But all I could do was stare at Melody.
Lordy, she was pretty. Her perfectly styled blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, only nothing about it was messy. She wore skintight jeans and knee-high boots that were obviously made for her, and she had on a black denim jacket over a low-cut T-shirt. She was perfectly perfect in every way. A walking fashion icon who looked like she’d just stepped out of the pages of a magazine.
“I think you broke her,” Flash said with a chuckle.
It wasn’t until I felt his hand on my waist that the bees in my head stopped their buzzing and I was brought back to reality, blinking up at Flash.
“There you are,” he said, smiling gently. “You okay?”
“It’s weird. I thought I saw Melody Morgan in front of me,” I breathed out, letting out a nervous giggle.
Flash grinned. “Take a deep breath and smile, Tate.”
“Nope, I’m good pretending I’m not in yoga pants, no makeup, and my hair all funky as I stand three feet from Melody fucking Morgan.” I whispered, theMelody fucking Morganpart, lest she know I was talking about her, of course. God forbid the woman see just how incredibly awkward her number one fan was. I gripped Flash’s cut before jabbing my finger into his chest. “Later, when we’re alone, you and I are going to have a conversation, complete with slides that will contain graphs and pie charts, about how to give your woman some advance notice when royalty comes to visit. Capisce?”
“Graphsandpie charts?”
“Yes. And you can bet your ass there will be a test,” I warned. “Got it?”
Flash grinned slowly. “Got it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath before pasting on what I hoped was a confident and sincere smile and turned to face Melody. “Hi, I’m Tate.”
“Hi, I’m Melody.”
“Yes, of course you are. You’re Melody Morgan. And of course you know that, because you’re Melody Morgan and I can’t stop saying Melody Morgan and you’re my queen.” And then I curtsied. “Why can’t I stop saying Melody Morgan?” I waved my hand behind me and begged, “Flash, help me stop saying words.”
Flash chuckled. “Melody, my woman’s a big fan—”
I drove my heel into his boot, only managing to bruise my heel.
“I mean, she’s your biggest fan,” he corrected.
Melody grinned. “It’s always wonderful to meet one of my loyal subjects.”
“Oh my god,” I squeaked out, still mortified by my behavior.
“In all seriousness, Tate, Train’ll tell you I’m far from royalty. I spend more time on the back of his bike than the royal coach these days. Just think of me as one of your club sisters.”
“Sisters.” I let out an inelegant snort. “Right.”
“No, seriously.” Melody pulled up her pant leg. “I just got a burn on my calf because I hadn’t quite figured out how to get off the bike right.”
Just then, Train walked in shaking his head. “Told you to mind those pipes, baby.”
Hatch glared at Train. “You let your woman get burned?”
“No, Train was right. It was my fault,” Melody rushed to explain. “I didn’t wait for him to help me. I was excited and hopped off on the wrong side.”
Hatch sighed. “Well, it’s a lesson you only have to learn once, but Train still shoulda taken more care.”
“Yeah, I should have,” Train agreed, sliding his hand around Melody’s waist, and kissing her temple.
“Or,I could have listened to my man who tried to warn me.” She grimaced up at him, but he winked at her which seemed to defuse the tension in the room.
While all of that had been going on, I’d buried myself in Flash’s chest, attempting to hide behind his cut in an effort to disappear.
He leaned down and whispered, “Baby, you’re fine. Just be yourself.”
