Page 43 of Relentless
“I know it’s only three in the afternoon, but do you want a beer?” she asked.
Ethan’s eyebrows went up. “I don’t know. Maybe. Depends on what you have planned for the rest of the day.”
She grinned and turned to the small fridge. Pulling out two bottles of Ethan’s favorite beer—something Cody must have had stocked for them—she answered. “Walk through the rest of my colleagues, send the information to Sabina, then do something I haven’t ever done before.”
His eyebrows inched even higher. “Please tell me I’m going to like whatever you’re about to say.”
She popped the top on the bottles then handed him one, leaning over and kissing him as she did. “Depends. How do you feel aboutBreaking Bad?”
“The television show where the guy has every opportunity to make different decisions and yet still makes the worst ones possible?”
“The very same,” she said, taking a seat and tugging on Ethan’s legs. He looked at her, confused for a moment, then complied. Shifting so that he rested his back on the end of the couch, he lifted his legs and draped them over her lap.
“It’s not my favorite,” he replied as she began to gently massage his injured thigh. “Although if you keep doing that, it won’t matter what’s on the television. Why?”
Kara took a sip of her beer while still kneading his thigh with her free hand. “Because after I finish telling you about my colleagues, and after I send the same information to Sabina, I want to binge-watch it.”
Ethan’s hand paused halfway to taking a sip of his drink. “That’swhat you’ve never done before? Binge-watched a show?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Medical school and residency didn’t really afford me the time to watch more than an hour or so at a time. You’re either working or too tired to stay awake. And then I started traveling, and mostly to places with unstable internet. When I was home, I had life things to catch up on. So no, I’ve never binge-watched a show.”
Ethan took a slow slip of his beer. “Can I convince you to watch something else?”
She shook her head.
“Can I convince you to maybe do other things while binge-watching said show?”
“You can definitely try.”
He grinned. “You have a deal.” He held his bottle out, and she clinked hers against his. “So, tell me more about Peter and Shane, then we can move on to Lucky. I want to get this afternoon started.”
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
“That’s a wrap,”Buster, Cody’s stage manager, said from behind Ethan and Kara. Kara turned around to find the older gentleman grinning ear to ear. And she understood why. Cody had put on a hell of a show, including two encores. The sold-out stadium was packed with fans—all of whom were having a great time but staying well-behaved.
“I’ve always loved his music. Even before I met the family. But I’ve never seen him perform live,” Kara said. The energy of the show had her grinning like Buster. And her body seemed to be moving with a mind of its own to the echoes of the song Cody closed with.
She turned to Ethan, then twirled under his arm and spun back to his side. His leg prevented any serious dancing, but he was doing his best to keep up with her. “I’ve seen him dozens of times, but he still amazes me,” he said. “If you tell him that, though, you will regret it,” he added, smiling down at her.
She laughed then batted her eyes at him. “What are you going to do, spank me?” His eyes glazed over, making her laugh again. Then turning to Buster, who watched them with a smile, she asked, “What happens now? Should we go back to our bus? I know we leave for LA as soon as everything is packed. But between now and then…?”
“Cody usually has a post-show cool down backstage,” Buster said, gesturing them to follow him. “It’s not a party since most of the crew will be busy breaking down the stage. But it’s an hour or so to come down from the high of performing. They usually drink a few beers, talk about the show. That kind of stuff.”
“Will he want us there?” she asked, following the stage manager through a maze of halls. She and Ethan had opted to watch the performance from a private box rather than backstage. Not only had she never seenCodyperform live, she’d never seen any live performance. And she’d wanted the full effect.
“Of course he will,” Buster said, over his shoulder. “Family is everything to Cody.”
Kara knew that, of course. All the Warwicks were like that. But tonight, she hadn’t known what to expect when the “Cody” she knew from Mystery Lake collided with the “Cody” she saw onstage.
“He’ll be thrilled to have you there,” Ethan said, his voice low in her ear as they made their way down a set of stairs.
“And will he be thrilled to haveyouthere?” she asked.
Ethan chuckled. “He’ll enjoy having you there more. Especially if he can twirl you around a makeshift dance floor. He’ll take every opportunity he can to rub it in my face that he’s the one dancing with you and not me.”
She laughed. She had zero problems imagining exactly what that scenario would look like. And sure enough, the moment they stepped through the door into a large, private room, Cody swooped in. Leading her to the center of the room, he called to his bandmates to play something lively.
Surprise lit Cody’s face as he realized the two-step swing that he’d launched into didn’t faze her. She laughed at his expression as she aligned her hip to his and they moved across the floor. Country music and the military tended to go together, and she’d spent more than her fair share of time with both. Two-stepping, waltzing, and line dancing were second nature to her.
