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Things were looking up. They just needed to keep heading in that direction and not take a nose-dive again.
She put another quarter in the digital jukebox and scrolled through the music until she found a song she hadn’t heard in a while and was surprised to find it in the selection. My Heart is Broken.
Of course, it was a song she couldn’t pull off singing the way Evanescence originally did, but she could do it some justice when she put her own spin on it. She envied the band’s talent and could only dream to be that good one day.
Putting her own style to the covers she sung was something she liked to do. She hardly sang her own originals because in the places they played, bars like Crazy Pete’s and the like, the patrons usually didn’t want to hear anything unfamiliar. They preferred to hear music they recognized.
That didn’t mean she didn’t occasionally write her own songs. Nico and Rex sometimes wrote some cool lyrics, too. But they normally didn’t have anywhere to practice it all together as a band unless they did it acapella in the bus while they traveled. That wasn’t nearly the same as practicing with the accompanying music.
When they were lucky, a bar owner or manager would allow them to set up early, before the bar was open to the public. That was when they could work on their original songs, but that opportunity was rare.
Right now, the most important thing was getting people to tip them more than pocket change. To do that they had to play songs the patrons wanted to hear. Sometimes they were even reduced to taking requests.
Syn grimaced as she continued to scroll through the list of songs, searching for another selection.
For some reason, requests rubbed her the wrong way. It made her feel like they were circus monkeys performing on demand instead of real musicians. There wasn’t much she could control in her life but what The Synners performed was one of them. Requests took that creative control away.
Maybe she was being petty but she didn’t give a shit.
She didn’t have much in life, but her voice was one asset that belonged to her. It was why she took care of it. She didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, and tried to rest it when she could.
Dodge hadn’t said much to her or Rex on the drive to Pete’s. But once they arrived and he parked in the rear, he told them once again the tab was on the house and nothing on the menu or behind the bar was off limits.
Syn had a feeling he worded it that way for a reason.
Dodge would most likely be behind the bar. If she wanted him, she had a hard time believing he’d turn her down.
That shouldn’t get her blood flowing.
It did.
Eddie and Nico had hitched a ride with a man named Shade. He only dropped them off around back, then quickly drove away. The Subaru station wagon he drove did not fit him. But like Dodge, she could see the long-haired man straddling a Harley.
With Rex in the truck, Syn had been forced to sit in the middle of the bench seat and tried to ignore how close Dodge’s hand was to her hip and thigh when he wasn’t shifting. She failed because, for most of the trip, she couldn’t take her eyes from his long fingers donned with a few bulky silver rings. Worse, she couldn’t stop thinking about how they would feel sliding along her skin.
And other places.
Those thoughts were dangerous.
She normally wasn’t into one-night stands. Living on the road, it was difficult to make a connection with anyone, even someone she might be interested in.
Dodge had said he was “interested.”
And, surprisingly, she was more comfortable around him in a short amount of time than most men she came across. Maybe it had to do with the fact he’d left her undisturbed last night as she slept in his bed.
Should she be surprised? No. In a perfect world, she shouldn’t. But in actuality, this world was twisted and dark and there’d been too many situations that solidified her distrust for men. Especially strangers.
When she put The Synners together and they began touring, it took a little while for her to trust Eddie, Nico and Rex, too. It took weeks before she could close her eyes at night and not worry about whether she had put herself into a bad situation by living in a bus with three men.
It also took a while before she didn’t wake up every time one of them got up in the night or made a noise.
For her, trust did not come automatically. Just like respect, it had to be earned.
Dodge was quickly earning both.
“Want the truth?” he had asked and then answered with, “‘Cause I’m interested.”
