“Professionally, not for a while, but I guess I’ve been singing all my life.”
“Do you always sing the blues?”
“The blues is my favorite, but usually it’s classic rock.”
Big blue eyes—the color of the Pacific Ocean off Point Reyes. He bobbed his head. “You handle them all well.”
She blushed. It was a pretty look on her creamy skin. “Thank you,” she replied in a voice that belied the resonant pipes harbored within her body.
Surprising gratification danced in his stomach, setting off a chain reaction. His pulse picked up speed, his collar tightened, and his mind raced through what to say next. Small talk wasn’t a language he spoke fluently. He usually kept to himself. When he had something to say, he did it without dressing it up. Just sort of threw it out there. Not that he was rude, at least not on purpose. Right now, though, he found himself wishing his tongue had a shiny silver coating.
On the verge of launching into the righteousness of the blues—and enumerating his favorite blues artists—he was interrupted when Hunter ambled out.
“Hey, pretty singer,” Hunter said. “You’re awesome!”
Gage detected a slight flinch before she dipped her head and plastered on what appeared to be a stage smile. “Thanks, um …”
“I’m Hunter.” He extended his hand, and when she slipped hers into it, he raised it to his lips. “And you are?”
Gage’s thoughts swung from a disgusted Seriously, dude? to a grudging Smooth move.
Her eyes darted to Gage before returning to Hunter, and she hesitated before saying, “Lily.”
“Are you staying here tonight?” asked Hunter. The venue was separated from a B&B by a stand of pines with walking paths leading from one side to the other. Though Denver was a mere hour away, some guests, including Gage, had chosen to spend the night at the B&B.
“Yes. The bride and groom offered to put us up so we didn’t have to travel back to Denver tonight.”
Hunter smirked. “Well, I’d love to see more of you tonight when this shindig’s over.” The comment wasn’t even directed at Gage, but slime dripped from Hunter’s words and made Gage’s skin crawl.
Just then, the guitarist emerged, his head on a swivel. Scandinavian-featured, he was tall and blond with a trimmed reddish beard. He frowned when his eyes landed on Lily. “C’mon. We’re up.” He gave Hunter and Gage a disapproving perusal.
“Well, it’s been nice chatting with you both.” Lily seemed unruffled by her annoyed bandmate.
“Same,” Gage called to her back as she walked away, her hips swaying alluringly.
Though she couldn’t see him, Hunter waggled his eyebrows. “See you soon, Lily.”
Once she was out of earshot, Gage turned to Hunter. “You and your girlfriend obviously have an open relationship. How do you do it?”
Hunter shot him a puzzled look. “What?”
“How do you compartmentalize? I’m not sure I could mentally put aside the woman I’m involved with while I’m coming on to another one. Or wrestle my jealousy when she’s hooking up with other guys.”
Striking a WTF? look, Hunter grumbled. “It’s not an open relationship.”
Gage widened his eyes dramatically. “Oh. The way you were acting, I thought …”
Undaunted by Hunter’s growing scowl, Gage continued. “So it’s a one-sided thing. But don’t you sometimes get confused, you know, mix up their names or their, ah, preferences?” Gage kept his voice in neutral, acting for all the world as if he were conducting a scientific survey, his tone belying his annoyance with Hunter’s unmitigated display of douchebaggery. He’d met the girlfriend, and she seemed nice—and probably not on board with Hunter’s antics. Not that it was Gage’s business, or that he was an expert, but he’d had a front-row seat to the fallout from his dad’s infidelity and the effect it had had on his mom. She’d never recovered.
“I mean,” Gage kept on, “there has to be some kind of disconnect, right? Is that something you teach yourself, or does it come naturally?” Just because Gage wasn’t normally a dick didn’t mean he didn’t have it in him.
Understanding flashed in Hunter’s eyes. “Fuck off, Nelson.” He stormed away.
Gage lobbed an oh-so-innocent-sounding, “Sorry, dude. Inquiring minds wanna know,” after him.
Hunter responded with a one-finger salute over his shoulder. The thought crossed Gage’s mind that instead of heading straight for his room after the wedding, he might need to run interference for lovely Lily.
After saying good night, the bride and groom retreated to their private getaway. Gage gathered up his suit jacket from the back of a chair, his boutonniere limp and brown around the edges—a metaphor for how he felt—and headed toward the B&B.
Guests crowded a gathering room beside the foyer. His attention caught on blond hair, and his alert system zoomed into red-line territory when he spotted Lily. She seemed to slide along the back of a couch as though she were skittish prey inching away from a predator. Which she was. Hunter—Ha! Appropriate name—was advancing, his gaze flicking south of her chin.
A shrieking giggle made Gage’s spine go ramrod straight. “There you are!” Blair hurried toward him, full wineglass in hand.
Oh shit.
Like a desperate passenger seeking a plane’s emergency exits, Gage cast about for an escape route. His eyes caught on Lily’s gaze fastened on him. Something he couldn’t explain flared between them. An electrical arc sent jolts through him, connecting them. Did she feel it too? In that moment, he read her silent plea to save her.
Blair pulled his arm to her chest. Lily looked away, and the spark died on the wire.
“Hey, Blair. Thought you’d turned in.” He attempted untangling himself, but her tentacles were determined. It wasn’t that he minded the feel of soft breasts. No, he didn’t mind at all. But this particular pair were attached to someone he didn’t want to encourage. His mind zip-lined through various ways to extricate himself.
Across the room, Lily’s gaze found his again, and she inclined her head toward
