So that left me with no possibilities. Which sucked. Royally.
The happy couple unglued their lips from each other and stepped down from the gazebo, where I was standing with the other groomsmen (aka the members of the band). Nolan pulled his girlfriend, Hailey, into his arms and whispered in her ear. She laughed. If I’d been a betting man, I would’ve wagered those two would be married (or at least engaged) before the band hit the studio again.
At the thought of making a bet, a shiver of excitement rolled through me. I pushed it away. I couldn’t go there. Not again. I had destroyed enough people with my past gambling addiction. I was a new man. A new man who wouldn’t fall down that rabbit hole again.
My fingers unconsciously went to the tattoo on the inside of my forearm, hidden under the tuxedo: live. love. laugh. The words were in Sanskrit. Along with several other tattoos, I’d gotten that one after my stint in rehab several years ago. This one in particular was a motto I lived by every day. I lived and loved the music. And the laugh? Well . . .
I checked out the guests now milling around the backyard and spotted Tomas York, the drummer for the up-and-coming band Burning Wire. Perfect. I grabbed a napkin from the refreshment table. Jared and Callie’s names were printed in gold on the cream-colored paper.
“Do you have a pen I can borrow for a second?” I asked the woman next to me. Her short white hair was puffy, and she had one of those oversized purses that contained everything, including two kitchen sinks.
She smiled at me. “I’m sure I have one.” She rummaged through her purse and removed a silver pen. Classy. I took it and wrote, Hi, sexy. Your place or mine? I handed the pen back to her, thanked her, then made my way over to Tomas.
“Hey, a woman asked me to give you this.” I passed him the folded napkin.
He opened it and read the note. His head shot up and his gaze searched the backyard for the note writer. I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing out loud.
His gaze settled on Beckie, who was talking to Jared and Callie. Tomas’s eyes lit up with a lusting fire.
“Not her. Her.” I pointed at the woman who had loaned me the pen.
The heat in his gaze was instantly extinguished, and his eyes practically popped out of his head. I snickered. I couldn’t help it.
Tomas’s head swiveled to me and he backhanded my chest. “You jackass.”
I burst out laughing. “I might be a jackass, but it was so worth it.”
“For you, maybe.” He looked back at Beckie. “Do you know who she is?”
I shrugged. “Not really. She used to work with Callie.” I didn’t get a chance to warn him that Kirk might also be interested in her. Just then Kirk sidled up to her, and it was clear she was as taken by the tall, brooding former hockey player as he was with her. At least one of us would get lucky tonight. Which left Aaron and me as the only members of Pushing Limits who weren’t going to have a good fuck tonight.
Maybe he, Tomas, and I should bail on the wedding sooner rather than later and find some action elsewhere, I thought.
And I would have if Jared hadn’t been like a brother to me. All the guys in the band were like brothers to me. The only brothers I had left. No, bailing so I could get laid wasn’t the cool thing to do.
At the tug on my pant leg, I glanced down to find Logan grinning up at me. Inwardly I chuckled, knowing what the hopeful expression was for. He was hoping that I’d cuss and contribute to his swear-word jar. With the band touring, he had no one to donate regularly to it. I was the only idiot unable to control his cussing around the four-year-old. It was an expensive habit when the fine was a dollar per swear word. “Hey, buddy.”
“Play with me, Uncle Mason.” He signed the words as he spoke. Logan was deaf, but his cochlear implant allowed him to hear most things, except for music.
I crouched to his level. “Logan, do you remember my friend Tomas? He’s almost as good a drummer as I am.” And with the way Tomas’s band was gaining interest within the L.A. music scene, maybe one day they would be opening for us.
Tomas laughed. “Actually, I’m even better than your uncle Mason.”
He wished.
“You must be good,” Logan said, “because Uncle Mason is amazing.” What he meant was that the vibrations through the floor when I played the drums were amazing. Logan didn’t listen to the band’s music. He felt it.
“What do you want to play?” I asked him.
“Soccer!” That came as no big surprise.
“Do you think your parents would mind?” I surveyed the backyard. It wasn’t huge, and while under normal circumstances it would be fine, it might be problematic with so many guests milling around.
Logan tugged on my hand. “It’s all good.”
I somehow doubted it. I scanned the area for Jared and Callie, but they were nowhere to be found. Guess they couldn’t wait until nighttime to consummate their marriage. Lucky bastard!
“Why don’t we ask your grandmother first, okay?” I signed the “okay” part. “Don’t go anywhere,” I told Tomas. “You might get drafted into the soccer match.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for anything,” said Tomas, who was part Latino and had grown up on soccer.
Logan and I walked over to his grandmother, who was talking to a few guests near the refreshment table. “That should be fine,” she said after I asked her if it would be okay to play a low-key game of soccer. “Just keep the ball away from the patio, okay?” She said the last part to Logan, then to me she added, “And no kicking it hard. We don’t need it landing in the food.”
Good point.
