The Infinite Something Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Special Note From the Author

  CONTENTS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  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

  *

  **

  ***

  ****

  *****

  THE INFINITE SOMETHING

  T.I.E. Series Book 1

  Christine Michelle

  Copyright © 2018 Christine M. Butler / Christine Michelle

  All rights reserved. Scanning, uploading, copying, and/or any distribution of this book, either electronically or otherwise, is illegal and punishable by law without express written permission from the publisher.

  Help support authors you love by only purchasing legitimate copies of their work through trusted sources.

  Any similarities to persons, organizations, or places written about within these pages are purely coincidental, as this is a work of fiction.

  Cover Design: © Christine M. Butler

  Cover Image1 Credit: © Voyagerix (Canstock)

  Cover Image2 Credit: © Hbak (Canstock)

  Cover Image3 & Chapter header art Credit: © Ksysha (Canstock)

  Special font used on cover and in chapter headers:

  BigMisterC: © 1999 Solar Sister Fonts http://www.fontspace.com/solar-sister

  Dedication

  For my family, because music bleeds from our souls the same way words do.

  Special Note From the Author

  While coming up with story ideas they sometimes move beyond my wildest dreams, and once in a while they spin completely out of control and take over my life. Welcome to the later! Seriously, I had an idea for The Infinite Everything about three years ago. I wrote it down and put it aside, because I was working on other projects. It was just a single sheet of paper kind of note that said, “write this later,” and so I laughed when I found it again.

  During the same time period that I got back to it I had also been working on another new story idea revolving around the four children of a sweet southern belle woman who happened to have four different dads thanks to her bad luck in love. That book turned into the Chasing Cars Series (which will end up debuting in 2019). I always knew that the first baby daddy was going to run off to become a rock star. What I didn’t realize, until I had book one of both stories almost complete, was that they could blend into each other so well. So, Valhalla Rising – the band – made a special guest appearance in The Infinite Something, the first of The Infinite Everything books.

  There are other bands in this first T.I.E. book as well, and the characters just jumped off the pages and demanded I write their stories too, so this is where a simple story idea snowballs into that completely out of control – take over my life – kind of scenario. Now, there are five series that interconnect with a total of 21 books between them. They do not have to be read together as each series, and book within each series, stands alone. If you end up enjoying this first book in my Rock World Books, then here is what you can expect to happen with the tentative release dates that have been set:

  The Infinite Everything Series

  The Infinite Something (currently reading)

  The Infinite Beat (June 2018)

  The Infinite Triangle (Aug. 2018)

  The Infinite Truth (Fall 2018)

  The Infinite Everything (Winter 2018)

  Valhalla Rising Series

  Revived (June 2018)

  Devoted (August 2018)

  Craved (Fall 2018)

  Vindicated (Winter 2018)

  Released (Winter 2018/2019)

  Fourth Down Series

  The Dawson Effect (Early 2019)

  Her North Star (Spring 2019)

  That Michaels Magic (Summer 2019)

  Chasing Cars Series

  Chevy (Early 2019)

  Ford (Spring 2019)

  Dakota (Spring 2019)

  Harley (Summer 2019)

  Kendra (Fall 2019)

  Dusty Rose Series

  Macy (Fall 2019)

  Roni (Fall 2019)

  Sky (Winter 2019)

  As always, thank you for reading! Thanks for the feedback! And I hope you enjoy the experience.

  Xoxo

  Christine M. Butler – aka Christine Michelle

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  1

  Chasing a Rock Star

  2

  Forget the Dream

  3

  On the Road

  4

  Something Wicked

  5

  First Concert

  6

  Luxury Bus

  7

  No Goodbyes

  8

  The New Guy

  9

  Reinventing the Wheel

  10

  Meet Valhalla Rising

  11

  That Magic Moment

  12

  Swallow it Down

  13

  Ainsley Magic

  14

  In the Air… Again

  15

  Performance for One

  16

  Breakfast in Bed

  17

  Is This Real

  18

  New Assignments

  19

  Breaking the News

  20

  Two Months of Love

  21

  The Lonely tour

  22

  Coming Home

  *

  Epilogue

  **

  Other Books in Series

  ***

  Other Books by Author

  ****

  Musical Inspiration

  *****

  About the Author

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As always, I want to thank my readers for taking the time to read, review, and tell people about the books. Without you, I wouldn’t still be doing what I love to do, and telling my stories is a necessity. Thank you!

