Rock Chick Redemption (Rock Chick #3)(5)

She smiled at me.

I smiled back, and, as Whisky was no longer in my line of sight (although I could actual y feel him in the room), I remembered why I was there. I opened my mouth to say something to her when the bel over the door went.

“I’m not speaking to you,” a woman said in a voice that was both angry and obviously ful of shit and I turned to see who had come in.

It was like Fortnum’s was For Gorgeous People Only.

They needed a sign so normal people wouldn’t wander in unwittingly and develop immediate inferiority complexes.

A tremendously handsome, tal Mexican man with a very A tremendously handsome, tal Mexican man with a very pretty blonde woman was entering, obviously in the middle of a light-hearted tiff. I knew this because I’d watched my parents have mil ions of them.

“You’re so ful of shit,” he said what I had thought and grinned at her like this was a lovable trait.

“What’s shakin’?” the brunette behind the counter asked the couple.

“I’l tel you what’s not shakin’, I’m not moving in with Eddie,” the blonde said, glaring at the man at her side.

Holy cow!

I stared.

Tex had told me about Jet, and how Jet had a crush on Eddie and how Eddie was trying to capture Jet’s attention but, even though she had a crush on him, Jet was having none of it. That was in one of my last letters, I’d received it only a few weeks ago.

Now they were talking about moving in together.

Boy, Eddie was a fast one.

“You are,” Eddie retorted, stil looking down at Jet.

“Eddie won’t let me work at Smithie’s. Or I should say, Eddie thinks he won’t let me work at Smithie’s,” Jet said.

“I think you should let her work at Smithie’s.” This came from the couches. I braved a look at them, wondering what Smithie’s was. The comment came from a Native American guy with shiny black hair pul ed into a ponytail at the base of his neck, cheekbones and eyelashes to die for and a shit-eating grin on his face.

I also noticed Whisky was no longer looking at me but smiling and winking at Jet.

I felt my heart contract.

I tore my eyes away and saw Eddie was raising his brows to Jet like some point had been made.

It was a weird feeling, knowing these people and not knowing them at the same time.

“I thought you were moved in with Eddie?” Indy asked and I turned around to look at her.

“It was temporary,” Jet said. She caught my gaze swinging back to her and she gave me a smal smile before she stomped behind the counter (the stomping was obviously al show, stil , I could appreciate that she was good at it, my Mom would have given her a high five for form and execution).

This left me looking at Eddie. He noticed me and his black gaze shifted the length of me. I immediately got the strange sense that he did not like what he saw. Not that every guy who looked at me, especial y guys who were obviously very with pretty girls, had the instant hots for me, but stil , it was strange. It made me feel wrong, like I was invading, not wanted and not welcome.

I got this sense because his eyes, which were liquid with warmth and tenderness when he looked at Jet, turned completely blank when they locked on me and Eddie didn’t strike me as a blank kind of guy.

Then he turned, completely dismissing me and walked to the couches.

I also turned, feeling funny about his reaction. I shook it off, put my back to the couches (because I needed to focus and another glance at Whisky would make me lose that focus, I knew this like I knew my favorite designer was Armani) and I faced the espresso counter

The redhead, brunette and blonde were al talking behind the big coffee machine, looking like the Witches of Eastwick, but prettier and scarier. Since the redhead was Indy and the blonde was Jet, that left the brunette as Al y.

Which meant, from what I knew from Uncle Tex’s letters because she was most definitely related to the brothers at the couches, Whisky was either Lee (which would be bad as I knew he was with Indy) or Hank (which would be bad because Tex told me Hank was a cop and thus not likely ever to be interested in the likes of me, a gangster mol or whatever I was).

“I think you should move in with Eddie,” Al y was saying, finishing up my drink.

“I’m trying to break up with him,” Jet said.

I gasped, because even if he dismissed me, who in their right minds would break up with Eddie? He was gorgeous.

They al looked to me.

“Don’t worry,” Jet assured me with another smile. She was pretty normal y, but her smile made her spectacular. “I already tried to break up with him, but it didn’t take.”

“Here’s your coffee,” Al y said, handing me a paper cup.

I took it and set it on the counter. “What do I owe you?” She told me, I gave her the money and then she leaned forward and said, “What did you mean, you know the feeling? Do you have a boyfriend you can’t get rid of? I know it’s nosy but I’m asking ‘cause my brother’s sitting over there and he’s been staring at you since the moment you walked in the door like he wants to rip your fancy-ass clothes off.”

I bit my lip and just stopped myself from looking over my shoulder toward the couches.

I was right, this was Al y and since Indy was standing there, and Al y wasn’t likely to point out that Indy’s boyfriend Lee wanted to rip my clothes off, then we were talking about Hank.