Page 17 of Resonance
“Depends on your music selection.”
“C’mon now, you realize who you’re talking to?”
“The guy who’s had Terryl playing for the last week?” I made a gagging face.
Dan and Ru exchanged a grin, Ru’s lips thinning into a line as he tried and failed to suppress the laughter that burst out of him seconds later. No doubt over my last encounter with Terryl.
“You’re both assholes.”
“I’ll leave my Broadway collection at home.” Dan smirked.
“Unless it’sHamilton,” I granted.
Ru slung his arm around my shoulder and squeezed. “Look at our baby elitist growing right up.”
I enjoyed Ru’s weight for a second, because casual affection didn’t happen a lot for me, then shoved him away. Maybe Ishouldtry going on a prearranged date rather than just hooking up with randoms like Brent that I met in bars. I kinda missed affection. “You smell like beef burrito,” I told him, and he blew an exhale in my direction with a grin as I nodded at Dan. “I can go with you, sure.”
Dan pulled out his phone and thumbed the screen. “Good deal.”
All settled, then. Never mind the stupid butterflies in my stomach. Didn’t they know it was winter? I wondered if hours on end in a car with Dan would make him want to kill me. But I guess that was his problem now.
I angled toward Ru, considering around a bite of burrito before saying, “I’ll do it.”
“Do what? We on different tracks again?”
“Go out with Marco, like you said earlier. I mean, if he’s interested. But not on a double date. That’s too intimidating. Just me and him.”
Dan balled up his wrapper and tossed it in the trash can beside the register. I felt his eyes on my profile, but kept my focus on Ru as his lips split in a broad grin. “I’m sure he’d be interested. What’s that look for?” he asked Dan, and Dan blinked at him as if emerging from a daze.
“Dan has widened his opinion field to include my love life.” I smiled sweetly at Dan.
“Took you long enough,” Ru said, and when Dan didn’t deny it, Ru narrowed his eyes at me. “Who’s he giving an opinion on?”
“Brent.”
“Positive or negative?”
“Negative. Seems like a little shit,” Dan said.
“Great minds. He’s totally a little shit.” Ru and Dan traded annoyingly chummy smiles. “Marco would be an upward step.”
I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, moving on.”
“Yeah, let’s.” Dan smacked the countertop lightly before wandering toward the front of the shop as a couple of college-aged guys shoved through the door. “We’ll leave Friday afternoon, so be ready. It’s a haul,” he called over his shoulder to me, then greeted the guys.
I took advantage of the view, studying Dan’s tight ass and the broken-in jeans that cupped it lovingly. Well, if there was any sentience to denim, it would have been loving. I might have sighed, because Rutsk’d me with a laugh.
“What? Looking’s free.”
“Psht. If it was, I wouldn’t have been broke as shit for three-quarters of my adult life.”
Chapter 7
Ipulled the truck into the drive of the residential address Owen had given me and honked the horn, studying the ramshackle garage in front of me and the house that’d been split into a duplex beside me. To my right was a gleaming new build, too big for the lot, which pretty much summed up a lot of Nashville these days.
As I waited, I wondered if I’d be ready to kill Owen before we got even halfway to Arkansas. I’d never been in close confines with him for an extended length of time, and the shop had enough room for all his energy, fidgeting, and run-off-at-the-mouth tendencies to spread out and dilute. How I was going to handle a concentrated dose of it, I wasn’t sure.
Owen appeared at the top of a flight of wooden steps clinging for dear life to one side of the garage and ran down, a blue nylon duffle bag bouncing against his hip as he leapt the last couple of steps where one of the treads was missing. He wore some beat-up old jeans and a white T-shirt under a denim coat, cuffs pushed up to show a peek of ink on his forearms.