Next Song I Sing (NEXT TIME AROUND) (11 page)

“Jasper’s kissing Chloe? Where?” Taylor demanded, whipping her head back in Chloe’s direction just in time to see the finish, including Jasper tucking Chloe’s wet hair behind her ear. “Well, that’s moving fast.”

“Not really,” Max said, carefully keeping his voice very reasonable even when he wanted to swear again. “Jasper has been gone on your friend since he saw her yesterday at lunch through the window. Then when she sang to him last night, well that was it. He’s now officially crazy about her. At his age, a man can’t afford to take too much time deciding what he wants.”

Taylor looked back at Max, smirking. “His age? Yeah, sonny. Your brother is certainly old at forty-five. He better make his move before you put him in a nursing home or something.”

Max flushed harder when he realized Taylor was closer to Jasper’s age than his. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

Taylor laughed. “Sure you didn’t.”

Emma grinned behind her magazine. “I think Jasper and Chloe are just living in the now. That seems like good advice,” she said coyly. “Don’t you agree, Taylor?”

Taylor rolled her eyes at Emma’s not-so-subtle hint.

“Oh probably for people their age,” she said, snapping out of her mood when she heard Emma giggle. Max was still a kid in many ways, she supposed. There was no need to over-react to his anxiousness to defend his brother.

Sighing, she turned to Max and opted to be magnanimous. “Want to join us for another round of piano playing tonight, or are you bored entertaining us older gals?”

“Sure, I’d love to join you. Tonight’s entertainment is on the house and extortion free. I made three hundred dollars in tips last night for only a couple hours of playing. Can I join you for dinner too?” Max asked, grinning at Taylor’s obvious reluctance and her struggle to do the polite thing.

Taylor nodded as Max slid out of the seat and stood. She was less sure of sitting next to the man at dinner, but she thought it would be too unfriendly to rule out Max when it was obvious at this point that his brother was definitely going to be there.

Chapter 10

Jasper had some of the tables for two in the lounge swapped out for several that would seat six. He initially thought to just do it for their dinner, but given last night’s crowd, the rearrangement made more sense. Sam agreed, and they’d ended up doing the work themselves.

“So what do you think of Chloe?” Jasper asked as he and Sam slid the last of the chairs into place.

“I like the new layout,” Sam said, glancing around. “And what I say about Chloe Zanders depends on you.”

He grinned in answer to the grin on Jasper’s face. It had been a long time since he’d seen Jasper so animated.

“Give me your honest opinion,” Jasper stated. “You can have a free one on this. Say whatever you want.”

Sam bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Jasper didn’t want to hear his opinion. He wanted Sam to stay away from Chloe. It made him laugh that his friend had this level of interest in a woman after all these years.

“You know I like the same things in women you do. If I thought I stood a chance of getting my hands on the woman, I wouldn’t give a damn about our twenty years of friendship or my interest in your hotels. With a voice like hers when she sings, imagine what the woman will sound like when she hits the high notes in the middle of a big o—,”

“Stop, or I will be forced to kill you,” Jasper said firmly, his face flushing because his body had already imagined the moment Sam described many times. “I’m—,”

Jasper paused and looked at Sam, blinking a couple times before saying it aloud and making it real. “Hell, old man. I’m staking a claim to Chloe.”

Sam burst out laughing. “Good for you. Now I’m glad I let Maximillan talk me into calling you last night.”

“Max just wanted me to see him win our damn bet. He talked all three of those reasonably intelligent older women into kissing him,” Jasper said, shaking his head in mock disgust. “I lost sixty damn dollars to my womanizing brother. I should know better by now.”

“They might have kissed him, but I didn’t see Max walking out the door with any of them,” Sam said reasonably, heading back behind the bar, then he stopped talking to snap his fingers, “but wait—I distinctly remember seeing you and the lovely Chloe leaving together. What did you do, give her a tour of the hotel?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Jasper declared, climbing on a stool as Sam went to get them something to drink. “I took the woman to my office and kissed her senseless until she agreed to date me.”

