Page 3 of Rock On

I shook my head. “Never. Besides, I love her to death, but I know for a fact, you’re not exaggerating. She can be…a lot. She’s also kinda overprotective.Veryoverprotective. You’d think I was twelve and not twenty-five. Last week, she warned me about even talking to any of the band members.” I rolled my eyes. “Like I’d just randomly run into one of them. Geez. They’re probably sequestered off someplace. Besides… They can’t be that bad, right?”

Jerrin coughed, looking around the lot, deserted other than for the cars themselves. There wasn’t a soul milling around. “Nah, the band’s not that bad. I…uh…don’t have a car here. Can you drive?”

“Sure.”

Of course, he didn’t have a ride here. With so many local and traveling band crews and administrative staff working the music festival, parking was at a premium and people got shuttled in from secondary lots in town.

Pulling out my keys, I aimed the fob at my pink VW Bug and unlocked the doors. I nodded toward it, my pride and joy. “I’m right over there.”

“Cool. Let’s get out of here.” In long strides, he tugged me toward my vehicle.

“In a hurry?” I laughed, thoroughly enjoying the firm, warm grip of his hand around mine. The tingly sensation was so unexpected, and I liked it, not wanting to let go anytime soon.

“You have no idea what it’s like at a gig. I might not have something to do right now, but if someone sees me, it’s all over.”

“Oh, then we’d better hurry. I’ll text Marley when we’re in the car—”

“Why?”

I lifted a brow at the growl in his curt one-word question. “To tell her to come to my place tonight if she can?” My response wasn’t really in question, though it sounded that way when I answered him. “I haven’t seen her since Christmas, so we’re supposed to spend some time together while she’s here. You know this is her home town, right?”

“Yeah, she’s mentioned it. I believe what she said was ‘these are my people. Don’t fuck them over.’ That’s not really a paraphrase there, either.”

I winced. “Hate to say it, but that sounds exactly like her.”

“Oh, it’s her,” Jerrin assured me as he held open the driver’s door for me before he dashed around to hop into the passenger’s side. He paused to look up at the dark sky before he closed the door.

“Looks like it might storm.”

“Sure does,” I agreed, looking at the iron-gray clouds through my windshield. “Everything’s gonna turn to a muddy mess if it does.”

He laughed, the sound a deep, rich flow that rolled over all my pleasure centers. “What’s a music festival without a ton of mud?”

“Hmm…more fun?” I countered while I started the car and shifted into reverse.

“Nah, it’s great. Haven’t you seen the iconic Woodstock pictures? Or seen a tough mudder race? It’s a blast.”

I wrinkled my nose, my skin itchy at just the thought of it.

“I’ll take your word for it.” I hated being dirty, but still, the thought of Jerrin rough and dirty did things to me down low. Things I needed to ignore. I also needed to get my mind out of the gutter ASAP. “Um, where to?”

He shrugged as he pulled on his seatbelt. “Anywhere you want. Maybe, someplace quiet where we can hang out and get to know each other.”

“If you don’t mind drive-thru food, I know a place.”

“I love drive-thru food. You kinda have to when you’re on the road a lot.”

“You don’t look like you eat a lot of fast food,” I said before I thought better of it. Mentally kicking myself, I got busy pulling out of my space and driving over the rutted path to the road.

“Yeah? What do I look like?”

My face burned. Gah… Just minutes after meeting him and I was already embarrassing myself.

“You look like you don’t frequent the golden arches on the regular.”

“One of the haulers that travels with us is a gym. All the crew and band have access to it when we’re at a venue. I make use of it.”

I sank my teeth into the inside of my bottom lip so I didn’t blurt out my thought that clearly, he did work out. Clamping down on the urge to glance over at him and all those muscles, I turned out onto the street, glad to stop jarring my brain with the bumpy drive over the uneven land.

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