“Last night you got laid by the Trey Mills.”

“And it was amazing,” she said, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling to express her bliss.

“If you play your cards right, you might get laid by the Trey Mills in the bathroom back there in about half an hour.” Trey nodded over his shoulder to the back of the plane.

“Do I get a hint?”

“A hint?”

“On how to play my cards right?”

“You’ve been playing them right since the moment I laid ears on you. Don’t change a thing.”

“The moment you laid ears on me?”

“Yep, nothing sexier than the way Brian Sinclair plays a guitar, except finding a woman who plays just like him.”

There he went again referring to Brian in a way that most men never would. She supposed they would be closer than most friends, seeing as they spent most of their lives crammed in a tour bus together. Still, something felt a little off about their relationship. Maybe it would make more sense to her when she spent more time watching how they interacted.

“Do you think Brian will show me some of his techniques?” Reagan asked. “Or are they secrets?”

“I’m sure he’d be happy to work with you. Hopefully it will take his mind off having to leave his family.”

Trey stared down at his thumbs. There had been a time when Sinners had been Brian’s family. And then he’d married Myrna. And now that he had Malcolm… Trey wasn’t sure where he fit in the man’s life anymore.

Brian climbed onto the airplane and took a seat across from Trey. “Look at the picture I just took,” he said, holding up his cell phone so Trey could see the screen. In the picture Brian had his arm around Myrna who was cradling Malcolm against her chest. All three of them were smiling like idiots. Even the baby, who probably just had some gas. The picture was a little blurry because Brian had taken it by holding the camera phone in front of them with an extended arm, but the love displayed in that candid moment stole Trey’s breath.

“It’s great,” he said.

Brian looked at the picture and smiled. “Yeah. She’s supposed to send me lots of pictures until I come home in a couple days.”

“A couple days? We have two more weeks of shows.”

“And any day I have off I’m flying back. Dare already said I could use the jet anytime I want.”

“You’re going to wear yourself out.”

“I don’t care. Knowing I’ll see them again in a few days is the only thing that got me on the plane.”

“I can only imagine how hard it was to say good-bye to them,” Reagan said.

Brian glanced at her and smiled warmly. “So you’re Trey’s new girl.”

Trey loved the man’s smile. It always showed in his eyes. He was so genuine. It was one of the many reasons why Trey had stayed in love with the guy for so long. Hell, he still loved Brian even if he was letting him go. Or trying to. It had been a lot easier to pretend he could move on when Brian had been out of sight.

“I guess you could say that.” Reagan beamed and Trey found himself just as smitten with her smile as he was with Brian’s.

“So you play guitar. Metal?” Brian asked.

The engines started and Reagan had to talk extra loud to be heard. “You’re my greatest influence.”

“I am?” Brian’s brow knitted with confusion. “How long have you been playing?”

“Three years,” Trey said. “Can you believe it?”

“That’s amazing. Can’t wait to hear your work,” Brian said. His phone beeped and he grinned when he looked at the screen. He held up the display for Trey to see. “Look! He’s feeding.”

Breast feeding. Trey averted his gaze. He’d licked those breasts about a year ago. And now… It was going to be a long two weeks.

“Please remember to turn off all electronic devices through the duration of the flight. Make sure your seatbelts are fastened during takeoff. I will let you know when it’s safe to move about the cabin.” The pilot’s voice came over the intercom. She had a sexy, British accent. Trey could have listened to her talk for hours. “Enjoy your flight.”

Brian switched off his phone but continued to hold it in his hand on his lap. He offered Trey a depressed smile before settling his gaze on Reagan. “So tell me how you came to be the rhythm guitarist for Exodus End,” he said.

She shifted into full-out gush mode, and Trey sat there grinning as she articulated every word with a hand gesture or facial expression. He’d never met anyone as animated as she was. Well, besides the few actors he knew. “So I’m at this club with my girlfriends. We all had a few too many and were trying to figure out how we were going to get home, when the bassist of my old band happens into the club. Chad’s a real sweetheart. I didn’t get along with our lead singer, but I’d work with Chad again. So I went to bum a ride from him and he says, ‘Just the guitarist I was looking for.’ I figured he wanted me to play for some new band he formed, but he shows me this ad in Guitar Planet for the contest with Exodus End. Go on Tour with Exodus End for a Year, or something like that. It said to enter you had to send a demo to the record company and sign a release and some other bullshit. Sounded like a big hassle to me. I didn’t want to enter. Didn’t think I had any business entering since there was no chance I’d ever win. As a metal guitarist, I take a lot of shit for being a chick, you know. Chad bribed me into agreeing by offering to give all my girls a ride home. Plus my friends were really enthusiastic about the idea and I was drunk as shit, so I somehow agreed to enter. I cut the demo in Chad’s basement the next day and sent it in unedited. I didn’t think there was a snow cone’s chance in a bonfire that they’d ever pick my demo for the live audition. I just did it to get people off my back.”

“How many of the entrants got a live audition?” Brian asked.

