Next Song I Sing (NEXT TIME AROUND) (30 page)

Marla and Vanessa groaned.

“Hey—no groaning. I’m telling a story here,” Chloe said firmly, hearing the audience snicker harder at her adamant tone, while Marla and Vanessa pretended to grumble more.

“No joke—my ex-husband, his pregnant girlfriend, and my new boyfriend’s ex-wife all walked into the hotel at the same time today. My ex wanted me back. His girlfriend wanted me dead. And my boyfriend’s ex-wife wanted to slap me for stealing her man. But you’ll never guess what my boyfriend did in response to the chaos.”

Chloe looked over at Max, who grinned and launched into the “Here’s Come The Bride.” The audience cracked up and applauded while Chloe laughed loudly into the microphone.

Taylor watched Max smiling at Chloe and couldn’t help wondering again what he was
really
like. Seeing him like this, it was just hard to believe Max was as bad as his press. Jasper’s husky laugh and broad smile startled Taylor out of her thoughts. She and Emma traded knowing looks about how crazy for each other he and Chloe were.

“Yes. That’s right,” Chloe said over the laughter of the audience, and Max’s enthusiastic, jazzy rendition of the wedding march.

“Even with all that crazy stuff going on, Jasper Wade honest-to-God asked me to marry him. I will eventually say yes of course because I love him dearly and I know he’s telling me the truth when he says it back. You know how I know? Well, I’ll tell you how I know. There’s one way that counts more than all the others.”

Chloe heard Marla and Vanessa humming and demanding an explanation.

Max hit a chord and Chloe laughed again, scanning the audience until she saw Jasper smiling back at her.

“Jasper, I love you. Next time you ask, I promise to answer the way you want,” Chloe said sincerely, her sexy voice bearing evidence of her smile.

When Max hit the first notes of the opening song, Chloe’s voice rang out clearly above the applause that suddenly lit up the lounge with life as she sang.

Jasper put two fingers in his mouth and whistled his support of the woman singing her heart out for him.

“Are you two really getting married?” Emma whispered, leaning over the table to yell the question.

Jasper smiled and nodded. “Yes—but I have to ask Chloe again in three months. We have a deal. I figure we’ll make it legal in about six months or so. But I’m not letting her out of my sight until then.”

“That’s so romantic, Jasper. If you have any single cousins, send them my way,” Emma said with a smile, laughing as she sighed, hoping she found someone to love her that much one day.

Then, like everyone else in the room, they settled back to listen to Chloe’s next song.

###

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~ Donna McDonald

***

Excerpt from NEXT GAME I PLAY

“Why are shutting me out without a chance? You already admitted that you’ve dated as much as I have,” Max argued.

“It’s not about quantity. It’s just that when it comes to women you’re no different from all the other males in this gym right now. And I’m sorry—but I’ve learned plenty of life lessons about dating jocks. I don’t need more,” Taylor explained, making sure her tone was as convincing as possible.

“Get real and stop stereotyping. You haven’t dated every jock there is, so how can you be so sure? I bet there are some good men out on the floor of this gym right now that you haven’t dated,” Max claimed, looking at the men in question, wishing he could join them.

Taylor looked around calmly, taking her time to study the ten or so men still working out in the gym. She watched Reston Williams, a very sexy and real California cowboy, head off to the showers and wondered whether or not to include him in her answer.

“Actually, I only see one or two on the floor that I missed, but it was because I refused to date married guys or anyone already in a serious relationship,” Taylor said firmly.

“I have those same rules, Taylor. I don’t date married women or those involved with other men in serious relationships. So why is my dating past worse than yours?” Max demanded, having trouble not staring at the other men surrounding them. The idea of any of them intimately touching Taylor made him crazy with jealousy, much the less the eight out of ten she was claiming to have dated.

“I never said my dating past was less worse than yours. I’m truly not passing judgment here, Max,” Taylor declared.

“If you weren’t passing judgment, we’d be together already,” Max told her firmly.

“No—we wouldn’t. My refusal to date you is also about my goals for love next time around. I like athletic men as much as the next woman, but it was a jock who married me for money and divorced me when I didn’t have any,” Taylor said.

“Well, I’m a jock and I’m certainly not like that guy. I’m only interested in your other assets,” Max insisted, offering a grin that seemed to be lost on the frowning woman he wanted.

“Don’t care. Even beyond jocks, I’m also not interested in dating high profile, known womanizers whose press reputations would instantly reduce me at breakup time to a random girlfriend on their conquest list,” she said. “Been there, done that—as they say. Well, I am not a random anything. Or at least, I refuse to be one again.”

“Makes perfect sense,” Max said, liking her honesty and finding it refreshing. He would always know where he stood with Taylor. If he upset her, he didn’t doubt that she’d just tell him.

“And I hate, absolutely hate cheaters because I don’t like to share, and because I take being intimate more seriously than that. Any wish a guy has for an ‘open relationship’ is a deal breaker for me. This is not a popular opinion among wealthy and successful men in California, but I don’t care about that either,” Taylor declared.

“Sounds completely reasonable to me,” Max said, putting hands in his pockets, trying to look casual. “Where you’re concerned, I don’t want to share either. Taylor—I can’t even remember being jealous before you.”

Rolling her eyes, Taylor picked up her clipboard and walked back to her office. It didn’t surprise her when Max followed, but it did surprise her when a fully dressed, great smelling Reston Williams also stuck his head in the door.

“You seem irritated, Legs. This guy bugging you?” Reston asked casually, crossing his massive arms and lowering his chin until the top of his battered tan Stetson almost covered his eyes.

