Shade's stomach rumbled, and he licked his lips eagerly. "Crawdads?"
"The best around. But how are we going to get there? I'm not sure it's wise to show up in a limo. Unless you want to cause a stir."
Shade usually liked the attention, but sometimes he preferred to be anonymous. "I'm not in the mood to be recognized. We'll find another way to get there."
He talked an event coordinator into lending him a company pickup truck. It hadn't been much of a challenge. Once the guy had realized who he was talking to, he'd handed over his keys with a stream of worshipful stammering.
"How do you do that?" Owen asked as he slid into the truck beside Shade.
"Do what?" Shade started the truck and cranked the air conditioning to max. As a Central Texan, he was used to the heat. It was the oppressive fucking humidity that was liable to do him in.
"Get anything you want."
Shade grinned. "It just takes confidence and persistence."
"And being someone more important than the band's bassist." Owen chuckled.
"I'm sure he'd have given you the keys if you'd asked . . . And explained that you knew me." Shade grinned at Owen's scowl. "Where to?"
Owen sent a text to someone he knew locally, and within a few minutes they had directions and were on their way to Shay's Shrimp Shack, someplace miles outside the city.
"Shrimp? I thought you said they had crawdads," Shade grumbled.
"They do, but they must have shrimp too."
As the buildings became farther apart and twisted mangrove trees crowded each other, reaching gnarled, moss-strewn branches toward the narrow road, Shade's thoughts returned to his biggest concern.
"Do you have any idea why Adam isn't writing on this tour?" Shade asked.
Owen smirked. "Since he hooked up with Madison, he seems to be thinking with his dick most of the time. Maybe the little head lacks his usual creative spark."
Adam had recently been spending a lot of time with his rehab counselor turned lover. Could that really be the problem? He did seem distracted when she was around, and downright irritable when she wasn't.
"We need to reinstate our no-women-on-tour rule," Shade said. "They always lead to trouble."
"Speaking of trouble, is Amanda coming to the show tonight?"
Shade shook his head. "While I loved seeing her the other night, I asked her not to surprise me again."
"And how pissed off was she when you told her that?"
Shade shrugged. "Not at all. She's a reasonable person."
"She didn't assume you didn't want her to show up unannounced because she might catch you doing something she wouldn't approve of?"
"Such as?"
"Banging some other chick."
Shade scratched his head over his left ear. "She didn't say anything about it." But he did have such a reputation. He had cheated on her sister while they'd been married, but at least he hadn't cheated with her sister. He hadn't slept with Amanda until well after his divorce from Tina had been finalized. "Amanda trusts me, I guess." She was the complete opposite of her sister, who had never trusted him. Maybe that was why he liked her so much.
"Are you going to see her this weekend?"
"Yep, all weekend. And Julie too."
"Well, that should put a damper on your fun," Owen said with a laugh.
"How so?"
"You'll have to keep your interactions with Amanda rated G in front of Julie."
That might pose a bit of a challenge since he couldn't keep his hands off the woman. "Do you think I'm incapable of controlling my urges?"
Owen snorted. "Yep, pretty much. Does Tina know you're banging her sister?"
"Nope."
"She's going to find out eventually," Owen said. "She'll probably take it better if you're up front with her about it."
Shade laughed. "I can't imagine her ever taking it well. Do you remember how crazy she went when she found out about that groupie I fucked in Vegas?"
"That was before you were divorced," Owen said. "You were legally and morally obligated to keep it in your pants and you didn't."
Shade rubbed his suddenly queasy belly. It always got tied in knots when the subject of his infidelity was broached. He still felt guilty about it. Tina had started accusing him of cheating long before he'd sought comfort in the arms of other women, but Owen was right. He should have divorced Tina before he'd succumbed to his weakness for a good piece of compliant ass. Tina had never been compliant-not even in the bedroom-and while her fire had been hot as Hell in the beginning, eventually it had burned him to ashes.