Free Heartstrings by Sierra Riley

through was also why Blake was so surprised and grateful Cal had agreed to come on tour at all.
    Right now, it triggered a powerful desire in him. He wanted to reach out, take Cal by the jaw, and coax him into a slow kiss, a kiss that would explore their last few years of absence, a kiss to test the waters...
    But it wasn’t practical. Not now. And there was still that unspoken division between them, that rift that had yawned open wide when Cal quit the band and severed all contact.
    So Blake just sat there and appreciated the moment for what it was: working on music again with an old friend. Still a wholesome, warming thing.
    They stayed that way for over an hour, until the bus rolled to a stop for lunch.

    * * *
    T hey stopped at an exit that had a collection of fast-food joints all clustered around a couple of truck stops. Everyone filtered off to their preferred restaurants, Blake and Cal opting for Chipotle.
    “I’m glad you don’t have a private chef living on the bus with you,” Cal said as they walked back into the parking lot, burrito bowls in hand. “That would have been too much.”
    “Nah, he only travels with me when I travel internationally,” Blake said with a wink.
    Just hearing Cal’s voice put him in a good mood. That hint of leftover Texas twang, the low roughness of it, the way he mumbled just a bit whenever he wasn’t sure about something.
    Smiling to himself, Blake didn’t notice the altercation taking place at the buses until they were just about back. An angry shout tore through his daydreamy mood. The smile slid right off his face.
    “Get out!” Erica was growling at someone from inside the bus. A second later, Rhett stumbled down the steps, the apparent victim of a shove.
    “What the fuck’s your problem?” Rhett yelled back at her, nearly toppling over. He caught himself and dusted off his jeans, growling in through the bus door.
    “You know exactly what my problem is! You want me to share it with the class?”
    Blake and Cal came to a stop a way back from the door, giving Rhett some space. He didn’t pay them much mind.
    Shit, had Erica caught him going through her stuff again? Blake still wasn’t sure how to handle that, other than praying every night that Rhett’s parents would force him to go to rehab or something. He came from a well-off family and their son was a rock star, surely together they could manage a stint at a clinic somewhere.
    “You’re fucking crazy!” Rhett hollered at Erica. He turned, catching sight of Blake and Cal, and started.
    “Everything all right?” Blake asked. He knew it wasn’t, but he was curious as to what Rhett would say. As far as he knew, nobody but he and Erica knew Rhett was probably stealing her medication.
    “I left something on this bus,” Rhett said, rolling his eyes. “Crazy bitch thinks I was going through her shit while she was sleeping.”
    Blake bit his tongue, unsure whether to confront Rhett about what he knew. A moment’s thought led him to the conclusion that he shouldn’t. Erica should be the one to bring it up. On her own terms. If she didn’t, for whatever reason, Blake didn’t want to shove the entire band down a drama spiral that there was no coming back from.
    “Maybe you just startled her,” Blake said, though the words didn’t have a lot of heart to them. He wished he had it in him to just crack Rhett one across the face, let him know just how much he was ruining things for everyone else. But he had to be diplomatic. So he kept his mouth shut.
    “Uh huh.” Rhett’s voice was flat. “Anyhow, you and your pity hire can quit gawking. Show’s over.”
    At that, Blake stiffened. Did he just call Cal a pity hire? What did that even mean? And why the fuck did he even care? When Rhett turned to stalk off back toward the other bus, Blake started after him.
    To his surprise, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
    “Let him go,” Cal said. “Dunno what his problem is, but this isn’t a fight you want to have in a