.”
    Rebecca smiled and a tear left her
eye.
    “Look, sis, I’m sorry,” Rachael
said. She took the mug from Rebecca’s hand and dumped it down the drain. The
tea bag clung to the sink like a small bag of mud. The smell of the brandy
stung both sisters’ nostrils. “I hated seeing her suffer too. But come on, we
can do this together. We can sit and look at pictures. We can laugh. We can
cry. We don’t have to get drunk and get silly.”
    “Do I get silly when I’m drunk?”
Rebecca asked.
    “I don’t know. The last time I saw
you drunk you said you met the hottest guy of your life but that was all you
said. You told me it was all a big secret.”
    Rebecca closed her eyes and fought
the urge to smile. Thinking of him, of that wild time, sure, it made her smile.
But what didn’t make Rebecca smile was the fact that he now ignored her. They
had an agreement, one that Rebecca had been fulfilling for years now. One that
could really get to him, if she wanted. She