“Ah, you gotta, Liana. You guys are magic together.”
Dean regretted any and all nice thoughts he’d ever had about West.
She just rolled her eyes and shifted closer to Dean. “Maybe one song, later.”
Caleb made a finger pistol and clicked his tongue at her. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”
And he did, an hour later, at the end of his set. He announced to the room that she was hiding at the back, and got everyone to cheer for her to join him on stage. After a quick whispering consult, she took the hand mic and he sat on the stool to accompany her with the guitar, another mic on a stand in front of him.
She swayed under the tiny spotlight, an angel in her crisp white cotton dress and well-worn cowboy boots. “This is a song my Mama and Daddy used to sing to each other while makin’ dinner, and Caleb and I have done it a few times, once on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. I hope you enjoy it. It was originally performed by George Strait and the incomparable Lee Ann Womack. This is called, ‘Good News, Bad News.’” She smiled and pressed her lips together as Caleb started playing beside her. Her breathtaking beauty, that secret smile, was all Dean could see, so it surprised him when Caleb started singing first.
The younger man had a rich, baritone voice that filled the slower ballad, and as he sang, he became the persona of an older, broken hero looking for a second chance with the woman he loved.
And then it was Liana’s turn, and after watching Caleb, she turned to the crowd, just glancing sideways every other line as she confessed that she no longer wanted him. It was a magnificent duet that played back and forth until the crowd was on its feet at the end.
Liana gave a curtsey, set the mic back on its stand, and gave Caleb a quick kiss on the cheek before she hopped back through the crowd to Dean’s side.
He raised his bottle in a toast to her. “Wow.”
“You liked that?”
“I loved it.” He gave her a quick kiss on the temple and lowered his mouth to the curve of her ear. “I’d be jealous if you looked at him like he looked at you, though.”
“That’s just the performance.”
“He’s good at it.”
“He is.” She gave a rueful smile. “I wish I could sing with people like that every day.”
“Why can’t you?”
She waved her hands. “Complicated label stuff.”
“Ah.”
She laughed. “That’s the least convincingahever.”
“Well, I don’t get it.” He gave her a half-smile and tipped his beer up. “I say, you should do what you love.”
“I do, most of the time. And I’ll get to do a lot more of it by next year. Anyway, tonight is all about cutting loose, so let’s not worry about that.”
“Cutting loose, eh? What exactly did you have in mind?”
— —
Dean’s eyescrinkled as he asked that, and Liana forced herself to tamp down the heady wave of arousal that washed through her. This was about showing him the good parts of her life. The normal, “maybe we could do this together” parts. Not lusting after him so much she dragged him back to her bed until they had to get back on tour.
So she took a deep breath and leaned back against the bar beside him. “Do you want to ride a mechanical bull?”
He laughed out loud, his head tipping back, and she tried not to get too distracted by the roll and bunch of his shoulder muscles, and the way he restlessly moved his thick arms as the laugh rolled down his long body.
“What? That’s cutting loose.”
“That sounds like a broken neck waiting to happen.”
“Chicken?”
“Not even a little. But I thought you meant like tequila shots and karaoke or something.”
