Page 73 of Saving Ian Pope

“Do they know you’re in recovery?” Her jaw hardened, and she had a murderous gleam in her eyes.

“They do, but c’mon, Ivy. They’re not my keepers. They can do what they want. It’s up to me. Always up to me.”

Her little hand formed a fist. “I knew that Denny was trouble the minute he walked into the studio with that scraggly beard and the smirk.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d better keep Denny away from her from here on out. “They came up here to party, and that’s when I drank the whiskey.”

“Drugs?” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, and I thought she was going to draw blood.

“No drugs, which I never used anyway, just the booze.”

“And women.”

I held up my hands. “Not for me. I left before that portion of the party started.”

“You left Denny and...the keyboardist here by themselves?”

“After a few rounds, Denny got the brilliant idea to call a woman he’s been casually dating.”

“Fucking.” She practically growled.

“Whatever. He’s an adult, and so is she. You’ve suddenly become a pearl-clutcher over sex?”

“Go on.” She flipped her hand through the air, as if giving me leave to continue.

“Once Denny mentioned the women, I bounced. Told them they could stay at my place, but that I was out of there. I had Jovan drive me back home, fell asleep in the car.” I jabbed a finger at the knickers on the floor. “Denny obviously shagged his...friend, and she left those behind.”

“Eww, they had sex in your bed? Aren’t there like three other bedrooms in this place?”

“Exactly. Eww.” I rose to my knees and hobbled before her. “Do you believe me?”

“Sounds sort of plausible, except for the part where you’d leave a party raging in your own place, and one of the guests decides to fuck in the host’s bed, and thefriendleaves her panties behind.”

I snapped my fingers. “I’ll prove it to you. I’ll call Denny. I haven’t spoken to him about the knickers, right? Didn’t even know they were there. I’ll put him on speaker phone.”

“You don’t have to do that. I believe you.” Her lashes swept her cheeks, and she wouldn’t look me in the eyes.

“I don’t want you to have any doubts, Tink. I need to prove it to you, so this is settled between us. I don’t want any misunderstandings or deception between us.” I jumped to my feet to retrieve my phone from the other room.

When I returned, she’d un-pretzeled her body, her legs swinging from the side of the bed.

I scrolled through and found Denny’s contact info. I tapped to call him and enabled the speaker.

He picked up after two rings. “Hey, bro. That was some good work today. So proud to play on this record with you.”

“Thanks. You guys are brilliant. Hey, Denny, that night you and Giles were here...”

“Yeah, epic night, lad. Too bad you missed all the fun, but when I met your missus yesterday, I could understand why you skipped out. Ivy’s a stunner, proper fit, she is.” Ian held his breath, willing Denny not to say anything else about Ivy.

“Emma brought two friends with her, and since you didn’t stay, guess who had a threesome.” Denny made a crowing sound. “This bloke.”

I glanced over at Ivy, and she stuck a finger in her open mouth like she was vomiting. Yeah, definitely better to keep these two apart. “Congratulations. Did someone have sex in my bed because I found something underneath it.”

“Bro, not a used condom.”

Ivy made a gagging noise, and I pressed my finger to my lips. “Not that bad. It were a pair of black knickers. Belong to Emma?”

“Not sure. She never said. Might belong to one of them other birds, but I’m pretty sure you can toss ‘em.”

---