Page 72 of Rescue

“Dude, you’re just the bass player.” He smirks. “No one gives a shit about the bass player.”

“Thanks,” I say, but I’m laughing.

“I mean it. You should go see Haylee.”

It’s tempting, definitely tempting. But I’m also not really in the mood to deal with Reed right now. “What do you think our drummer would have to say about this plan?”

He rolls his eyes. “I’ll handle Reed. I’ll tell him you’re sick or something.”

“You know, now that you mention it, my head has been bugging me.”

He laughs. “Which is totally understandable, considering you’ve been listening to all of our shit today, right?”

“Right.”

He takes a step toward me. “Seriously, Len. Just go. What I said about her being more adventurous than you?”

“Yeah?”

“I think that’s really good for you, to be with someone like that. I thinkshe’sgood for you. So go have fun.” He shakes his head. “God knows you deserve it.”

Wow. I’m actually a little touched by that. “And you’ll take the heat for me?”

He shrugs. “I figure I owe you one.”

“For what?”

He thinks for a moment before grinning. “I don’t know, but I’m sure you’ve bailed me out more than once.”

“When you put it like that, I’m sure you owe me several.”

He laughs, pushing my shoulders. “We’ll start with this one. Go have fun. Enjoy your day. And tell Haylee I said hi.” Then he turns to go, leaving me still grinning like a fool, this time for totally different reasons.

“Thanks, Cash!” I call after him, and he responds by flipping me off over his shoulder. Typical. I’m still laughing when I pull out my phone to call Haylee back.

***

“Isn’t this illegal?” Haylee asks many hours later as we sit on the embankment next to the river.

“What?” I ask, and she holds up our bottle of wine.

“They don’t have open container rules over here?”

“I actually have no idea.” I grab the bottle from her and take a swig. “But I’m willing to risk it.”

She grins, reaching for the wine. “Look at you, Mister Reckless Behavior.”

I laugh, leaning back on my elbows to look up at the stars, dim in the light of the city around us. “I just figure you can’t have bread and cheese by the Seine in Paris without wine.”

“It does add to the experience,” she says, mimicking my pose. Her fingers are close enough to reach over and touch, so I do, loving the barely audible sigh that escapes her lips at the contact. I wonder if that will ever get old, our physical reaction to each other. It’s hard to imagine.

“This was a good day,” she says quietly. “Remind me to thank Cash.”

“Oh, he’ll remind you. It’s not that he never does anything nice for someone else, but when he does, he thinks he should brag about it for months. Years, sometimes.”

She laughs softly. “I’ll be happy to thank him for this. It was perfect.”

Since my premature escape from band responsibilities, we’d enjoyed a few hours of catching up in my hotel room before embarking on an afternoon of lazy wandering around the city. We’d been to Notre Dame, walking through the nearly silent cathedral, the soaring ceilings and gorgeous stained glass stretching far overhead. After that we’d wandered through the maze-like bookshelves in the English-language Shakespeare and Company bookstore, Haylee humoring me for a good twenty minutes before declaring herself too bored to breathe.