Ten Days of Perfect (25 page)

“What the hell?” My response produced a rumble of laught
er from the crowd, and from Bo.

“I picked it up on my way here - I was on my way when you texted,” Monica whispere
d, unable to contain her smile.

Shaking the daze from my head, I absentmindedly reached for the guitar
and slung it over my shoulder.

“Come on,” Bo
urged, and the crowd clapped.

I took a deep breath, the desert in my throat was thankful that I wouldn’t be singing, and closed my eyes. I kept them closed long enough to regulate my breathing.  Fleeing from their hiding place, my eyes opened to see Bo staring at me, perhaps questioning his move to surprise me with the guitar. I wasn’t upset; this was the most romantic thing that I’d ever witnessed and it was happening to me. I gave him a reassuring smile and joined in seamlessly.  It was the first time I’d
ever
performed with the guitar, but I relaxed after just one line; beacons of light and exuberance shone from my core, hi
ghlighting the awestruck crowd.

“Keep playing that - don’t stop,” Bo said, as I focused on th
e task quite literally at hand.

In a second I heard a higher melody that harmonized perfectly with what I was playing. I looked over at Bo and he cautioned a proud grin as he pl
ayed this beautiful compliment.

“I wrote this part today
, for you,” he said in
to the microphon
e.

I stopped hearing the applause long before it ceased. My eyes blurred with tears; I begged my fingers to hold on to the notes they knew. Bo wrote music for
me.
Music is the original love letter, and Bo Cavanaugh was reciting his to me for all of Finnegan’s to witness. It is as public a proclamation of love as one can receive and each chord he played had a direct l
ine to one of my heart strings.

There weren’t any lyrics, but Bo intermittently hummed a husky-sweet melody in to the microphone, as if he were trying to work out lyrics in his head. This was surely more beautiful than words could ever be. I saw my parents do this regularly when I was a child; at night after I went to bed they would stay up and just play music with each other. My dad would strum something and my mom would respond with her voice, the piano, or her own stringed instrument. I would peek at them out on the porch from my bedroom window but they never noticed; they were lost in each other the entire time. It filled my heart with such joy then, and now I could feel it first handed as it se
nt me through the stratosphere.

Any love I thought I had for Bo Cavanaugh before this very moment paled in comparison to what exploded through me on stage. Reckless Abandon was left in the dust, her chest heaving in the after-effects of this gesture. I thought that if th
at
was
as good as it
would get
, I wanted to stay forever; if it was going to get even bet
ter - Heaven help me.

With one blink, tears trundled down my face; luckily we were nearing the end of the song. When I reached the last bar and stopped, Bo continued for another couple of lines. The higher melody was perfect, and he wrote it
for me.
When Bo finished and the crowd clapped, I could no longer hold back. I set my guitar down, grabbed his face, and sank my thanks into his lips right there on stage while
the crowd yelped and whistled.

“Did you like it?” Bo whispered, grazing a tear off my cheek as I pu
lled myself away from the kiss.

“Bo,” I faltered through a thesaurus of gratitud
e, “it was absolutely perfect.”

I dabbed under my eyes and looked out to the crowd
, where I saw
Adrian was standing cross-armed near the door. His eyes connected briefly with mine
before they fell to the floor.

“I’m going to take a little break, but I’ll be back,” Bo said before he silenced his mic and led me off
stage.

Monica acc
osted me before we hit the bar.

“November, Jesus! That was the sexiest, sweetest, most romantic thing I’ve ever seen!” She squeezed me with all her might and
I reciprocated. She was right.

“Ember,” Josh approached us cautiously with wide, round eyes. “I had no idea you could . . .” he trailed off, looking
at me for approval to continue.

“Th
anks.” I smiled and he relaxed.

Bo grabbed my shoulders from behind me and kissed my neck. Elation ebbed when I heard Adrian’s voice.

“That was good,
really
good.” Adrian
’s
compliment sounded forced
; he could barely make eye contact with me
as he leaned in
. “I get it,” he whispered
; his lips an inch from my ear.

“Yo, Spence, can I talk to you outside for a minute?” Adrian turned to Bo.
‘Spence’ is it?

“Sure, be right back babe.” Bo kissed my other ear
before he headed out the door.

Once Bo was out of sight, I told Monica that he’d asked me to go to Con
cord with him the next morning.

“You’re going to go, right?” Expectation poured through her words
.

“Of course I am, as long as you don’t mind travelling there alone. We’ll ride back together.” I tried to
control my beaming excitement.

“You go. Have yourself a fantastic weekend of love, and music, and whatever the hell else it is
you two perfect creatures do.”

Josh came up behind me and handed me a beer. He was standing next to Monica, but her ey
es remained focused on my face.

“Uh, Mon?” Josh cleared his throat as he tried to capture her a
ttention.

Monica’s stance collapsed, and her shoulders slumped as she turned toward Josh.
Her head dropped
, but Josh lifted her chin with his index finger, bringing her eyes to his. They stared at each other, saying nothing with words, but their eyes spoke volumes.
There’s a
thousand lifetimes right there.

