Wild Child (Rock Royalty #6) by Christie Ridgway Page A

“Or probably still drunk off your ass.”
    It had been at the tail end of one of his very last benders.
    “Quite the looker, that Ash.” Walsh took another swallow of his water. “Though today she’s more clothed and sober than in that photo you took.”
    The one that was still on his phone. In it, she wore a boozy smile and a flesh-toned dress scattered with sequins that had sparkled in the camera app’s flash. The dress had been torn up the middle to reveal her bare legs and that pair of cowboy boots she favored. Her hair had been tangled about her beautiful face, and her pale eyes had been surrounded with heavy black liner and mascara. If you looked up “woman trouble” in the dictionary, that photo would negate the need for further description.
    And trouble of any kind was the very thing he’d vowed to give up.
    “I told myself at the time that you’d stumbled across a fallen angel,” Walsh continued. “But that picture you took… It also tells me she’s not good for you, Bro.”
    Like he could deny it. “I didn’t take the photo. A friend sent it to me.” The same guy who’d led him to Satan’s the first time had returned there…and snapped that shot. “I wasn’t anywhere near her that night.”
    Walsh looked puzzled. “But you showed it to me. You told me that the woman in the picture had needed you and I… Hmm . I guess I assumed that you’d gotten roaring drunk with her.”
    “I got roaring drunk so I’d stay away from her.”
    After a moment of stunned silence, Walsh let out a breath. “Oh, hell.”
    Exactly.
    “Well,” Walsh said after more silence. “This will be interesting then.”
    With his bottle, he indicated a small group of people walking through the grounds. Ash and Cleo, each carrying a box. Accompanying them was a male stranger, and…Rachel.
    “Who’s that with your kindergarten teacher?”
    “I don’t know. She asked if she could bring a friend today.”
    “A male friend? Or…not a friend?”
    He shrugged. “We’re not exclusive. Her words. Her choice.”
    But he’d been figuring that exclusive was just a matter of a little more time.
    Walsh was studying him with narrowed eyes. “I like the kindergarten teacher.”
    “Me, too.” Brody started in her direction.
    She was going to keep his feet on the right path. The one that didn’t include drama, tears, jealousy, and shattered hearts.
    The person Rachel brought was named Max Beacon, an old family friend who also lived in a condo in her same complex. He was a music buff, she said, linking her arm in Brody’s after he bent to kiss her cheek.
    She smelled a little like crayons, which he kind of liked.
    “I’ll try not to be obnoxiously impressed I’m at the infamous Laurel Canyon Velvet Lemons compound having brunch with Rock Royalty,” Max said with a self-deprecating smile and in such a way that Brody decided the man himself wasn’t going to be obnoxious at all.
    Ashlynn looked at the twelve-pack of beer Max carried and then the cupcakes in the plastic box Brody took from Rachel. “I feel terrible. Everybody brought something.”
    “You brought all that pretty hair and your beautiful smile,” Max said, and that could have come out sleazy as shit, but Brody conceded it sounded, instead, sincere and kind. Then Max took the small box she was carrying for Cleo and handed over his heavier carton. “Take this and it will look as if you brought the beer.”
    Flashing him that smile, Ash pretended to stagger under the new weight, and they all laughed and walked toward the outdoor kitchen.
    One big happy brunch group.
    Brody supposed it seemed natural for the two who knew the fewest, Max and Ash, to gravitate toward each other. But he kept an eye on the blonde even as he talked with Rachel and introduced her to Payne and Rose, whom she’d not met before.
    The Cami-situation had been smoothed out, apparently, because she was laughing as she slipped between Cilla and Ren after they’d all filled their plates