by Linda Kage
An adorable, rueful expression crossed his face. “I had plenty of free time to practice.”
I was still amazed, and I’m sure my jaw hanging open made it obvious. “Shut the front door. You freaking taught yourself to play the guitar?”
He finished the rest of his Angry Orchard in one long draw and then sighed in one of those refreshed ways as he tapped the bottle against the bar top and motioned to Noel that he needed another.
When he turned to me, I could tell he was totally going to change the subject.
That intrigued me. A lead singer of a band who wasn’t interested in talking about himself. Weird. And not only that, he seemed more embarrassed than puffy-chested and proud that I was impressed by his self-taught skills. Fisher would’ve been eating up any praise that came his way and making sure I knew the whole story behind his greatness.
Not that I was comparing the two. There was no reason for me to do that, other than, you know, they were both singers in a band.
Still, I really liked Asher’s more humble approach on being so awesome.
“So, who’s your favorite band?” he asked, almost making me grin because I’d been able to read him well enough to know he’d steer the conversation away from himself.
I snorted and made a face. “As if I could narrow that down to one group.”
He laughed. “I know, right?”
“But if I had to name, say...my top ten or so,” I went on, curious if he had similar tastes. “I’d go with Metallica, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Stones, Incubus, Rush—but only because of Neil Peart.”
Asher grinned and nodded. “The drummer. Of course.”
I felt my own lips curve up in amusement and kept listing. “The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Jett, Heart, The Bangles—”
Choking on the drink he’d just taken, Asher burst out laughing. “The Bangles?”
“What?” I scowled at him for laughing at my Bangles.
He waved a hand. “Nothing. I just wasn’t expecting a punk band listed among all the rock groups you were spouting off.”
“Hey, they were rock...sort of.” Then I shrugged. “They came up with ‘Walk Like an Egyptian,’” I argued my point. “That song is fun as shit to play on the drums. For me, it ranks right up there with ‘Hot for Teacher,’ ‘Enter Sandman,’ and ‘Tom Sawyer.’”
There were more girl bands I loved, but I didn’t want to somehow give my gender away by listing too many, so I merely watched Asher continue to chuckle.
“Trust me. I’m not bashing your choices in the least. I agree with every single one of them. And hey, I’ve been known to listen to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift with the best of them, so don’t worry about music genres with me.”
“Dude.” I leaned in closer. “I wouldn’t go broadcasting that to Galloway. I don’t think he’d be so—”
“Yeah.” He lifted his hand to let me know my warning was moot. “I know.” Then he shrugged as if unconcerned. “I just like all kinds of music. As long as it’s got a good beat, cool lyrics and resonates in my bones, I’m in.”
I nodded respectfully. “I get that.” I didn’t tell him I was pretty much the same way. Country, rap, alternative, hip hop, classics, I just loved music.
“But I grew up with my parents listening to Nirvana on a loop, so that’s probably why most of our songs lean more the way they do.”
“Hmm, I wondered about that. I can definitely see the influence.” I wondered if this meant he’d had a hand in creating any of our original songs. Just how many hats did he wear in our little group? Guitar player, vocalist, manager and now possible songwriter?
The guy seriously needed to stop saying and doing things to impress me.
He sneezed, and immediately said, “Excuse me,” as he reached for a nearby stack of napkins to wipe his nose. And dammit, I even liked his gentlemanly reaction while he tossed the used tissue into a trash can. Ugh! My tiny little crush was getting ridiculous here.
Needing to get my head back into the conversation and away from him being a hot, interesting piece of man candy, I finished my own beer and said, “I’ve really been getting into Breaking Benjamin lately.”
“Mmm.” He pointed at me as he took a drink, then had to wait to swallow before saying “And Five Finger Death Punch.”
“‘The Wrong Side of Hell,’” we said together, naming our favorite song from that group. Then we laughed at the same time.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” Ten asked, appearing in front of us.
