Page 44 of Resonance

“I’m sorry to say it, trust me.” I gave her the same polite smile I’d given the guy downstairs. “If the estate would consider coming down on that Atkins, I think I know someone who might be interested. But not at the list price.” She frowned as I continued. “That Dolly Parton, though, it’s worth a lot more than you’re asking. Might want to have your appraiser take another look at it. To my best knowledge, that particular guitar was handcrafted by a guy named Pearson. Passed on about a decade ago, but there’s only a few dozen of them out there with that body style.”

“Of course,” she said smoothly, clasping her hands in front of her. “I’ll have him take another look.”

As we exited the room, me following behind Owen, I let my hand skim his lower back briefly, just long enough to revisit the curve of it, then pulled away.Complicated.Right.

As we got backon the road, Owen started chuckling, and I cocked my head at him. “What?”

“Nothing, just thinking about something Ru said last night.”

I thought he might be lying, but I didn’t press. “Y’all stay much longer after I left?”

“Ru finished his beer and was probably gone fifteen minutes after you. I stayed a little longer, yeah.”

I shifted around in the driver’s seat and tried to pay attention to the road. “Good time?”

Owen’s lips formed an O, and then he laughed again, this time a full-bodied sound that rang through the cab. “You’re fishing right now.”

I grunted and found an air vent to fiddle with.

“You could just ask me if I went home with him.”

“Jesus, Owen, I’m not going to ask you that. It’s none of my business. It’s—” It really wasn’t, but I wasn’t doing a good job of snuffing the small flame of jealousy that flared back to life when I thought about the guy who’d been talking to Owen.Complicated.

“I didn’t.” Owen looked mighty amused. “He did say you kicked the back of his chair, though—thought you were gonna put the fear of god in him if he said anything else.”

“I might’ve.” I reached for the radio dials and twisted one until classic rock poured from the speakers.

“Huh. Your radio works just fine.”

“So it does. Guess it was just a temporary glitch.”

* * *

The next morningI got up with the sun, cruised through downtown toward the shop, and found myself circling back around the block near lower Broadway. I pulled off into a no-parking zone and stared down the street running parallel to me in disbelief. On the corner of Fourth, Owen stood with his back inches from a wall, eyes closed and lips moving. I rolled down the window and the sound of his voice came to me. Faintly, very faintly born on the crisp breeze.

Aural Addiction, Episode #20 transcript:

Owen:Are you wearing glitter?

Dan:Do I look like a guy who wears glitter?

Owen:There’s some on your temple, so maybe.

Dan:Well, it’s not intentional, trust me.

Owen:So where’d it come from?

Dan:No clue. Could just be a reaction to being around you. Like hives.

Owen:I know you probably didn’t mean that as a compliment, but I’m totally taking it as one.

Dan:Maybe I meant for it to be a compliment.

Owen:Welllll, in that case, I’m gonna to need some more warning in the future when you plan to shake my faith in your grumpiness like that.

Dan:That’d take all the fun out of it.

Chapter 16