  Linda Hickman – aka: my mom – you are always the first person who gets to see my books, and I know I don’t have to worry about you saying “oh, that’s nice honey.” If you hate it, you tell me. If you think it needs work, you tell me. I can’t thank you enough for finding ways to support, encourage, and help make my work better all at once. You rock!

  My daughter, Lex, who I annoy on a regular basis with the many variations of book cover ideas, and who listens to all my story ideas and then badgers me about why I haven’t written her favorites yet. ;)

  To my other children, Bella, Devlin, and Alex who often hear me say, “I’m writing, come back later,” or “I’m writing I’ll call you back.” Sometimes, I forget to call back, because I’m still writing. Sorry, Bella. I still love you!

  And finally, my many friends I’ve met along the way in this wonderful world of books, I have enjoyed meeting and hearing from you all. I’ve been extremely thankful for your input and support over the years. My sincere thanks goes out to those of you who have virtually held my hand during some rough times. You are the very best of what this world has to offer. Thank you!

  Chapter 1

  “Please, Trav, you have to let me come backstage too!” I ple
aded with my brother.

  “No way, Everly. Backstage is no place for my little sister.” He graced me with the most menacing glare his gray-blue eyes were capable of, but didn’t expand on his worries. I already knew what they were. He was afraid I’d think poorly of him if I saw him going off with a groupie, or if I saw any of the other guys getting it on with groupies. Hell, he was worried that I would just see the slutty little tramps that somehow lost their clothing after the shows the band performed.

  My brother was the lead singer for the band Fourth Down, and they were currently the opening act for The Infinite Everything. They were definitely everything. Every. Damn. Thing. Those boys were fine as hell, and their music was infectious. I was a fan of my brother’s band, but I could fan girl with the best of them over T.I.E. It wasn’t about their looks either, not that their collective beauty didn’t hurt, but their music was phenomenal.

  “Come on Trav, that’s ridiculous. I’ll be going on the second leg of the tour with you guys for my internship. If I see something tonight that completely offends me and scars me for life I will know I should kill the internship and find something else.” Not that I could fins something else at this late date, but I didn’t tell my brother that part.

  The only requirement I had left to earn my degree was the internship with their tour manager, Deacon James. I’d be damned if I would just throw that away for anyone, my brother included. I had worked way too hard to get where I was. Hell, I had given up the normal collegiate party experience more times than I cared to count, refused to get involved with anyone until recently, and basically put my whole life on hold to earn this damn degree. I was making it to graduation come hell or high water. It was bad enough I had to put off graduation until the end of the summer because of the stupid tour schedule, but what could I do? The other two internships I applied for had been denied. I had a sneaking suspicion that the only reason I got this one was because I ‘accidentally’ dropped my brother’s name when I interviewed. He didn’t even know about it until later that day when their stage manager asked him about me. Oops.

  “Damn it, Ev, you know I don’t want you doing the internship either,” he huffed out at me.

  “This is what I want to do with my life, Trav. You want to play guitar and tour. I want to organize tours for people like you. I can’t do that without getting experience.” I poked my bottom lip out in a pout, and widened my gray-blue eyes that so closely mirrored his own coloring. “I’ve never trampled on your dreams, big brother, please, don’t stomp on mine.” That did it. I saw the moment he caved. His shoulders slumped in defeat.

  “Fine, but the minute we’re off the stage you stick to me like glue, and you can only stay long enough to meet the other band before they all head out to party. Then you leave. The last thing I need is fucking Micah or Jeremiah Stone taking a shine to you or something.” As if he had just reminded himself of something he pointed a finger in my direction. “Stay away from those dudes, seriously!”

  I hopped up and down excitedly on my tiptoes before swooping in for a hug. I ignored his last statement, because I was already seeing someone, and my dear brother would find out about that soon enough. “Thanks, Trav. I love you to pieces!”

  “Sure you do. More like you’re using me to meet your favorite band.”

  “I hope I can keep it together and be professional when I do finally get to meet them. I’ve only been following their career for years now,” I squealed. I am not afraid to admit it. The noise that burst forth from my mouth had my brother shaking his head.

  “It’s a good thing I know you so well, Ev. If I thought for a minute you wanted to jump their members I would call this whole thing off and have Deacon revoke your internship.” I was about to interrupt him when he shook his head and stopped me. “Don’t bother. I know. You’re fan-girling over the music itself, and not the geniuses who happen to be playing it.” He chuckled at that. “Man, do not ever let them know that. Some of those guys have crazy egos.”

