Page 266 of Hot Mess
Ashley looked amused at my assessment. “You can tell all that from a playlist?”
I shrugged. “It’s an educated-guess scenario. And by the way, pretty much the same things I thought about you when I listened to your playlist.” I snaked my hand around his hip to give his tight butt a squeeze. “But all the greatest rock stars have a high sex drive and deep-seated issues, don’t they?”
He pressed into me, his eyes darkening. “You approve?”
“Should I?”
He kinda snickered. “Wait ’til you see him. You can tell me.”
“Huh.” I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I didn’t know what this Matt guy looked like. “Is he as pretty as you…?”
“I’d love to get your opinion on that.”
“Hmm.” Interesting. “Well… Taylor would approve of his playlist, definitely. ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ is Metallica’s best song ever. She’s told me so, and she knows these things.” Then I handed the phone back to him like the conversation was all buttoned up.
Ash smirked at me. “So… he’s hired?”
“Yeah. Maybe. If you’re happy.” I touched his face and drifted my fingers down to his mouth. “If it makes you happy to make music with him…”
“We’ll see,” he said, his hand sliding down to my butt.
“Hey, Ashley. We should go back to the bar before we end up in bed again and my sister burns the place down.”
“Hey, Danica?” He brushed his lips over mine, trying to nudge them apart.
“Mmm?”
“Youmake me happy.”
I smiled, and he took the opportunity to get his tongue in my mouth and kiss me, deep.
So maybe our detour could take one last little bend in the road…
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ash
Six weeks later…
“Let’s do that one again,” I said into the mic. I was soaked in sweat, adrenalin buzzed and incredibly happy.
Like I hadn’t been this happy since… Well, since this morning, in bed with Danica.
“Yup.” Matt smiled, then started in with that sick bass line again.
We played Muse’s “Uprising” for the third time, top to bottom. Just because. We needed to play something, so we could get in a room and make music together, and we didn’t yet have any songs of our own.
And holy Christ, it was fun.
When we finished the song, again, I fucking grinned at the people onstage with me and growled, “Fuuuck yeaaah,” into my mic.
“I’ve got one word for you all,” Summer said into her mic. “HOT.”
Matt laughed.
He was home from the road with Dirty for their August tour break, and we’d gotten together with him as soon as we could. Dirty was letting us use their jam space at the gorgeous old church. We’d probably get our own space in the spring, but for now, we were up on Dirty’s stage. The three of us, along with Dylan, who’d come by to play drums for us, and Jesse, who’d come to help us out on guitar.
