Read Online Back-Up by A.M. Madden - Free Book Online

much.
    Hunter looks over at Jennifer and shakes his head. She has never intimidated him and he never had a problem standing up to her. Adding Leila was his idea, after all.
    “Nope, I think she is perfect. I told you this. She is sweet and shy, but gorgeous and sexy as hell. The fans are going to love her. Plus her voice is the best we have heard. She’ll be great.” 
    Wait a minute… Hunter thinks Leila is “sexy as hell”?
    I turn to th e other two members of my band. “Scott? Trey?”
    Scott looks over at Jennifer and it’s clear that he is struggling with what he’s about to say because his skin suddenly turns pink. 
    “I get Jennifer’s concerns. We wouldn’t want her to bolt two weeks into the tour because she can’t hack it. It wouldn’t hurt to make sure she understands the commitment before she signs.” Scott says playing devil’s advocate.
    I look over at Trey and he shrugs. “Whatever man. She can sing and she has the goods. Cut the drama.”  His words come out in the typical -I don’t give fuck, just let me play my damn guitar - Trey fashion.
    Hunter looks over at him and shakes his head, before he turns to Jennifer. “Jack will call her. He’ll make sure she doesn’t have any concerns or questions that she wasn’t comfortable voicing in this room. Cool?”
    Me? Why am I calling her ?
    Jen nods . “Fine. Obviously you feel that she would open up more to Jack than to me, so Jack, make the call.”
    Yes m a’am .
    She grabs her copy of the contract and heads for the door. Flipping her hair behind her s houlders and giving us her full-on Jennifer charm, she smiles sweetly and touts, “Ten am, tomorrow morning. We have a lot to do.” She saunters out of the room knowing we are most definitely checking out her ass.
    I stand to close the door so I can have an honest pow-wow with my band. “Does anyone have any concerns that I haven’t heard yet?” 
    No one speaks. “Now or never. Excluding Hunter, do you two feel Leila is it, or do we keep looking?”  Still nothing. I point to the door and add, “Jennifer has her reservations, and I get that. But if the four of us aren’t on the same page, this is a huge waste of time.”
    I focus my gaze on Scott until he finally speaks. “I agree with Hunter. I just think she looked terrified in here, and I worry she’s going to run out on us.”
    “Scott, there are no guarantees. Hell, how do I know one of you won’t run?” I know damn well that would never happen, but I just want to make a point. 
    Scott stands and retorts, “None of us are running. I get that there are no guarantees. I think we made the right choice and I’m not changing my mind. I just feel like the poor girl was scared to death in here.” He points to the door for emphasis. “That woman can be as scary as hell. Someone should make sure Leila isn’t sitting in a corner shaking from this experience. That’s all I’m sayin’.”
    Ok, he has a point.  I decide not to bother with Trey again, as I’m sure I won’t get any more from him since he already gave such a poignant statement.
    With a loud exhalation I concede.  “Fine, I’ll call her to make sure she is ok. Not sure she would even open up to me, but I’ll give it a shot.” I’m done with this conversation. “I need food and lots of beer. Let’s get out of here.”
    We pile into Scott’s van, and he drives us towards his apartment in midtown. We may have to start bright and early tomorrow, but we can chill the rest of this gorgeous day. Scott lots the van and we walk over to the pub that has decent bar food a few blocks away from his place. We eat and drink and laugh for hours. Even though all the stuff happening to us is fantastic, it’s still been a stressful few weeks. It feels good to act normal. Even Trey is relishing in the normalness of our afternoon.
    We are a little buzzed by the time we stumble out of the pub. We draw attention to ourselves because we are loud and obnoxious and noisily