Page 9 of The First Chord

I nodded solemnly. “I do, but nothing has happened and I’m not sure it will.”

“But you like her?” Beau asked. “More than as a friend.”

“I don’t know. I mean, I think about her a lot.” I sighed because the whole thing was a mess. “How did you know you felt more for Sim than friendship?”

At the mention of his girlfriend, he grinned and looked all stupid. “I just knew. It crept up on me, yet it also hit me like a ton of bricks.” He shrugged. “If you’re feeling it, mate, then you’re done for.”

Shit.

“I think I need to stay away from her.”

“That’s probably going to be hard, Ron,” Elliot said with a shrug. “How does she feel about you?” The same way?”

When I heard the clatter of cutlery, I spun my gaze towards it. Jimmy’s mouth was close to Amber’s ear, and he was gripping her forearm. Instantly I moved to stand up, but Joey clamped his hand on my shoulder.

“She won’t thank you for stepping in. Give her a second.”

His tone was low and warning, so I took heed and waited, watching carefully. A few seconds later, Amber pulled her arm away and narrowed her eyes on Jimmy, said something that looked like it might have had the work fuck in it, and then got up from her chair. It almost toppled over but my attention was on the way she stormed out with poise; head held high. My gaze didn’t falter until she was out of the dining room. When I looked over at Jimmy, he was lounging back in his chair with his hand clutching a glass of what looked like whisky. He was laughing too loudly, but his band members evidently weren’t finding things quite as funny. Brandon seemed particularly angry as he was pointing a finger at Jimmy and slamming his other hand on the table.

“She’s stronger than you think,” Joey said. “Let her take it at her pace, mate.”

Shocked at his words of wisdom, I stared at him as he shoved his toothpick back into his mouth.

“Shit, El,” Beau said, blinking. “He’s taken over from you as wise man of the band.”

“Never.” Elliot shook his head. “I mean, look at him.”

Joey was grimacing and slowly pulled the piece of wood out. “Shit. I’ve just stuck it in my gum.”

“Case closed,” Elliot said with a shrug and, thankfully, the atmosphere relaxed. Although my mind was still on the beautiful blonde who had just walked out of the door.

CHAPTER6

AMBER

When I used to watch Jimmy from the side of the stage, I’d get masses of butterflies in my stomach. The excitement would be too much, to the point I felt physically sick. The nausea now was more to do with the poison lying in my stomach. As I watched the gig it hit me that just looking at Jimmy made me angry these days. Hearing his voice set me on edge. I had no idea what mood he was in from day to day but each one was getting progressively worse, the days and the moods.

“You okay?”

I turned to see Joey standing behind me. He was in a t-shirt with the arms ripped off and his hands were taped up ready for their set in around forty-five minutes. Of all of Warrior Creek, he had the biggest bad boy vibe going on. With his tattoos, shaved head, and dark eyes which twinkled with devilment, I could see why some people thought him scary. I knew Jimmy did. He barely even dared look sideways at him. I’d always liked him, though, finding him funny and approachable in the little time I spent with him.

“Hi, Joey. I’m good, thanks. You?”

He tilted his head to one side and looked at me through one eye. “Sure?” Looking past me towards the stage he sighed. “I see Jimmy is on form.”

I turned to see my husband had divested himself of his shirt and was prancing around circling one of his nipples with his finger. My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach as he then leaned into the crowd from the edge of the stage and basically snogged some girl who had pulled up her t-shirt to show a pair of bare tits.

“He’s so charming,” I replied. “I’m such a lucky girl.”

“It looked like he was being a bit of a dick at dinner.”

I wasn’t sure how to defend Jimmy. I wasn’t sure whether Iwantedto defend him. I knew that I should. He was my husband, and my loyalty should have been with him, but all that I could manage was a shrug.

“You know you can come to any of us if you need anything,” Joey offered, placing a hand on my back.

His words shocked me. I spent time with Ronnie and was very occasionally in the company of the rest of the band, during dinner or a couple of after show parties. I would never have expected they knew me enough to want to be my support network, though.

“Don’t look so surprised.” Joey laughed. “When you’re a friend of one of us, you’re a friend of all of us.”

---