She shook her hands out, making me smile. It was a nervous habit she had when she was stressed. Shaking her hands out. She was too adorable.
“Yeah, you do.” We told each other everything and if I got the feeling she was holding out on me it would piss me off even more. “Now tell me.”
“Ugh!” She spun in a circle, tilting her head back. “He’s the kind of guy who makes a girl want things she has no business wanting, Knox! Is that clear enough for you?”
Crystal. The only thing murky was the way I was feeling about her little announcement. “What kind of things?”
She grinned, flashing the cutest set of dimples on the planet. “We’re goin’ at it and I imagine what our babies would look like.” She stuck her tongue out. “Happy now?”
Happy? No, stunned speechless was more like it. Cece and babies? WTF? “Since when do you wanna have babies?” Life on the road made a traditional home life rough, but Cece and I had always been on the same page about that. No marriage or babies for us.
She wrinkled her upturned little nose. “I don’t know.” She stuck her hands in the back pockets of her shorts, thrusting her full breasts out. “You know how it is. A girl turns thirty and thinks maybe she’s been a little hasty, writing off the whole marriage and baby fairy tale.”
I didn’t let my gaze linger on her too long. If I did I just might embarrass myself… and her. “We both know bein’ on the road is no fairy tale, sweets.” But we both loved it. At least I thought we did. Maybe she was getting tired of the grind and was afraid to tell me. She was more than just a fantastic singer. She was part of my road family and I couldn’t imagine my crew without her.
“I know.”
She pulled her lush bottom lip between a row of straight white teeth and even though I promised myself I wouldn’t stare, I was doing just that.
“But that may have had something to do with Leo. I knew he didn’t want to be tied down, and it didn’t bother me when I was with him.” She laughed. “Honestly, I had no desire to be locked down with him. But someone like Auden?” Her smile was naughty, her eyes gleaming. “That could be a whole ‘nother story.”
I stood, setting my guitar on the stand beside me as I tried to rein in my temper. Cece wasn’t an impulsive girl. She didn’t fall hard and fast. She was slow and methodical. She eased into relationships and was slow to bail, even when things turned south, so none of this made sense to me.
“Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself? You barely know the guy, right?”
He’d been on the road with us three months, but I hadn’t seen them hanging out. Leo admitted to cheating on her six months ago, so unless Auden was her rebound guy… which actually made me feel a hell of a lot better. He was the one who stroked her bruised ego when Leo the dumbass cheated on her. Stroked her ego and a hell of a lot more, apparently, which set my teeth on edge all over again.
“I know enough.” She grinned, leaning in. “Like, he’s the best I’ve ever had, Knox. Seriously.”
I shouldn’t be offended. We hadn’t messed around in a few years. We’d never slept together, but really, just thinking about her bangin’ this dude was doing a number on me. “T.M.I.”
She frowned. “What the hell? I thought we tell each other everything.”
She wasn’t lying. We teased each other about sex all the time and I’d never shut her down before. Why now? Why this guy? Maybe because I knew she’d never been serious about the others. Not even Leo the loser. But this dude? If she could say his name in the same breath as babies he was definitely on a whole different playing field. And that made me nervous.
Auden was on his way up. Anyone could see that. He’d be an opening act in no time. If he and Cece were a couple, would she want to sing back-up for him instead? Well, duh. Of course she’d want to be on the road with her boyfriend. Maybe that was my problem. I was afraid of losing her to him. As a singer, just as a singer.
She stepped closer, tapping her index finger against my temple. “What gives, Rhodes? You’ve gotten all quiet and broody. That usually means you’re pissed off about something.”
This girl knew me too well.
I tugged on a lock of her hair, smirking when it bounced back. “Maybe I don’t want some smooth talkin’ kid tryin’ to lure you away from me. Ever think of that?” Auden was only seven years younger than me. Three years younger than Cece. Too damn young to think about forever, no matter how hot the girl was.
“You really think anyone could lure me away from you, dumbass?” She gave me a quick hug and I wanted to close my arms around her, to make it last. I wanted to hear a promise that she’d never leave, no matter how good the offer.
But I knew that was a promise she couldn’t make. She couldn’t see into the future. Neither could I. There might come a day when someone swept her off her feet and made her want all the things she’d once said she never would. Like marriage and babies.
“Why do you look so sad?” she asked, tipping her head as she looked me in the eye.
I brushed my fingers across her cheek. Her skin was like velvet. All over. That night when she’d been straddling me in my dressing room, my hands drifting up her toned thighs as I kissed her, raced through my head. I should not be thinking about this shit now! Especially not when she just told me she’s got a thing for someone else. Someone I have to work with, and pretend to like, no less.
“I’m not sad, baby.”
I brought her in for a hug just like I’d done a thousand times before but when she laid her head on my chest this time it felt different. Something shifted and I wasn’t thinking about showing affection for one of my best friends anymore. I was thinking about what it would take to make her forget my opening act. And that was a problem. A big freakin’ problem. Because I had a reputation as a man-whore, and no one knew that better than Cece.
Chapter 2
Cece
