“As in,mybusiness, Shan, so no matchmaking and absolutely no dragging me backstage.”
“Oh, please. Do I look like the kind of gal who gets summoned backstage? I’m a bleacher girl all the way. Now, listen up, Chicklet, my game plan is simple – we get you close enough to the action so you can at least get a look at the guy your seventeen-year-old mega-slut self shagged in the cab of his truck.”
I gaped at her insult even as the two of us dissolved into giggles. I couldn’t refute her claim. I had been a horny schoolgirl, that was for damn certain. Keith had revved my engines like no other, and to this day I still remembered every finger he’d strategically placed on my quivering body. There was no forty-seven-second sex in the Surfmobile, hell no.
“You had underage sex in his truck?” Stewart tsk tsk-ed. “And you give us crap about doing it missionary style in a comfortable queen-sized bed? Hypocrite.”
Shannon smacked him. “We’re lucky to be doing it at all. Sam here has options, and with any luck, she’ll get to start using them tonight with the rock star’s brother.”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little curious about grown-up Keith. Certainly I wasn’t expecting him to be an urban professional or anything, but I did hope he’d been able to pull himself together after the tragedy and make a decent life for himself. Over the years, I’d thought a lot about how he’d abandoned me and had come to the conclusion he hadn’t done it to hurt me. No one knows how they’ll react in a tragedy. Some seek out the comfort of a crowd, while others, like Keith – and like me – collapsed inward. I knew what it meant to implode. And I understood what it took to soar. My hope was that Keith had learned that difference too.
Maybe it was all the unanswered questions that kept him at the forefront of my mind. What if he was still a user, wandering homeless on the streets? What if he had it all together, complete with a beautiful woman by his side? What if – god, what if he were single?
“Fine, I’ll play along,” I huffed, pretending to be uncommitted to Shannon’s plan when in reality, I was all for anything that got me a step closer to my lost love. The truth was I’d never gotten over him, nor had I been able to replicate the passion and excitement he’d brought to my life. “But don’t embarrass me. No cowbells. Got it?”
“Relax. I already checked. They aren’t allowed.”
“Wait, why would you even think it would be a good thing to bring them to a concert?”
She shrugged. “I figured it would get his attention.”
“Ah yes,” Stewart smirked. “Cowbells aremoosic to everyone’s ears.”
“Oh, no.” I waved my hand in his face. “You know the rules. No puns before noon.”
“That’s a real thing?” he asked. “I thought you were kidding.”
“After the pun-streak the two of you had in our group text last month when Stew was on the airplane, yeah, I added it to the house rules. I’m not kidding. Check the chalkboard.”
“You know what, Sam,” he replied. “You have a lot of baggage to claim.”
“Right?” Shannon jumped in. “She’s so Boeing.”
“I agree.” He nodded. “Just plane exhausting!”
“Out!” I squealed, squishing the pillow back over my ears. There was only so much a girl could take.
* * *
Shannon’s single-minded plan on getting us to the front of the stage had been an ambitious one. We’d made it within about fifty feet before the bodies formed a tight line of defense, blocking us from any further forward movement. With no other choice, we settled in where we stood.
“Sam?” Shannon grasped my shirt. “Look! Is that him?”
I didn’t even bother to follow her finger this time as the same sentence had been repeated at least a dozen times now. Shannon had been scanning the crowds since the minute we’d arrived, convinced she’d find Keith in the crush of bodies, and even though I’d been hopeful before arriving at the fairgrounds, once I saw the crowds, I knew there was no way he and I would be reuniting.
“Over there, standing near the stage. I’m pretty sure that’s him.”
Her rising excitement drew my attention, and curiosity got the best of me. I glanced in the direction she was pointing. At first I didn’t see what she was seeing, but then a brown-haired guy came into view, and even though I couldn’t see him clearly, just like on the beach six years earlier, I knew it was him. The way his body moved with sinewy precision was the telltale sign I was looking at my former flame. I remembered the way he’d stirred in my embrace, the way my nails trailed up his back, and the way his lips pressed feather kisses into my skin. I’d known him intimately, and that wasn’t something I could ever forget.
Swallowing hard, all I could do was nod in affirmation.
“Go to him,” Shannon urged, pushing me forward.
Digging in, I held back shivers. “No, I can’t.”
“Sure you can.”
This time I met her eyes and demanded her cooperation. This wasn’t a game. Not to me. “No!”
