“That’s admirable, but what do you do for you?”
The question was something I hadn’t faced in a long time. “I read. I enjoy music. Honestly, work and being a dad keeps me very busy.”
“All work and no play makes for a very dull boy.”
“So you’re saying I’m dull?”
She sat back, tilting her head from one side to the other. “No, just jaded.”
“Jaded. How very succinct.”
“You don’t allow yourself to enjoy your life. Do you?”
“Like I said, I’m busy.” I wasn’t certain what she was looking for. Whatever it was, she’d likely be disappointed in the results.
“I’m not trying to interfere. I’ve watched you night after night ensuring I had everything that my band members did. You shoot the shit with my security team. Yet you never seem to take time for yourself.”
I leaned over the table. “All smoke and mirrors. I’ll throw it back at you. What do you do for you and just for fun?”
“No fair.” She pointed her little finger at me while taking a sip. I could tell the question bothered her. Her shrug was slight, but I noticed it. I also captured the slight faraway look in her eyes, the light leaving for a few seconds. “Like you, I’m pretty busy. I also read. I love to get lost in a new artist with music. Sometimes I like just doing nothing.”
“What did you used to do before you became famous?”
Her smile was uninhibited. “Ride horses. Play with my dogs. Go hiking. Camping. I used to love to camp. Swimming. Especially in a lake on a hot summer day, although I wouldn’t turn down the ocean.”
“An outdoors girl.”
“Very much so.”
“Then how did you become a famous pop star?”
The way she rolled her eyes drew me in like being around a firefly. My balls were thrumming with need. “That’s a story as tried and true as Americana.”
“Now you have me intrigued. You can’t stop there. I need to know more.”
“What if I don’t comply? Are you going to make me?” She was teasing me and I had a distinct feeling that was rare with her. It was for me as well. Yet I also had an image of turning her over my knee that refused to fade.
I leaned further over the table until our lips were almost touching. “Yes, I would. But in my way.”
“You have me… wanting to be very bad.”
“Be careful. Iama dangerous man.”
She wrinkled her nose. “The toughest are the easiest to turn into mush.”
Everything about this woman was unexpected. I laughed again, slow and easy. “Maybe so. But I still want to know. I might not let you go until you do.”
“Then I might forget altogether.” She darted her tongue across her bottom lip and I was forced to take a deep breath before doing something I might regret. “I was discovered on a rainy afternoon.”
“This will be delicious.”
Lainey blew a strand of hair from her face. “I had a student who’d secured the lead in the school play. Yet on the day of the concert, she forgot her words and froze. As she had with everytime she forgot the lines to a poem, she searched for me in the audience. So I ran up on stage and we sang the first song together.”
I had no idea what I’d expected, maybe being told she was a contestant onAmerican Idolor something, a show I’d never seen, but this was… Amazing. “You’re a music teacher?”
“Oh, heavens, no. I was an English teacher.”
“In college.”
