Resisting the Musician (a Head Over Heels Novel) (Entangled Indulgence) by Ally Blake

different as chalk and cheese and fought as much as human brothers. But then life wasn’t always fair. His parents had been killed in a head-on collision while searching for him because he’d dawdled home late from school. His uncle had died when he was away pounding out tunes for a hundred thousand people he’d never met and never would.
    It wasn’t as if he believed that if he had something good in his life and he stopped paying attention, if he looked away even for a second, something bad would definitely happen, but…
    “Dashiel, Dash, Big D.”
    Dash blinked his way out of the red haze to find Jake leaning over him with a beer and a half smile. He slowly uncurled his fingers, took Jake’s hand and shook.
    “Having fun?” Jake asked.
    “A blast,” said Dash, glancing at Lori who was still with Laz.
    Jake laughed, fully aware of Dash’s preference for a guitar and a small room.
    “You?”
    Jake nodded. “You missed dinner. Duck. Truffles. Linen napkins, if you will.”
    “More of that in your future then.”
    “Yeah,” said Jake, absently sliding a stray strand of dirty-blond hair back into his ponytail.
    “Will make for a posh wedding.”
    Jake looked to Callie who was now the recipient of Laz’s rapt attention; the big guy had never been one to leave a pretty girl feeling unloved. “You think that’s what she’d want, then? Posh? Big? Frills and frou frou?”
    “You’re asking me?”
    Jake’s gaze slunk back to Dash, and dropped to his bespoke suit. “You always had more panache in your pinky than the rest of us slobs combined. Wondered more than once why you bothered with us at all.”
    Brothers , Dash thought. Fighters or not, it’s not right to separate them. “And yet wedding plans aren’t my forte.”
    Jake’s grin morphed into a laugh. And Dash felt the lost years contract and stretch all at once.
    “You’re coming though, right? To the wedding?” Jake said before his face was obscured by his drink.
    “The chance to see you in frou frou and frills?” Dash managed. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
    Jake nodded, slapped Dash on the back, then headed off, w hile Dash breathed out through too tight lungs.
    At one time he would have been Jake’s best man, no question. But in the blurry months after he left the band, in mourning the loss of his uncle, he’d had done his all to shatter whatever friendships remained.
    It’d take a natural disaster to inconvenience Laz. At the other end of the scale Rocky hadn’t forgiven him yet. While Jake…? Despite the falling out, Jake had refused to let go.
    Beyond that, desire to form new relationships had been nil.
    Like a ship in a storm, his eyes found Lori. Pushy enough to be the first new person to have chiseled a way into his enclave since he’d slammed shut the doors. And connected. With campaigns and crusades and a community outside of the short hours they spent together. It would behoove him to remember that. Yet the want grew till it pulsed inside of him like a living thing.
    Of all the mythical characters she could have been named after, a siren known for luring men lost at sea to their deaths seemed pretty apt. And what a way to go.
    …
    “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Callie asked, linking elbows with Lori and leaning against her shoulder. “Me and Jake. You and Dash. Houses on the same street. Summer barbeques. Carpooling our kids to school…”
    Lori carefully slid her gaze away from Dash who was talking to Jake across the room. “Funnily enough…no. I was wondering if it’ll take more than bicarb-soda to get the beer stains out of our white carpet.”
    “Give it up, Lori, the two of you can’t keep your eyes off each other. Be glad Jake’s oblivious to such things, or he might wonder if this isn’t the first time you’ve met.”
    “You’re dreaming. There’s nothing going on between Dash and me.” Nothing a little time beyond that kiss wouldn’t numb anyway.
    “Dreaming’s what I do best. And remember what