Break On Through by Christie Ridgway

explain this,” Reed said. “But I don’t know where to start.”
    Her lips twitched, then she laughed, and God, he liked the sound of it. Yeah, he wanted her in his bed. But first, there was that promise he’d made to her boys. The one he’d just successfully pawned off, thank God. His Saturday, he decided, would be a successful, solitary writing day.
    “So,” he said to Cleo. “You up for that treasure hunt?”
    “Sure,” she answered. “As long as you’ll be there.”

Chapter Six
     
    The day was beautiful for a treasure hunt or anything else a person might have in mind. Cleo was on a kind of hunt herself. At first she’d agreed to the invitation to the Laurel Canyon compound because her boys needed more opportunities to make friends and because Reed had looked so unthreatening draped in dressmaker’s castoffs. Afterward, though, she’d hit upon the idea of using the afternoon to figure out Reed—and just how serious he might be.
    You don’t think I want to go to bed with you?
    She wasn’t sure. And she really didn’t know how serious a mistake it might be for her to consent if that was, indeed, his desire.
    “You guys know to use your very best manners today, right?” she asked, glancing at her sons in the rear view mirror. She’d opted to drive herself and the boys, making some excuse about errands when Reed offered to take them. Her hybrid might be a little worn around the edges and there was a grape juice stain on the carpet that would never come out, but it was reliable.
    And given the circumstances, she liked being under her own steam. At the first sign of danger, she could grab up Obie and Eli and be on her way.
    Neither one of them had made a response to her manners remark. At the next stoplight, she took another look at them. “You know what a treasure hunt is?”
    “Like pirates,” Eli said. “ Aarrr. ”
    She grinned at him. “That’s right. Aarrr. ”
    “I’m not going to be a pirate for Halloween,” Obie piped up. “I’m thinking of a zebra.”
    He’d been considering lots of options in the last few days. “Um, okay. But we’ll have to decide in time for me to get a costume together for you.”
    It wasn’t long before they were turning onto Laurel Canyon Boulevard, which she knew to be—thanks to scouting on the internet—a main thoroughfare between West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, crossing the equally iconic Mulholland Drive. Side streets jutting off the long road snaked into the hills, providing secluded spaces of a decidedly rural nature just minutes from the urban streets of L.A.
    It was woody and green and immediately she caught onto the hippie vibe when she was stopped behind cars waiting to turn into the parking lot of the Canyon Country Store. The sign labeling the place was multi-colored and psychedelic-styled and Cleo peered at the doorway with interest. Would a boy-sized Reed Hopkins have ventured there for sodas and candy?
    Later, maybe he’d have dropped in to buy…
    Her attention snagged on a young couple just visible around the side of the building. The female half of the pair was leaning against the wall. Her partner was pressed close to her, one forearm braced on the wall above her head, the other doing something between their bodies. Heat washed up Cleo’s face as she watched him bury his mouth against the young woman’s throat. Her eyes closed and one of her legs wrapped around the back of the young man’s.
    Squirming on her seat, Cleo licked her lips, unable to look away from the show.
    Then a horn behind her blasted and she twitched, yanking her gaze from the lustful couple. Minutes later, she was still hot and the cotton of her dress felt scratchy against her skin as she pulled in front of the gates that led into the Velvet Lemons compound. Anticipation fluttered in her stomach as they began to open and she chalked it up to her first glimpse of the home of the famous band…not because she was going to see Reed again.
    She did, in