“Who the hell are you and what have you done with my best friend?” Sam demanded roughly, slamming a coke down in front of Jasper and making the ice cubes jump in the glass. “You left your supermodel prima donna ex-wife pining in your bed while you sat in my lounge and seduced another woman. You can’t be the stuffed shirt rich kid I met in college. The Jasper Wade I know wouldn’t have had the balls to do what you did.”

“I know. I can’t believe it myself, but Chloe has given me a whole new appreciation for my balls. She’s shown me a higher purpose for them that I’d all but forgotten about,” Jasper told Sam, putting enough dignity in the words to have his friend laughing so hard he had to lean on the bar.

“Yeah? She must be some woman then,” Sam said wistfully, waiting for more details but seeing only Jasper’s smirk instead. “Just tell me if she tastes as amazing as she looks.”

“Touch her and die, Samuel,” Jasper said, sipping his coke as Sam laughed again.

Max walked in and slid onto the stool next to Jasper. Sam fetched another coke with a broad smile still on his face.

“What’s so funny?” Max asked, feeling a bit left out.

“We were discussing the current condition of your brother’s balls,” Sam said, sliding Max’s coke in front of him.

Max laughed, sneaking a sideways look at his brother’s laughing face. Chloe deserved a reward just for putting that wicked look on it.

“Why? Has Chloe raised your awareness?” Max asked his brother, keeping his tone as serious as he could around the urge to laugh.

“Yes she has, along with raising pretty much everything else I own as well,” Jasper said dryly, listening to both Sam and Max laugh loudly at his crude joke. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here with you clowns making high school jokes about my sex life.”

“It’s called having fun, Jasper,” Max said easily. He reached over and patted his brother’s arm. “I know you don’t recognize it, but just trust Sam and me on this. You’ll get used to it again soon. Chloe must have some magic.”

“I wouldn’t know. All I’ve done is kiss the woman,” Jasper told him sharply.

“Yes, I saw a demonstration of your expertise a few hours ago,” Max admitted, smiling at Jasper’s obvious discomfort at being confronted about it. “Nice job by the way. So how great is she? I only got a cheek kiss last night because you were watching, but even that was promising.”

“Touch her and die,” Jasper told his younger and still disreputable brother, grinning when Sam laughed loudly again.

“I think Jasper’s trying to tell you Chloe is off limits, Max,” Sam told him.

“Yeah? Well, that just sounds like a challenge to me. Want to make another bet about Chloe kissing me for real?” Max asked Jasper. “I did pretty well last night. Two out of three were on the lips. I’m all for trying again. Double or nothing, old man.”

“I believe I’ll just go see how the front desk is doing this evening before Chloe and her friends arrive for dinner,” Jasper said, ignoring Max and sliding off the stool. “It will be more productive than killing my brother. Plus I’d hate to have to explain Max’s demise to our parents. It would interrupt their jet-setting to have to come home for his funeral.”

Jasper was smiling as he walked out leaving the two men snickering behind him.

***

Max watched Jasper saunter away, one hand in a pocket, practically whistling. He was trying to remember the last time he’d seen his brother so pleased with life or himself. Max thought it was probably when he had still been in high school.

“Rayonna has informed me that she’s going to hook Jasper up with one of her friends,” Max said, confiding in Sam, which was something he frequently did nowadays.

Sam was practically family, had been for years, but Max was starting to really appreciate the long term friendship between Sam and his brother. He wished he had a friend that close.

Sam rolled his eyes. “Jasper is smitten. Unless Rayonna produces a friend with breasts bigger than Chloe’s and a voice sweet enough to make angels jealous, your brother won’t even notice. The woman wears a double D. Those are damn hard to compete with, especially challenging for small breasted models. Push-up bras can only fool a man for a short time.”

“Double-D? Are you sure? And if you are, tell me how you know Chloe’s breast size?” Max asked, truly amazed at how glibly the fact had rolled off Sam’s tongue.