“Five out of something like five thousand.”

Brian’s dark brows lifted in surprise. “Impressive.”

“When the contest coordinator called, I thought they were making stuff up. That Chad had put one of his buddies up to calling me and giving me a hard time. My old band members are notorious for fucking with me.” She paused and lifted a hand of caution in Trey’s direction. “Not fucking me. I never slept with any of them. So after about ten minutes of trying to get this exasperated dude on the phone to admit he was a friend of Chad’s, it finally sunk in that I won the live audition. I was so nervous that I didn’t want to go. My roommate, Ethan, talked me into it. Reminding me how I’d always regret not giving my all. I knew he was right. I’d always wonder if I didn’t go through with it. I was so nervous in the studio yesterday, I thought I was going to hurl. And then Trey shows up right before the five finalists were scheduled to go into the booth for our live auditions. I think that’s when reality hit me. I put everything I had into that audition. Something about knowing Trey was listening really upped my game. I’m not sure how I would have done if he hadn’t showed up. I probably would have thrown up on my guitar and started crying.”

“I don’t deserve any credit,” Trey said. “She’s amazing. I actually thought she was you when I heard her play. She has the same balls-out style you play with.”

Brian laughed. “Now that I have to see.”

“I don’t let my balls out for just anyone,” Reagan said. She grabbed her crotch and pretended to shift her balls into a more comfortable position. “But I’ll make an exception in your case.”

Brian gaped at her and then burst out laughing. “So you two hooked up at the audition?”

“Afterward,” Trey said.

“He beat me in a guitar duel and then I took him for a ride in Exodus End’s limo.” She shifted in her seat and looked over her shoulder to the bathroom at the rear of the plane. “Speaking of taking Trey for a ride.”

Brian’s gaze followed Reagan’s to the bathroom door. His face twisted as if he were in pain and he groaned. “The doctor said I can’t fuck Myrna for six weeks. I’m going to die.”

Trey wasn’t sure how Brian could even think about Myrna in a sexual capacity after watching her give birth. If Trey ever decided to have kids, he would insist his woman have a C-section. Just the memory of natural childbirth had Trey a bit woozy.

“When do we get to lose the seat belts?” Reagan asked.

“They’ll announce it,” Brian said. He lifted his phone to give it a look of longing before tucking it back in his pocket.

“So how did you meet your wife?” Reagan asked. She sure knew how to earn brownie points with Brian.

Brian grinned. “She saw me fall off a table in a hotel bar and still thought I was hot enough to take up to her room.”

“And then she pushed him away for months,” Trey added. At the time Trey had been torn between wanting Brian to be happy by winning Myrna’s affection and wanting him to give up on her so he might have a fighting chance. The thing was, besides the two times that he and Brian had gone all the way in high school, they’d never been intimate again. Not for Trey’s lack of trying. It was as if Brian had checked homosexual experience off his life’s to-do list and never really thought about it again. Trey, on the other hand, had been hung up on the experience for over ten years. He was lucky that Brian had patience. He had to know that Trey still wanted him, and Brian never intentionally hurt him. Instead Brian seemed content for Trey to outgrow his infatuation. Maybe it would have been easier if Brian had just shredded Trey’s heart and left him to wallow in despair for a few months instead of that constant ignore-the-situation-and-it-will-go-away stance he’d taken. Trey didn’t blame Brian though. He knew how important their friendship was to him. It was as equally important to Trey. If Brian had treated him any differently, their friendship might have dissolved as well, and that might have hurt their music. Trey supposed that waiting it out had worked eventually. Maybe. His heart still fluttered every time he looked at Brian. He still thought about how connected he’d felt to the man the first time they’d made love, and how that connection had somehow lasted for twelve years.

He glanced at Reagan and found her watching him closely. Had he been staring at Brian with open longing? Shit. If he wasn’t careful, she’d figure out that he was interested in men. He smiled at her and she offered him an answering smile. The connection he’d forged with her the night before returned to the forefront of his mind. He wondered if he’d carry a torch for her forever the same way he carried a torch for the first man he’d ever felt that connection with. The idea scared him, yet if she embraced it, instead of ignoring it, maybe they could build something substantial. Trey didn’t know if he could handle another one-sided love affair. There was one significance difference in this relationship. Reagan was interested in him. He had to trust her intentions.

“We’re now at cruising altitude,” the pilot said over the intercom. “Feel free to move about the cabin. Help yourself to anything in the galley.”

Reagan removed her seat belt and slid onto Trey’s lap. “Do you count as something in the galley?” she asked. “I’d like to help myself to you.”

“Technically I’m not in the galley, but you can still help yourself.”

Reagan stole a kiss, her arms wrapping around his neck. “I’m so lucky,” she whispered in his ear.

His hand slid up her shirt to slide over the bare skin of her side.

Brian sighed. “Don’t mind me.”

“In the good old days I would have asked you to join us. Now you’re all married and boring,” Trey said, peering around Reagan to see if his taunt had wiped the scowl from Brian’s handsome face.