Play Me (Love on Tour #2) Read Free Page A

working as a copy editor at a publishing house, the job she’d just lost. And she had an Irish last name. I was expecting her to be red-haired, light-skinned, robust, and boring. I did not expect a miniscule exotic sprite.
    I followed Sean and Mike over to where the girls stood. Baby introduced us to Susi, and then we followed her into the house. It turned out it was actually a duplex. Susi’s apartment was on the second floor. I was surprised to find the place completely empty, except for a pile of luggage in the center of the room.
    “All moved out, eh?” Sean asked. Having grown up in Michigan, he had this weird habit of occasionally sounding Canadian. He also really liked hockey.
    “Yep,” Susi said, bouncing up and down on her heels. “Everything has been sold, given away, or tucked away in storage. I’m ready for an adventure.”
    Baby threw an arm around Susi and pulled her close. “I’m so excited!”
    “What’s all this?” I gestured to the pile of suitcases. There were at least five bags there, two of them quite large.
    “My luggage for the trip,” Susi said casually.
    “All that?”
    “Henry,” Baby chastised.
    “You have like one third as much.”
    “We are not the same,” Baby said, picking up one of the smaller bags.
    Sean, Mike, and I grabbed the rest of the loot and walked back to the bus with it. The sprite followed. Her earlier enthusiasm seemed to disappear as she looked back at the apartment.
    She stood there on the lawn, staring at the window that led to the living room we’d just vacated. We loaded her bags into the storage compartments under the bus. For a minute I thought she wasn’t going to come, that she’d changed her mind.
    Baby walked over to her and put an arm around her shoulder. Their heads came together, resting against one another. I watched them as they stood like that for a long moment. They didn’t speak. Then Susi patted Baby’s back, turned around and marched toward the bus, pulling Baby along behind her.
    We’d established a pattern during our last tour. The bus contained a booth with roomy couches and a table between them. Sean and Baby sat on one side and Mike and I on the other. We played cards this way, ate meals, and generally bullshitted. But now there would be five of us. So Mike took a seat on the little couch that sat on the other side of the small aisle from the booth.
    “Finally,” Mike said, opening his laptop, “I can study.”
    Sean and Baby slid into one side of the booth. I waited for Susi to slide in opposite Baby, then sat down beside her.
    “Study for what?” Susi asked.
    “Mike is taking graduate classes. He plans to get his Masters in Public Relations,” Baby told her.
    “Really? You’re going to change careers?”
    “Not entirely,” Sean said. “He’s still going to work for me, aren’t you Mike?”
    “Yep.”
    Of course Mike would be working for me too, it was an unspoken assumption.
    “Poor Christie,” I said. “She’s going to get the boot.”
    Sean scowled. He didn’t like his PR rep Christie because she had reacted badly when he first started dating Baby. Apparently, she thought it was bad publicity for a rock star to be with an ordinary girl.
    “Okay Hank, bust out the cards. Let’s see what Susi’s got,” Sean said, as the bus pulled back onto the road.
    Susi smiled. Jesus she was adorable. She had an apple-shaped face with a tiny nose, long eyelashes, and cute little dimples.
    “How exactly are you Irish?” I asked.
    Baby laughed at this.
    “My dad’s Irish. My mom is Filipino,” Susi said.
    “You would think the Irish would balance out a little bit. You’re practically a hobbit.”
    I thought this would piss her off. It should have pissed her off. But it didn’t.
    She grinned. “My dad is a very small Irishman. And don’t hate the tiny.”
    “I don’t. You’re cute, like a little fairy.”
    “Whatever, at least I’m not a giant. Do you even fit into ordinary things, like cars?”
    Baby