on me, but refused to look. I wasn’t going to let her toy with my heart until she figured out what she wanted.
This afternoon’s pain proved there was a name for what I felt—love.
Terrifying, heart-consuming love. It snuck up on me, then whacked me in the head like a hammer. This week had been the catalyst for knowledge, but not the emotion.
She’d been making a home inside me since the day I walked into her kitchen.
Four years.
But it wasn’t the right time. I couldn’t make her try.
We finished the set and I threw my guitar pick into the crowd and escaped backstage.
“Nice job, gentlemen. I’ll have the proofs for ya in a couple days,” Kit said. She handed me a beer.
“Thanks, love.” I took a long swig, feeling parched. “Beth still here?”
“Somewhere.” She finished handing out drinks and left.
We were the last band for the night, so the club was playing piped-in music now. The mosh pit had dispersed, leaving couples slow-dancing on the floor.
No immediate sign of my girl. I didn’t want to walk out into the main room, since the birds at this club tended to swarm me, so with a curse, I exited the building out the back.
Beth stood by the curb talking to the bouncer.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hi. Going home?”
I turned to my band-mates coming out the same way. “Don’t know.”
“Ah. Well, goodnight.” She smiled at the bouncer, who’d flagged her cab a few feet down the street.
“Wait.” I slid in after her before she could close the door.
“What are you doing?”
“You tell me.”
“I really do have to leave tomorrow,” she whispered.
“That’s tomorrow.” I touched her cheek. “I know you, love. You aren’t going to sleep a wink when you’re worried, so why suffer insomnia alone?”
She glanced away and sniffed. “You’re a good friend.”
Friend… Right.
I gave the cabbie my address and settled back in the seat, the soft case for my guitar between my legs. She stayed on her side, her face turned to the window.
I sighed. It was going to be a long night…