“Gold medalist—yup. He and Mallory saved Damien’s life in that helicopter crash a couple of years ago. Why?”
Clive’s grin almost reached his ears. “My son is the biggest fan! That’s great. I’ll get them tickets, fly Derry out. I’ll be a hero! Jesus, Gecko, you’re not any less lucky out of the service than you were in it!”
Glen’s eyes were only on Cash as he disappeared from the sound booth and reappeared almost immediately in the tech booth. “Lucky,” he said mildly. “That’s the word.”
Cash’s hair was cut and styled, and he was wearing a long-sleeved cropped shirt in a melon color that highlighted his tan and trim little body, as well as bell-bottom jeans that were apparently making a second comeback since the seventies and nobody had told Glen.
Didn’t matter. Cash was perfect, every teenybopper’s dream, and for the next forty-eight hours, Glen’s reality, locked in a hotel room with nothing but room service, hot water, and lubricant.
And them.
Cash practically leaped into Glen’s arms, and Glen caught him, his shoulder having healed almost completely in the past six months and the graze from the gunshot nothing but a painful memory and a kick-ass scar.
His mouth on Glen’s was hot and breathless, and Glen fell into his kiss like a bucket into a well—Cash gave him everything he needed to live. They pulled back, and Cash said, “Dinner?”
Glen growled. “Sure. Dinner.”
Cash laughed and wiggled down, which did nothing to make Glen any more comfortable. He’d brought Cash back to LA. for rehearsals the month before, and while they’d managed one three-day weekend since, that had been a long time ago. Spence had kicked him out of the apartment with the admonition to get laid, get laid well, and stock up on getting laid so Glen might not rip everybody’s head off while Cash was on tour.
Glen had promised to try, but he knew it was going to be a long six months.
Not unbearable, though. He knew that now. With the promise of Cash at the end of the tunnel, with the hope of seeing him during breaks in the tour, with the knowledge Cash would be texting him and calling him when possible and missing him too, this wasn’t going to hurt nearly as bad as their last separation.
It made all the difference when he knew Cash would be coming back to him and him alone.
“I mean, real dinner!” Cash laughed. “Clive, can we get some place that serves real food and lots of it and isn’t super fancy or expensive?”
Clive almost glowed. “I love this kid! I’m on it!” He disappeared out to the hallway of the studio, leaving Glen to look at Cash in dismay.
“I thought it was going to be us!” he said.
“It will be.” Cash cupped his cheek and went in for a quick peck on the lips. “These are my friends—I want you to get to know them. So you’re not jealous and you don’t feel like I’m across the world with strangers. Is that okay? I got to know your family—I’d like you to know mine.”
Glen rolled his eyes. “Well, if you put it like that, sure. Fine. Make me be a grown-up.”
Cash laughed and threw his arms around Glen’s waist, leaning his head on Glen’s chest. “Thank you thank you, thank you!”
“Will Brielle be joining us?” Glen asked. They’d stopped on their way from Baja, as promised, to see her at the rehab center. She looked serious and, to Glen, anyway, serene. She’d thanked them both for all their trouble, but she hadn’t been up to a long visit. She texted Cash every other day, but Glen wasn’t sure how much they’d actually seen of each other now that Cash was back.
“No.” Cash shook his head, biting his lip at the same time. “She… she can’t be around all of this. Clive will get us a corner booth at a steakhouse or something, and the guys and I, we can turn our back on any attention, but Brielle—she’d want to be in the middle of it, and there’s a lot of drugs in the middle of it, and she knows she can’t say no. Not yet. Not now.”
“Gotcha,” Glen said gently. Brielle had been the friendship that had sustained Cash for his young adult life. “You okay with that?”
Cash shrugged, his expression bittersweet. “It needs to be what she’s okay with, or I’m not a very good friend. I miss her, but….” He looked over his shoulder as the other four guys from the band spilled into the room.
“Cash! Are you going to introduce us!”
“Oh my God, you’re right, he’s hot. Too bad I’m straight!”
“I’m not—are you going to introduce us?”
“Introduce us at the restaurant. I’m starving!”
Glen laughed. “Just a second, guys,” he said, giving a little salute. He lowered his head and spoke only for Cash. “They’re your friends, and I’d love to meet them,” he said. “Because being a part of your life is important to me.”
Cash’s smile bloomed across his entire body. “Thanks, Gecko. I promise when we get back to the hotel room, it’ll be nothing but you and me.”
Glen nodded and gave him a brief kiss on the lips before pulling back and putting some space between them. “You and me can deal with anything we got, kid. As long as we both shall live.”
Cash grinned at him and tugged him to the band, and Glen made himself at home. He hadn’t asked Cash to get married yet—but it was coming. Preston and Damien would be doing the deed as soon as Cash got off tour, and Glen wouldn’t mind joining them. He wouldn’t mind doing it in a private ceremony, either, with only Damien, Preston, Elsie, and, goddammit, Spencer—Glen and Damien kind of loved the guy—in attendance.
But the marriage wasn’t the important part, not now.
It was the promise of forever that was important.
And as Glen got to know the other part of Cash’s life that wasn’t dedicated to Glen and his family, he thought these were pretty nice people. He wouldn’t mind them being part of his forever—as long as that forever was with Cash Harper.
That was the only forever he was interested in, and as Cash twined their fingers together, he knew for a fact that Cash felt exactly the same.
Spencer and the Colonel
A Silent Heart ficlet
By Amy Lane
So we get to see a little bit of the relationship between Spencer and Preston’s dog, Colonel, in Safe Heart. I loved Spencer so much—and the idea that he and Colonel were friends who couldn’t always be together—that I wrote this brief little ficlet to explain their relationship. Of course, we also get to see why Preston is so damned irritated with the two of them, and that’s always fun too.
PRESTON trotted out the suitcases one at a time and set them on the ground, thinking, Today—today is the day that damned dog gets it.
“Let him go, Damien!”
Damien released the giant German shepherd mix, who ran across the spring-sprouting grass, making excited ruff sounds and tossing his narrow head in enthusiasm. His tail—which fanned impressively—swept back and forth so vigorously it could have been used as a weapon.
Preston could see the source of his joy—he loved to be worked with, and it was a stunning spring day, the kind meant for cargo shorts and hooded sweatshirts and sunglasses, and joy, oh joy, oh joy! Colonel was going to get to do what he did best!