“It gets Paige and me all hot. Pretty soon, we’ll have no choice but to screw each other just to relieve the pressures your screams entice.” Rob doesn’t stop his complete babble.

Chrissy doesn’t look at the guys, her face getting redder by the second. I swing my arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay, girl. I’m jealous. I’ve gone through more batteries these past months that I’m about to look into rechargeable.” She giggles and I’m glad I can lighten her embarrassment.

She pulls out the menu and we both spin around, finding Rob dealing the cards. Chrissy sits next to Dex, which leaves me the seat between her and Rob. He stares at me through the corner of his eye when I sit down. Once the cards are spread on the table, he grabs a fist full of popcorn. “Maybe we should play strip poker. Or better yet, we could play for sexual favors. How about it Paige?” He eyes me and now it’s my turn to flush.

“We aren’t having an orgy, Rob.” Chrissy speaks first and hands the menu over to me. “What do you want to eat, Paige?”

I’m glancing over the menu when Rob leans in closer to look himself. “You want to share something, I’m not all that hungry,” he asks me and there’s something about sharing a meal that is too intimate. With Chrissy and Dex in some discussion about what they are going to order, he leans in close so only I can hear him. “I’m asking you to share a meal, not be my meal.” I gasp from his words and then his hand grazes my knee. The excitement that comes over me from the stroke of his fingers still surprises me. My body has never reacted like this to a guy before.

My eyes catch his when I face him and my stomach flutters, but I try to maintain a stable infliction so he doesn’t sense my desire. “How about Sweet and Sour Chicken?”

IT TOOK MORE convincing than I would have liked for Paige to agree on coming to Ace’s for our show tonight. Watching her in the circular booth with Sadie and Chrissy, she fits. She wiggles and shifts along the vinyl seat, indicating maybe she’s not as comfortable as I presumed. The booth is reserved for The Invisibles and our girlfriends, or girls we choose to sit there on the nights of our show. Once Sadie started dating Brady seriously, the girls we used to want to screw were no longer welcome. Sadie and Jessa made it theirs from the first night they came.

Fixing the string on my guitar that broke last night, I sit on the edge of the stage. With my guitar propped up on my legs, I admire the girls chatting. As much shit as I threw at Sadie when she first lodged a wedge in our band, she’s forgiven me and surprisingly she’s not so bad. Paige laughs with the other two girls as Roni shuttles back and forth from the bar to tables. I’m impressed with the girls. They’re all taking shots and drinking vodka tonics. If their alcohol consumption keeps going the way it has, I’m positive Paige will be swung over my shoulder tonight.

“Speaking of which,” I say when she slides out and saunters over to me, two beers weaved between her fingers. She places mine down next to me and saddles up on the stage.

“Thought you might want one before your show.” The drift of her fruity perfume assaults my nose. Urgency comes over me to figure out where it’s coming from.

“Thanks.” I nod, diverting my attention to tightening my string.

“Did you break that last night?” she asks, tucking her hands under her thighs and swinging her legs back and forth.

I flick my head in her direction, confused how she guessed. “Yeah.”

“I’m in the room next door. I heard you playing and then you screamed fuck in the middle of a song.” She giggles and I wish I could record that noise because it makes me feel something I haven’t felt in years. “I figure occupational hazard.”

“I wouldn’t call this my occupation.”

Why does this chick bring so much truth out of me?

“Would you want it to be?”

I don’t answer right away, completing fixing my string. After the night when we got ice cream, she’s a little too intrigued if music is what I want to do with my life.

“Like I said, I don’t know.” I lay my guitar down on the stage. Leaning back on the palms of my hands, I check her eyes as they focus on the bare strip of my stomach from my shirt rising up. Deciding I don’t want to move because she should drool over what she could have, I remain in place. It may not be a six-pack, but it’s damn tempting.

“Hey,” she leans in to grab the attention she doesn’t believe she has and waves a beer in front of my face. “Have fun tonight and think about that hard stuff later.” I blankly stare at her and she dips her head and shoots that innocent smile at me. If she were mine, I’d have her in the back of the van already.

Instead I swipe the beer from her hand. “You know me all too well.” Sitting up straighter, I down a long pull of my beer. She crosses her ankles and tips back a sip of her own.

Roni is busy shuffling food and drinks to the tables slowly filling up for us tonight. We don’t go on for another hour, so there’s time to pack the place. I side glance over to Paige and notice her eyes searching around the same way. God, I hope we fill this place tonight. Otherwise, I’ll appear like a loser to her. She’s definitely into music, more than she lets on. I hear what music she plays through our shared wall. It’s classic, old shit, but music I’ve loved from the time I started really working on cars.

“A lot of girls here,” she comments and I chuckle.

“Jealous?” I ask and her head reels my way, trying to appear straight faced.

“You wish.” She chooses to toss a sarcastic flirt and I like her even more for it.

“I do.” There’s a half-truth in there somewhere.

She tears her eyes from mine and jumps off the stage. “Good luck tonight.” Then she flips around to escape back to the table, now filled with the three couples that consist of The Invisibles.

“Paige!” I scream out and she spins back around. “I don’t need luck.” There’s the persona I’ve mastered since I started at Western.

Her eyes dig deep into my own, violating me with her glare. She nods with a solemn gaze before sliding into the booth, leaving me resembling a pile of shit.

When my parents drove me up my freshman year, I convinced myself the Rob Winters from small town country, was gone. He died in Mill River, never to be resurrected. In exchange, an asshole was erected and soon girls hated me, but never declined to occupy my bed at night. What the hell do I care, they fill a physical need because damn if I’ll open my heart up to being shredded again. But Paige, she scares the crap out of me. She’s slowly and gently tugging at my heart, but it’s not ready and I’m not sure it ever will be.

I leap off the stage, not wanting to even think about my heart and shit like love anymore. I meander over to a table of girls and plop down with them. Their mouths drop open and their eyes dart to each other’s, wondering why I’m there.

“Hey girls.” I nod and they giggle.

A blonde scoots her chair a little closer. There’s always a ‘take charge’ one in every group. “Hi, Rob.” I’ve never felt more like someone else than I do when the girls ogle my body with their eyes.

“Hi . . .” I wait for her to fill in the blank.

“Drea.” Obviously, I’m not the only one who decided to reinvent themselves in college. Odds are this girl was Andrea in high school and she figured, Drea sounds cool. The idea that she was a shy and quiet nerd in high school flipped slut in college intrigues me. They are usually the wild ones. The ones that go to the back room and suck me off.

I chat with the girls while they benefit me with their undivided attention. At one point during all the giggles and pushed out tits in my direction, a group orgy crosses my mind. Then a hand clasps on my shoulder and I spin around to find Brady. The girls gasp and their eyes pry to his engaged ass.