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answer her phone or any of my texts

    Cody: so it's over then
    I’d think
you'd be happy about this

    Shane: she
didn't tell you where she was going?

    Cody: Nope.
    But
you know her, she's not big on confrontation

    Shane: do you think she remembers?

    Cody: it's been 2 years
    pretty sure it
would've come up by now
    relax, you're
finally off the hook
    we both are
    ***
    Luke was uneasy.
Again. Hiring Lenny excited him and he knew it shouldn't. She was
gorgeous, and that would present a whole set of issues. But, she was
also smart and seemed to genuinely fit into the dynamic of the group.
It had been a long time since Luke had gotten this flustered over
the presence of the opposite sex, it was like being a teenager all
over again, hence the unease.
    Luke wasn’t
the oldest, but he felt the most responsibility for the rest of the
guys. The band had always looked to him to be the leader, in more
ways than simply musically. Luke took it all in stride. He had no
problem being the one everyone else expected to make the hard
decisions, the one to lead by example. After what had happened in
Germany two years ago to Mike…well, he couldn’t let
anything like that happen again.
    Luke was aware of
Carl's apprehension in regards to the tour and what obstacles could
potentially arise. He couldn’t see that they had grown up and
things were different now. At least, they all hoped they were
different.
    Their opening show
in Chicago went smoothly. They had gone directly from the airport to
the venue, meeting Carl backstage and presenting Lenny to him. Carl
had been annoyed, not unexpectedly. They were always coming up with
new ways to make his job harder than it needed to be. Most of the
time Carl's veto held solid, but he had caved under Harrison's pleas
and Blake's outright promise of defiance. The band did need an
assistant, and Lenny had been the most decent candidate to come along
in a while.
    “ Decent
candidate,” Luke rolled his eyes as he recalled Sway's
description of the newest member of their entourage. They had each
driven away a number of women in the past, be it from heartbreak,
exhaustion or restraining order. Luke felt his gut clench at the
thought that Lenny would eventually be another casualty of their
fame.
    But maybe not. She
didn't seem nearly as naive as most women he'd known over the years.
She was audacious and self-aware. If she had any insecurities or
illusions about what her job would be, it wasn't obvious. And with
the guys new commitment to being straight laced and sober for the
first time in their lives, she just might have a chance of leaving
this tour emotionally intact.
    Luke raked his
fingers through his hair and let out a sigh. He shouldn't be having
so many thoughts about the new girl. It was a dangerous path to
start down. Luke found it unusual that the rest of the group was so
taken with her, they barely knew her. However, he couldn't judge, as
he was the one standing on his hotel balcony devoting every stray
thought to her. He sighed again and tried to shake some new thoughts
into his distracted brain.
    He truly felt like
the only one who was apprehensive about adding a female into the mix
this early in the tour. It had turned out so badly last time. But
then again, that wasn't the fault of the women around them; that had
been their own poor choices.
    His hotel room was
on the top floor; and just below he could see the buses getting
loaded. They would travel by bus for the tour through the States,
and then fly overseas for a few shows in Europe. Departure was to be
early in the morning, about twelve hours from now. This was probably
the only night they would get a hotel, at least for a while. He and
Mike would share a bus while Sway, Harrison and Blake would share
another. They had five sleeper buses to accommodate the large crew
that their show required which is where Lenny would ride.
    Things were sure
different than when they started out ten years ago.
    Luke returned to the
interior of the