Page 31 of Secondhand Smoke
But he was right that she needed to learn hands-on. The muscle memory would be far easier to recall than the pictures in the book. There was no way she would be able to do anything without holding this guitar and forcing her fingers into uncomfortable positions.
“Play a C.”
She adjusted her fingers, peeking at the illustration on the page to mimic where they went, and strummed three times. None of them sounded right. They sounded stiff, one of the strings even buzzing loudly.
Barrett moved one finger further up. “Try again, and relax that top one a bit.”
She strummed again, and this time it sounded better. Not perfect, but at least it didn’t buzz awkwardly like before.
She smiled up at him, eager for his approval.
Instead, she was interrupted by a loud knock on the front door.
They both paused and looked at the door, then at each other. Voices were on the other side—a few guys, she would guess. She didn’t recognize them, but Barrett must have because he cursed under his breath and stood up.
“Give me a sec,” he said and motioned for her to stay put.
She sat in her chair, legs crossed, with guitar held in her lap. She was afraid that if she moved too much, she might lose the hold of the C chord that was finally working for her.
The door opened, but she couldn’t see past Barrett’s body as he purposefully blocked her view.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Barrett hissed, his voice low like he didn’t want her to hear, but in the small house, it would be difficult to hide any conversations.
“Now, that’s rude,” someone she couldn’t see said, and there were a few mumbles of agreement. “We come bearing gifts, and this is how we’re treated.”
“Now’s not a good time,” Barrett said, tightening even closer to the door opening.
Nell frowned, unsure if he was hiding them from her or her from them.
“What? You got some chick in there?”
A tingling heated the skin of Nell’s cheeks. She was certainly “some chick”, but she wondered if they would even believe Barrett if he said that it wasn’t what they thought it was. She wondered if he’d tell them about her at all.
“You guys need to go.”
“Oh, come on, man,” a new voice, deeper than the first, chimed in. “We’ve already seen your Playboy collection. Whatever you’ve got in there can’t be any worse.”
Barrett made a choked sound, and Nell burned up.
Despite his best attempts, there was a small tussle leading to Barrett being pushed aside and Nell staring stunned into three pairs of shocked eyes.
12 - Barrett
Barrett’s heart hammered in his chest like he’d just been caught doing something terribly wrong.
Which he hadn’t, he reminded himself.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, waiting for this all to go terribly wrong.
Janelle’s gaze bounced between his three intruders, her skin glowing a delicious rose color, with a nervous lip pulled into her mouth.
No one said anything, which made the situation that much worse.
He thought he heard Paulie mumble something, but he couldn’t make it out. To his surprise, their loud mouths did not break the silence.
Janelle cleared her throat, and they all jumped like they hadn’t initially thought she was real. She stayed in her seat, with his guitar on her lap, but she raised her strumming hand and gave an unsure but sweet, small smile. “Hello.”
That broke them out of their trance, and Toni ran a hand through his black curls. Dennis and Paulie looked at each other, their faces twisted in disbelief.