Logan hurried off to fetch his soccer ball. A few minutes later he and I, along with the other guys in the band, Tomas, and the cute little flower girl, were kicking the ball around the lawn. Callie cheered on her boys, who were on my team, while Hailey cheered on Nolan, who played on the opposite team.
Kirk kicked the ball past Aaron. I high-fived him. “Nice job, puck boy.”
“As if you ever doubted me, drummer boy,” he said with a smirk.
The phone in my tux pant pocket vibrated. I ignored it. Everyone who was likely to contact me was at the wedding. So unless my estranged family had a sudden longing to forgive me for the mess I’d dragged them into a few years ago—and I doubted they had forgiven me, or ever would—the call could wait.
Logan kicked the ball past Tomas, who was positioned between two wedding chairs, and scored a goal. He squealed with joy and jumped up and down, as did Emma, the toddler flower girl, who was on the other team. We laughed at their reaction.
Jared hugged Logan, and the memory of my father once doing the same when I was a kid almost knocked me onto my ass. I’d just scored a touchdown. It had been only flag football, but that hadn’t mattered to him. He had been proud of me no matter what—as long as I gave it my all and worked hard. As long as I played fair.
I shoved away the memory and the hurt. I had moved on. No point picking at the scab again.
I high-fived Logan and got back into position. Callie tossed the ball onto the grass and the game resumed. Giggling, Emma kicked the ball, and kept on kicking it away from the rigged-up soccer field. Logan chased after her. The rest of us stood on the grass, laughing.
A bird tweeted near the tree house. Without warning, Emma stopped and pointed at where the sound had come from, the soccer game instantly forgotten. Not expecting her to stop, Logan almost careened into her. He took advantage of the distraction and kicked the ball away from her. Emma didn’t even notice.
He dribbled the ball back to us but then forgot about the no-kicking rule. And wow, could the kid ever kick. The ball smacked the ass of the woman who had loaned me her pen. We all cringed as it made impact, and cringed even more at the dirty ball print it left on her beige skirt.
She turned around to find Logan staring at her backside, his mouth a perfect circle. She smiled sweetly at him. “Your daddy said you were a good player. He just failed to mention how great a player you are.” She ruffled his ha
ir and returned her attention to the elderly couple she had been talking to.
The phone vibrated in my pocket again.
I don’t know what compelled me to check it, but a weird feeling warned me it was important. I removed my phone and looked to see who had texted me.
Zack: Call me ASAP! Important.
The last I’d heard, Zack was off who-knew-where on a mission for the navy. He’d been gone for a few weeks now.
Striding to the side of the house, away from the noise, I speed-dialed his number. He answered moments later.
“Hey, McCormick, what’s so important?” I asked.
“You remember my sister, Nicole?”
“Yes.” She was two years younger than Zack and me, and had gone to a different high school. Whenever I had hung out with Zack at his house, she was usually there. Most fifteen-year-old little sisters loved tormenting their older brother. Not so with Nicole. You could tell she worshipped him. He was her world—and it was obvious he adored her just as much, despite how much he teased her.
But who could blame him? She did make the best chocolate chip cookies known to man.
“I’ve been trying to contact her for the past two days. She isn’t returning my texts or messages.”
“You think something’s happened to her?”
“Who knows? She’s a workaholic. Sometimes she gets so focused on what’s she doing, she ignores the rest of the world. But if something has happened to her . . .” He couldn’t say the final words.
“You want me to go to her place and check if she’s okay?”
“Yes, if you can.”
“What’s her address?”
He told me. “It’s in Desert Springs. About two and a half hours southeast of L.A.”
“I’m at a wedding, but I can leave in about an hour.”
“Thanks, Dell. I owe you big.”
Not as much as I owed him. If it hadn’t been for Zack, I would have died the night my gambling addiction caused me to hit rock bottom and I attempted suicide.
I owed him my life . . . and so much more.
Thank you for reading MY SONG FOR YOU!
Want to see who captures Mason Dell’s heart? Check out I NEED YOU TONIGHT.
His secret is a link to a past she would rather forget…
If you enjoy heartfelt, suspenseful new adult romances, meet Amber and Marcus from the exciting TELL ME WHEN.
She’s trying to escape her past. He wants to be the man to save her…
Turn the page for an excerpt from
TELL ME WHEN…
Meet the Carson Brothers of Maple Ridge, Oregon. This new heartfelt contemporary romance series with a dash of danger and suspense will leave you flipping the pages well into the night.
Ten years ago, he broke my heart. Now he needs a wife in order to save his business…
ONE MORE CHANCE is the first book in the series.
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Read on for an excerpt from Tell Me When
Amber
My windshield wipers squeak as I pull into the empty parking spot in front of Your Designs. Rain pelts my window. My heart pounds along with it.
I can do this. I need to do this.
A mother and her toddler dash past the car as I pull the hood of my rain jacket over my head. He stops, a mischievous smile on his face, and leaps into a puddle. His red rubber boots splash water in every direction. I can’t help but laugh at his expression. At least he’s not afraid of the weather.