Taylor looked at Reston’s stance and snorted at the pose. The picture he made in her doorway looked just like the cologne ads he posed for all the time. She would have laughed at him, but the last thing she needed was two angry, strutting peacock males messing up her day.

“Max is a friend. And our debate is nothing I can’t handle, Tex,” Taylor quipped back easily, using the nickname she’d given him when they were dating. Then she got an idea. “Hey Reston, are you labeled a womanizer? Tell me the truth. You know it won’t change how I think of you.”

Taylor smirked at Max, but she was a little regretful of her exchange with Reston when she saw Max sizing up him like he might want to pick a fight. Sometimes she really hated testosterone, even despite the craving she had for it.

Reston grinned at the battle going on between the guy and Taylor, wondering if the young stud thought he was going to get Taylor Baird to bend her no-jock rule. It was laughable, but maybe if the guy succeeded, Taylor might reconsider dating him once the boy got on her nerves bad enough. He rubbed a hand over his chin already rough with his evening beard. Man, he hated shaving twice a day. He’d never agree to another modeling contract that required his face to be smooth all the time.

“Well, if by ‘womanizer’ you mean that I prefer women and date a lot—yeah, I guess you could say that I’m one of a sort. I see that label applied to me sometimes, but Sugar, you know I’d give up all the others for you. You kiss like an angel. Plus you’re the hardest working female I ever met. Hell, I’ll be forty in few months and need to settle down. You’re the most perfect woman I know.”

Taylor rolled her eyes at his proposal, which was pretty much what she had done every other time Reston had made the same uninteresting offer. His lack of romance was just one of many reasons why she’d stopped dating him. Mostly she wasn’t willing to be some prize heifer Reston bought and put on display.

“Sorry, Tex. That dream is never happening with me, but thanks for the compliments. I’m sure when the time comes, you’ll find someone more perfect—and younger.”

“Young is overrated. There’s nothing better than an experienced woman, but I’m gentleman enough not to discuss such things. So what’s with you and the little glaring dude?” Reston demanded, swinging his knowing grin to the seething young male beside Taylor. “You dating him, Legs? He’s a kid, but I can tell he’s a jock, too. When we broke up, you said you were giving up jocks. Wasn’t the last guy you dated some kind of insurance broker or something?”

Max was shocked when the man’s gaze met and held his. “What do you mean ‘little dude’? You’re not that much bigger than me,” Max informed him, the jab at being a kid not stinging nearly as bad. And he was glad he still looked like a jock. Sometimes lately he didn’t feel like one.

Reston laughed. “Compared to the men Taylor is used to being around—yeah Dude, you’re little. Want to come out to the gym floor and meet some of her former guys? There’s a bunch of them in here right now, though I think I was the last one she dated.”

“Reston—that’s enough. Leave Max alone. He’s not that interested in my past,” Taylor advised.

Reston saw irritation and a scowl on the guy’s face, before swinging his attention to Taylor. Like hell, he thought, the man was definitively interested. If Taylor honestly thought he wasn’t, she was totally in denial.

Turning to Taylor, Max gave her a disbelieving stare, broken only by something erupting from him that was a cross between a snort and a huff. It reminded him of Jasper. “I am so not like this guy,” Max stated, sticking his hands in his pockets in frustration that she could even think he was.

“Yes, Maximillan—you are. You’re just a different generation,” Taylor said flatly. “Now if you gentleman will both kindly exit my office, I’ll get back to work. Max, I’ll see you Thursday.”

“Ah hell, we’re being dismissed. That’s not good. I feel sorry for you little glaring dude, which means it’s definitely time for me to leave,” Reston said resolutely, tipping his Stetson to Max and walking off.

“So back to the jock question—no, let’s be more specific. What was your problem with Reston when you dated him?” Max asked, nodding sideways at the door where cowboy wannabe had exited.

He stood there for a few moments watching Taylor ignore him. “Okay. Maybe your dating past is none of my business since we’re not sleeping together yet, but answer this. Do the men in your life always leave when you dismiss them?”

“Well—I have had to call the cops once or twice, but in your case, I’ll just call your brother and Sam,” Taylor said.

“Sam?” Max asked, surprised to hear the bartender’s name rolling so easily off Taylor’s tongue. “How do you know Sam? He uses the gym at the hotel.”

Taylor bit her lip. Damn it. She didn’t want to admit Sam had sought her out to try to get her to give Max a chance.

“I don’t want to discuss how I know Sam because that’s none of your business either,” she said, hoping Max would just let it drop.

“Tell me you are not dating Sam,” Max ordered, his throat tight. Surely Sam wouldn’t do that behind his back. He knew Max was interested in Taylor.

“Max, let it go. My relationship to Sam is none of your business, just like everything else in my life—past or present—
is none of your business
. You can ask Sam if you must, but I really wish you wouldn’t. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m usually more discreet about dropping names. Sam and I had lunch to discuss some business. That’s all.”

Max walked to stand just a couple feet away from her. He was now officially desperate to find a way to believe he meant something more to Taylor than every other guy in her jock harem—and God help him—more than Sam. He knew what caring about the other men meant, but it was too late to not feel that way about her.

“You are an enigmatic woman. Kiss me like you mean it and I’ll forget the subject of your dating past came up,” Max ordered.

“Blackmail of that sort is like pouring gasoline on a burning fire, especially knowing that you seduced two nurses while you were in the hospital recuperating, and later the woman who did the article on your recovery. You’re flaming up more every minute you pressure me,” Taylor said with confidence. “A simple internet search pulled up way more than I ever wanted to know about your dating history. Plus I at least let myself fall in love and marry once. How long was your longest relationship? Six weeks tops?”