My eyes flare. “Wait, what?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Lana says to me, sighing, then looks to Ryan. “Thanks for bringing that up, Ry. But I’m good. Same old. Why don’t you have a drink with us?”
Ryan raises an eyebrow at Lana. “Trust me, I would, but it’s going to get busy as fuck any minute now and it wouldn’t be the greatest idea to get comfortable.”
He kisses Anna on the cheek, then glances at me. “Hope you all have a good night. Let me know if anyone harasses you.” He smirks. “So I can send Reid.”
We all laugh at that.
He stands, then flashes us one last cheeky grin. “I expect to see you all on the microphone.”
“You won’t be able to tear it away from us,” I tell him, then check out his ass when he walks away.
Anna makes a sound of amusement. “He’s so very taken.”
“The good ones usually are,” I say with a huff. “I can still look from afar. You guys are used to seeing all these men, but I’m still wondering where they all came from, and where they’ve all been hiding.”
“The good ones are faithful,” Lana agrees, taking an ice cube out of her glass and placing it on her tongue. “All you can do is hope you can catch a man who will be the same to you—ridiculously loyal, physically and emotionally.”
“The two of you have,” I say, trying to keep the wistfulness out of my voice and failing. They’d been telling me about their men all night. Who knew bikers were the way to go? It’s probably just these bikers, which makes the women even luckier. Would Adam and I be at a different place if we had that kind of trust between us? It’s going to be hard to completely trust a man again, because in my experience all they do is let you down in the end.
“You’ll find someone worthy of you,” Lana says sincerely. “It happens when you least suspect it.”
“Then bam!” Anna pipes up, slamming her fist on the table for emphasis. “He comes into your life and nothing is the same. He takes up every thought in your mind and there’s nowhere you’d rather be than in his arms.”
Lana nods. “You’re a goner. Then you realize you never really stood a chance at all. If love is out to get you, you might as well stop trying to fight it and just go with it.”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t think it’s going to happen for me, to be honest. I think I’m actually okay with that now though. But enough talk about me and my singleness, let’s have another drink and get ready to sing our asses off!”
FOUR
AFTER our terrible rendition of “Man Down” by Rihanna, we give up the microphone to others. I meet Summer and Taiya, Reid’s and Ryan’s wives. Both are so beautiful and charismatic, I can see why the men chose them over all others. They could clearly get any women they wanted, but they’re obviously in love with these two incredible ladies.
“That was fucking horrible,” Reid says as we sit back down at our table. He sounds extremely amused, and I can tell that he really doesn’t mind the fact that we’re here, no matter how much he tries to pretend otherwise.
“That was fucking great!” Summer disagrees, hugging her baby bump. She’s five months pregnant and dressed in a cute black baby-doll dress. After watching Reid with her all night, I feel a pang in my chest. He’s so protective yet sweet. Gruff, but to her he turns into someone completely different. Yeah, that’s love all right.
“I’d like to see you do better,” Anna challenges back. Reid simply grins and shakes his head, wrapping his arm around Summer and affectionately kissing the top of her head.
“Wouldn’t want to make you all look bad,” he says smoothly.
“Cop out!” Anna calls out.
“Come on, Reid,” Summer says to him. “We won’t even give you shit for how terrible you’re going to be.”
He kisses her to shut her up and it works.
We all try again to get Reid to get up onstage to sing, but he turns us down flat.
“No way in hell I’m getting up there,” he says, standing up. “And my beautiful wife and I are going to make an exit before you guys get back up there again. I’m pretty sure Rihanna is fucking crying right now after hearing you annihilate her song.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Summer says, moving to the music. “I want to stay with the girls!”
“Summer,” Reid says, waiting until she looks at him. “You’re pregnant and tired. Let’s go home and rest; you can see the girls another time. You know we can’t get rid of them, they’re bound to come back.”
Summer glances at all our faces. “Will you come back and see me?”
We all agree.
“And I like the ladies’ night idea,” she says, winking.
Reid groans and shoots Anna a look that promises retribution.
Anna simply gives him a thumbs-up.
The two of them head off, leaving us to our own devices.
We’re talking about the good old days when Lana suddenly stands up and points. “Holy crap, look who’s here.”
We all look in her line of sight.
I see a tall, lean man with shaggy white-blond hair coming toward us. Next to him is a larger, scarier-looking man dressed in leather and sporting a Mohawk. As they come up to our table, I see the blond man has beautiful green eyes, while his friend’s are dark and ominous.
“Talon!” Anna squeals, jumping into his arms. Talon wraps her in his embrace, his muscled, tattooed arms holding her almost tenderly. Who exactly is this Talon? I glance at Lana, but she’s too busy smiling up at the man. He lifts Anna in the air before putting her down, then hugs Lana.