Shade grinned. “It just takes confidence and persistence.”
“And being someone more important than the band’s bassist.” Owen chuckled.
“I’m sure he’d have given you the keys if you’d asked . . . And explained that you knew me.” Shade grinned at Owen’s scowl. “Where to?”
Owen sent a text to someone he knew locally, and within a few minutes they had directions and were on their way to Shay’s Shrimp Shack, someplace miles outside the city.
“Shrimp? I thought you said they had crawdads,” Shade grumbled.
“They do, but they must have shrimp too.”
As the buildings became farther apart and twisted mangrove trees crowded each other, reaching gnarled, moss-strewn branches toward the narrow road, Shade’s thoughts returned to his biggest concern.
“Do you have any idea why Adam isn’t writing on this tour?” Shade asked.
Owen smirked. “Since he hooked up with Madison, he seems to be thinking with his dick most of the time. Maybe the little head lacks his usual creative spark.”
Adam had recently been spending a lot of time with his rehab counselor turned lover. Could that really be the problem? He did seem distracted when she was around, and downright irritable when she wasn’t.
“We need to reinstate our no-women-on-tour rule,” Shade said. “They always lead to trouble.”
“Speaking of trouble, is Amanda coming to the show tonight?”
Shade shook his head. “While I loved seeing her the other night, I asked her not to surprise me again.”
“And how pissed off was she when you told her that?”
Shade shrugged. “Not at all. She’s a reasonable person.”
“She didn’t assume you didn’t want her to show up unannounced because she might catch you doing something she wouldn’t approve of?”
“Such as?”
“Banging some other chick.”
Shade scratched his head over his left ear. “She didn’t say anything about it.” But he did have such a reputation. He had cheated on her sister while they’d been married, but at least he hadn’t cheated with her sister. He hadn’t slept with Amanda until well after his divorce from Tina had been finalized. “Amanda trusts me, I guess.” She was the complete opposite of her sister, who had never trusted him. Maybe that was why he liked her so much.
“Are you going to see her this weekend?”
“Yep, all weekend. And Julie too.”
“Well, that should put a damper on your fun,” Owen said with a laugh.
“How so?”
“You’ll have to keep your interactions with Amanda rated G in front of Julie.”
That might pose a bit of a challenge since he couldn’t keep his hands off the woman. “Do you think I’m incapable of controlling my urges?”
Owen snorted. “Yep, pretty much. Does Tina know you’re banging her sister?”
“Nope.”
“She’s going to find out eventually,” Owen said. “She’ll probably take it better if you’re up front with her about it.”
Shade laughed. “I can’t imagine her ever taking it well. Do you remember how crazy she went when she found out about that groupie I fucked in Vegas?”
“That was before you were divorced,” Owen said. “You were legally and morally obligated to keep it in your pants and you didn’t.”
Shade rubbed his suddenly queasy belly. It always got tied in knots when the subject of his infidelity was broached. He still felt guilty about it. Tina had started accusing him of cheating long before he’d sought comfort in the arms of other women, but Owen was right. He should have divorced Tina before he’d succumbed to his weakness for a good piece of compliant ass. Tina had never been compliant—not even in the bedroom—and while her fire had been hot as Hell in the beginning, eventually it had burned him to ashes.
“Sorry,” Owen said after a long moment of silence. “Shouldn’t have brought that up.”
Shade shrugged, though his stomach was still clenching. Maybe he was just hungry. “Can’t change any of it.” And he couldn’t change the way he felt about Amanda either. Maybe they should just come out and tell Tina that they were getting serious.
Were they getting serious? He was leaning that way. However, he wasn’t so sure about Amanda’s feelings. He knew she liked him. They always had a good time together—and how could she resist his prowess in bed—but did she have deeper feelings for him? Was she willing to confront her sister and claim him as her lover or did she think he wasn’t worth the trouble their relationship would cause?
Owen pointed out the window. “I didn’t know they had cows in this part of the country. Stop the truck.”
“What?”
“They look bored.”
“Cows are supposed to be bored.”
“Just stop the truck.”
With a resigned sigh, Shade pulled the truck to a halt in a short gravel drive before a metal gate. Owen opened his door and hopped out.
“What the hell are you doing?” Shade asked as Owen opened the gate and entered the pasture with a small herd of bovines that watched him warily with large brown eyes as they chewed their cud.
“Bringing entertainment to the lives of these poor creatures.”
Shade pulled out his phone and readied his camera, certain that Owen was about to do something that required photographic evidence. While he was fiddling with the phone, he noticed that he had an alert that Adam was nearby. Shade no longer kept tabs on the guy—well, not as extensively as he had when Adam had been hooked on heroin—but it did make him smile to see his friend so close. He’d almost g
iven up on pestering him about writing songs today, but maybe he could convince Adam to hang out with him and Owen.
Shade sent Adam several quick text messages—hey and you busy and yo Adam—before switching to camera mode and focusing on Owen. He wasn’t sure what had Owen up to his typical antics, but it probably had something to do with Shade’s undeniably foul mood. Owen couldn’t stand it when his companions weren’t happy.
“Here, Bessie,” Owen said, pulling a tuft of grass out by the roots and approaching the animals who had all stopped midchew to stare.
“Owen, don’t harass the cows. You’re liable to get shot by an angry farmer.”
Owen paid Shade no mind as he crept closer to the cows, shaking his clump of grass at them. “Come get the grass. Yummy grass.”
“Watch out for that—”
Owen gingerly stepped sideways to avoid a fresh cow pie. If Owen got shit on his shoes, he’d be riding in the bed of the truck.
“Don’t you ladies want some yummy grass?”
When Owen got a bit too close for the cows’ comfort, they began to take uneasy steps backward, tossing their heads and rolling their eyes. A few produced loud, disgruntled moos.
“Fine,” Owen said. “Be that way.” He tossed the grass aside and reached for the button of his jeans.
“What the fuck?” Shade asked. As confused as he was as to why Owen felt it necessary to drop his pants and moon the cows, it didn’t stop him from laughing and taking pictures of Owen’s exposed ass.