When she hugged him, she’d held him for the longest time. Not terribly unusual, but somewhat unusual.
Dani was a hugger, and often a long hugger, but Ryan picked something else up while she held him. Maybe it was tighter than normal. Maybe because she’d been somewhat withdrawn the two days he’d managed to steal for a quick visit and then hugged him for so long just before he left. Something was up, more than she’d said.
Maybe because he just showed up, needing to see her only because he’d heard that song while Daws blasted the oldies station through the Monte Carlo. He’d done it on purpose to punish Ryan for drinking far too much the night before, or so he thought. Most of it was plain 7-Up, but he didn’t want to admit it because then his overbearing guard would make a fuss about his stomach and Ryan didn’t want to deal with it.
Sometimes When We Touch. He thought of her whenever he heard it, which wasn’t often. Absently, he fingered the chords, some by memory and others by the sound in his head. He didn’t sing with it, although he knew the words.
Then he stopped, set the guitar down, and went to the window.
How in the hell long was Deanna going to keep Kaitlyn out? She’d had her for the past two days straight since inviting himself to Dani’s was one thing, but inviting someone she didn’t know fully a whole different thing. They did so well together because they agreed on boundaries, nearly without words, sometimes fully without words, and they always kept those boundaries. Sometimes, as he had earlier in the day, he hated the lines he couldn’t cross.
She needed to talk. She needed to get away. She needed to not worry about whether it would bother his damned stomach if she admitted what was bothering her.
Maybe he’d go back, with advance notice this time, take Katie and stay at a hotel so it wouldn’t be an imposition and he wouldn’t have to take a stranger into her place, and maybe she would talk to him better.
Checking his watch, he saw it was past dinner time, but he wasn’t hungry. Kaitlyn might be if she ever got there. Or maybe she had eaten already, or was eating now, with Deanna.
At least the recording part of the album was done. He didn’t like it much, but it was done. Mac said it was good. Everyone who was supposed to say it was good said it was. His yes men. Critics who got early copies said it was good, one or two predicting a couple of number ones. His band wasn’t happier with it than he was.
Part of the reason he’d gone last minute to see Dani was to take it to her for her opinion. She said it was good. She also said it wasn’t Ryan Reynauld quality, that he should let it go out, let it be what it was, and go back at it again insisting on his own style.
Easy for her to say. If she ever became a manager, he’d hire her in a heartbeat. No one walked all over her. Other than the asshole she was dating. Ryan supposed if he would stop calling him that, she might be more willing to talk about him as she needed, but he could hardly think of him any other way. Will tried to tell him it was only jealousy and Dani was smart enough not to date the guy if he was that bad. But there were things Will didn’t know.
He should have made her talk more.
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