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  IT’S ONLY TEMPORARY

  © 2020 Lisa Suzanne

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the US Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher or author constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law and except for excerpts used in reviews. If you would like to use any words from this book other than for review purposes, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher.

  Published in the United States of America by Books by LS, LLC.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real people, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All characters and events in this work are figments of the author’s imagination.

  Cover Design: Najla Qamber Designs

  Photograph: Wander Aguiar

  Content Editing: It’s Your Story Content Editing

  Proofreading: Proofreading by Katie

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  BOOKS BY LISA SUZANNE

  MY FAVORITE BAND STANDALONES

  TAKE MY HEART

  THE BENEFITS OF BAD DECISIONS

  WAKING UP MARRIED

  DRIVING ME CRAZY

  A LITTLE LIKE DESTINY SERIES

  A LITTLE LIKE DESTINY (Book One)

  ONLY EVER YOU (Book Two)

  CLEAN BREAK (Book Three)

  THE UNBREAKABLE THREAD DUET

  THE POWER TO BREAK (Book One)

  THE POWER TO BREAK - AUDIOBOOK

  THE INVISIBLE THREAD (Book Two)

  THE INVISIBLE THREAD - AUDIOBOOK

  CLICK HERE FOR MORE

  DEDICATION

  As always, to my 3Ms.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  It’s only temporary.

  I’ve heard that phrase no less than a hundred times in the last two months.

  My band is taking a break, but it’s only temporary.

  I joined another band to have something to do in the downtime, but it’s only temporary.

  My girlfriend moved in with her mom and dad, but it’s only temporary.

  Yeah, it’s only temporary because she wants to move in with me. Her lease was up and I’m pretty sure she dangled the I’ll just move in with my mom and dad carrot thinking I’d take the bait and ask her to move in with me.

  I didn’t.

  Though I’m not really sure why I didn’t. After nearly seven years with each other, we practically live together anyway.

  She sees the white picket fence and the two-point-five kids and the shaggy dog running out the front door, across the wraparound porch of the huge Victorian home, and down the steps to lick her husband’s face when he emerges from his Mercedes in his business suit after a long day at the office.

  You wanna know what I see?

  Not that.

  “Kane Keller, lost in thought once again. Look at my shocked face.” I glance up and see Ruby making a bored face. She rolls her eyes then collapses on the couch beside me. “Are you always this sulky or do you smile once in a while?”

  I lift a shoulder. “Always this sulky.”

  I shoot her a smile, and she laughs.

  To be clear, I’m not always sulky, whatever that’s supposed to mean. I know how to have a good time. I’m a bassist in the height of my career, I have a girl who loves me, I have money in the bank, and I have my health, abs of steel, and ridiculously good looks.

  Okay, so maybe not the last two, but Ruby seems to think I do.

  And, to be clear once again, Ruby is not my girlfriend.

  It looks like I have it all. I should be happy, right?

  If I was, then I wouldn’t be telling this story.

  “Hey, hey, Ruby Ray, what’s on the agenda today?” Rascal sings as he bounds into what’s supposed to be a living room but instead houses various instruments since it’s our practice room. He beelines for his guitar.

  Rascal and I decided to temporarily rent a place in LA together while we play with Ruby, the powerhouse vocalist behind the upcoming artist known as Ruby Ray.

  Another thing that’s only temporary.

  She said the neighbors at her house in Long Beach, only a half hour away from LA, complain about the noise whenever she’s held practice at her place, so she spends a lot of time up here.

  You know who doesn’t spend much time up here?

  My girlfriend, Sierra.

  She’s been putting in long hours at her job as a medical sales rep, a job her physician-father encouraged her to pursue. Her parents moved to San Diego from Chicago a couple years ago when she made it clear she wouldn’t be moving back to Illinois, where she grew up.

  “Well, if we can get Kane’s attention, we might try to have a quick meeting before we practice,” Ruby says, breaking into my thoughts once again.

  I narrow my eyes at her, and she laughs. “I’m paying attention,” I protest.

  “Uh huh,” she mocks, nodding elaborately.

  “He’s always like that,” Rascal says. “The more you get to know him, the less you like him.”

  “Fuck you,” I retort. Real mature, I know. Rascal brings out the best in me.

  She grabs a sheet of paper off the coffee table this fully furnished place came with when we rented it. “Okay, boys, that’s enough.” She catches her bottom lip between her teeth, and I notice not for the first time how juicy that bottom lip of hers is. She chews on it a little as she studies her paper, and I almost berate her for doing it. Don’t hurt that juicy lip!

  She glances up at me and catches me looking at her lips.

