Page 3 of Legal

She sighed loudly. “Stephen’s stuck at work. A sev one issue or some shit like that. All I know is that he probably won’t be meeting us tonight.” I nodded, knowing that when my brother had major problems at the company, he couldn’t leave until they were resolved. “Oh well, more fun for us.”

Perry smiled, but it wasn’t very convincing. She handed me my ticket for the attendant to scan, then did the same with hers. She received a grin from him in return; not a politethank youone, but anI’d like to hook up with you latersmile that garnered no attention from her. Foolish boy; couldn’t he see he was wasting his charms on the wrong girl?

“Any special acts you came for this evening?” he asked.

I refrained from responding with, ‘Just browsing.’ I got the impression he was just feeling her out since the gate workers usually didn’t make small talk. He was backing up the line, but Perry had that effect on men.

“Hallowed Realm,” she replied quickly as we pushed our way through, nearly mowing down a bachelorette party. The bride-to-be wore a princess crown and little else.

“And you were freaking out about a tasteful little dress.”

“She looks half my age, Perry. It’s hardly the same.” She shrugged, but then her face grew pained as she watched the drunken group twirl away through the crowd. Most of the time, her amount of patience blew me away, but certain things like that would come along and trigger her.

“You know,” she said, “with Stephen not around to slobber all over me, I’ll have more time to spend with the hot lead singer.”

We headed over to the information desk to grab a program, the smell of chlorine from the cooling fountains making my eyes water.

“Your friend, Stu? I thought you said he’s gay.” And even if he weren’t, it didn’t matter how hot he was; I knew her well enough to know she’d never consider doing anything to hurt my brother.

“He is, but what the fuck, Jills? It’ll be six years next week.”

I felt for her; I really did. “Just give it a little more time, okay? There’s no question how much he loves you. You two are perfect for each other.”

Perry waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Of course, I’ll give it more time.” She sighed. “I always do. But he’d better get his ass in gear soon.”

I agreed, chomping down on my tongue to keep the words contained. Whatwastaking him so long? He already had the ring. He didn’t need to assemble the perfect proposal. Perry didn’t care about that; she just needed him. I was keeping the secret because he’d asked me to, and I wanted it to be special for her, but it was killing me. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold it in.

“So, how much time until they play?”

Perry double-checked the schedule. “Not for another hour, but I want to get there early so we can be right up front. They’ll be down at the north end.”

“Okay, how about we go down there and walk around a bit? We can grab a beer and check out some other music.”

“Sounds good.”

We aimed for the nearest stand and waited in line, my body buzzing with all the energy of the place. I couldn’t believe I’d stayed away so long. Before all the responsibilities set in, I used to save up my vacation time so I could spend the full eleven days down here every summer.

Perry held up two fingers when it was our turn at the counter, pointing once to the wine tapper, then to the beer. The man gave her a good looking over before tapping his finger on theWe Cardsign. She turned to me with a huge grin and whipped out her ID. Braggart.

I downed half of mine in one gulp. I’d make sure to get some food in my stomach before too long, but it was hard not to be parched when I could literally fry up a breakfast sandwich on the pavement below me.

We weaved in and out of the people, making our way to the far end of the park. If I remembered correctly, a lot of new and upcoming bands played that stage. I was really looking forward to checking them out.

“Hallowed Realm, right?” I’d never heard of them, but Perry said they’d only been around for a few years and mainly performed local gigs.

“Yep, you’ll love ‘em.” Perry tugged sharply on my arm, almost knocking my cup to the ground as she pulled me in a different direction. She pointed upward to the Sky Glider. “Sorry, I don’t want to be spit on.”

I laughed. “That’s one of those things they always say happens, but I’ve never seen it.”

“Well, I’m not taking the chance. The only secretions I want on me are Stephen’s. If he’s going down on me, he can cover me in as much spit as he wants.”

“I’m going to act like I never heard that.” Having a future sister-in-law as a best friend had many advantages. Hearing about my brother’s sex life wasn’t one of them. “Oh, my God. Is that a tattoo parlor?”

“Yeah, you interested? Someday I’d love to get another one.”

I shook my head. When I was younger, I always wanted one but couldn’t decide on the right design. Something sexy could turn downright scary when body parts started to shift. “Just look at that line.”

“It’s like that every year. They must make a killing here.”

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