I tensed, hoping he kept his big mouth shut. But Asher let out a small moan, and waved his empty bottle in his friend’s face. “Don’t be a dick. Just get me another drink.”
“Dude, slow it down. What is this, your fifth of the night?”
“No, it’s my...” He frowned as if confused so I answered, “third.”
“Right.” He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “It’s my third...and it’s my last, mother.” After a quick scowl to Ten, he asked me, “You want another?”
“Mmm. Okay. Uno más.” I slid my empty toward Ten, who shook his head.
“Huh?” Ten only blinked. “What the hell does uno más mean?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s Spanish. Means one more. Por favor. But this should be my last drink, too. I’ll probably end up driving Jodi home...if she hasn’t already left with someone else.” But when I glanced around for her, I was surprised to find her still hanging around Galloway and his table full of women.
“You know, I took like two years of Spanish in high school,” Asher said from beside me. “And I learned jack shit.”
I turned back to him and was blasted with a fresh wave of lust. Damn, but he was too pretty. And those green, green eyes...so frigging intense.
“Well, my entire family is from México, so I grew up with plenty of people who don’t know anything but Español,” I explained. “It’s pretty common for me.”
“Really? Huh. I never would’ve guessed that about you. You seem so...American.”
I arched an eyebrow. “I am American. Born and raised right here in Illinois.”
“I mean...” He rolled out a hand and his eyes flared as if he was worried he’d offended me.
“My dad was American,” I explained. “But since I don’t remember him and grew up with my mom’s side of the family raising me, yeah, you could say my heritage is very deeply embedded in all things Latino. I probably fell in love with the type of music I did because to me, it was so much more exotic and exciting than what I was used to my family always listening to. Plus, it was kind of fun to be the rebel in the group.”
With a laugh, Asher nodded. “That makes sense.” He opened his mouth to say more but two girls approached, one sliding up right against his side and running her fingers along his chest. “Hey, you’re Asher Hart, aren’t you? We loved your performance tonight.”
The smile he sent her was friendly enough as he said, “Thanks,” but then he leaned away, obviously uncomfortable with her proximity.
I couldn’t keep my narrowed gaze off her red painted fingernails as they kept traveling lower and lower down his chest and over his stomach, steadily making their way toward his lap. “You have the most amazing voice ever.”
He caught her wrist before she could get a handful of little Asher but still managed a tense smile. “Glad you liked it.”
“Hey! You two.” Noel pointed at the two women and waved them off. “This is a VIP area. You need to move along.”
The women huffed out their displeasure but Noel narrowed his eyes, and they finally slunk away. As soon as he was relieved of the girl’s grasp, Asher spun on his stool so he was no longer sitting sideways to face me but now had his legs tucked securely under the counter space...so no more women could climb into his lap.
“Thanks, man,” he told Noel.
“Aww...anything for our delicate little cupcake.” Noel went to pinch his cheeks, but Asher slapped his hand away and called him a dirty name.
As
Noel moved off, laughing, a blushing Asher slanted a glance my way. “Sorry about that. They can get really...forward.”
Again, he surprised me. Fisher would’ve already been all over those two girls—a very sad fact I hadn’t learned until after I was engaged to the douchebag. Yeah, it’d been kind of downer to hear he’d slept with a new girl pretty much every time he’d gone out into public without me.
I took a small sip of my beer as I studied Asher’s face, watching him glance over his shoulder at the ladies Noel had shooed away. His expression confused me. I saw the flicker of interest; he definitely didn’t mind what he saw. But there was also a wariness that didn’t mesh with his initial attraction to them.
“And...you don’t like forward?” I couldn’t help but ask.
He zipped his gaze to me, his green eyes filled with surprise. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know. I just...” He shifted his shoulders again. “I guess I just like to be the one pursuing, you know.” With one last glance at the women he’d rebuffed, he added, “And I haven’t had the chance to do that in a while.”
“I can imagine.” I’d definitely experienced the same draw to him every other female tonight had. He was probably constantly chased by a horny mob.
