Page 74 of Guitars and Cages

“Nice! At least there no one will blink at me having the good camera.”

I had to chuckle at that. It was clear that Conner was passionate about his work.

“We can take my car. I don’t know how the hell you drive a Harley with that hand,” he said, standing too.

“I don’t; I’ve pretty much been walking everywhere.”

“Oh, okay then.”

“I gotta run, but I’ll see ya Saturday,” I told him, suddenly desperate to get away. The image of having him riding on the back of my Harley with me had planted itself in my mind and was playing hell with other parts of my body.

“Cool, see ya then.”

He gave me a nod, and I was gone, slipping through the people waiting in line to order until I reached the door. Outside, it took all my willpower not to run away from the shop, though I did walk pretty fast for several blocks, until I looked around and realized I’d gone in the wrong direction. That was okay, too. Maybe by the time I made it home, I’d have my thoughts back under control again.

Chapter Twenty-Six

With everything that had been going on, I missed Rory, so I decided to grab a couple hours of sleep after my shift behind the bar and then take him out for the day. I was glad the headache I’d had for the last few mornings wasn’t as bad as it had been. A couple of painkillers took the edge off, and pretty soon I was out the door and heading up the street. By the time I got back over to the bar, however, it seemed like Alexia had the same idea.

“I didn’t think you’d be up yet,” I told her. “You were still cleaning up the kitchen when I left.”

Alexia shrugged and glanced at the door. “Yeah, it was a long night, but I thought Rory might want to go to the art museum with me.”

“Oh.”

“It’s okay, if you’ve made plans to take him out, I can go to the art museum by myself.”

I leaned against the wall, studying her. Her face seemed pale in the light of the hall, and her eyes looked bloodshot; I was pretty sure she hadn’t been sleeping too well. “I haven’t been to a museum since I’ve been here; why don’t we all go?”

She looked at me like she was shocked that I’d suggested it.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t be bored?”

Wow, I was almost offended at that. “I’m not a complete barbarian, you know.”

“I don’t know—the way you’ve let your hair get so long, you’ve almost got a Viking thing going.”

I laughed at that, and subconsciously touched my hair, pulling it forward a bit to hide my scars. The moment I did, I was reminded of what Conner had said, about me not being his type and being ugly. My fingers traced the scars for a moment before I shook it off. Most days I forgot they were even there, but today I was reminded of them and I wanted to hide their appearance.

Alexia noticed what I was doing and reached up, shoving my hair back out of my face. “Asher, they’re not so bad anymore.”

I huffed and crossed my arms. “Says who?”

“I say, okay? I don’t think most people would even notice them.”

“I notice them.”

“Hey, just remember, chicks dig scars.”

I tried to smile, but I couldn’t make it convincing, especially when it wasn’t a chick that I wanted to dig them. “Come on, let’s wake up the kid so we can get moving.”

Alexia opened Rory’s door, but he wasn’t sleeping; he was sitting at the desk, drawing. He looked up when he saw us and came over to give us both hugs.

“How would you like to spend the day with us?” I asked him.

His face lit up, and I felt bad for not having spent much time with him since I’d gotten out of the hospital.

“Can we get ice cream?” he asked.