now. Laurie wouldn’t pursue either with an audience.
“You all set?” Val asked Laurie, though her speculative gaze was fixed squarely on Harlan Patrick.
Laurie nodded. “I’ll get the bags.”
“Want me to get Amy Lynn?” Val asked.
Harlan Patrick interceded. “I’ll be bringing her,” he announced, seizing the carrier in which the baby had been napping, along with his own bag.
Val’s gaze shot from him to Laurie and back again. “You’re coming, too?”
“I am,” he confirmed.
She looked to her boss. “He is?”
Laurie shrugged. “Apparently so.”
Val edged closer to her boss and lowered her voice. “How do you feel about that?”
“She’s mad as a wet hen,” Harlan Patrick supplied cheerfully.
“I asked her,” Val noted.
Laurie glowered. “He has it right.”
“I could make him disappear,” Val offered. “All it would take would be a word to security.”
“Don’t waste your time,” Laurie said with regret. “You might slow him down, but you won’t get rid of him.”
“But it’s your bus, your tour,” Val argued. “He has no right—”
“Now, that’s where you’re wrong,” Harlan Patrick corrected mildly. He hoisted the baby carrier to draw attention to it. “This little girl gives me all sorts of rights.”
To his satisfaction that seemed to be enough to silence both women. He doubted, though, that he’d heard the end of it, especially from Laurie.
* * *
On the bus Laurie headed straight for the back, hauling Val right along behind her and all but shoving her into one of the two custom-made lounge chairs that had replaced the half-dozen regular seats in the back to create a comfortable lounge. There was a table between the two seats with cup-holders built in. A small refrigerator had been tucked in on one side with a microwave atop it for heating Amy Lynn’s bottles or the coffee the band consumed by the gallon. There was a built-in crib, as well, a recent addition that had been installed right after she gave birth. Laurie’s guitar cases rested in a pile behind the seats.
Satisfied that Harlan Patrick was several rows in front of them with the baby’s carrier seat-belted in beside him, Laurie sank down.
“Do you want something to drink?” Val asked, regarding her worriedly.
“Bottled water,” Laurie said. “And a couple of aspirin.”
“I imagine fending him off would be enough to give you a whopper of a headache,” Val agreed, handing her the requested items. “He’s a persistent guy, isn’t he?”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Laurie muttered.
“Sexy, too.”
“Are you planning to enumerate all of his attributes?” Laurie inquired testily.
Val grinned. “Nope, I think I’ll just linger awhile on sexy. I haven’t seen a man that gorgeous up close in a long, long time. You must have astounding willpower to have turned your back on him.”
Laurie waved her off. “If you find him so blasted fascinating, you can go on up there and sit with him,” she suggested. “Look to your heart’s content. Keep him distracted.”
“You wouldn’t mind?” Val asked, sounding just a tad too eager.
“No. I’ve had a song buzzing around in my head for the past couple of hours. Maybe I can get some of it down.”
“Something to do with cowboys and Texas, I’ll bet,” Val commented with a wink.
“No,” Laurie denied. “Something about murder and mayhem on a country singer’s tour bus.”
That was enough to encourage Val to scoot out of the line of fire. She settled into a seat across the aisle from Harlan Patrick and attempted to engage him in conversation. Even though Val’s move had been her idea, Laurie found she couldn’t concentrate knowing that the two of them were chatting. When she heard Harlan Patrick’s low, seductive laugh, her stomach knotted. When he leaned halfway across the aisle to whisper something to Val, it took all her willpower to stay in her own seat.
She was jealous, she realized with astonishment. In all the years she’d been in love with Harlan Patrick, he’d never given her cause to be jealous. Though plenty of girls in high school had chased after him, though he’d been a natural flirt, she’d never felt so much as a twinge of jealousy because she had always known that he was hers.
He claimed the same thing was true now, but just how long would he remain loyal with her pushing him away and declaring that she didn’t want him back? Did it even matter, when nothing had changed? She lived half her life on the road. He was the ultimate homebody.
But he was here now, a nagging little voice reminded her. He had walked away from White