Page 229 of Silver Sweet

I plan to show him the videos from tonight some fans already posted. They caught us exchanging that awed look onstage and created a fifteen-second clip. I love that this moment between me and him has been documented and preserved. Our fans are the literal best.

Phoenix checks his watch again, then runs a tense hand through his hair. His other fingers slide up my leg. “Sheela doesn’t know we’re overworked. We need to set boundaries, man. Let’s just email her and tell her we’ll postpone the YouTube thing.”

“Hell no. We’ve just started landing bigger opportunities. We can’t pass things up, dude.”

Real concern sinks his expression. The dark circles under his eyes look more purpled than normal.

“Everything okay with your brother?” I ask, sitting up more against the couch’s armrest. He’d been on the phone for a while.

He nods, then shakes his head. “I don’t know. It’s the same shit with Bird. Constantly burning the candle at both ends. He can’t sayno.” He slides me a look. “Feels real fucking familiar.”

Yeah, okay.Guilty. I swallow and try not to wince through the throat pain. “Compromise,” I tell him. “You look like shit?—”

“Hell of a way to start a negotiation.”

I’m smiling. “It won’t be a negotiation when you agree to the terms.”

His eyes darken. “Which are?”

“We don’t stay up past four a.m. tonight. It’s only three a.m., so if we go take a nap now and clock in three hours, it’ll give us enough time in the morning to get the videos done for Sheela before the bus walkthrough. I’ll set my alarm.”

Phoenix says, “Okay. But you’re sleeping with me in my bunk.”

I don’t think he trusts that Iwillgo to sleep. Which is fair. I can’t really tell if I’d hold myself to the full three hours.

“You just want to rub your dick against my ass,” I say into a smirk.

“You keep telling yourself that, nepo baby.” He stands up and grabs my hand. Phoenix crawls in first. Before I know it, I’m wedged in his bunk, and I have my phone alarm set.

Curtains shroud us in darkness. Phoenix presses close to me, his chin on the top of my head, his arm wrapping around my chest. Being this near always sends a surge of serotonin through my system. Everything calms. It’s so easy to sleep.

When I wake,it isnot6 a.m. I blink a bunch and squint through the glow of my phone. We didn’t change time zones, but it’d make me feel a thousand times better if we were somewhere in Oceania—Australia, New Zealand, the fucking Polynesian islands.

Becausewhat the fuck—it cannot be 10 a.m. in Amarillo, Texas.

There’s only one thing that makes sense. I roll over to see Phoenix is awake and scrolling on his phone. “Did I sleep through my alarm?” I ask, my voice full of morning rasp.

He meets my eyes when he says, “I turned it off so you could sleep.”

I almost can’t breathe through the sudden anger.

“Back lounge,” I growl. “Right fuckingnow.” I jerk the curtain to the bunk aside and roll out of bed. Crew are alreadymilling about the bus, brewing coffee, and getting ready for the day because it’sTENin the goddamn morning.

I’m vibrating with ire as I pass Stan, who gives me a wide berth. The back lounge with the U-shaped couch is empty. A true blessing in this already fucked day.

Take three breaths, I coach myself.Take four. Five.No amount of breath training can push down the anger swirling in the pit of my stomach. Not even as Phoenix shuts the door closed.

Phoenix’s eyes are wide in panic. “Tom, if I knew you’d be this upset?—”

“You wouldn’t have what?” I cut him off, my throat blistered with anger. “Shut off my alarm. Cost me an entire morning of work. Fucked over this album, the tour, our careers?—”

“Hey,” Phoenix growls. “This hasn’t fucked over anything, Tom.”

“You don’t know that,” I choke out, hurt chipping away at my fortitude.Why doesn’t he care about this as much as me? Why does no one fucking care?“That was timeI needed to get those videos done. Time you stole from me.”

Phoenix winces into a scowl. “You think I stole from you, fine. But I stole your exhaustion. I stole your fogged,sleeplessbrain. What I didn’t steal was your fucking career. Because there’s no way in hell one stupid fucking video interview would make or break you.”

“We’ll never know if it could’ve made us into something bigger,” I counter. “Because you didn’t let me.”