His friend grinned. “Yeah, I’d fuck all day long.”
The hotel guard returned her key card. “Looks good.”
He gestured her to the steps, and she stumbled, reeling with what she’d heard.
Her heart thumped all the way up the elevator to the penthouse suite. She texted Ash to tell him she’d made it, and then she packed the few belongings they had into their plastic shopping bags.
With her backpack full and Ash’s guitar case in hand, her Secret Squirrel mission was complete. Now, she would have to make it out of the hotel without someone spotting her carrying a distinctive guitar case.
The plan was for her to leave through a side exit, but the crowd would spot her in a second. She called down to the front desk and explained her dilemma. A few minutes later, a hotel employee guided her to one of the loading docks.
She gripped the guitar case and hurried down the street, a sinking sensation settling in her stomach as the teens’ conversations ran through her head. The problem with rumors was that they had a life of their own, spreading roots and taking hold where they shouldn’t.
Other than the guitar being unwieldy, she made the three blocks to the waiting SUV without incident. No one noticed her or Ash’s guitar, but she couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder to make certain no one had followed.
When Ash saw her approach, he hopped out of the car and popped the hatch in the back.
“You’ll never believe what I heard.” She handed over his baby.
Ash took the case and kissed it. “It’s good to see you.”
Hands on her hips, Skye fixed him with a steely gaze. “You’d better not be talking to the guitar.”
He didn’t even have the decency to look sheepish as he gently placed his guitar in the back of the car. “Sorry, but my baby and I have been together for a very long time. Once you’ve been with me for fourteen years, we’ll talk.” He grabbed her backpack and set it next to the guitar. Only then did he give her a hug. “Thanks for rescuing her.”
She drew him into a kiss but broke it off before it became too heated. They couldn’t risk anyone spotting Blaze kissing a girl with a wedding rumor floating around.
“Hey, come back. I wasn’t finished with that mouth.” He leaned in for a deeper kiss.
She danced away, laughing at his playfulness. “Nope, I don’t want to encourage you. Besides, we need to leave before someone figures out that Blaze is behind those god-awful sunglasses.”
“Please don’t call me that,” he said.
“Why not?”
“It’s my stage name.” He rubbed at the stubble of his jaw. “My fans call me Blaze, and you’re not a fan.” His brows furrowed. “The other girls…”
Yes, she could complete that sentence. The other girls, the ones who took until he had nothing left to give, would scream his stage name. She loved that she had grown to know the man behind the name first. She liked Ash very much.
Once again, he fired up the car. Soon, they were back on the interstate and headed to Roanoke where he’d left his Jeep. He dialed in a hard-rock station, and they shared a comfortable silence, both blissfully satiated for different reasons.
A few hours later, they stopped for dinner, pulling into a fast-food burger joint. As she passed Ash his triple cheeseburger, he turned the channel to soft jazz.
“Ugh,” she complained. “What happened to rock?”
“We’ve been blasting rock for the past three hours. I want something a bit more soothing. Lean back, and let it flow. Let it paint a picture in your mind.”
She tried. The music swirled around her while she closed her eyes, waiting for a picture to unfold.
Ash poked her in the arm. “Hey, I asked you a question,” he said.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You said I’d never believe what they were saying. What did you mean?”
She shifted in her seat, stretching out the kinks in her muscles. He’d switched back to a rock station, and the heavy beat settled into her bones.
“It was stupid really. They were saying that you came to Niagara to elope.”
