Listen to Me

The waitress exchanges our appetizer cheese and bread with the main course of different meats and vegetables.

“How about you?” Addie asks before I can question her further. “Are you from here?”

“I thought you read the tabloids,” I reply with a raised brow. “My life story is out there for everyone to see.”

“I only read the juicy stuff about women who’d been done wrong.” Her pink lips tip up in a half smile, but her eyes are shrewd, watching for any reaction.

“You do realize that most of that is made up, right? It sells magazines, but it’s not the truth.”

“So, you didn’t get a woman pregnant with twins and then send her away to Bermuda to have the babies and make her give them up for adoption, paying her ten million dollars to not talk about it?”

My jaw drops as I watch her tell this story.

“If I paid her ten million to shut up, how did the story get out?”

“So you admit it?”

I laugh and shake my head. “No, Addie. None of that is true. Jesus, that’s one I missed.”

“I made it up,” she admits with a giggle. “But it would be a fun story.”

“Let’s get this straight, right now, so we can move on without any suspicions. The band broke up five years ago, and since then I’ve had one girlfriend that lasted roughly one year before I discovered that she was more interested in my money and what my name could get her than in me, and I’ve slept with a few women since then.”

“And before the band split up?” she asks, watching me intently.

“I was a jackass,” I reply. “I let the fame and the attention go to my head. I slept with more than my share of women. I enjoyed the booze. Too much. I abused cocaine, because it, combined with the booze, was the best high there is, and I will never go down that road again. It nearly cost me the most important person in my life. So I walked away from all of it.”

She blinks, holding my gaze, then picks up her skewer and stabs a piece of chicken. “So, where did you grow up?”

“You don’t want to continue talking about my sordid past?”

“No, I don’t.” She reaches across the table and takes my hand in hers. “We’ve all made mistakes, Jake. Especially when we were younger. I slept with men I shouldn’t have in my modeling days.”

I don’t want to know this.

“I want to know who you are now.”

“Who I was then affects who I am now.”

She nods slowly. “True. And maybe, with time, we’ll talk about that more. But for now, I’m content to talk about other things.”

“Minnesota.”

“Excuse me?” She releases my hand to eat more of her meal.

“I’m from Minnesota. My parents divorced when I was nine. Mom remarried and lives in Texas with her husband. I stayed in Minnesota with Dad.”

“Did he remarry?”

I shake my head and eat a carrot. “He was kind of heartbroken when Mom left. He passed away a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry.” Her eyes are sad.

“Not your fault.” I shrug, the familiar pain I get in my chest settling in when I think of my dad. “I miss him too. And I might feel a little guilty.”

“Why?”

“It kind of goes back to the jackassery. When I was with Hard Knox, we toured constantly. I was wrapped up in the band, and I didn’t see him or speak to him as much as I should have.”

“I’m sure he was very proud of you,” she says with a soft smile.

“I think he was.” God, I hope he was.

“How did you end up in Portland?”

“Max is from here,” I reply. “When the band broke up and he came back here, I decided to come with him. I bought a place just outside of Hillsboro.”

“Do you like it here?”

“I’m liking it more and more,” I reply truthfully, holding her blue gaze in mine. “It helps that you’re crazy about me.”

“You’re just crazy,” she replies primly.

“Seriously, you’re embarrassing me. Stop fawning all over me.”

She rolls her eyes, but she’s grinning, and I know she enjoys the banter as much as I do. “What’s your favorite kind of music?”

I tip my head to the side. “I love all music.”

“But there must be a favorite. A band, or a genre.”

“Can I get you dessert?” the waitress asks, but I quickly shake my head no, and she leaves.

“Maybe I want dessert,” Addie says with a raised brow.

“I do too, but we’re going to get it somewhere else.”

“Fun.” She smiles.

“Um, baby, you have something in your teeth.” I point to the spot, and she frowns as she searches for it, making me laugh. “You got it.”

“Thanks.”

I pay the check, then take Addie’s hand and lead her out into the warm early summer evening, leading her toward my favorite ice cream place.

“So, you didn’t answer my question,” she says.

“You answer it first, and then I will.”

“You just want to copy my answer to make me think that we have stuff in common.”

God, she’s funny.

“You caught me. Just humor me.”

I glance down and watch her move next to me. She’s in killer red heels with her matching red toes poking out the end, and a black skirt, but she’s walking as easily as if she was wearing sneakers.

Amazing.

“Johnny Cash,” she replies, surprising the fuck out of me.