Shifting closer, he lowered his voice and admitted, “It’s embarrassing as fuck. They all crowd around me as if I’m something, I don’t know, amazing, and they don’t know jack shit about me. I’m just a regular guy, and I can’t help but think they’d only be disappointed if they really got to know me.”
Oh, I begged to differ on that point. So far, he was turning out to be incredibly interesting...and growing more interesting by the moment.
Thank God Jodi showed up then, before I could say anything, because I might’ve blurted out that I thought he was by no means dull or regular.
She slid up against me, giggling—obviously drunk off her ass—and almost knocked me off my stool, right into Asher. I had to put out a foot and slam my hand onto the counter to catch myself.
“Hey, puta,” she cried, wrapping her arms around my neck and giving me a big sloppy kiss on my masked cheek. “Oh my God, you’re so hot tonight. Have I told you how good you look in this get-up? Are you going to drive me home? I could give you fake road head in the car.”
I rattled out a nervous laugh, glad she hadn’t given my identity away yet, aside from the puta reference and fake road head offer, but I hoped Asher hadn’t caught that. Still, she was so wasted she might actually give me away soon. “Looks like I will be,” I answered, slipping an arm around her waist to keep her upright. “You are plastered, chica.”
“Feels good,” she answered, tipping her head back, only to catch sight of who I was sitting beside. Eyes flashing open wide, she gasped. “Oh my God, there’s that gorgeous lead singer dude in your band again. Don’t you just want to lick him?” She started to climb into my lap and crawl across me to reach him. “Hey...Asher Hart? Can I lick you?”
“Jodi!” I hauled her back to the other side of me. “Down girl. No licking my bandmates.”
She wrinkled her nose and made a pouty face. “You’re no fun. Besides.” Her tongue came out to waggle at me. “I just gave that bastard Billy head under the table to get my panties back. And my tongue was all over—”
I slapped my hand over her mouth to shut her up. “Eww.” Then I remembered where she’d just had that mouth, and I quickly removed my fingers to wipe them on my pant leg. Glancing at Asher, I cringed and mouthed the word, Sorry.
He only laughed. “Don’t worry about it.”
But I kept stressing. “How long do you think it’ll take to clean off the stage?”
Waving me away, he shook his head. “Don’t worry about that either. I’ll take care of everything. Just get this lovely lady home safely, and we’ll be square.”
Jodi tittered and rested her head on my shoulder. “Did you hear that? He called me lovely.”
“He also called you a lady, so he’s also obviously had too much to drink as well.”
“Hey,” Jodi muttered in outrage and pinched the inside of my arm at the most tender spot ever, making me yelp and squirm away.
Next to us, Asher’s phone rang, keeping him from having to respond.
As he answered, my roommate leaned up into my ear and loudly whispered, “Have you told him you’re a girl yet? You said you were going to tell him right after the gig tonight. I bet he’ll want to jump your bones when he finds out.”
“Shh...” I hissed, scowling her quiet as I waved a hand to hush her. “Not yet.”
After this evening, my goals had changed. I was still riding some of the giddy rush I’d gotten from playing for people, people who cheered us on and loved what we did for them. And then Asher...sitting here, just talking to him...I realized I didn’t want to leave the band.
So I needed a new plan. I needed to approach this delicately, in a way where I could convince the guys to keep me on after I revealed my true identity to them. If I played my cards right, maybe I could coax them into letting me stay on as a girl.
Before I could explain all that to Jodi, though, Asher grabbed my arm. “Holy shit, Sticks, you will not believe this.” Excitement radiated from his voice as he continued to shake my shoulder vigorously. “That was some casino owner from Chicago. He was here tonight and saw our show. And he wants us to play at one of his clubs. Next Saturday. He offered us two grand for one night. Can you fucking believe that?”
My mouth dropped open in shock as Asher threw back his head and let out a relieved, happy, excited laugh. “I’ve been working for over a year to get us an opportunity like this. Then you’re with us one night—one fucking night—and boom, we’ve got an offer from fucking Chicago. You’re some kind of good luck piece, you know that?”
