Loving Dallas(30)

“That include you, Garrison?” Dude who swears he loves my sister but has yet to tell me if he’s seen her.

“Nah. For me it’s about channeling aggression so I don’t walk around beating the f*ck out of people on a daily basis. But for most guys, it’s about *. Period.”

“Well, I’m not most guys.” Why do I have to keep reminding people of this? Do I have “Johnny Guitar Player” tattooed on my f*cking forehead?

“Right. So what’s the question exactly?”

“When you run into your . . . questionable choices, what do you do about it? How do you let them know you’re no longer interested without coming off like an *?”

Gavin laughs again. “There’s one major difference between you and me that you forgot to consider when consulting me for advice.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t give a flying f*ck who thinks I’m an *.”

“I can think of one girl we both know who adamantly swears you’re not an *.”

“You obviously haven’t spoken to your sister lately. Look, man, I gotta get back to work. Keeping a job is part of my probation arrangement.”

“Hold up. Why? What happened to make Dixie change her mind? I thought you were running off into the sunset together and that’s why your ass isn’t on this tour with me.”

“It’s complicated, brother. Right now, she isn’t exactly speaking to me.”

I knew that was a possibility once he’d told her what happened while she was in college in Houston, but I figured they’d work it out eventually. “Christ, Garrison. Am I going to have to beat your ass when I come to town?”

Silence.

“I’ll take that as a maybe. Six weeks, man. I’ll be there in six weeks. You should probably get your shit straight with Dixie before I get there.”

“And here I thought you called me for advice.”

“That’s not advice. Or even a suggestion. You really care about her like you swore to me you did, then you do whatever it takes.”

“Working on it,” he says before I hear someone yelling at him to get the f*ck back inside.

“Don’t get fired. I’ll hit you up later.”

“Later.”

After I disconnect the call I promptly dial my sister’s number.

She doesn’t pick up so I leave her a voice mail asking her to call me. She’s going to be pissed that I didn’t tell her Gavin was home. But I thought he was going to tell her. I thought he was getting his life together and that she’d be a part of that. Apparently I was wrong.

I hate being wrong.





18 | Robyn

THE AMPHITHEATER IN GREENVILLE IS LARGE AND HAS A SLIGHTLY different setup than we’re used to so Katie and Drew and I get creative. Or rather, I plot.

Placing Dallas’s meet-and-greet on the east end of the stadium seating means I won’t have to interact with him as much. So I set up the red line bottles for his display and take the blue line ones to the west end.

I tell Katie she’s in charge and leave Drew with her. For Jase’s side of the display I will have to be both organizer and photographer, but that’s fine. Drew loaned me his spare camera so I familiarize myself with it while I wait for the venue to start letting fans in.

Jase joins me while I’m testing out the flash.

“Whoa, darlin’. How about not blinding me before the show?”

“Sorry, Mr. Wade.” I lower the flashbulb.

“You can call me Jase. You’re Robyn, right? I think we’ll be spending enough time together to refer to each other on a first-name basis.”

“Right. Of course. Whatever you prefer.”

“Well, that’s a dangerous thing to say. I don’t think you could handle what I would prefer.”

He nails me with a wicked grin and I can’t even pretend to contain my shock. Apparently Dallas can’t, either.

“The f*ck did you just say to her?”

I practically twitch out of my skin in surprise. I didn’t hear him walk over. But Jase just grins and holds his hands up. “Easy, killer. I was just being honest.”

Dallas clears his throat harshly and redirects his attention from Jase to me. “So where do you want me?”

The hard edge in his voice and the loaded question itself sends heat up my neck.

“Um, you’re over there. On the other end with Katie and Drew.”

Dallas regards me with anger and apprehension in his intense stare. I blew him off and now I’m separating us as much as I can in the one place we actually should be together. Maybe it’s immature, but I’m not in a place where I can watch women fawning all over him right this moment.

“You lost, kid?” Jase says to Dallas when he makes no move to leave. “She just said your display is over there.”

“You got a problem, Wade? I don’t recall her asking for your—”

“Okay, boys,” I interrupt, moving between them. “Everybody has an equally big . . . guitar,” I say. “To your corners. Fans are coming in.”

I place a hand on Dallas’s chest and shove him toward where his meet-and-greet is.

His fingers encircle my wrist reminiscent of the way they did in the bedroom not too long ago. “So this how it’s gonna be with us now?”