truck with Abby and we’re picking up where we left off.
“You plan on joining their band?”
I glance at Abby out of the corner of my eye and say nothing. Irritated with my silence, her expression darkens and she tries again. “Why did you play tonight? Why not tell anyone you could play guitar? Why not tell any of us you were playing? People care about that shit.”
More nothing from me.
“I kissed you so that buys me an answer.”
I lean into Abby and she slips her tongue across my lips when I steal another kiss. When I pull away she waggles her eyebrows. “At least we’ve finally raised the stakes of the game.”
Yeah, we did and I’ve discovered playing with fire is more addicting than fast speeds.
“Does Isaiah know?” she continues. “West? Your baseball friends?”
A slight grin on my part and she has the answer. That cute I-know-something-no-else-does glint in her eyes is far sexier than it should be. “So I’m the only one who knows.”
I shove my cord into my bag and zip everything up. “Is this what you really want to do? Ask questions? I was under the impression that we hang because neither of us feel.”
She cocks her head and repeats my answer from earlier. “Just trying to understand you.”
I laugh, it’s a bit bitter, and so’s her smile.
“Are we going to make out or not?” she asks.
I shoulder my guitar bag, she jumps down and doesn’t punch me when I drop an arm around her shoulder to guide her through the crowded club. Her and I, we’ve shared brief touches and long looks that explain exactly what the other is thinking, but she’s never let me this close. Maybe, after tonight, she’ll let me closer.
Abby scans the room, eagle-eyeing a table in the rear, then checking over her shoulder. That same fear Rachel and I spotted earlier, it returns. “Why are you scared tonight, Abby?”
Abby straightens. “I don’t get scared.”
“You are.”
“You’re delusional.” She’s mad, but there’s a slight twitch to her as she checks over her shoulder again.
“Rachel saw it, too. Wanted me to chase after you.”
“Now, why would she ask you to do that?” She attempts coy, but I’ve pegged her and she hates it. “I think we’re all quite aware I can take care of myself.”
“She wants me to save you.”
Abby pauses near the hallway to the bathrooms, eases away from me so I have to drop my arm and performs a slow blink. “Did she say that?”
“Not those words.”
Abby hooks her fingers into her belt loops and, for a second, she draws my attention away from her face to her hips, but I refocus quickly.
“Do you think I’m worth saving?” she asks.
“Yes.”
She smirks like she doesn’t believe me. “Do you think I’m savable?”
“Do you want to be saved?”
Around us, people laugh, they yell, the band starts another set, the normal guitar player comes in late again, and neither of us breaks the stare showdown.
“Logan?” she finally says.
“Yeah?”
Abby switches her footing and that causes a sense of dread to coil in my stomach. This isn’t the girl who’s unsure of anything. “I was told not to work tonight.”
“Told? By who?”
Abby purses her lips waiting for me to catch up and my muscles in my shoulders tighten when I do. Whoever she works for informed her she should stay home.
“Why? And why the fuck are you out if you were told to stay in?”
“I wasn’t told to stay in, I was told not to work, and you’re missing the point. In the end, it was all really more suggestions. Anyhow, I just happened to notice more people on the other side of the fence here than I noticed people on my side and, truth is, there shouldn’t be either. This area of town has always been neutral territory and it’s not where I do transactions. Interviews? Yes. Transactions, no. There’s something going down and I’m not confident walking down dark streets together is a great plan.”
I readjust the hat on backwards on my head and glance around as if I can spot her monsters lurking in the shadows. “How do you want to handle this?”
She taps her fingers against her leg. “You should leave, and I’ll call my boss for instructions.”
Yeah, that’s not happening and the glare I give her says that without me opening my mouth.
Abby’s squishes her hands in the air like she’s holding a puppy. “Jesus, you’re even sexier pissed and I seriously can’t wait to get your shirt off. I’ve been dying