Tristan didn’t need to explain further. Lyric got it. Fortunately, she didn’t ask his name, because she did not want to ever utter it again in her life. She opened up her program and looked at the bull riding page. His name wasn’t on it. Odd. What was he doing here if he wasn’t riding?
Bullet knew Tristan had seen Harris, but he w
ouldn’t let on he’d spoken to him just yet. Best to pretend the guy didn’t exist. He was pretty sure Tristan was thinking the same thing. The look of disdain she had on her face when she watched Harris Jones head toward the barn, immediately turned to a smile when she looked in his direction.
“Now, that’s what I like to see,” he said.
“What?”
“That beautiful smile. Those eyes that draw me in and make me want to look at nothin’ else for the rest of my life.”
“Nothing else?”
Bullet put his arm around her shoulders and drew her in close. “Before I make a mess of this, tell me, is it okay to kiss you out here, in front of God and everybody?”
Tristan leaned over, kissed Bullet’s cheek, and gave him a sweet smile.
He’d be keeping the more heated stuff at bay until she gave him the all clear. He wasn’t going to push her anymore, in any way.
“We’ve got some celebratin’ to do, ol’ Bullet.” Billy Patterson slapped him on the back.
Bullet was so happy tonight even Billy wouldn’t get to him.
“Back to our place, right, darlin’?” Billy said to Renie.
“God, yes,” she answered. “Mom is taking Willow and Sutter over to Bill and Dottie’s tonight. I pumped breast milk every chance I got so I could have a cocktail.”
“Oh, I hoped to see the baby,” sighed Tristan.
Renie and Billy’s son had been born the week after her father’s surgery. They’d named him Sutter Flynn Patterson.
“You can see him all you want tomorrow. You can hold him all you want tomorrow.” Renie smiled. “I say that now, but tonight is the first time I’ll be away from him, so you probably won’t be able to pry him out of my arms tomorrow.”
“I swear Willow wasn’t as big as him at a year old.” Billy put his arm around Renie’s waist and kissed her neck. “Our two-month-old is gonna eat us outta house and home before he can walk.”
“Good thing we have more than one home,” she smiled at him. “Come on, Tristan, we need to catch up.”
Bullet watched Renie lead Tristan over to talk with Blythe and his sister. She fit in with this bunch even better than he did. He wondered if she missed them when she was in New York. They sure as hell missed her.
“You up for this?” he asked when she walked back over to him.
“Oh, yeah. Who would want to miss the chance to be in a room with three legends of rock?
“My gram, your gramps.”
“How about that? It was sweet of her to recognize it wouldn’t be his thing. Something tells me it’s just the kind of night she’d enjoy.”
“You’re right, she would,” Bullet laughed. “She’s a firecracker, ain’t she?”
Tristan had never seen so many guitars in one place, and all of them were acoustic. Mark, Nate, and Ben each had a stool and, right behind them, their own rack of instruments.
“Tonight will be the first time anyone but the three of us has heard these songs,” Ben told them.
“And they’re damn good,” added Nate.
“These two jokers think we should go out on tour,” added Mark. He’d been away from touring and the music business for two decades. He still wrote music, and made a hell of a lot of money from it, but he kept his involvement quiet by writing under a nom de plume.
“Liv should be here,” Tristan whispered to Bullet.