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“You’re supposed to wait for it to dry before touching anything.”
Narrowing his eyes, Winter stuck his tongue out at him like a four-year-old. “Well duh! Thought itwasdry.”
Dez snickered, while Tavis just shook his head and muttered, “You thought wrong.”
“I heard that.”
“I should hope so, he’s practically sitting in your lap,” Riley teased.
Zakk snuck a peek at Dez and noticed that he looked relieved and even jovial after the attention had been shifted away from him. Too bad his uncle was as big a night owl as they were, because the attention was about to be turned right back on Dez, just as soon as his phone finished downloading.
“What are you up to?” Tripp asked, practically hanging over his shoulder to try and take a look.
“Shhhh,” Zakk hissed, trying to shrug him off, not that Tripp got the hint.
“Holy shit, is that what I think it is?”
“Porn?” Damien asked and, in a flash, he was hanging on Zakk’s other arm.
Groaning, Zakk would have smacked a hand to his forehead if he could move either of them. As it was, he was trying to shield the screen as the download crept towards eighty percent.
“No, it is not porn,” Zakk grumbled, trying to squirm out from between them. Of course Riley chose that moment to reach over and snag his phone while he was distracted by the other two.
“Oh my god, your uncle is awesome!” Riley declared when he got a look at the screen.
Dez was up in a flash, trying to tackle him. “Give me that!”
“Not a chance,” Riley declared.
What came next was like a bad version of duck, duck, goose, in which Riley tried to slide in between Tavis and Winter, losing the phone in the process. It skid across the floor, coming to rest against James’s knee, the man cutting Dez such a scathing look it stopped him in his tracks.
“What are you, nine?” James asked as he touched the screen and laid it down in the middle of the Monopoly board. Everyone crowded around him, except Dez, who wandered several feet away to stare out the window.
The music filled the room though, and damn, just damn. Even with people screaming and hands waving in front of the screen, he could see Dez beneath the lights, face a little pale as his fingers raced over the strings and yeah, there was no other way to describe things besides, he slayed the hell out of that song.
“Even at sixteen you were hot as hell, what the fuck did your uncle feed you?” Riley declared once the video was through.
“Whatever he could get me to eat,” Dez admitted. “Hockey helped too. I was fast, but I wanted a little bulk so I could hold my own out there.”
“There is holding your own, and there is the birth of a beast and you, my friend, are jacked.” Winter said.
“Look who’s talking.”
“I’m aware, but I don’t have a sport to blame it on.”
“Nope, just vanity,” Tripp remarked, everyone’s eyes shifting his way the moment the comment left his mouth. He was quick to hold his hands up in a show of peace, though. “Hey, I worked to keep up with him for the same reason. Got to look good on stage.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Tavis said and just like that, the little bit of tension dissipated again, especially when Riley reached out and hit the play button again.
This time, Zakk focused on the look on Dez’s face when he played, head down, watching his hands, the strings and maybe even the floor. It was nothing like the way he played now, with his eyes closed and his head thrown back, fingers knowing instantly what to do. The potential was there though, and it was obvious that Adrian Lee had seen it all those years ago. That was there too, in the way he’d paid more attention to Dez’s performance than the crowd he was singing for.
So why be so secretive about that guitar?
“It was the best night of my life, at that point anyway,” Dez blurted once the video finished the second time. He was still standing by the window, but now he was looking at all of them. “To be acknowledged that way and be given such an awesome gift.”
“Then why hide it?” Tripp asked before Zakk could spit out the words.
“Because it was my moment. What the rest of the world thought about it didn’t matter. Every song I’ve written has been on that guitar, but I never wanted it to seem like I was using it to make a statement or get ahead. I can play it live now because I feel like I earned the right to. Back then, I was just a kid who learned by imitating his favorites. Now, I’m a man with my own style and offers from manufactures to custom design a guitar for me. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to give one to some kid along with the encouragement Adrian Lee gave me.”
