Bo & Ember (5 page)

“You did?” It looked like his head was going to explode. He had no idea how to react.

“About the risks you take. Rock and roll on the violin? It’s genius.”

Regan put his hands up. “I’m hardly the first person to do that.”

“Maybe not,” Kelly shrugged, “but you’re the first person who’s gotten us to notice.” She turned to me. “And you and Ember? It’s so romantic I can’t even stand it. Is she here too?”

Just then, Willow started turning a Rihanna and David Guetta mashup I’d heard her working on in the studio over the last several weeks.

“She is,” I smiled and started walking toward the dance floor, needing to move with Ember to the incredible beats, “this way.”

The girls followed me, and Regan trailed a few steps behind. When we reached Ember and Georgia, I found Georgia dancing with several people, and Ember moving to the music while still talking with the guy I’d seen her hug a few minutes before.

“Hey,” Regan shouted to Georgia, who quickly made her way to him while she shook her hips, “she wrote a paper about me!”

I rolled my eyes, nearly cracking into laughter as the few beers he’d ingested erased any shred of humility. We didn’t have much time to spend drinking while on tour, and all of us were suffering from a serious case of
lightweight
.

Georgia quirked her lips. “Fiddle. Violin. Ireland. Must have been a short paper.” She arched her eyebrow as she smiled wider and danced in front of Regan.

Regan grabbed her hips and spun her around. “Come on!”

“I’m just teasing.” She placed her hands on his shoulders and kept her hips moving in time with the music.

As the two of them got lost in the song, I turned to Ember and tapped her on the shoulder, pointing to Kelly when she turned around. “This is Kelly. She wanted to meet you. She was at the show tonight.”

I had to lean into her ear to avoid shouting, given we had a show the next day and I certainly didn’t need a hoarse voice.

“Oh, November! You have no idea how psyched I am to meet you. You’re gorgeous and talented and smart and…”

“Please,” Ember smiled and stuck out her hand, “call me Ember. I’m glad you liked the show.”

“Liked?” Kelly shrieked. “I have a total girl crush on you!”

After a few minutes, and a promise from Ember that she would email them back if they contacted her, the friends were sent, seemingly starstruck, back into the mix of hot dancing bodies.

“Since I’m out here,” I shrugged, “dance with me.” I stuck out my hand, and she took it, while eyeing
the guy
.

“Bo, this is Beckett Roth.” Ember seemed to blush a little as she said his name, and I immediately scrolled through all the industry information I had to sift out if I should know him from
somewhere
. I drew a blank.

Beckett stuck out his hand with a genuine smile. “So this is the lucky bastard, huh? Nice to meet you, man.”

“Nice to meet you. How do you two know each other?” I wasn’t jealous by definition. Not my definition, anyway. But something about the club atmosphere, and all the skin that surrounded us, had my system on high alert.

Clubs were breeding grounds for, well, breeding, and I wanted to know who got my wife to blush in a way she rarely did.

“Oh,” Ember giggled, “we went to high school together.”

“Our parents knew each other when we were little. That’s how Ember’s parents ended up in Connecticut. We went to the same private school.”

For reasons guided only by testosterone, I leaned in and asked him, “Do you know Willow, too?” I nodded to the DJ booth in case he needed a reference point.

“Oh yeah,” he chuckled, “we go way back.”

Ember smacked his shoulder as her jaw dropped. “How far back?”

“No worries.” He grinned and kissed her cheek before addressing me. “Nice meeting you, Bo. I hope to catch up with you guys after the show tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it.” And, with that, Beckett slid his way back through the crowd and entered the DJ booth.

It wasn’t until then that it clicked that he was the DJ when we’d first walked in. I hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention, but once he put the headphones back on, I recognized him. He and Willow got back to work, and both seemed very involved with the task at hand.

“How far back? No worries?” I flattened my palm against the small of Ember’s back and pulled her toward me.

She put her arms on my shoulders and ran her fingers through the back of my hair. “Jealous?”

I shook my head and kissed the tip of her nose. “Not a bit.”

“Good. He was horrific in bed.”

I dropped my arms and took a step back. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, get a grip, we were seventeen.” Her eyes were focused on me, and I could tell she was already bored—or was trying to look bored—with conversation about Beckett.

I wasn’t done.

“Seventeen? Didn’t you have sex for the first time when you were seventeen?”

Ember playfully covered my mouth with her hand. “Shout that out, why don’t you!” She moved my hands to her hips since I’d lost control over everything except rage.

Now, I’m not normally a rage-filled person. I wasn’t going to beat the guy up for having sex with my wife before I even knew she existed. But there are just some things a guy doesn’t need. And putting a face with your wife’s
first time
is number one on that list of
things.

“Ember, I could have gone my entire life without ever knowing, let alone meeting, your first time.”

Ember pulled me through the crowd and didn’t speak until we reached the bar and she’d ordered drinks.

“Ainsley Worthington,” she said after a long sip of her Cosmo, challenging me with her stare.

“That’s … different,” I tried.

“Right,” she agreed, “because Ainsley is crazy, and actively tried to get into your pants while we were together.”

I sighed and growled at the same time. “A.) She only tried, didn’t succeed, and B.) We weren’t together when that happened. We were—”

“If you say we were on a break, I’ll kick your ass, Cavanaugh.” Ember set her drink down and kissed me deep enough that I could tell she’d ordered that Cosmo with raspberry vodka.

“Fair enough. Do we have to see Beckett again?” I curled my lip while grinning.

“He’ll be at the show tomorrow, for sure. Relax. I haven’t seen him since high school, and we were all pretty close when we were real little. Me, him, and Willow.”

“When did he move to Connecticut?” I asked, not wanting to be a total meathead about the situation.

