Big Girl Rocking in the Sunshine: Big Girl Series Bk3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

some candid shots,” she said, pointing the camera at Julian and Alex. Julian turned away.
    “Kind of busy now,” he said.
    “Don’t mind me at all,” Shannon said. “I won’t get in your way. That’s the point - pretend I’m not even here.”
    “Gladly,” Julian muttered under his breath. He couldn’t tell if Alex heard him; the singer just kept fiddling with the amp setup.
    Julian fell into his work, setting the amps up the way he wanted them. Last night had been hectic with the opening act playing before them, and an outdoor stage meant that all of their equipment had to be ready to pack up or cover in case of bad weather. Julian scoffed. In San Diego, bad weather meant a handful of mist, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The crew had already installed the overhangs to provide shelter if they needed it, and all that was left to do were the minor details of setting up equipment. Still, it felt good to be working again. At least when he had cables to unroll, he could ignore the relationships that were falling apart all around him.
    Surprisingly, Shannon was true to her word. After a minute or two, Julian tuned out the low clicking noise of the shutter and became unaware of her presence. It was only when she tapped him on the shoulder that he looked up and realized that she had still been there shooting photos.
    “I’m going to get lunch,” she said. “Want anything?”
    “Nah, I’m gonna eat later.”
    “Okay.” She knelt to kiss him, and he obeyed unresponsively. She paused as though waiting for him to say something, but he turned his head away and kept untangling the mess of cable that sat atop the amp.
    “Can we talk later?” she said.
    “Yeah, sure.” Okay. She definitely knew. Julian breathed a sigh of relief as Shannon left.
    “Whoa, man,” Alex said once she was suitably far away in the distance. “What was that all about?”
    “What?”
    Alex raised his eyebrows.
    “You know what. You two. Where’s the love? I thought you were taking her out on like a sailing trip or something.”
    “Yeah, we did that,” Julian said, wincing as he remembered the events that had transpired on the sailboat. “I don’t know.”
    “You don’t know.”
    “I really don’t want to talk about it,” Julian said. Every single memory of Shannon that floated to the top of his mind made him cringe with bitterness.
    “Okay,” Alex said. Julian relaxed. Alex was a good guy. He would never steal another bandmate’s girl. Or any girl, really. Which reminded him of the fiasco last night.
    “How’s the whole PR thing going?” Julian said. “I haven’t turned on the news.”
    “Ugh!” Alex fell backwards in a dramatic sprawl, his limbs splayed across the stage floor. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”
    Julian laughed. “That bad, huh?”
    “Nah,” Alex said. “Pat is on it. He’s coming up with some marketing plan or something. Rebranding, you know, like you were saying. But I think he wants me to just focus on the music.”
    “Hard to do when the world is screaming about you,” Julian said.
    “Right? I know.” Alex rolled his shoulders. Julian could tell that there was still some tension in him, but he was doing his best to push past it.
    Alex jumped off of the stage into the sand below.
    “Okay, play something,” he said, backing away from the stage. “I want to hear how it sounds.”
    Julian smiled and strummed the opening chords to “YMCA”. Alex laughed.
    “Sounds great!”
    Julian kept playing, though, standing up and shaking out his guitar cord, and Alex began to dance along to the song. A couple of joggers on the boardwalk nearby stopped to watch.
    “You think Pat will be mad at us if this gets out?” Julian yelled down to Alex. Alex shook his ass at the joggers gleefully.
    “Who cares?” he said. “They’ve already got a picture of me kissing a boy. How much more gay can I get?”
    ***
    It was already getting dark by the time they had set everything up, and