"I had to read three opposing attorneys the riot act today."
"They come around to your way of thinking?"
"Of course." She pulled back and flicked the buttons open on her suit coat, and Will had to fight hard to keep enough blood in his brain to concentrate.
"I don't like microphones, but I can argue a phone to death," she said. Some color was coming back to her cheeks, some life into her eyes.
"Good to know."
She slid off her suit coat, then reached for the zipper on her skirt. She fiddled with it while she gave him a coy smile. "Did you write me a happy song today?"
He had to swallow twice. "Yep."
She pulled the zipper down half an inch. "Can I hear it?"
"Yep."
Took everything he had to resist reaching for her again.
She tilted her head to the sunroom.
Dang woman. Seducing him with her body, sealing those walls around her heart again.
"In Georgia," he said.
She stopped with the zipper, and the coy look on her face shifted into suspicion. "In Georgia? Your happy song is called ‘In Georgia'?"
He had a notion he was getting a glimpse at what she did on that phone all day long. "No. Week from Friday. Come to Georgia. Got a pre-tour show at a military base not far from where I grew up. You come, I'll play you your song."
"Will-"
"Three weeks aren't over until next Sunday," he said. "Don't even have to miss much work. 'Sides, when's the last time you had a vacation?"
She was fixin' to demonstrate some of those arguing skills. He could see it.
But Will hadn't lived here for two weeks without picking up on a thing or two. He stepped into her space, grasped her hips, two fingers sliding between her skirt and her smiley panties. "Think on it." He brushed his whiskers over her cheek and sucked on that patch of skin under her ear.
Dang if the girl didn't melt right into him.
"You're cheating," she whispered.
"Ain't seen anything yet, pretty lady."
He just hoped he could follow all the way through.
LINDSEY HAD LOST her mind.
Perhaps it had been Will's well-reasoned argument that she'd agreed to three weeks. Or his irritating point that she had no clients Friday-mostly because he'd called and booked himself all day. Or that she would have plenty of time in the office on Sunday afternoon, since he didn't intend to begrudge her those last few hours of their negotiated three weeks. Or his charmingly overbearing insistence that he had more than adequate means to provide her lodging and transportation.
Or perhaps it was the growing panic she felt at how quickly the days were skipping by.
But most likely, it had been his offer to let Wrigley stay in Bliss when he left on tour. She could write joint custody paperwork, he'd said, and he'd sign whatever she put in front of him.
She'd been torn between hugging him, crying and flipping him off, so she'd settled for agreeing to go to his concert.
She wouldn't keep Wrigley-much as she loved the dog, he was Will's, through and through-but he'd broken her with the offer.
And then there was the situation with his aunt and his aunt's best friend.
The two most important women in his life, fighting because of a man.
Will hadn't asked Lindsey if she'd weigh in on the situation, but this was his family. The family that had come together for an orphaned little boy. The family that been there for him the last time she left him. The family who would be there for him again this time.
She didn't even know if his aunt or the psychic would be at the concert, but if she could use her gift to help heal their rift, then she'd be here, in Georgia, to do what she could for Will before their time was over.
So here she was, nine days later, on a beautiful sixty-five-degree day in sunny, bright, southern Georgia, giving her name and identification to an efficiently intimidating official at the entrance to Gellings Air Force Base. The security made her uncharacteristically nervous-probably because CJ, whose first wife had died in combat while stationed at Gellings, had told her horror stories about base security from his short time of living here. Lindsey had been distracted enough by everything else to not realize he was being his normal doofus self. But once she was through the gate, the security to get to Will himself was almost worse. He and Mikey had hit the road early yesterday to get here for meetings with his team, sound checks and photos with the troops, and interviews with local reporters. Now Will was more guarded than Fort Knox.
But finally, she was allowed inside the small office building where Will and his band and crew were gathered before a pre-show meet-and-greet.
His people.
And he had a ton of people. People with clipboards, people with earpieces, people with cameras, people with instruments.