  I blow out a breath and look away. I can’t pretend like I’m not attracted to her, not that it matters. I have a girlfriend who I love very much. I won’t even get into the fact that Ruby is focused on success, that music is her first and only love, because it just doesn’t matter.

  And the fact that music is her first and only love is the reason
why I’m temporarily playing bass for her, actually.

  “Kane, have you had a chance to update my website with our upcoming schedule?” she asks.

  I nod. My degree in computer science has served me well, and when she first showed me her shitty website, I volunteered to make it incredible for her.

  I didn’t realize when I volunteered that I’d be forced into staring at photos of her half-dressed for hours on end, her dark eyes mysterious as she looked straight into the camera, her long, nearly black hair straight and silky, that juicy lip...and not to mention, studying her ink as it raised questions about the meaning and the depth behind the pretty girl with the extraordinary voice.

  Sierra wasn’t too thrilled with that particular job. Can’t Ashmark handle her website? she’d asked me, naming my record label that hooked Rascal and me up with Ruby in the first place. And yeah, they could, but Ruby and I had already talked about her vision for her website and I had already told her I’d do it.

  “I have a little thingie I wrote for the blog section, too. Can I email it to you?” she asks.

  “Of course.” My downtime recently has consisted of battling Rascal in Call of Duty when his woman isn’t around (which is rare), making sure Sierra is happy even though we’re currently operating long-distance, and working as a web contractor for Ashmark—something that came when Mark Ashton, the CEO and the man who asked Rascal and me to step into Ruby’s band temporarily, saw my work on Ruby’s website.

  In other words, I have plenty of time to post blogs for her.

  “You’re the best,” she says, and then she winks at me. “Next on the agenda is our schedule. We’re taking next week off completely so Rascal and Kane can promote Rock on the Road.” She glances at each of us. “Don’t forget to mention Ruby Ray.”

  We both laugh, but the truth is that our label has already coached us on making sure we interject her name.

  “Between summer festivals and our regular gig at Babylon,” she continues, naming the night club where we play three times a week, “we’ve got a lot coming up. But in more pressing news, I spoke with Trevor at Ashmark last night. He said they’re putting together a short list of potential permanent bassists and guitarists. He wants to make sure they’re ready when Rascal and Kane’s contracts are up in six weeks. I’d like you all to sit in on the interviews as well as the performance reviews.” She glances up at me, and our eyes lock. “All your opinions matter.”

  I’m surprised that I am the one she looks at when she says that.

  I’d think she’d want the opinion of Austin, her drummer, over mine—especially after Austin stayed with her when the rest of the band split.

  Apparently they didn’t like the fact that she was the face of their band...but she is this gorgeous woman with the voice of an angel. They didn’t like that Ashmark wanted her name as the band name...but when you’re born Ruby Ray, it kind of just makes sense. It’s memorable. Cryptic Tongues, their band name...yeah, that’s not memorable.

  To top it off, her ex-guitarist and ex-best friend, Dakota, and her ex-bassist and ex-boyfriend, Colt, both hated those facts so much that they decided to start fucking behind her back.

  Ashmark didn’t care about her guitarist and bassist. Those are, no offense to my own self, fairly run of the mill when it comes to supporting a voice like hers. She doesn’t need a permanent band backing her up.

  Ashmark cared about Ruby Ray. They cared about her voice and keeping her on as a client because she’s going to be a huge shining star someday, and Ashmark is going to be the vehicle that drives her there.

  And that’s the short version of how Rascal and I ended up here. Our band is taking a break while two of our guys start families and two plan weddings...and then there’s me.

  The guy who’s been with his girl the longest.

  The guy who should be planning a wedding.

  The guy whose chest ached when someone who’s not his girlfriend brought up the fact that soon our time together will be over.

  CHAPTER 2

  “I still can’t believe you agreed to it,” Sierra hisses in the green room moments before we’re called out on stage for our interview.

  My band, MFB, is doing press for Rock on the Road, our second season on a reality show premiering this Sunday. Sierra drove up to Los Angeles with some of the other wives and girlfriends to show their support.

  But it doesn’t feel very supportive. It feels much more like an attack.

  “I didn’t have a choice,” I hiss back.

  We don’t usually fight, and I hate feeling like this.

  She took the day off and she’s staying the night. I’m glad to see her, glad to have her back in my arms...but she’s mad and this isn’t how I want the weekend to go.

  It’s the first weekend she’s spent here in LA since I moved up a few weeks ago. She’s met Ruby and Austin, but she hasn’t spent much time with them. I just want her to get to know Ruby and see what a great person she is.

