Kiera must have heard me laugh. She sat straight up on Denny’s lap like I’d just poked her with a cattle prod. She had a flush from her cheeks to her chest, and her eyes were wide like she was mortified. For kissing? Was she that shy? Thinking of how different she was from the girls I knew made me laugh even harder.
“Sorry,” I chuckled, grabbing my coat. “I’ll be out of your hair in a minute…if you want to wait.” I paused, considering. “Or don’t. It really doesn’t bother me.” I already knew that Kiera wasn’t the type to ever be okay with having sex right in front of me, and I knew I shouldn’t make her any more embarrassed than she already was, but she was so damn cute, it was hard not to tease her.
She immediately hopped off Denny, sitting as far on the other end of the couch as possible. She looked over at Denny with bunched brows and pursed lips. He must have had the same amused expression as I did, because her mood didn’t change any. Looking flustered as well as embarrassed, she glanced up at me and barked out, “Where are you going?”
Her tone of voice surprised me a little, but I figured it was mainly from being teased. She seemed to immediately realize she was being rough, and I could see her calming herself as I answered. “Pete’s. We’ve got another gig there tonight.”
“Oh.” Her eyes drifted over my hair and my clothes, like she was finally noticing that I was dressed differently. The inspection made my breath quicken.
Wanting to cover that reaction, I asked, “Do you guys want to go…?” I couldn’t resist another tease, so I gave them a playful smile and finished with “…Or stay here?”
Once again, Kiera seemed to answer before thinking. A gut reaction. “No, we’ll go. Sure.”
“Really?” Denny said, sounding a little disappointed. He must have been looking forward to me leaving them alone for the night. Oops. Didn’t mean to cock-block him. I did like the idea of Denny listening to a full set though, so he could really hear how much I’d grown, in the musical sense.
Kiera fiddled with a strand of her hair, like she was thinking of an explanation for her assertive statement. Interesting. To Denny, she timidly said, “Yeah, they sounded really good last night. I was hoping to hear a little more.”
“All right. I’ll get my keys.” Denny sighed, slowly sitting up on the couch.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Kiera really meant what she’d just said about the band. She’d seemed sincere when we’d been talking earlier today, but she hadn’t seemed sincere when she’d told Denny she wanted to go. Which one was it? I wasn’t sure. She glanced up at me while Denny stood, and I suddenly saw the truth in her eyes and her shy smile. She may have unthinkingly blurted out something she might or might not have wanted to do tonight, but what she’d just said was true. She did want to hear more. I tried not to read too much into that. It was the music she liked.
Shaking my head at the idea that I’d actually coerced her into going to Pete’s by embarrassing her, I told them, “Okay, I’ll see you there then.”
I thought about Kiera on the way to the bar. Sometimes she was easy to read, sometimes she was impossible to gauge. But nothing I’d seen so far was mean or malicious. She was kind and sweet, easily embarrassed and unnecessarily shy, innocent and naïve, yet seductive and playful too. Even though I was sure we were roughly the same age, I felt like I was a million years older than her. It made me want to protect her, even though that was truly Denny’s job, since he was her boyfriend. Well, I could play a big brother role in her life. A friend. Someone for her to lean on. I had a feeling she’d need that, living so far away from her home and family.
There were a couple of beers in front of each of my bandmates when I got to Pete’s; they’d been here for a while. I had some catching up to do. After grabbing a beer from Rita, I took a seat by Griffin. “Want to hear what I did last night?” he said, looking over at me.
Matt, across from me, sighed. “If he says no, will you actually keep your mouth shut?”
Griffin tossed a look Matt’s way. “Suck it.” He returned his eyes to mine and started in on his story without even waiting for my answer. “So, there were these two blond chicks at the show last night…Melody, Harmony, Cadence, Tempo…I don’t know, their names were something musical…”
I glanced at Evan sitting beside Matt and he mouthed, Tempo? I tried not to laugh as I took a sip of my beer and returned my attention to Griffin. “Anyway,” he said, waving his hand, “they were on fire for me, like practically humping me in the parking lot.” Against my will, an image of Griffin being mauled leaped into my head. “They invited me to this afterparty, right. A bunch of people were playing drinking games in the kitchen, so me and one of the blondes sat down to play…”