Ember looked up for a moment. “Not long before I did … we were twelve or thirteen. Can we be done talking about this and get back on the dance floor?”

“Let me finish my beer?”

“Okay, I’m going to go request a song from Willow.” She made a beeline for the DJ booth.

“And Beckett?” I mumbled under my breath when she was far enough out of earshot.

“I swear to God,” Georgia quipped as she reached the bar, Regan in tow. “Ember shows up in California, and all of these brand new hot people come out of the woodwork. Who knew hippies could be so hot? Who the
hell
was that guy?”

“Beckett Roth. Childhood friend of Ember and Willow, high school boyfriend to Ember.” There was no way in hell I was going to repeat the information that he was the coveted owner of her virginity. Because a Neanderthal thought like that would guarantee me a swift kick in the balls.

“Oh, I get it.” Regan nodded solemnly and sipped his beer.

Georgia took a shot and slid her glass back to the bartender. “Get what? That they screwed?”

“She told you?” I planted myself on a stool.

“Ha. No. It was obvious, though. She was all blush and giggles, and he was all sweaty palmed.”

“The good news is, he seems to know Willow pretty well.” Regan pointed the neck of his beer bottle toward the DJ booth, where Beckett had his arm around Willow’s waist while Ember talked with them.

Georgia smacked my shoulder. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

I put my hands up in defense. “No. Not at all. We’re married. I wouldn’t have married her if I had any reason not to trust her.”

“It’s just a guy thing,” Regan cut in, in my defense. “We just don’t want to know. Ever.”

Georgia rolled her eyes, causing me to challenge her.

“Are you telling me, G, that you want to know about all the gory details about Regan’s sex life?” I sat straighter, confident that I’d found a loophole in her condescending attitude.

“Yep.” She shrugged and ordered another shot. “Here’s the thing. It’s no secret that I don’t give a shit what people think, but I still have insecurities. It’s not like I want to invite Regan’s ex-conquests over for tea, but I need to know where I stand.”

“You’re standing next to me, aren’t you?” Regan held out his hands, sounding annoyed, as though they’d been through this before.

Georgia sighed audibly and perched on the stool next to mine. “That doesn’t matter. I want to know, in
my own terms
how I stand up. Irrationally, it has very little to do with you, but in the coven of womenkind, I need to know where you went with them. Emotionally, physically, all of that. I need to know in myself that I can give you above and beyond that, so I don’t end up on the list of exes. Don’t shoot me down with feminist propaganda. This is self-preservation. You’re amazing in bed, and I know I am, too. I just want to make sure I’m pushing all the right buttons. The more I know about your sexual history, the more I can do that.”

She crossed her legs, allowing her short skirt to ride further up her legs.

“The problem with you guys,” she continued, “is you don’t want to admit that that’s exactly why you
don’t
want to hear about it. We view your sexual histories as a challenge worth accepting. You view ours as a threat.”

She had a point. I didn’t agree with everything she said, but it served the purpose of making me feel ridiculous about how I felt about Beckett.

“Hey, you’re Bo Cavanaugh. Great show tonight.” A college-aged guy with black hipster glasses and dirty blonde hair held out his hand, interrupting my battle of the sexes with Georgia.

I shook his hand and talked music with him for several minutes, until a familiar song came through the speakers. I’d often heard Ember sing along to the mind-numbingly overplayed pop song while she got ready in the morning, and, apparently, the rest of the club felt the same way about it as Ember did. A brief cheer rose through the club and I watched Ember bound excitedly through the crowd toward me.

“Dance with me. Now.” She grabbed my wrist and I followed her, glancing over my shoulder toward Georgia, who just winked and patiently sat by Regan, who was talking with a fan who’d approached him earlier.

“You’re hot, you know that?” I ran my hands down her arms as we settled into our crowded spot on the dance floor.

“Mm-hmm,” she exaggerated a grin, “I know. What were you and Georgia talking about while I was in the booth? It looked intense.”

“Spying on us?”

Ember’s gaze turned serious, but she didn’t stop her hips. “I never have my eyes on anyone else, Bo. Even if my back is turned, my eyes are always itching for you.”

Suddenly I felt like a child for my reaction earlier. “I didn’t mean to get weird about Beckett.”

“It’s okay. We’ve each got our own history. But, we get a joint future.” She kissed me and resumed dancing with the energy of her usual morning routine.

Damn,
she’s gorgeous.

“Nervous for tomorrow?” I asked, allowing my hands further down on her hips than I did when her parents were around.

“Terrified.” She smiled. “But, right now, it’s just us.”

That’s how it always felt with Ember and me. In the middle of a crowded bar or sitting alone on the beach. It was always just us.

Ember

It’s time for a goodbye

No time for a hard cry.

I don’t mind,

But honey,
don’t haunt my dreams…

A
s I sang lead with Journey to the fast-paced and bluegrass-flavored Six song, “Ghosts Ahead,” I let myself sink into the music.

The night before was a trip. Watching Willow work in the DJ booth with Beckett Roth, of all people, was a nice blast from the past. Beckett’s parents often jammed with my parents and the band, right up until they moved. I knew Bo was uncomfortable with the fact that I’d slept with Beckett, but, really, it was nothing. He was my first and he said I was his, but, still, we were seventeen. I’m not sure of any seventeen-year-old that brags about their sex life. It was just sex, then we argued like the children we were, and we broke up.

Our parents took it hard. They’d all met and gotten together when they were in high school, and I think they held out a fantasy that we would do the same. Seeing Beckett again was like the final piece of the puzzle of my past that reminded me of the world I’d be stepping back into if Bo and I kept our music careers going. The last year had certainly been a whirlwind, but one we’d gratefully accepted.