AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I can’t believe you said that,” I told her.
“Well, it’s true. You simply start off slow, go at your own pace. If they care about you, there won’t be any rush. You’ll find that men who share are patient, kind, and damn good lovers. At least my men are, but I have a feeling that goes for most men in a committed plural relationship. Just remember, you’re the one in control of what you want and enjoy, and what you don’t want and don’t enjoy. You have to be in charge of those things, or it could get dicey, and no one wants that.”
I stared at her for a moment, thinking back to her wedding day when we ran away together in my tiny car. She’d come a long way from that day. So much so that she was a completely different woman. Hell, back then, her parents ran every aspect of her life, and now she ran her own life, her charitable fund, and apparently, her multiple-partner sex life.
I knew I’d come to the right person for advice.
“So, let me understand this… if I choose to take on all three guys at once… that’s okay? They’ll accept that?”
“You’ll have to ask them first, but normally, yes. The relationship is the easy part. It’s all the other stuff you mentioned that has me nervous for you.”
“Like what?”
“A career in music. Owning and running a ranch with a vineyard, that you haven’t told me anything about yet. And the house. Is it a big house?”
“There’s two houses on the property… just saying.”
Shea’s eyes fluttered. “Okay… two houses. I can’t wait to see this place. And what would all this mean for you and Betty’s Startup? Sounds as if you might have to quit. And if you take the ranch, I suppose that means you’ll be moving to Sweet Whiskey to live on that ranch with the two houses and a vineyard. Then there’s the Caddy. Would you accept that as well? I don’t know if I’ll recognize you behind the wheel of that thing rather than your Smart Car. Wow! There’s so much change going on for you that I can’t keep up. You’re right. An hour isn’t enough time. We might need an entire weekend.”
As much as I would have liked to share an entire weekend with her, I knew that would be impossible with everything I had going on.
“A weekend with you sounds great, but I can’t. We have to learn enough songs for two full sets, possibly three for the grand opening of Dirty Coyote. And we have to learn those songs in less than three weeks.”
She stood and paced. I hadn’t noticed how amazing she looked until that moment. She wore a dark-blue long-sleeved dress with a scooped, off-the-shoulder neckline. Her dark-reddish hair was partially pulled up on her head, and her obviously antique dangling earrings almost touched her shoulders. Shea also wore the blue diamond necklace that her mom had given her for the wedding she never had to Alexander Pecker. Her tan heels had come off as soon as she sat on the sofa. Neither of us liked shoes.
“Okay, now you’re scaring me. We need to write all of this down. Remember how you put me on a schedule when I first worked for Gio, I think we need to do something like that for you as well. Do you have a whiteboard? What time is it?”
I swiped my phone for the time. “We have about a half hour before you have to leave. And yes, there’s a whiteboard and pens in my closet. Or we can work up a schedule on my laptop.”
“It might be better if we brainstorm first. Once we get it all down, then you can transfer everything later. That way you can pull it all up on your phone whenever you need to remind yourself of all you have going on. For now, we’re going to make a list of these exciting new things. That way, Hot Sugar will be ready to perform at Dirty Coyote on that first night with all three sets of memorized songs. Okay? And did I mention how I can’t wait to be in your audience, cheering you on!”
“Okay,” I repeated, grinning, as I headed off to fetch the whiteboard, grateful that Shea was in control. Somebody had to be. At the moment, I sure as hell wasn’t.
A KNOCK ON my door startled me awake. As soon as I popped open my eyes, I realized I’d fallen asleep on the floor, on top of my whiteboard which was also on the floor while I clutched two dry-erase markers.
There was another knock. “Just a minute,” I yelled, trying to brush the thick cobwebs out of my head.
I had no idea what time it was, but I knew it had to be long after Shea had left. When I gazed at the whiteboard, there were even more items added to it, and now my laptop sat on the coffee table. The last thing I remembered was lying next to the board, thinking I’d rest my eyes for a moment, a trick some of the older folks in this town used whenever they felt sleepy.
It might have worked for them, but for me, it was an all-out sleep fest. One I was having trouble shaking off.
It took all my effort just to get upright and drag myself to the door. Somehow, I managed. I thought perhaps Shea had decided to return after dinner, knowing we’d only scratched the surface of everything I needed to accomplish and everything I needed to decide on.
When I opened the door, I said, “You didn’t have to come back…”
“But I’ve never been here,” Rascal said, grinning.
He looked so damn good in a black t-shirt, dark jeans, and black biker boots. He even wore a leather jacket this time, and had an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder from a colorful strap.
“Wow!” I said aloud, not meaning to, but it just slipped out. Just seeing him standing there, in my doorway, blew everything I’d been hesitant about right out of the water.
“Is that a wow, you’re happy to see me or wow, what the hell is this asshole doing here this late at night?”
I laughed. “A little of both. Plus, you brought your guitar? Is this a new tactic? Because if it is, it’s very effective. Nothing quite as sexy as a guy with a guitar.”
He grinned, and his entire face lit up. He looked a bit bashful from my statement. “I’ll keep that in mind. I wrote a song and want you to hear it. I thought we’d try our hand at writing some lyrics for it. If you feel up to it, I mean. We used to play around with that before, so I thought maybe…”
He and I had tried writing our own songs several times, but we’d always end up arguing over either the lyrics or the melody, so we’d stop. Still, we’d start out good, so maybe there was hope this time, despite my skepticism.
