The Farther I Fall Read Online Free PDF

if that’s what you’re into. I’m not one to judge.” She still had on the same infuriatingly calm smile, and he hadn’t so much as put a scratch on her surface veneer. He sat back and folded his arms, knowing he was retreating and hating it.
    Who are you really?
He would find out, if it took the rest of the tour to do it.
    ***
    From the moment Gwen’s feet hit the pavement in New York, she was running. Carrying equipment, helping set up equipment, making sure the theater had what they needed . . . she had more than one occasion to be grateful for the meticulous lists that Craig had given her the first day.
    Sally, the merch manager, didn’t have enough space for her tables. The theater manager thought the contract rider to provide food in the green room meant a bag of pretzels and some beer. By four PM, Gwen was wishing she’d taken a nap on the plane. Barring that, she was grateful to take a long enough break to watch part of Lucas’s sound check.
    She almost didn’t recognize Lucas in the man standing behind the ridiculously complicated setup of synthesizers, guitar, drum machines, and computers. He was relaxed. He joked with the house engineer on monitors and with Craig out in the sound booth as they worked to get the levels right. This was the third time she’d seen it, but each time Gwen was surprised again at the difference between offstage Lucas and onstage Lucas. Damned if he wasn’t capable of being charming when he felt like it.
    Gwen heard laughter from the stage and looked out to see Lucas picking up the guitar—not something he used often in the show.
    â€œNot again. One of these days she’s going to kill you,” Craig said over the PA.
    Lucas grinned, rare and mischievous. He fiddled with the tuning, then started playing a blues riff Gwen would have known anywhere, but never would have expected to hear from him. He vamped for a few bars, then came in with the lyrics to Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally.” Gwen folded her arms and leaned against the side of the proscenium arch with a smile. His usual music, the type that made him famous, didn’t show off his voice the way this did. Bluesy and a little smoky, low enough to make her feel it in her belly—she could listen to this all day. And watching him play guitar was almost obscene. The way his forearms flexed as he played made her mouth go dry. Then one of the doors to the lobby opened, and Gwen realized who the “she” in question was and laughed.
    Sally didn’t bother entering the theater all the way; she stuck her upper body through the door long enough to give the stage the bird. Lucas’s response was to dirty up the song even more, complete with a few unmistakable groans that had Gwen somewhere between laughing and squirming.
    â€œYou’d think she’d stop reacting by now.” Cathy’s voice behind her made her jump.
    â€œDoes he do this a lot?” Gwen tried to keep her eyes on Lucas while still talking.
    â€œOne of Lucas’s old bandmates had a thing for Sally. One night after a show he, uh, tried to impress her with that song.” Cathy shook her head. “It got pretty X-rated, and she wasn’t amused. Problem was, neither of them knew we could all hear them.”
    â€œOuch.”
    â€œYeah. So now it’s kind of a joke.” Cathy grinned. “Well, for everybody except Sally.”
    Lucas had moved on to one of his more traditional numbers, and Gwen was able to pull her attention away. “So how
do
you guys manage to have . . . well, any kind of life really, but especially a love life? Um, if that’s not too personal.”
    â€œA lot of us don’t,” Cathy said. “Come on, I need to go up and check the rigging upstairs. We’ll talk as I go.”
    Gwen followed her up to the catwalk that stretched across the stage and stood by as she made some