Page 80 of Places I've Never Been

Mattie laughed. “You aren’t fooling me, boys. I’ve seen you work, and I know you both have real passion for the music. We can start at noon if you don’t mind staying in session until midnight.”

Flynn wrinkled his nose. “No way. Nights are sacred.”

“Besides, seems to me you’ll be too busy…” Brandon trailed off when LT hit him on the shoulder.

“Shut it, you. Bro code. Sex talk is off limits.” LT took the stairs two at a time.

Mattie winked at Brandon. “It would be a shame to miss the stars. Maybe we could do an outdoor session. That would be fun.”

“Only if it’s private,” Adam muttered.

“We can be private later,” she whispered.

He flashed her a hungry look. “How much later?”

She shook her head. “Work first.”

Adam growled in a playful way as they climbed the stairs to the Big House.

When they reached the open living room, the boys headed straight for the kitchen. Cooper had arrived before the rest of them and was already sitting on one of the sofas, tuning his guitar.

“Slackers.” Cooper strummed a few chords, tilted his head, and hit one note over and over. “This string’s toast.”

Mattie crossed the room to give Cooper a kiss on the cheek. “Lanmou Bay was amazing. Thank you, Cooper.”

Adam leaned against the sofa. “Yeah, man. Thanks. It was cool.”

“I’m glad you two had a good time.”

Mattie sat down next to Cooper. “I’m sorry about Tina.”

Cooper nudged her shoulder with his. “Don’t be.”

“To be honest, what I meant was I’m sorry you had to put up with her. You deserve better.”

Adam chuckled. “You really do. She was high maintenance, man. You need to get a better picker.”

Cooper gave them a wry smile. “Thanks. If you can let me know where to find that something better, that’d be great. Hey, Mattie, you have sisters. Any of them single?”

She shook her head in sympathy. “Lizzie’s taken. Piper’s single, but she’s too wrapped up in work to notice any man right now.”

“What about the dizzy one?” Cooper asked. “She seems like fun.”

“Della?” Mattie’s smile faltered. Della might be a good match for Cooper in a lot of ways. “I’m not sure. She probably has someone hanging around. She always does.”

Adam snorted. “Not sure you need another dizzy blonde anyway. Remember how Lana turned out?”

Cooper nodded. “Truth. Well, if you find your clone, Mattie, I’m all in.”

“I’ll keep my eyes open.”

She hated dating. All the awkward silences, the time spent eating with someone you didn’t know or like, the failed dates replayed on Twitter like some sort of reality show.

“So, we doing this or are we dissecting Cooper’s love life?” Flynn asked. “’Cause I’m happy to do either.”

Brandon took a seat on the stool behind the keyboards and played theJeopardy!theme.

“That’s not helping,” Adam said. He crossed to the center of the room. “Mattie’s got a few new lines, but we need a filler, and then we need to cross to the verse. LT, you get anywhere last night?”

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