  Actually, yes, I was excited about the music. I was even anxious about meeting the band members, but the number one thing I was excited about tonight was finally getting to see my brother’s bass guitarist in action again. Clay Miller had been friends with my brother for close to ten years. He wasn’t as tight in the fold as the other guys in the band for all those years though. He’d only joined up with them to play in the past two years. Before that, they were just guys who had hung out in high school once in a while.

  Clay and I had started seeing each other a month before the guys took off for the first leg of their tour. This was their first concert tour as an opening act, and they were hoping to get picked up on a major recording contract as a result. They were sort of on probation, and this tour was the trial run to see how well their fan base grew. Because it was the guys’ first tour Clay convinced me to wait to tell my brother about us until after they got back to town. It would give us almost a month for the dust to settle prior to hopping back on tour with T.I.E.

  Clay didn’t want to cause any friction while they were still getting through first time jitters. It’s not like they’d never performed together on stage, but it was the first time they were hopping around to large venues with mostly sold out crowds, and a recording contract on the line. I totally got it.

  Once the second leg of the tour got under way I’d be joining for at least two of the three months they’d be burning through U.S. tour dates. My internship was for two months, and it was the last requirement I had to meet prior to graduating. I was hoping to pop back home, graduate, and be able to catch up for the remainder of the stops once I walked the stage for graduation. The perfect storm of events had come together to insure I got to not only finish my degree while on tour with my brother, but that I was able to do it with my boyfriend too. I couldn’t ask for more, beyond maybe falling right into a sweet little paid job in the music industry when my time was up with the internship. Life was looking up these days. Bonus – I’d be able to finally let my hair down and have some fun while I was out with the guys too, and lord knew, I needed a bit of fun in my life after denying myself for so long.

  “I have to get back in to sound checks soon, let’s get your pass and get you on the list to be back here after the show.” My brother slung his arm around my shoulders and yanked, hard.

  “Ouch,” I grumbled. “You don’t have to be so rough, Trav.”

  “You want to work with rock stars, sis, you better get used to it being rough, and being manhandled by sweaty assholes.” I snickered at the unintentional innuendo coming from my brother. He growled at me. “Gross. You better be a virgin until you’re in your 30s, and if anyone gets too handsy you will tell me so I can castrate them.”

  I laughed. “No worries, brother o’ mine. I will be just fine with the manhandling, and you’ll never have to know about it.” I teased him, and would have tossed in a playful wink for good measure if he hadn’t tightened his grip around my shoulders into a choke hold at my neck at which point he started running his closed fist across my hair, tangling it in the process. Chris North, his band’s drummer, happened to be walking by and saw this portion of our sibling interaction. His hearty laugh let me know he enjoyed the show too.

  Once upon a time, I’d harbored a major crush on Chris. His jet black, messy hair and bright green eyes were a startling combination on their own. Throw in the muscular tattooed arms wailing a beat on the drums, along with his sexy smirk, and he was definitely the stuff many dreams of mine had been made of. The man, even when he was younger and less filled out, had been pretty much every girl’s fantasy. He and my brother had been best buddies since grade school, and unfortunately, Chris took the Bro Code seriously.

  No little sisters. Ever. When I realized it would never happen, I wiped up the drool, and went off on my own adventures with an idiot my age. My brother was probably dumber for allowing that to happen instead. Chris would have been a way better option than the jerk-wad who stole my virginity when I got drunk at the only party I eve
r attended, and then told everyone how easy I was. Thank God my brother is older and had already left high school in pursuit of college, football, and finally a music career by then.

  “Nice hair, Ev!” Chris taunted, pulling me out of that nightmare memory, before turning his attention back to my brother. “Hey man, you headed to sound check?”

  “Yeah, just have to get the twerp here a pass for backstage tonight.” Chris’s brows rose in question, and Travis’s shoulders slumped yet again as he released me. “She’ll be doing that internship next month when we head back out anyway. Might as well give her a taste of what it’s going to be like so she can run before it’s too late.”

  “I guess,” Chris offered. “I’ll just walk with you guys then since you’ll be headed over right after.” Chris turned back to me. “How’s school going anyway? Almost finished?”

  “Yup, I have exams in two weeks, and then I’m done. Well, I have to complete the internship satisfactorily, and then I get to pick up a shiny little piece of paper that says I’m all legit and shit.”

  Both men laughed at me. “Legit and shit? Maybe we should have you writing our songs.” I groaned. “No, really, it’s catchy!” Chris laughed. Not that it was necessary to hear the sarcasm dripping from his comment.