Gabe scanned the room, taking in the four members of his band and even stopping on a guy in a cowboy hat who Melanie thought was the bus driver she’d met briefly in Tulsa. Gabe nodded. “Yep.”
But Gabe was in the room. Surely he meant to exclude himself?
“Yourself included?” she asked.
He took a long swallow off his beer. “I should introduce you to Madison and uh, what’s her name? Kellen’s date, uh… Dawn.”
Melanie took note of the two very, very different women, puzzled by why Gabe had ignored her question. She hoped it was because she had nothing to worry about, not because he was avoiding a difficult subject.
The woman with Kellen was tall and elegant, with long and beautiful red hair. An authoritative air of greatness surrounded her as if she were a modern-day equivalent of a powerful queen. She looked more like an Elizabeth or a Victoria or a Cleopatra than a Dawn. Kellen was a couple of inches taller than her and as dark as Dawn was fair. But they fit somehow.
The other woman wore cowboy boots with her jean skirt and was, in a word, adorable. The kind of cute the made Melanie want to hug her for no apparent reason. Madison’s long, wavy hair was drawn away from her face in a ponytail, and her gaze darted around the room nervously until she settled on Adam. Then her light-colored eyes went dreamy. It was blatantly obvious that she was head over heels for the band’s lead guitarist.
Madison looked wholesome and completely out of place at Adam Taylor’s side. Their looks should have clashed, but the contrast between them actually worked. Adam’s spiky, jet black hair, all-black attire, tattoos, and copious chains declared him to be one-hundred-percent-genuine bad-boy-rock-star, while Madison looked like a sweet country girl, far out of her element. One had to wonder how the two of them had ever crossed paths.
Melanie supposed she and Gabe looked a bit mismatched as well. Gabe sported a foot-high red and black mohawk and had dragons tattooed on his frickin’ scalp. She’d always stayed far from men with tattoos, and Gabe wasn’t the kind of guy she’d normally hang out with in her insular little world. What a huge mistake it had been to limit herself to a certain type of acquaintance. Gabe had shown her how wrong she’d been to judge a person’s character according to their looks or lifestyle. He was human, just as she was. It wasn’t easy to let go of her old ways, but she was already leading a richer life now that she’d opened herself up to the big wide world outside her tidy little cubicle. She wished she’d have pulled her head of her ass years ago, but she’d been raised to fear a person’s differences rather than celebrate them. Thanks for all the unnecessary anxiety, Mom and Dad.
“Okay,” she said. “I’d love to meet them, but sooner or later you’re going to have to tell me what you meant about Lindsey.”
“I vote for later,” he said. “Or never. Never is good.”
“Did you sleep with her?” Melanie asked in a low hiss as he directed her across the room to where Madison and Adam were sitting together in contented silence.
“I don’t remember,” he said.
“How can you not remember something like that?”
“I was drunk.” He then immediately leaned close and said, “So Adam and Madison have been seeing each other for a couple of years, but their relationship just recently turned into something serious. He kind of keeps her to himself, like he’s afraid she’ll wander off, so it will be good for her to have someone to talk to. She always looks a little lost to me.”
Madison did look a little lost. And obviously infatuated with the man who appeared equally smitten with her. They weren’t talking, but a current linked them, a bond that went deeper than what was visible on the surface. Melanie got the feeling that they’d been through a lot together. Not that she would pry. As for Gabe’s potential drunken sex with Lindsey? She would pry the hell out of that once she got him alone.
“Hey,” Adam said when they were close enough to gain his attention. “You’re the chick from breakfast,” he said to Melanie.
Melanie chuckled. “So good of you to remember.”
“You know her?” Madison asked, and there was no question that this news unsettled her.
“She’s with Gabe,” Adam said, flicking a hand in Gabe’s direction.
Madison nodded slightly and shifted closer to Adam, so that their arms touched. Insecurity was shining off the woman like a beacon. “What’s her name?” she asked.
“Hell if I remember,” Adam said. “I just remember sitting next to her at breakfast.”
“Adam was too busy thinking about you to even ask my name,” Melanie said. She had no idea if what she said was true, but felt the explanation was something the woman needed to hear. Melanie wasn’t insecure about Gabe’s affections, but she was definitely the jealous sort, so she understood how hard it was to trust one of these rock star sorts with your heart. Especially when they tried to play down the existence of an unclaimed, unborn child. She slanted a look at Gabe. He didn’t really think she was going to let that rest, did he?
“I’m Melanie,” she said, introducing herself rather than giving Gabe the third degree in front of the couple.
“Madison,” the other woman said and smiled warmly.
“So you’ve known these guys a lot longer than I have. Any deep dark secrets I should know about?” Melanie asked. Such as who that Lindsey woman was.
Madison chuckled. “I might have a few stories to tell.”
“Whoa!” Gabe said, covering Melanie’s ears with both hands. “Great to see you again, Madison. Be sure to keep Adam out of trouble.”
Melanie caught Gabe’s wink at Madison before he turned Melanie in the opposite direction and escorted her toward Dawn. Maybe the svelte redhead knew some secrets about the guys she could share.
It turned out that Dawn knew even less about the band than Melanie did. It was hard to believe that she’d been with Kellen a mere day. They shared a comfort level unusual for two people who’d had such a short acquaintance. Dawn might not have any juicy gossip to share about the guys, but she was fascinating. Melanie was honored to meet the Grammy-award-winning classical composer. She was a bit intimidated, to be honest, but it was cute the way that Kellen bragged about her and then Dawn tried to play down her talents.
“Will you stop?” Dawn said to him, though she was smiling broadly and stood plastered to his side.