Rock Chick Reckoning (Rock Chick #6)(166)

For months and months she saw only pain in Kai “Mace” Mason.

Today she saw no pain.

This made her smile a little, unnoticed smile.

Her eyes dropped to Stel a’s hand and, at her distance, she could just barely make out the gold ring on Stel a’s pinkie finger.

Just the other day, she overheard Jet tel ing Jules that Stel a never took that ring off.

Never.

Jane sighed.

So there it was; Stel a and Mace were now her favorites for the day.

She wasn’t fickle. No doubt Eddie or Jet would do something, and soon, to regain the title.

“Mystery for the ages,” Stevie replied with unconcern to Al y and Jane’s eyes moved to him.

“I think not,” Al y shot back. “It has to be part of the inner circle. No one knows al that shit. Someone spil ed. And that is way uncool.”

Jane didn’t think so but she wouldn’t considering she was the one who talked to the reporters and Jane knew Al y was talking about whoever talked to the reporters. She knew this because Al y had been talking about it a lot.

She felt no guilt. Jet and Tex’s tips had quadrupled. Tex had a nest egg but Nancy was moving in with him the next week and she wasn’t able to work but part-time and not at a job that paid very much.

Further, Jet wanted a KitchenAid and she’d wanted one awhile.

So Jane got it for her, kind of.

Not to mention, coffee sales had seen that increase too and even book sales.

Lee wasn’t hurting for money.

Now Indy wasn’t either.

No, Jane felt no guilt. None at al .

Anyway, it was a week ago and it had al already blown over.

Al of it but the increase in customers.

So there.

“No one is copping to it and, in this crowd, someone did it, they’d cop to it or they’l never cop to it,” Shirleen decreed and Jane looked to her thinking she was right.

Jane would never cop to it.

“We’l never know,” Shirleen finished.

Hmm.

Hmm.

Jane didn’t know if she was right about that.

“It’s stil uncool,” Al y mumbled.

Whatever, Jane thought.

Without a word but with a chin lift at Mace, Hector got up.

Jane tensed.

Then she watched as he moved toward the door, carrying his takeaway coffee cup.

Jane’s hand darted to the drawer where they kept their purses; she opened it, nabbed hers, grabbed it, shut the drawer and scurried after him.

No one noticed her go.

* * * * *

Hector’s Bronco pul ed into a spot across from the art gal ery in LoDo or Lower Downtown Denver and Jane pul ed into a spot two car lengths down on the opposite side of the street. Hector sat in his beat-up, brown Bronco, head turned, eyes aimed into the art gal ery.

He did this awhile.

Jane watched awhile.

Final y, Hector put his Bronco in gear, pul ed out of the spot and drove away.

Jane switched off the ignition to her car, exited it, locked it, fed the meter and walked into the gal ery.

When she did, she smiled.

A petite, curvy, very wel -dressed, strikingly beautiful woman with a mass of golden-cream-strawberry blonde hair that was a riot of soft ringlets mixed with ful waves that floated down her back and al around her exquisite face and shoulders was standing behind the counter.

She looked like a fairy princess.

Jane especial y liked her hair. It was fabulous.

Jane suspected Hector Chavez liked her hair too.

But he probably liked her curves better.

“Hel o.” Her soft voice sounded as her pretty eyes smiled.

Mm-hmm.

This was good.

Jane approved.

“Just looking,” Jane muttered, the woman tilted her head welcomingly toward the gal ery then Jane spent the next fifteen minutes pretending to look as she surreptitiously watched the blonde doing whatever she was doing behind her counter.

Then Jane bought three postcards that had prints on the front of art displayed in the gal ery. Postcards she would never use.

Then she left.

* * * * *

Jane waited for her computer to boot up as she turned on dim lighting around the room and lit a scented candle. Cotton flower.

Pretty and soothing.

Then she sat at her desk, moved her mouse and opened her word processing program.

Then she centered the cursor, turned on bold, set the font size at eighteen and typed.

Rock Chick.

Then she hit control at the same time she hit return, starting a new page, changed the font size to fourteen and typed.

Chapter One.

She hit return, turned off bold, turned on italics and changed the font size to twelve and typed.

The Great Liam Chase.

Then her eyes went fuzzy and her memory was swamped with the image of Liam Nightingale embracing his very soon-to-be wife in her angelic wedding dress prior to being declared man and wife.

Then Jane smiled.

Jane was a romantic and she felt the world needed to learn about this love affair.

She felt this because it was beautiful.

They al were.

Then she refocused on her monitor and started typing.

Epilogue

Get Out Here, Babe, I Wanna Kiss You

Ava

Five years later…

I was sitting, cross-legged, smack in the middle of Luke and my big bed.