Waking Up in Vegas(63)
Jen’s laugh filled the room as JT took over the mic, giving a little background info on their latest single as I queued it up to play.
They stayed until the end of the show, taking calls, chatting, and eating doughnuts. Once we were off the air, and before the deluge of other station employees arrived, JT pulled me into an alcove in the hall to talk in private.
It was the same one Jensen and I used to sneak off to for mind-bending kisses.
“I gotta tell ya, Tack,” he started in a low voice, “that partner of yours sure likes to stare.”
I snickered, jumping to her defense. “You’re her first big celebrity interview.” I kept Jen’s crush-in-college confession to myself; she was obviously already making a gigantic tool of herself and didn’t need any more fuel on that particular fire.
One of JT’s eyebrows popped up and he looked at me strangely. “Why would that make her stare at you?”
“Me? I hadn’t noticed.” Because it hurt to look at her after seeing how damned adorable JT and his wife were with each other.
“Do you two have a thing? Or is this a newsflash?”
I ran a hand through my hair, only remembering the sticky remnants of glaze on my fingers when I felt a few strands rip out at the follicle. Oh, well. “It’s… complicated.”
“No, mate, what Kori and I went through is the definition of complicated. You not interested or something?”
“Oh, I’m the most interested I’ve ever been in my life.”
“You got a stalker? Broke off a recent engagement? Have some love-child you maybe haven’t mentioned?”
I shook my head with a rueful smile. “None of the above. But she’s determined to take a time-slot in Phoenix.”
“Shee-it. How long you got to change her mind?”
“Counting today? Six days.”
“And nothing you’ve done has changed her mind?”
“See, that’s the problem. I haven’t really done anything overt. I wouldn’t know a big gesture if it crapped on my front porch.”
“Nice visual, Tack.”
It felt weird talking to him like this. We were companionable when he was in town, but swapping lewd-joke emails didn’t really put us in some sort of bromance. Hell, I hadn’t even mentioned Jen’s and my relationship to my friends yet. I had been telling myself that it was because I didn’t want sympathy for a broken heart after she left, but the truth was more selfish than that. I didn’t want to share our time with anyone. Not yet. The way I felt was still too unfamiliar and too precious to flash it around it public.
And, I was afraid, too fragile.
What if I was doing the whole relationship thing wrong? Would letting others see us crush it? Finally being snared would most definitely have everyone I knew ragging on me, and their ridicule could smash our budding couplehood into dust.
JT had been saying something, but I was too caught up in my thoughts and hadn’t been paying attention. “What?”
“I asked what your friends recommended.”
“I haven’t asked for their advice, actually. All they know is that Jen is staying at my house because her condo had termites.”
JT whistled. “Blimey. She’s under your roof? You are royally fucked.”
That about perfectly summed up the exquisite torture I’d been living through and I said as much.
“So nobody knows about the two of you?”
“Not really.”
“Why in the hell not? She doesn’t have a third tit or anything, does she? Something awkward to explain at pool parties?”
“You do have a way with words, JT. No, the time just never seemed right. And honestly? I’m afraid to be out there, as a couple. What if I fail? What if she really does leave in a week?”
JT sighed. “I’m going to tell you something that I shared with Kori right after we met. We were talking about her passion for writing, but really, it applies to anything that truly means something to you. Sure, if what’s in your heart stays inside, nobody can crush it. But if you hide it, it will die that same death, sure as if someone stomped it into bits.”
“Are you calling me a chicken?”
“Buck-auck.”
“So then, mighty sage, what do you suggest? My idea-machine is all tapped out.” Not that it had many to begin with.
JT slanted a glance around and, satisfied there was no one within earshot, relayed his plan.
Chapter 19
*Gold 0n The Ceiling*
I kept flicking my eyes up to the clock. I couldn’t stop myself.
JT and Paul, Slanker Knox’s lead guitarist, were due in the studio at nine.
And not one fucking person outside of the three of us knew.