4th & Girl

“Yeah.”

“I’ve known him four or five years, I guess. We used to hang out together when we dated girls who were friends.”

I nodded along graciously, like I cared, careful to put off getting to the point until I buttered him up.

“Oh, that’s cool. Seems like a nice guy. Club is really popular too.”

Cam, of course, smelled my bullshit a mile away.

“The best.” He smiled, looking back and forth between me and the road as he waited for me to get to the point. When my carefully crafted I’m-not-after-anything smile went on for too long, he laughed and took over leading the conversation again. “You want me to set you up on a date with him or something? Christ, your questions and the seriously creepy look on your face are freaking me out a little bit.”

I laughed and sighed, shaking my head before looking out the window and then back to Cam. “No. I just…”

Shit, was I really going to admit to all this? Test our relatively new friendship by asking for a favor for my girlfriend?

This could be such a big deal for Gemma.

Yes. Yes, I was.

“Do you remember Gemma?”

He hummed and drummed his fingertips on the steering wheel as he pretended to contemplate it. “Hmm. Not your Nonnie. Or Nonna. Or what the fuck ever. Blond or something, if I’m remembering correctly.” I rolled my eyes, and he scoffed. “Duh. The apple of your eye, dude. The dip to your wick.”

I laughed at his crudeness, but he went on anyway.

“Yeah. I remember your girl. Everything still going well with her?”

I nodded at the understatement of the century and locked my muscles to keep from spewing twenty minutes’ worth of compliments and lovey-dovey bullshit. Cam was patient and he was kind, but no amount of bribery in the world would keep him from sharing my love poetry word vomit with Sean if I gave him the material.

“Really well. Couldn’t be going any better, honestly.”

“What the fuck?” Cam yelled. “And you haven’t shared more details? What are we? Acquaintances? You should be telling me everything.”

“Well. Sorry,” I said with a laugh. “I didn’t think you’d want every single detail of my love life.”

“Only the interesting ones. The boring shit, you can keep to yourself.”

“Yeah.” I laughed, knowing good and well I’d be keeping the majority of it to myself no matter what he said. Friendship was great and all, but with a group of guys like them just waiting to peck over my carcass, privacy was even better. Still, this wanting to know more shit kind of played into my hands, so I used it to my advantage. “Okay, well…” I said slowly, “she can really fucking sing.”

“Ah,” Cam breathed. “Now I’m getting it. She’s hounding you, trying to use your connections.”

His insinuation caught me completely off guard, and I jerked my head. “What? No! She has no idea that I know anyone or ever would. She’s just good. And well, after meeting him tonight, I figured…”

“You just figured your buddy Cam could hook you up,” he finished for me with an indulgent smile. I figured he’d be quick to pick up on my motives, but at least he didn’t seem angry or annoyed.

“Yeah,” I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders.

“Say no more,” he said swiftly, pulling up the voice command screen in his truck. “I’ll call him right now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said with a laugh and called out Will Chambers to the voice command. As the phone started to ring, my stomach churned. “You just better hope it’s not your fucking hormones or dick making her sound good. If you get her a gig at Monarchy, she better be able to really fucking sing.”

“She can,” I said confidently. This was a big deal, I knew, but Gemma’s voice had the rawest, realest talent I’d ever heard in my life. There was no way she would let anyone down if I got her the opportunity.

Cam’s schmoozing was fast and effective, and before I knew it, he’d sweet-talked Gemma right into a prime position on Monarchy’s stage next week. My body buzzed with the excitement at how quickly it was all coming together.

Gemma’s passion for music mirrored my passion for football. It ran through her veins and stayed intertwined with her soul. It was who she was. And it was exactly what she should be doing.

I only wanted good things for my girl.

And this opportunity, it was all the good things.

It was a huge fucking deal.

When Cam dropped me off at my place, I went straight to my Durango and fired it up before giving her a call.

This late at night, I didn’t want to show up without notice, but the reason? Well, that was worthy of a surprise.

I had the best news ever. I could not wait to tell her.

And by telling her in person, when the initial celebration was over, we’d have the whole rest of the night to celebrate in even better ways.