Page 31 of Steady Stroke
Her guarded expression didn’t go away, and his stomach sank. “What else happened?”
She ducked her head and mumbled something.
“Say that again?”
“I kind of called the police and said I had an intruder.”
Lincoln mentally facepalmed. “Are you kidding me?”
“No. After I explained it all, though, the cops were really understanding. No one got in trouble or arrested or anything.”
I owe Emmett so much grade-A groveling right now.
“I’m so sorry, Linc.”
“I know, you’ve said that repeatedly.” Lincoln wasn’t ready to say he forgave her yet. Not now that police had been involved. First, he needed to speak to Emmett and find out from him that he was okay. Roxy wouldn’t lie, but he needed to hear directly from Emmett. “Thanks for the soup.”
He ignored her wounded expression as he left the kitchen for his room. His phone was nearly dead, so he plugged it into the charger while he made the call.
Voice mail.
“Hey, Emmett, it’s Lincoln. I want to apologize about yesterday and maybe make it up to you. Call me, okay? I, um, really had fun until the whole migraine/pepper-spray thing. Anyway, talk to you later. Bye.”
Lame.
It got the message across. Now he had to wait.
He watched more QChord tutorials on YouTube, and he even found an arrangement for “The Sound of Silence” that worked with the instrument. More and more, he hated that he had to wait three more days for the instrument to arrive. His fingers itched with the very real need to pluck strings, pull a pick, to simply make music again.
Maybe XYZwouldgrace the Unbound stage one last time.
His phone rang, and he answered without paying attention to the screen. “Emmett?”
“No, baby, it’s Melody.” She giggled. “Who’s Emmett?”
“Someone I hung out with yesterday. Waiting for him to call me back.”
“Hung out, huh? Any body parts in particular hang out?”
He snorted. “No. It wasn’t that kind of date, Mel.” He didn’t want to talk about Emmett with her right then. Not until he spoke with Emmett about the pepper spray. “What’s up, girl?”
“I’m bored. Let’s go out tonight and not pick up guys. Again.”
“You know, one of these days you should make it a point to try and pick up someone. Attitude is everything.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. So you wanna?”
“Sure, why not? Off Beat?”
She blew a raspberry. “We always go there. There are a bazillion other bars around here. Pick something out of the phone book and text when you want to meet there.”
Off Beat would give him the perfect excuse to check on Emmett, but the club didn’t open for a few hours yet. There was still time for Emmett to call him back. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Excellent. Later, hot stuff.”
Lincoln spent some time scrolling through thelocal bar scene until he found a place with a live band at ten that he actually wanted to see. He texted Melody the details, and she quickly sent back a GIF of Michael Jackson moonwalking.
If nothing else, Melody always helped him smile.
