Page 91 of Rock Giant
She chewed the inside of her cheek.“What does it matter?It was ages ago.I’m fine now.”
It mattered.Terrifyingly, he had a vision of her alone in the glass house they’d taken refuge in after Bertha went down.All alone with three kittens and no survival skills.As to her assertion that all was well now… That was patently untrue.She was engaged to an idiot, and clearly still living pretty much hand to mouth.
“I went to Europe,” she said, as they turned a corner.“Not directly, but once I’d got some cash together from some temping work.I explored a few places.Got work picking fruit and eventually wound up in Spain.You’ve already heard the rest.And now you’re frowning.”
“I don’t like the thought of you being homeless.”
She scoffed.“I’m not sure a tour bus counts as a permanent address, so that makes us both homeless, and you’ve been homeless longer.”
It wasn’t the same.“I have places to stay.”
“I have places to stay.”
He also had enough money and friends and extended family to never need to worry about shelter, or where his next meal was coming from, whereas he suspected she had barely enough to pay a deposit on a really shitty rental place for a month.Maybe it was time for him to put down some roots and get a place in case she ever needed somewhere.It wouldn’t have to be much.Something the size of one of Xane’s bolt holes would do.
There was an ice-cream seller a little way along as they headed seaward.Paul bought them both cones.Jodi licked the back of his fingers where it’d melted and run before he’d managed to hand it over.She gave him a cheeky grin when he raised his brows.
“Watch it, Castle.You might not approve of how I’ll retaliate.”
“Are you going to lick my fingers too?”
“There’s ice-cream on your face.”
“Oh.”She rubbed the edge of her mouth with the back of her hand, thus managing to splodge ice-cream in her hair.“Bugger!”
“Come here.Let me.”He got it out with his fingers, then threaded the same digits through the blonde tresses from near their roots.He wanted so badly to kiss her.
“Paul,” she said, peeping up at him with those soulful eyes.“Were you going to lick my cheek?”
He did just that.She squealed and swung at him, but he easily darted out of the way.Way nippier on his feet, and with a vastly longer stride, he had no trouble dodging her attempts to smack him in retaliation.She gave up in under a minute, breathing hard, and set about licking all the dribbles off her hand, and around the outside of her cone.Paul tucked into his own.
“No more licking me,” she said when he sidled up beside her and bumped their shoulders.
He could have offered to lick her places she might have liked him to lick, but he’d agreed to the friends thing, and he’d probably pushed his luck too far already over that.Maybe.He often licked his friends.
She turned away from him to look at the ducks paddling past and concentrated on her treat.
Once they’d finished their cones, they resumed strolling.Didn’t take her long to loop her arm around his in the way girls did when they wanted him to check his pace.He shortened his stride, but not so much that she’d feel secure letting go.He liked her there too much.Liked the scent of her, and the curl of his fingers against his forearm, and the way those passing by looked at them.
“What happened to your band?You used to have a different lineup.”
He nodded.“Steve died.Elspeth left.Luthor and Ronnie joined.”It was a nice succinct summary.Wasn’t much more that needed to be said, and he didn’t want to waste his time with her dwelling on past events.
“Sorry.You must miss them.”
Curiously, no one ever askedhimthat.They worried over Xane, but not the rest of them.Did he miss Steve?Their first drummer had been solid.He’d been a far better match for Elspeth than Xane had ever been.Did he miss Elspeth?All the fucking time, but even he recognised that the shit she’d done to the band had been too spiteful to easily forgive.Plus, Black Halo’s current incarnation had a lot going for it.“E and I have known one another since we were little kids.It’s weird touring without her, but” –he shrugged— “I still see her.Saw her at Equinox.She’s doing okay.”
She nodded.“You don’t have your bestie with you anymore though.I’d find that hard.”
He wanted to ask her who her bestie was, but suspected she’d say it was Nash, and frankly didn’t want to hear his name on her lips.
“It’s fine,” he said instead.“Ronnie’s a giggle.”
“But not the same though, right?”
Right.All too perceptively right.He and E, they really knew one another.That said, he wasn’t sure what she’d make of him getting handfasted.Probably wouldn’t approve.No doubt he’d get an earful when she did learn of it.He imagined he was in for several earfuls from several quarters.
“It must get lonely.You must get lonely.”
