In Your Honor (17 page)

“
C'mon, Harry,” her mouth
pulled into a sideways grin, “how many all-girl death metal bands
have you seen up close?”

“
None,” Harrison
stuttered, wondering if he could persuade Lenny to turn back by
offering her all the money in his bank account. “But we left
everyone else behind and they really shouldn't miss... this...” He
cringed as his face came in contact with a very sweaty, smelly,
bare armpit.

“
Everyone else had plans,”
Lenny reminded him, too excited for Harrison's comfort. “This is
fun! When was the last time it was just you and me?”

Never. It's never been you
and me because I'm a pussy and I'm terrified of what you do for a
living, let alone for fun.
“God love you,
Lenny,” he said with a shake of his head and a deep breath as he
forged ahead into the crowd with her.

***

“
That doesn't go there.”
Lucy tapped the bottom two lines that Blake had scribbled down on
the piece of notebook paper they'd been poring over for the past
two hours.

“
What do you mean? Where
does it go then?” He frowned at the page, getting frustrated with
himself. What had he missed?

“
It goes here.” She leaned
forward and marked the spot she was talking about with a pencil
dot. Her dark hair swung down, framing her face and making her look
like a freaking angel. He had to deliberately look down at the
paper in between them.

“
But if we put it
there...” He grabbed her guitar from the couch behind him and
started to experiment with what they had so far. Lucy moved next to
him and softly sang the words they'd been writing all
day.

She was right. Moving those two lines
changed the tone of the song and brought it back to their original
intention.

“
You're a genius,” he
muttered as he made the correction.

She smiled. “I think you mean bossy.”

He raised his eyes to hers and watched as
she twirled her long hair around the pencil and pinned it back in a
barely contained mess. He would never understand how girls could do
that.

He thought he'd done a pretty remarkable job
of keeping his distance from Lucy during their writing sessions. In
the beginning she'd been quiet and slightly nervous, but he stuck
to the plan. He remained relaxed, he remained calm and like always,
she followed his lead. Now, it was easy. Natural.

“
Why do you always sell
yourself short?” he asked with sincerity. “You must know how good
you are at this.”

Her ears turned a light shade of pink and
she rolled her eyes. “You're flying pretty fast and free with the
compliments. It's good to us, but that doesn't mean it's any good
in the real world.”

Blake wasn't sure how to reply. Maybe it was
because he'd been in the business longer, or maybe it was his
unshakeable devotion to her, or perhaps it was his inability to let
go of something that he truly believed. Whatever the case, he knew
he needed to prove it to her.

“
Let's do it.”

“
Hum, what now?” Her eyes
went wide, and he grimaced at his word choice.

“
I mean, let's do the
song. Here, at the festival. They have a stage for open mic, we can
sign up and see what the crowd thinks.”

“
I don't know, Blake.”
Lucy was shaking her head slowly. “This is our
first
attempt at song writing
together. Are you sure you want to open it up to public opinion so
soon?”

“
Absolutely,” he nodded.
“I'll play, you sing.”

She wasn't having it, he could tell by the
look on her face: a mixture of skepticism and amusement. He would
have to try harder.

“
Or you can play and I'll
sing?” He raised his eyebrows, daring her to at least disagree with
that idea.

“
No, I'll sing
it.”

He jumped on those words. “Okay, so you'll
sing.” He stood and folded the paper into his pocket.

“
Blake, are you serious?”
She laughed, incredulous.

He stood by the doorway of the bus and
pretended to be waiting impatiently. “Let's go, wildflower. I don't
have all day.”

“
You're impossible.” She
scrambled to her feet, an excited smile spreading across her
face.

He reached for her hand, and when she didn't
even hesitate in taking it, he felt electricity travel up his arm
as if the tattooed lightning there had come to life. He held on
tightly and tugged her through the crowds, tents and booths, loving
the sound of her giggle behind him.