Sam grinned. “It’s a gift of age and experience.”

“What kind of experience?” Max asked, grinning back.

“The kind a man doesn’t openly brag about to young players who think they’re God’s gift to all females,” Sam told him. “I could tell you the size of both her friends too. Want to know about the one you like?”

“No—I like surprises,” Max said, sighing and looking at the bar. “Plus I think my bragging days are mostly behind me. I may not even miss them.”

“Blue halter with the matching blue eyes got you that hooked?” Sam asked, feigning shock.

“You are an observant man,” Max said sincerely.

“I’m a bartender. I miss nothing. She busted you, Cutie,” Sam said, laughing.

“She did,” Max agreed, “but I gained some points back playing and singing with them last night.”

“Not as many as your brother got,” Sam said, still surprised at Jasper.

Jasper had always been a serious man. Even in his thirties, he was discreet and sedate with women. Sam found it genuinely hard to believe Jasper was acting so forward with this one, no matter how good she looked—or sounded.

Max laughed. “You don’t even know the half of it. I think Jasper was copping a feel at the pool today. Chloe was wearing this black bathing suit with all kinds holes in it. Jasper kept trying to cover her up with a towel. Then he sat next to her at one of the pool bar tables so close that they were bumping each other. Next thing I know, Jasper is leaning over to cover her, and her face is turning the color of her mai tai.”

Sam laughed so hard again that he had to lay his head down on the bar. “You’re lying. Jasper Wade did not cop a feel in public.”

“I am not lying. Get this—it happened right after Rayonna interrupted my lunch to inform me that Jasper was lousy in bed,” Max told him. “I can understand her being upset about him not sleeping with her last night, but she didn’t have to insult his manhood to me.”

“That’s fucking bullshit anyway, in case you’re concerned,” Sam said, shocked that Jasper’s ex would say such a thing to his brother. The woman was incorrigible. “Jasper may have settled down some after he got married, but he didn’t become a damn eunuch. I know him better than that.”

“I didn’t believe her either, but I wonder if Jasper may have settled down a little too much over the years,” Max remarked. “I have no doubt Jasper was faithful, but I don’t think he was ever in love with his wife. Between us, that’s the only piece of sorry I feel for Rayonna. Mostly I wish she would leave and never come back.”

“Don’t look now, Maximillan, but I think you’re growing up,” Sam said.

“Keep scaring me like that and I’m going to fall off the wagon,” Max threatened.

“No you won’t,” Sam told him. “Wicked Wade is not going back on the sauce. You want back on the ice a lot more than you want a drink.”

“True,” Max said, sipping the coke. “Now I can only hope the ice will want me back. If it doesn’t, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“You’re a damn good piano man,” Sam said, grinning.

“There’s a difference between a hobby that makes some pocket change and a real job,” Max said, wiggling his eyebrows. “It would be terrible if I had to sell my body and start endorsing products for a living. But I guess I’d have to suck it up. Life can be hell sometimes for famous jocks like me.”

“Do you remember meeting me when you were seven years old?” Sam began, not really expecting an answer to his question. “Jasper brought me home from college with him for a long weekend. Your parents were in—I don’t remember—Aruba or someplace. You were being cared for by the lovely Nanny Baldwin, who was also a double-D in case you ever wondered. She remains the epitome of my best experiences with women. Time and distance can pull some great relationships apart.”

Max laughed at Sam’s story and shifted on the stool. “I do remember that time. Jasper promised me then that once he finished college, I could come live with him.”

Sam nodded. “And he kept that promise because that’s just who the stuffed shirt is under that superior tone he uses with most people.”

“Yes, that’s God’s truth,” Max told him, laughing. “My stuffed-shirt brother is my hero.”

“Mine too,” Sam said sincerely, setting the glasses he’d been drying on the shelf. “You’re turning out to be a good man as well, Maximillan. You picked some good footsteps to follow in.”