Page 97 of Hope & Harmony

Especially since I was planning to ask her out.

Instead, I’d used her pushiness as an excuse to avoid doing something I hadn’t done since Clara died. I’d gone out with a handful of women, had sex with more than I could count, but I’d never asked a woman out with the intention of starting something. Or at least seeing where it could go.

I’d been hiding under grief and pain and myriad other emotions to avoid emotional entanglements.

And I’d done the same thing with my music.

It was easier to hide than to face my grief again, or to remember everything and everyone I’d lost.

What Kingston was asking was too much.

It was.

Wasn’t it?

I was still looking into Wynter’s beautiful eyes, and suddenly, I wasn’t sure about anything.

Devyn, Z, and Kellan had come off stage, leaving Tommy to do his drum solo, which might last three or four minutes if he pushed it.

And now they were looking at me too.

As if they’d planned this.

“I can’t,” I said finally.

“You can,” Kingston said firmly. “You can do anything you put your mind to.”

“Stop talking!” Devyn admonished him, smacking his arm.

He gave her a look and she turned to me, the question in her eyes impossible to miss.

“Not you too,” I groaned.

“We promised him we’d never bring this up,” Kellan said.

“This is different,” Z pointed out. “We couldn’t anticipate running into a situation like this.”

“I haven’t sung like that in over a decade,” I interjected. “I don’t know what shape my voice is in, even if I wanted to.”

“It can’t be worse than Kingston going out there and losing his voice completely,” Devyn said.

“Come on, man. This is important.” Z lifted his hands in a helpless gesture.

“There could be a nice bonus in it for you,” Kellan added.

I gritted my teeth, trying to calm the roaring in my ears. “You know this isn’t about money. Jesus.”

“This isn’t part of your job description but we’re a family here,” Kellan said. “We’re there for each other. Aren’t we? It’s only a couple of songs.”

Only a couple of songs?

They had no idea how much they were asking of me.

It was so much more than a couple of songs.

Yet there didn’t appear to be a way for me to say no.

Because Onyx Knightwasmy family, the only one I had these days. My parents had passed away several years ago, I hada brother I only saw once or twice a year, and that was about it. So, these guys were important to me beyond the fact that they were my employers.

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