“I...” No words came. I shook my head, feeling some of the same awe as him, but also gaining a load of nerves.
For real, though... Fuck! I couldn’t tell him what I was now. What if it pissed the guys off enough that they kicked me out of the band? Then, where would they be? They needed a drummer for next weekend. I couldn’t let them down. I couldn’t let Asher down. He looked so freaking adorable when he was excited like this.
And yes, damn it, I really wanted to play at that bar in Chicago, too.
So, yeah, I guess this meant Sticks, the dude drummer, was going to have to hang around just a little bit longer.
That call. That wonderful, amazing, life-changing phone call.
Ever since I’d gotten it, I’d been a bundle of anticipation and nerves. The whole thing reeked of Pick, however. I mean, seriously. Why would some big-time casino owner from Chicago be down here in Ellamore and inside the Forbidden Nightclub, of all places, to even hear us play? I had a feeling my new brother had pulled a few strings to get the guy into the building. And yep, when I’d straight up asked Pick about it, he’d suddenly turned too vague and busy to talk.
I wasn’t sure what to do about that. Just appreciate it and move on? Somehow try to repay him? Tell him to stop because I knew someday he’d regret helping me? I wasn’t sure, so I decided to not even think about it for now.
I concentrated on the positives...like the fact Non-Castrato had just been given the opportunity of a lifetime. Good things were about to happen, I could feel it, like some kind of adrenaline rush surging through my veins. It had my muse running wild with ideas for songs, and my chronic insomnia hitting a new high.
The afternoon after the call, I sat on the seat of an old exercise bike, scribbling lyrics in my notebook, and jiggling my knee to expend some of the extra energy still tweaking though me. I paused every few seconds to sing the words in my head, then I marked out a phrase here, or sometimes a whole line there that didn’t work, and I wrote in something new above or below it.
I’d just come up with a stanza that made my blood pump eagerly when someone called, “Knock, knock.”
Glancing up, I grinned at the new drummer. “Hey, man. You’re early again. That’s going to be a thing with you, isn�
��t it?”
Sticks shrugged as he strolled into the garage, carrying a restaurant’s takeout bag, which shit...smelled really good. “And here, I’ve yet to be earlier than you,” he noted.
“Touché,” I murmured, watching him plant himself on his drum set stool and open the bag, only to pull out a fried burrito-looking thing that made my mouth water, and reminded me it’d been too long since I’d last eaten.
I never remembered to eat or sleep when I was binge writing.
But when Sticks sank his teeth into the fried breading, I couldn’t handle it. “What the hell is that?” I demanded. “It smells amazing.”
Pausing mid-bite, Sticks lifted his eyebrows and glanced my way. Then he bit down, chewed a second and finally covered his hand over his mouth before saying, “Sorry. I had to come straight from work and was starving.”
“No.” I waved my hand. “I don’t care if you have to eat. Whatever. That’s totally fine. I meant, specifically what is that you’re eating?”
“Oh. It’s a chimichanga.” When I licked my lips, he arched an eyebrow and held it higher in my direction. “You want one? I have more in the bag.”
“Really?” I instantly came to my feet. “Fuck, yes, I want one.”
Smirking, Sticks pulled another chimichanga free and handed it over. I unwrapped it and took my first bite, barely thanking him before diving in, and that was that; I was a goner. We spent the next few minutes in silence, quietly inhaling our food before I could form a coherent word. Finally, I pointed at my mostly eaten chimichanga and announced with a full cheek, “This is good.”
“I know.” Sticks wiped his mouth with a napkin. “My family owns the restaurant. I grew up on this shit.”
“Lucky bastard.” I made a small whimper and closed my eyes as I downed the last little bite I had. Taking note of the name of the restaurant on the side of the bag, I decided I needed to go to Castañeda’s for a full meal someday soon.
“Seriously, I didn’t mean to interrupt whatever you were doing.” Sticks motioned to my abandoned notepad across the room.