They came to the open mic stage, where Blake
quickly found the man in charge and made sure that he and Lucy got
added to the list.

“
Name?” the man asked, his
sunburned face squinting at them from under long blonde
lashes.

“
Randy Giles,” Blake
replied, keeping his face straight and squeezing Lucy's hand when
he heard her sharp intake of air.

“
Okay, Randy,” the man
with the clipboard answered, making a note but not batting an eye,
“you'll be up at 4:30.”

Blake nodded his thanks and turned to Lucy,
smiling widely. “Let's go practice our song.”

She laughed loudly, and he couldn't help but
think that this was one of the best days he'd had in a long time.
He didn't release her hand until they were safely back on the
bus.

They went straight to work.

***

Harrison feigned heat exhaustion halfway
through Mordrid the Destroyer's set and convinced Lenny they needed
to move to a less crowded, more shaded area. With iced tea.

He stretched out on the cool grass and laced
his fingers behind his head. They'd escaped with minor injuries. He
had a rip in his shirt and a fat lip, while Lenny had gotten her
hair pulled and a small scrape high on her cheek. Luke would
probably still threaten him. Even if the whole thing had been his
wife's idea.

Lenny's phone buzzed and she pulled it out
of her pocket. That was probably Luke now, asking for Harrison's
location.

“
That's weird,” Lenny
muttered from next to him, looking at the screen.

“
What?” Harrison asked
curiously.

“
Shane just texted me. He
wants Lucy's number.” She frowned over at Harrison.

Harrison felt like he'd hit a concrete
barrier traveling at a high velocity on the highway, Sway's warning
ringing in his ears.

“
Why?” he asked tersely,
his whole body tensing.

Lenny shrugged. “I guess they really hit it
off the other night.” He watched as she tapped out a reply, feeling
like the worst friend in the world. He should throw himself at the
phone and destroy it on the spot. But he didn't. He simply lay
there.

“
Did you give it to him?”
he asked, his throat sticky with the question.

“
Yeah,” Lenny shrugged, “I
mean, I don't have a reason not to.”

“
Except that Blake is
completely in love with her,” he spit out bitterly. This is the
worst thing that could happen. Okay, maybe not the
worst
thing, but it came
close. Blake was finally getting his act together, who knew what
kind of shit storm this new development would create? Who cares
what Blake said about not being territorial? They all knew Lucy was
a weak point for him, and anything could set off that thermal
detonator.

“
You think I shouldn't
have given it to him?” Lenny looked down at her phone nervously.
Lenny never looked nervous. Maybe she was feeling the same sort of
dread he was.

“
I have no idea,” Harrison
finally sighed. “I mean, they're supposed to be just friends,
but...”

“
But they're crazy about—”
Lenny started to finish but Harrison interrupted, sitting up
swiftly.

“
Maybe that's it.” He
raked his fingers through his hair. “Maybe they're just
crazy
. Not about each
other. I mean, how hard is it to say, 'Hey, I love you, you love
me, let's make this thing work'? I think they
like
the ache they bring each other.
And I'm kinda tired of constantly dancing around the issue. Who
cares that Blake got that stupid tattoo? Blake has lots of tattoos.
I think the next time he goes on a binge, we need to throw him in
dry-out for real. He's not crazy for her. He's just
crazy!”

It was more of a rant than Harrison was
prone to, and he knew that Lenny was taken aback by her
silence.

“
What tattoo?” she asked
quietly. Harrison felt his stomach fill with ice. Oops.

“
Secret tattoo,” he said
softly, closing his eyes. Lenny wasn't supposed to know about the
tattoo, at least, not about the timing and message behind
it.

Lenny didn't say anything, so Harrison
cracked open one eyelid carefully to see if she was still there.
She was, staring thoughtfully across the open park full of
people.

“
Yep, this is going to get
ugly.” She sighed despairingly. “Maybe Shane's interest will get
Blake's ass in line.”