It was a good thing they were officially over on Sunday, Lindsey told herself, ignoring the hiccup in her chest. Because she was not built to be anyone's long-term anything, especially a man whose life involved this many people around him all day, every day.
Here, he wasn't her Will. Here, he was Billy Brenton. She spotted him almost instantly. His back was to her, and he was deep in conversation with four people around him. More than the backward ball cap and the plaid shirt over the finest butt in country music-and no, she didn't need to see the rest to know she was right-it was the way he held his arms, the curve of his shoulder, the mole on the back of his ear.
She knew him.
She knew him, and she loved him. But she couldn't have him, because standing in the doorway of the crowded room was making her chest tight and her skin itch and her mouth dry. In match-o-meter land, she was hovering above the earth, between a sandstorm and a brilliant blue sky.
She hadn't been meant to be with the nineteen-year-old Will. They'd both been too young, too inexperienced. They hadn't found their lives yet.
And now, she'd come to realize, she wasn't a bad match for the grown Will.
But Billy Brenton was a terrible match for her. And she couldn't have one without the other.
Will stopped, and when his head turned toward her, his face lit beneath his ball cap with the biggest, sweetest, most genuine Will smile.
Her heart-and her smiley faces-gave a soft, happy, sappy sigh.
"Glad you made it, lawyer lady," he said with a wink.
And then, in case she hadn't been sure he meant it, he handed the paper to one of his people, crossed the room and kissed her silly.
She was crazy to kiss him back-next week she'd be nothing more to these people than one of Billy's old girlfriends. But kiss him back she did. She kissed him with a desperation she didn't want and couldn't shake. She dislodged his hat and had her fingers in his hair, breathing in the scent of him, tasting his mouth, trying to squeeze more out of every next moment than she'd captured in the entire time he'd lived in her home.
He pulled back and dropped a kiss to her forehead, then straightened his cap and turned her into the room. "C'mon. Meet my crew."
He didn't introduce her to everyone, but she met his manager, his assistant, his crew lead, all the guys in his band and his publicist. She met his lights guy, his wardrobe manager and his caterer.
Will, her sweet, simple country boy, had a wardrobe manager. And a caterer.
Every person in the room showed him an innate respect. Some called him boss. All were overly polite to Lindsey, with the exception of Mikey, who was simply Mikey.
He and Dahlia had come over for dinner four times this last week, and while Lindsey wouldn't call him a friend, he'd at least become less hostile. And today, he gave her an honest smile.
Probably because he knew she'd be skedaddling out of Will's life soon.
Mikey topped his smile with a kiss to the cheek and a "Glad you could make it" that was heavy on believability and light on sarcasm.
Had to be the in-love-with-Dahlia effect. Dahlia had had to stay in Bliss-a last-minute emergency at the ice cream shop had derailed her plans, which was probably as disappointing to Lindsey as it was to Mikey. She could've used a friend.
"Good call on that girl, lawyer lady," Will murmured to her as they moved on to the buffet. "But don't go looking too close at the rest of my crew, okay? Won't be easy to replace Mikey out on the road."
"Replace him?"
"He's moving to Bliss. Knew it was coming, but he gave me formal notice this morning. Soon as I find a new drummer, he's gone."
"She doesn't want him on the road?"
"All his choice. I've been telling you that boy's smittened. Can't deny I'm looking forward to giving him bad marks when he plays in the Battle of the Boyfriends next weekend though." Will squeezed her hand and smiled at her. "You need some air, or are you okay?"
"I'm okay."
She wasn't, and he could probably tell, but other than a sideways glance, he didn't push.
Too soon, he had to leave for his fan meet-and-greet. Most of his entourage went with him. Lindsey opted to stay behind. Will insisted she fix herself a plate of food and said he'd see her again before the show. No one seemed to mind her sitting in the corner reading a book. But when Will and his people returned, there was a different energy about the room.