SailtotheMoon Read Free Page B

hands from her elbows. “You’re someone’s
girlfriend?”
    “No, it’s about something else.” She wouldn’t say more, even
to Zazz, because it was confidential. Nobody else had the right to know.
    Luckily Zazz didn’t persist. “You know my name. What’s
yours?”
    “It’s Laura.”
    He smiled. “Nice. Hi, Laura. You’re the second Laura I’ve
met tonight. I’m dodging the first one. Chick warned me about that one, and I
decided I don’t want to see her.” He glanced around quickly, as if hunted, then
looked back at her. “Okay, so you’re not press, or media of any kind. You don’t
have a sister or an aunt or something who writes for the NME .”
    She shook her head. The thought of her stuffy teacher
parents writing for a music paper made her smile.
    He grabbed her hand. “Then let’s get away from the other
Laura, hmm?”
    Giving her no chance to argue, he towed her across the room
to the door behind the makeshift stage area. She couldn’t even look around to
see where Kelsie was, because the room was still packed with people. Kelsie
wasn’t the tallest of women, even in her stiletto-heeled ankle boots, so her
view was severely limited.
    Her hand tucked into his larger one, she let him lead her
into the other room. It wasn’t, as she’d half imagined, some kind of den of
iniquity, but a smaller room with a table holding better drinks and
refreshments than the one outside. This one had spirits and mixers, fresh
sandwiches and wraps, other goodies. “What, no sausages on sticks?”
    Zazz glanced at the table and laughed. “Nope. Nobody likes
them, I guess. That’s what we like. Hungry? What do you like to eat?”
    The room contained a number of people, maybe thirty,
including some of the members of the band. Jace nodded at them from where he
stood with his lady, Beverley. Beverley nodded to her. Laura had sent her photo
to Beverley, for ID purposes, so Beverley probably recognized her. Laura
returned Beverley’s smile, half expecting to be thrown out, but she’d ride this
stroke of luck as long as she could. Casting away her responsibilities for the
time being, she decided to make the most of tonight. She could always try to
see James tomorrow. The band had another gig then. Maybe she’d get to see them
again. “Are you staying in Manchester long?” They had a gap before their next
set of concerts in London. A week, she thought, as she’d also tried to get
tickets for that venue, with abject failure. Sold out.
    Zazz nodded. “We have one more concert here, then nothing
for a week or so. Gives us time to regroup, I guess. We’ve got some TV
appearances and a few other things. Radio and shit like that, but we don’t all
have to be there.”
    “I don’t have to be there.”
    He laughed. “I guess you don’t. How come you’re so easy to
talk to?”
    She blinked. “I didn’t think I was.”
    “You are. I wanted to talk to you about your question. Are
you a mega fan, one of those people who follow us around from gig to gig?” He
handed her a beer and took one for himself, clicking the neck of the bottle
against hers before he took a long swallow.
    “I wish.” It was her turn to laugh. “I need to earn a
living.”
    “So you’re not in the music biz?”
    “Hardly.” She shrugged. “You need an in. To know somebody.”
    “I tell you what. How about coming back to the hotel with
me? It’s much quieter there, and I want to talk to you.”
    “Talk?” She didn’t even try to keep the cynical tone out of
her voice.
    “Yeah.” He faced her square on and lowered his voice. “We’re
staying at the Buckingham. I shouldn’t tell you that, but I get the feeling you
won’t rush out and yell it to everybody out there. I’m telling you so you know
where you’re going. If you say yes. I don’t get decent conversation outside the
band and these days, most of them are busy.” He glanced to where Donovan was
having a murmured conversation with a dark-haired woman, and he didn’t