I don’t know if it was the complexity of the situation between Josh and Monica, my own feelings for Bo, or the raging war between where I
was
and where I want
ed
to be
,
but when I watched Josh and Monica stare at each other, fresh tears begged for release.

“Guys, I love you both. Josh, I hate how shitty I’ve been to you, but Monica’s my soul-mate best friend. I’ll get out of your hair so you guys can talk.” I hugged them and headed
to
the back door before either of them could respond. I gave a quick glance over my shoulder and saw Josh tenderly place his arm around Monica’s shoulders as they
walked to a table in the back.

I started to open the door to the deck, but stopped briefly when I noticed a heated exchange between Bo and Adrian. I could see the sides of each of their bodies; both of them retained clenched jaws, spoke through gritted teeth, and mo
tioned wildly with their hands.

“This is going too far . .  .” was all I heard from Adrian’s
mouth before I started yelling.

“What the hell is going on?” I fumed
as I walked boldly up to them.

They stood motionless, their eyes dueling. I slid between what little space they had between their bodies, causing
them to each take a step back.

“I’ve had enough of this awkwardness between the two of you, and I
know
it’s not because of me.” I hung on the word ‘me’ as I arched my eyebrow at Adrian. “Now, one of you better tell me what this is all about or I’ll leave and not speak to either one of you again.”
Poker face activated.

Long seconds passed as Adrian and Bo held a soundless conversation. I took one step forward,
enough of this
, and made my way to the door before Adrian grabbed my arm.
Again, really?

“Ember,
wait,
” he said, clearly conflicted.

“Let go of her, Turner,” Bo said harshly, without reaching for
my other arm. “I’ll tell her.”

My pulse quickened
,
and the heat of
anticipation scorched my ears.

“Tell me what?” I shook free from Adrian’s lingering hold.

I turned my back to Adrian and faced Bo. His face looked like it was about to s
hatter under the punch of pain.

“Bo, tell me what?” I said with more
assertion, my hand on his arm.

He stepped back, which threw me off balance emotionally, and my hand remained suspended in air for a split second before I let it fall haphazardly to my side. I turned around and looked at Adrian, who just nodded in Bo’s direction with a look of concession. I slowly turned back around to see Bo seated with his elbows on his knees, his han
ds clenched around his hair.

“Ember,” he lifted his head and shot me an exhausted gaze
.
“I’m being blackmailed.”

“Blackmailed? By who? For what?” Thoughts flew out of my mo
uth before I could filter them.

Bo’s elbows remained on his knees as he searched my face. His eyes ran red with pain, and I had to look down. He swallowed hard and looked past my shoulder, to Adrian. I turned on
my heels and met Adrian’s eyes.

“Wait,
you
?” I said to Adrian.

“No, Ember, I’m not,” Adrian said unflappably, as if he was prepared for my reaction. “I’m
on his legal team - remember?”

“Are
you
being blackmailed or is DROP being blackmailed.” I had three trillion questions, but I stuck to the most basic as my head wrapped around the world
‘blackmail.’

Bo looked up
at Adrian, who gave him a nod.

“It’s just me. The only connection this has to DROP, of course, is my money. Otherwise, this is one hundred percent personal.” A
grim line set across his brow.

“How long has this been going on?” I
asked.

“About six week
s,” Bo whispered, still seated.

“OK
. So you,” I pointed to Bo, “knew you were being blackmailed when you came to town. And you,” I pointed to Adrian, “knew he was being blackmailed when you recommended our agency to him?” the basement
of my voice flooded with anger.

Adrian took a step toward me, bu
t I stepped back, stopping him.

“No. I’ve only been consulting with DROP’s legal team for a few weeks. I was consulted specifically for the purpose of finding a collaborating agency. It wasn’t until after the initial contacts with Hope were made that I was informed of the blackmail.” He gave me a minute
to process, before continuing.

“Once it looked like the collaboration was going to go forward, and I could tell you two were developing . . . feelings for each other, it became a problem for me on an ethical level. I didn’t want to involve you with something like this. But, my hands were tied as far as what I could tell you.” Adrian shrug
ged and took a seat next to Bo.

“But Bo, you had no problem involv
ing me?” No thought was sacred.

“Ember, you’re not involved, nor did I plan on you ever finding out. This is a personal attack by some assholes. Adrian was convinced you’d find out anyway, especially when he couldn’t get you to stay away from me.” Bo’s mouth hooked
into a seductive, wicked grin.

“Adrian, why do you feel it’s so important for me to know? You and I are in agreement that I’d probably find out anyway; wouldn’t that have bod
ed better for you, in the end?”

“What are you talking about?” Adrian looked at me curiously.

“You could have told me right away, right? You’ve been cryptic all week, tel
ling me to be careful around Bo,
and I still can’t tell if that has to do with me and Bo or just me. Was this for his protection, mine, or yours?” I spoke frankly and laid it all out for Adrian.

“Ember,” Adrian sighed, “I don’t understand why you think
I’m such an asshole. Aside from really wanting to keep you safe, it kills
me to see you with someone else. I miss you, Blue
.”

Blue.
A lacy black corset tightened itself neatly around m
y throat with a wide satin bow.
My eyes tripled in size, as if they were trying to hear what he’d said.