  And maybe a small part of me wants them in the same room together so Ruby knows I’m not on the market. I want her to see me with Sierra to drive home the fact that I’m in a relationship.

  It’s all been innocent so far, but sometimes long looks or the brush of a hand or a murmured word feels a little less innocent.

  Or maybe that’s just me projecting my own guilt for being attracted to her. It’s not like I’m going to act on it.

  I love Sierra.

  The woman who, by the way, is pissed that I agreed to be in a bachelor auction.

  The wife of our record label’s CEO is putting together an auction for charity set to take place the night before our premiere of Rock on the Road. She pulled a member from all the biggest bands on their roster. Rascal and I were the only two guys in our band not engaged when she asked, and his woman was sitting practically on his lap when the question was posed, so I got stuck by default.

  And Sierra is clear that she’s against the idea.

  “Babe,” I say, trying to appease her while I also try to calm my nerves for this talk show I have to do, “you know I’m coming home to you.”

  She sticks out her lip to pout a little. “But you’re not. Not really. You’re going home to your place in Los Angeles and I’m in San Diego.”

  “My temporary place,” I remind her. “And besides, they’ll be ready to start interviewing permanent replacements soon.”

  “Okay,” she mutters, relenting.

  Some show runner comes to get us. Sierra squeezes my hand and kisses my mouth. “You’ve got this, babe,” she says softly. She knows I always get nervous for these things.

  Somehow...she knows.

  It’s not something we’ve ever discussed, really. I’m just a regular guy who likes to play the bass guitar, and I’ve been thrust into this spotlight with my band after we hit it big. I still think of myself as just a regular guy, though the tabloids tend to label me and the four other men in my band differently.

  We’re ushered out to the side stage for Afternoon Delight, a nationally syndicated talk show with daily celebrity interviews hosted by actress Gina Gellar.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, MFB!” she yells, and the five of us stride across the stage with all the swagger of a bunch of rock stars.

  “Introduce yourselves for our television audience and tell us what you play,” she says after we’ve arranged ourselves on stools.

  “Dax Hunter, vocals.” A loud cheer rises up from the crowd.

  “Brody Jensen, drums.” Brody gives a little wave, followed by screams from the crowd.

  “Adam Wilson, guitar.” More yells.

  “Will Rascowicz, keyboards,” Rascal says, and he gets a cheer, too.

  I hold up a hand. “Kane Keller, bass guitar.” My heart is beating too loudly in my ears to hear the audience’s response, and I hate that I get so nervous for these interviews.

  “So, MFB,” Gina says. “That’s an unusual name. How’d you get it?”

  “The letters actually stand for My Favorite Ban
d,” Dax explains. “So you can tell your friends you’re listening to My Favorite Band.”

  “That’s not how it started, though,” Brody interjects.

  “I don’t think we need to talk about that,” Adam says, and all five of us laugh. Brody, Dax, and Adam were jamming together back when they were in junior high, and Mrs. Fenwick’s a Bitch was Adam’s suggestion for a band name after he got a detention from her. When Brody’s mom asked what MFB stood for, My Favorite Band came out of her son’s mouth, and the rest was history.

  “Ooh, I want to hear the story, but we’ll have to save it for a rainy day because we have a lot to cover with you guys. Tell me about Rock on the Road Revisited,” she says.

  Dax takes the lead again. “Mark Ashton and I developed this idea of having cameras follow a band from the production of an album through their tour promoting it, and Rock on the Road was born. We decided to film a second season on tour since we had such a great response to the first one.”

  “Mark Ashton from the band Vail?” Gina asks.

  Dax nods. “Yes, and the owner of Ashmark Records, our label.”

  “Speaking of Ashmark, I heard that a couple of you are playing temporarily in a different band,” Gina says, turning toward Rascal and me.

  Rascal doesn’t say anything, and it feels like hours pass before I finally draw in a deep breath and manage to spit out a reply. Everything sort of goes black around me as I start to ramble nervously. “Rascal and I are playing for the incredible Ruby Ray, a gorgeous up and coming singer whose voice is just extraordinary. I’ve never heard anything like it, and you can come see us play a few nights a week at Babylon Night Club and a bunch of summer fests.”

  “I’m shocked you have time for a second band,” Gina says.

  “We don’t,” Rascal clarifies, “but MFB is taking a short break since two of our members are due with babies soon.”

  “Babies?” she asks, eyeing all five of us. “Who’s having babies?”

  Dax and Adam raise their hands.

  “Congratulations, boys,” she says. She asks a few questions about the babies, and then she says, “So two are having babies, and I just read that two more of you are engaged, so that leaves us with Mr. Kane Keller.”