Before I can change my mind, I grab my purse from the passenger seat and make a break for the store. Once inside, I fish through my purse for the picture I found on the Internet, after hours and hours of research.
“Hi, Amber,” Kathy says from the counter. Her long, curly blond hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and she’s wearing skintight jeans and a black T-shirt that reads Rock On.
“You’re finally going for it?” She’s referring to the five other times I’ve been here, checking the place out, but never quite having the courage to go through with it.
An oversized jar with a hole in the lid and a picture of a lotus flower on the side sits on the counter. Above the flower is the message: Please donate and help victims of sexual assault and abuse become survivors. I poke a five-dollar bill through the slot like I’ve done every time I’ve come here.
“You’re the one giving me the tattoo, right?” I ask.
“That’s right. Do you have an idea of what you want?”
Swallowing hard, I unfold the picture of a dozen small blue flowers floating on a breeze. Forget-me-nots. I hand it to her. “I want it here.” I indicate the inside of my left forearm, which is hidden under my jacket sleeve. “And I also want it to say ‘Trent and Michael.’ ”
Kathy pulls out a book with different fonts and I pick an elegant script. It’s perfect.
“Just let me set up, and we’ll get started.” She heads to the back of the store and disappears down a hallway.
I wander over to a wall of tattoos. I’ve seen them each time I’ve been here, but that doesn’t stop me from marveling over the more intricate designs. Until now, I’ve never been impressed by tattoos. It was my ex-best friend who wanted one. Funny how things change.
I’m inspecting a delicate fairy with wings like autumn leaves when the chimes above the door ring. Two guys, maybe twenty-one or twenty-two, enter. Both are good-looking and have the tall, muscular bodies of basketball players. That’s where the similarities between them end.
The dark-haired guy has that bad-boy vibe some girls find appealing, with his military boots, jeans, and black leather jacket. His blond-haired friend is the kind of guy most girls feel safe with. He’s wearing sneakers, jeans, and a blood-donor T-shirt. The clothes and his friendly expression make him appear trustworthy. Like he won’t break your heart or your body or your soul.
But I’ve long since learned that appearances are never what they seem. Either man could be sweet, or he could be dangerous. The trick is to never let them get close enough for you to find out the truth the hard way.
Blond guy walks to the counter and chats with the store owner, a man not much older than us, with tattoos covering his arms. Neither pays attention to me. I resume studying the wall.
From the corner of my eye, I notice the black-haired guy walking toward me. Instead of checking out the designs on the wall, his gaze roams over my body, taking in the view. Jerk.
A one-sided smile slides onto his face. He’s the kind of guy who uses his good looks to his advantage, the kind of guy whose sole mission in life is getting laid.
My hand tap-tap-taps my right thigh, keeping pace with my heart, which has picked up speed as the jerk continues staring at me. I narrow my eyes at him, silently telling him to find another girl. He’s wasting his time with me.
The men at the counter laugh.
“Dude, that’s the first time I’ve seen you get shot down by a female,” blond guy says, still chuckling.
Dark-haired guy flips him the finger and points to the fairy. “This would look hot on you right”—he strokes his finger against my lower back—“here.” His voice is low, the words slow and practiced.
I jerk away and stride to the rear of the store. The other two men laugh even louder.
“Give up, Marcus,” blond guy says. “She’s a lot smarter than your usual girls. I like her already.”
Kathy reappears from the hallway as blond guy and tattoo guy high-five. Dark-haired guy shrugs with an easy grin and walks over to join them.
“I’m ready for you now.” A reassuring smile curves on Kathy’s face.
She leads me into another room and gestures to a padded chair with a moveable armrest. “Sit down, please, and remove your jacket.”
Relieved to have escaped the guys, I make myself comfy on the chair.
After gathering her supplies, Kathy sits on the chair next to me and examines my wris
t. Her thumb brushes against the thick scars, as if she’s a fortune-teller reading my past, present, and future. Hope she has a strong stomach.
“It’s horrible what he did to you.” She gives me the sad look, the one I witnessed too often last spring. A combination of horror, disbelief, sympathy.
I nod, frantically figuring out a way to change the topic. I wasn’t prepared for this. No one on campus has recognized me yet as the girl whose tragedy was splashed across the front-page news…and I want to keep it that way.
I focus on my breathing to keep from flashing back to that nightmare. To keep from thinking about what I’m doing. To keep from answering questions I’d rather avoid.
Kathy wipes my forearm with a warm, disinfectant-smelling liquid. “I’ll warn ya now. It’s gonna hurt like hell.”
Good. “I’ll be fine.”
TELL ME WHEN is now available.
Also by Stina Lindenblatt
Contemporary Romance Series
Pushing Limits
This One Moment
Two former best friends secretly in love with each other. The night that tore them apart. And the tragic event that will bring them together—and test their love for one another.
My Song For You
Bad-boy rocker Jared Leigh is about to meet the biggest challenge of his life…
My Song For You (Pushing Limits Book 2) Page 27