Beauty from Pain(18)

“Why haven’t you gotten one?”


She gazes into the window and reminds me of a child wishing for a toy at Christmas. “Because a D-45 costs about twelve grand.”


“Shouldn’t you have one if you’re going to be a successful musician?”


“Sure, I need one, but that doesn’t mean I can afford it. I have my mom’s guitar to get me by until I can afford one. It’s older than I am, but it’s still good.” Her hands are still splayed against the storefront glass. “She’s never told me so, but I think the sperm donor gave it to her. Sometimes I catch her playing it and she looks like she’s been crying.”


She wasn’t kidding about having daddy issues.


“I’ll have a Martin one day,” she sighs as she steps away from the storefront.


We continue our walk until we come to the next street and I see the sign for Stout Avenue. “The Blues Club shouldn’t be far from here. You want to swing by and see what’s happening?”


“Sure. Which way do you think it is?”


“One way to find out.” I pull out my phone and use an app to find it several blocks to the north. “It’s six blocks that way.”


She lifts her foot from one of her shoes and inspects it. “I don’t know if I can walk six blocks. My heels are starting to rub.”


“You said you would tell me if they hurt. I don’t want you to be in pain. I’ll call Daniel.”


She lifts the other foot and inspects it. “Would you think I was weak if I let you?”


“I don’t think for one minute there’s anything weak about you.” I spot a bench on the sidewalk. “We’ll wait for him here.”


While awaiting Daniel’s arrival, we sit on the bench and I reach for her feet. “Let me see what we’ve got going on here.”


She resists as I try to pull her feet into my lap. “What are you doing?”


“What does it look like? I’m going to rub your feet while we wait for Daniel.”


“You don’t have to do that.”


“I know I don’t have to. I want to.”


She gives in and twists on the bench to put her feet in my lap. I slip off her shoes and begin rubbing the first foot. “If you say yes, I will pamper you everyday like a princess.”


She laughs, clearly not realizing how serious I am. “That certainly sweetens the offer and makes it more tempting.”


I slide my palm from her foot up her calf. “I don’t want my offer to be tempting. I want it to be irresistible, so tell me what it will take for you to say yes.”


She studies me and grins. “I need time, and I need to know you better.”


She’s always guarded, but I’m impatient, so the time she needs for getting to know me is the one thing I don’t want to give her. Doesn’t she understand we can do that after she agrees?


In a fine example of Daniel’s impeccably wrong timing, he pulls up as I am trying to warm Paige to the idea of us. I slip her shoes back onto her feet. When she stands, I scoop her in my arms and carry her to the car where Daniel is waiting with the opened door.


Her arms are around my neck and she gives me a disapproving look. “I think this is a little over the top.”


“I tend to be that way, and you’d do well to remember that. I meant it when I said I didn’t want you in pain and I’d pamper you like a princess.”


She giggles again like that seventeen-year-old girl she pretended to be earlier. “I think I could’ve managed the few steps it would’ve taken me to get to the car.”


We slide across the backseat. “This is me trying to persuade you to say yes, Paige.”


“I thank you, but it’s quite unnecessary. And I hope you don’t think you’re carrying me from the car into the club because that’s not happening.”


“We’ll see.”


Daniel stops on the street in front of The Blues Club. “I’m not getting out unless I’m walking on my own. No sneaking to scoop me up again. Got it, Jack?”


I whirl around before I get out of the car. She has called me Jack for a second time. “Yes, ma’am.”