“Oh, hey, dude. Sorry, man, I don’t have a pen on me. But I can sign with a french fry and ketchup if you have any.”
He cheerfully, resolutely wiped his hands on a paper napkin.
Chapter 15
Color fled Eden’s face and left her as white as the napkin.
“Gabe.”
“Yeah,” he said with great irony. “Hi, Eden.”
“I didn’t... I didn’t know you’d be...”
He watched color rush into her cheeks as she realized there was no way she could end that sentence that wasn’t incriminating or insulting.
Townes was watching all of this alertly.
“I guess it must be your lucky day, then,” Gabe said evenly. “Or mine.”
“Did I get in the middle of something here?” Jasper said in that distinctive raspy speaking voice so many of the best singers seemed to have, in Gabe’s experience. He sounded amused.
“Did he get in the middle of something?” Gabe delivered those words to Eden like little bundles of silk-wrapped ice.
It was a truly shitty thing to do to her. It put her on the spot to define something they hadn’t yet defined. Some part of him was aware that he was being a jerk. A part of him that had bypassed his usual reason and control. He didn’t care.
Eden’s jaw took on that hard set, and her eyes flashed hot as the blue center of a flame.
Wow. Was shepissed.
It was gorgeous to witness.
Also a little scary.
But he was fine with that.
Ultimately, she ignored the question. “Forgive me,” she said evenly. “Where are my manners? Jasper Townes, this is... my friend... Gabe Caldera. He’s the principal of Annelise’s school.”
Townes leaned back and studied Gabe with shiny dark eyes. “That’s not the expression of someone who’s just a friend, man. He hasn’t blinked once since he got here.”
Gabe turned his head slowly and aimed an expression of pure incredulity at Eden as if to say, Thisguy? Really?
“Jasper... says things.” Eden was aiming that flamethrower glare at Jasper now.
“Children say things, too,” Gabe said with a deceptively offhanded bonhomie. “It stops being cute around the age of twelve, though.”
He’d sounded so pleasant that the insult worked on a time release. Townes’s friendly smile vanished as if it was on a dimmer switch.
“How do you know Eden?” Gabe said this pleasantly, too, though it was absolutely none of his business. All’s fair, however.
“We go way back, me and Eden. Way in the back of my tour bus, that—”
She slapped her hand down on the table. Jasper jumped. “Are. You. Out. Of. Yourfreakingmind.”
The whispered words hissed from her like launched missiles.
Townes’s eyes widened and he put up his hands as if she were mugging him at gunpoint, then brought them down again.
Gabe stared down at Jasper’s long-fingered, narrow, nimble hands. Three chunky rings glittered from them. A collection of bracelets. It seemed odd that a guitarist would want to weigh his hands down that way, but maybe he liked to look down at glittery things when he played.