Chapter 10
"Hi man."
"So good to see you."
Tom and Luke's greetings floated down the corridor.
I honestly knew nothing about Luke. My unofficial self-imposed moratorium on looking up anything about The Band remained, and Tom just didn't talk about them much. I couldn't tell if it was because he genuinely didn't think about them that much or because he knew my awkwardness on the topic. Probably both.
Regardless, I turned the corner to the entryway, surprised to be greeted by a man even taller than Tom.
I wasn't exactly short at 5'7 or so, Tom was easily 6'2, but Luke must be 6'5.
He had wide shoulders that fit his frame, his arms bulky and strong.
He had a wide grin accented by a 70's porn star mustache.
He looked less like a rock star bassist and more like a rancher from 50 years ago.
He was clearly taking me in just as I was him, his eyes scanning up my body in a way that felt far too personal yet intriguing, sending a shiver rolling through me.
"Luke, this is Aria."
"Lovely to meet you, Aria."
Luke reached out his hand. A meaty warm paw that felt more appropriate to a mechanic or football player than a bassist. It engulfed my comparatively tiny hand in his.
"So nice to meet you, Luke."
Thank God I was acting at least somewhat normal. I may have felt breathless and flushed, but I seemed to be coming across normally.
Tom pulled me into his side and kissed the side of my head. I softened into his embrace, reminded that I could relax.
The pre-game commentators were already on. I thanked the lord and my very socially adept boyfriend for planning this hangout with built-in entertainment and discussion topics.
Tom prepped shots in the kitchen, the smell of vodka wafting across the room. Luke and I waded through polite introductory chit chat, largely about the game.
The bit of gravel in his voice made his laugh magnetic. I could see why The Band was such a phenomenon, why every woman in America between the ages of 15 and 45 was obsessed.
"So Aria, Tom tells me you met at Radia a few weeks ago,"
Luke inquired.
"Yes, I also had no idea who he was, if you hadn't already heard that part of the story."
I cringed but giggled.
"I heard something about that."
A knowing twinkle sparkled in his eye.
"Don't worry gorgeous, beats how I met my first girlfriend."
I giggled at him calling me gorgeous, blushing deeper than I would have hoped.
"How did you meet your first girlfriend?"
"I hit her bike while trying to park with my crappy Chevy pickup the summer after high school."
I couldn't help but start cracking up.
"Oh my god, was she riding it?"
"By the Lord's grace, no."
I could hear something close to a hint of a southern accent as he said it, warming my blood.
Tom brought the shots over on a platter just as the door rang. Lacy had finally arrived.
"Yay!"
I hopped up to answer the door, Lacy greeting me with her usual fierce hug. She always smelled of clementines from her shampoo.
She had a crappy bottle of vodka in hand, her favorite watermelon flavor. I laughed, pointing it out.
She shrugged.
"I don't know what type of undrinkable bougie shit the rich and powerful have."
"Tom is not the rich and powerful!"
I protested, only half joking.
"You sure about that?"
Lacy gestured around—the high ceilings and beautiful wood floors, original artworks hung about, real leather furniture ahead in the living room proving her point.
"Okay, fine,"
I acquiesced.
"Lacy!"
Tom smiled and walked over to hug her warmly.
"Hi Tom."
She smiled and hugged him back.
"Lacy, this is Luke Tanner."
Tom introduced Luke to the ever-skeptical-of-men Lacy.
"Nice to meet you."
Luke's warm affect melted her as easily as it did me.
"Nice to meet you too, Luke."
The shots were quickly flowing, laughs getting louder, TV still playing the game in the background.
Luke sat on my other side from Tom, closer than I would have chosen, but he seemed so comfortable it put me at ease too.
"So Luke, where's your girlfriend this evening?"
Lacy asked pointedly.
"No girlfriend, I'm afraid,"
Luke disclosed.
"Gotta keep up the rockstar image."
Luke winked at me as I blushed into my drink. Jesus Christ, his flirting was obvious. I peeked at Tom, his eyes ablaze in the way I knew meant bedroom eyes, not angry eyes.
Why wasn't Tom getting pissed? I turned more fully to Tom, meeting his gaze as I saw the same flush of interest in my own face reflected back in his.
Lacy laughed at something the commentator said, snapping me back to reality. Luke kept sizing me up in a way that felt like trouble. I was pressing my leg so hard into Tom's it was starting to hurt, trying to leave an inch or two of space between Luke and I on the couch, even though my body was screaming at me to just relax into them both.
I felt weird about it, but Tom and Luke's obvious longstanding rapport somehow kept everything feeling smooth and light. They seemed more in sync than actual brothers I had met.
The joint Tom busted out an hour in got me to the relaxed state I was worried about. I was sunk deep into the plush couch, laughing at Luke and Tom laughing back and forth over my smaller frame.
My left thigh was soon flush with Luke's, the hard muscle holding form against my softer flesh. His hand would rest against my knee in moments, not pushing to move higher than bone, but the contact had me melting.
A long-forgotten piece of me was freaking out. I had just gotten Tom as my boyfriend, and his bestie was touching my knee not even weeks later? But between Tom's obvious approval, which I didn't have time to analyze, the weed, and the shots, I couldn't think about anything but how much I loved the guys' laughs harmonizing while both their hips caged me in.
They got along so easily, Luke the funny guy, Tom meeting him halfway. I could see why Tom wanted me to meet Luke first; something about his aura and laugh was putting me at ease.
"Bathroom?"
Lacy made eye contact with me from the chair across the couch.
I extracted myself from between hundreds of pounds of hot guy and linked arms with her as we always did, walking to the oversized bathroom down the hall.
"Those guys are circling you like sharks."
"Lacy!"
I hissed.
"Luke is not!"
My insistence too aggressive.