“
Or maybe push him over
it,” Harrison added.

“
Maybe Lucy doesn't like
Shane back,” Lenny pointed out.

“
This is an awful lot of
maybes,” Harrison said, unconvinced.

She grimaced and looked away again.

“
You know Shane better
than me, is he a bad guy? Is there anything Lucy won't like about
him?”

Lenny thought for a long time, too long for
Harrison's comfort.

“
No, he's a really good
guy now. She's probably going to like him a lot.”

Harrison groaned and closed his eyes again.
“What are we going to do?”

“
Nothing,” Lenny said
calmly. “We'll be good friends and let them figure this out on
their own.”

***

The words to the song came from inside her
head. That gorgeous, always tousled, mess of a head. She spoke in
poetry. Her words tumbling out effortlessly and compelling him to
put them in order, in a melody, in a tune. Giving order to her
chaos, translation to her heart's encryption.

And she did the same for him.

As they went over the song
again and again, it was difficult for Blake not to get wrapped up
in the moment. Not to pretend she was singing the words to
him
even though it felt
that real. She wrote and sang with such passion and truth, he could
get lost in her. He had before.

They had run wild when they were kids,
nothing stopping them. He could almost feel the same hot sun
beating down on them as they rode his old Harley out to the lake.
Her thighs pressed against him, her arms snug at his waist, her
face buried in his neck.

She had loved him. Truly. Without restraint
or apology.

He had been an idiot.

“
Are you listening to me?”
Lucy waved in front of his face, a small smile playing on her
lips.

“
Sorry.” He shook off the
old memory. “I wasn't paying attention.”

“
You okay?” She frowned
softly, and he wasn't sure how to reply.

Was he okay? No. He'd ruined her life and
his own in the process, and he wasn't sure if it was too late to
fix it. And yes, he was with her now and they were friends and that
was... okay.

“
If you don't want to do
this, we don't have to.” She misread his hesitation and he cracked
a smile.

“
No way. This is going to
be awesome. Let's go over it again.”

She gave him a look of disbelief and he
returned it with an impish grin, deciding to change the subject
slightly.

“
You're not wearing that
on stage, are you?”

She looked down at her jeans and orange tank
top. “What's wrong with this?”

“
You look a little like a
hobo.” He pursed his lips, trying to not smile.

She shrugged. “I can live with that.”

He laughed at her blasé attitude and
readjusted the guitar. “It's your call, just trying to be
helpful.”

***

Blake cracked his knuckles in anticipation.
They were next up. Lucy stood calmly to his left, cool as ever. He
had sent out a mass text to both bands, Lenny, Kendra and Carl to
come and see this. So far he hadn't been able to spot any of them,
but that didn't mean they weren't there. He was sure Kendra was
lurking somewhere nearby.

“
Next up... Randy Giles!”
The MC introduced them and Blake smirked at the snicker that went
through the crowd.

He took his position on the stool off to the
side as Lucy stood in front of the mic. She hadn't changed her
clothes and he was proud of his stubborn little hobo. It didn't
matter, she was still breathtaking.

He waited for her cue before he began the
simple song they had finished up that afternoon.

For some reason, the song
seemed even more powerful when played in front of a crowd of
people. Blake felt adrenaline start to course through his veins,
and he hoped that Lucy could feel it too.

It was a fun little song.
Clever and quirky with enough snark in it to make full use of
Lucy's soft drawl. She sold it too. She had been great during
practice, but she was always better live. She had her dad's gift of
showmanship and she played the crowd like Blake played that
worn-out guitar resting on his lap: expertly. She made the whole
thing seem effortless, like telling a story at the supper table. To
the casual observer this did not look like an open mic opportunity,
it looked like a ringer. And for all intents and purposes, it was.
Blake knew she was great, he was trying to convince
her.
With the way she
was strutting across that stage, he had to believe she knew, in her
core, that she had a gift.