"Mmhm."
She shot me a knowing look.
Part of me flashed with anxiety through the tequila. I couldn't ignore that I was loving Luke, sitting in his warmth. But only because Tom seemed equally content.
Lacy could tell not to push it as we finished up in the bathroom, giggling back out to the guys.
"So how are things going with Wen?"
I inquired in the kitchen, the guys still laughing at the TV.
The blush that radiated up Lacy's chest said everything.
"Good,"
she said coyly.
"Are you guys talking about Wen?"
Tom shouted over the TV, hopping up to come join us for another round of shots in the kitchen.
"Yeah,"
I smiled up at him, his arm going around my waist to pull me into his side.
"I hear somebody has been keeping him busy."
Tom teased Lacy.
"I asked him to grab a beer the other day and he said he couldn't, he was at his new girlfriend's place."
"New girlfriend!!"
I screeched at Lacy, leaping to grab her arms and jump up and down.
"He asked me last weekend."
She was smiling so wide I couldn't handle it.
"Wow, two wifed up ladies,"
Luke said, smiling at us, winking when I met his gaze.
"To appreciating what you've got,"
Tom initiated the raising of shot glasses.
My eyes shot to Luke at his words, even with Tom's other arm still around me.
Luke's eyes met mine, a tiny wink just between us before we tipped back the tequila.
The alcohol was making everything feel softer around the edges, like looking at the world through a soft filter. When we settled back on the couch, somehow I ended up even closer to both of them, Tom's arm stretched across the back behind me while Luke's knee pressed more deliberately against mine.
"You know what's crazy?"
Luke said, his voice dropping lower as he leaned slightly toward me.
"Tom's been talking about you nonstop for weeks, but he didn't mention how fucking gorgeous you are."
"Luke,"
Tom warned, but there was no real heat in it. More like amusement.
"What? I'm just being honest."
Luke's grin was pure trouble.
"You can't blame a guy for noticing."
I felt heat creep up my neck. This was dangerous territory, the kind that could blow up my relationship before it even really started. But Tom's fingers were trailing along my shoulder, not pulling me away from Luke but somehow encouraging the attention.
"She is pretty spectacular,"
Tom agreed, his voice taking on that husky quality that usually preceded us tearing each other's clothes off.
Lacy cleared her throat loudly from across the room.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't just witness whatever the hell that was."
The spell broke, and I laughed, the sound a little too high and breathless. Luke chuckled and leaned back, but his hand stayed on my knee, thumb tracing small circles that were making it impossible to concentrate on anything else.
"You two are dangerous,"
I said, trying to sound stern but failing miserably.
"You have no idea,"
Luke murmured, and the promise in his voice made my stomach flip.
The game played in the background, but none of us were really watching anymore. The air felt thick with possibility, with things unsaid. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Tom to get jealous or for Luke to cross a line that would make everything awkward. Instead, there was this strange harmony between them, like they'd choreographed this whole thing.
"I should probably get going soon,"
Lacy announced, though she made no move to leave.
"Some of us have early rehearsals tomorrow."
"Right, rehearsals,"
I said, grateful for the reminder of reality.
"We start full company rehearsals next week."
"Which means Mickey,"
Luke said, bold and direct, and I felt Tom's arm tighten slightly around me.
"Yeah."
I took a bigger sip of my drink than necessary.
"Which means Mickey."
"You know,"
Luke said carefully, "he's actually excited to work with you again."
I nearly choked on my vodka.
"He is not."
"He is. Asked me about you the other day, actually. Wanted to know if you were... happy."
The word hung in the air like a challenge. I looked between Tom and Luke, trying to read the subtext I was clearly missing.
"What exactly did he want to know?"
Tom asked, his voice carefully neutral.
Luke shrugged.
"Just whether you seemed good. Settled. He feels bad about how things ended between you two."
"He feels bad?"
The words came out sharper than I intended.
"That's rich."
"Aria,"
Tom said softly, and I realized I was gripping my glass hard enough that my knuckles were white.
"Sorry. I just, I don't want to talk about Mickey right now."
"Fair enough,"
Luke said easily.
"But for what it's worth, I think the three of us are going to have a hell of a summer."
The way he said "three of us"
made something flutter low in my belly. There was definitely subtext there, layers of meaning I wasn't quite ready to unpack.
"Speaking of summer,"
Tom said, "we should probably start thinking about logistics. Bus arrangements, rehearsal schedules, all that fun stuff."
"Oh God,"
I groaned.
"I haven't even thought about living on a bus for three months."
"It's not so bad,"
Luke said.
"Cozy. Very... intimate."
Another loaded word. These guys were going to be the death of me.
"I bet,"
I managed, and Luke's grin told me he'd caught the breathiness in my voice.
"We should probably call it a night,"
Tom said, though he made no move to get up.
"Early day tomorrow."
"Probably,"
Luke agreed, but he also stayed exactly where he was, hand still warm on my knee.
Nobody moved. The tension was so thick I could practically taste it, sweet and dangerous on my tongue. Whatever was happening here, whatever this was building toward, felt inevitable. Like trying to stop a tide.
"Lacy,"
I said finally, "want to share a ride?"
"Actually,"
she said, standing and grabbing her purse, "Wen's picking me up. He should be here any minute."
Of course he was. Of course I was going to be left alone with Tom and Luke and whatever this energy was between us.
"Perfect timing,"
Luke said, and I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
As if on cue, a car honked outside. Lacy kissed my cheek and hugged Tom goodbye, then surprised everyone by hugging Luke too.
"Take care of our girl,"
she said quietly, but loud enough for me to hear.
"Always,"
both guys said at the same time, and the synchronicity of it made my heart skip.
Then Lacy was gone, and it was just the three of us and the weight of everything unsaid.