Along Came Baby Read online

  My phone started ringing then, and I grabbed my jeans up from the floor to pull my phone out of the pocket. “’Sup, man?” I said as I answered the phone.

  “Whatcha doing?” Harley growled into the phone. He always sounded as if he were angry, but that was just his voice. It was deep and husky, just like him.

  “Well, I was supposed to be at work, but I’m taking the day off,” I said. “And no I can’t meet you for breakfast. I’m up here in Brooklyn.”

  “Brooklyn?” For a husky country guy, Harley was a bit of a snob. He never liked to leave Manhattan unless it was for a gig.

  “I told you I’m looking after my sister’s dog,” I said, and I looked over to see what Frosty was doing. He was now sniffing at my pants and I grabbed them up. I didn’t need the mutt chewing up my favorite pair of jeans.

  “Oh yeah, so you’re going to be leaving from there for Rockwood tonight?” Harley was the drummer in our band and I knew he was hoping to pregame before the show.

  “Yeah, man. I’m staying out here for a month or so.”

  “What are you doing with your place then?” he asked, his voice curious and hopeful.

  “I’m not letting you crash in any of the rooms, dude,” I said in a firm voice. The last time I’d let him stay over and look after my pad he’d had a threesome with two middle-aged women from Texas that hadn’t wanted to leave; even when I’d showed up and told them he didn’t live there.

  “Aw, c’mon, Carter.”

  “Why did you call me, Harley?” I changed the subject and walked through to the kitchen to see if Danielle had any coffee. I needed some caffeine.

  “Fine. So my cousin Jimbo called me and he said that he heard that a record exec was going to be there tonight.”

  “Oh yeah?” I perked up. “From what label?”

  “Universal maybe?” he said and I could tell that he couldn’t really remember. There were only three things that Harley cared about: the drums, women, and beer. “But yeah, that’ll be cool, right?”

  “Yeah, that’ll be cool.” I rifled through the cupboards to see if there was anything close to coffee beans or even instant available to drink. “Hey, dude, I’ll see you tonight, okay? I gotta go.”

  “Right now. Rock ’n roll, baby,” he said and hung up. I laughed as I placed the phone down on the counter. I looked at my watch and wondered if Lila had left home as of yet? Maybe she had some coffee she could lend me. I ran through the kitchen to the front door and knocked on Lila’s door with my fingers crossed.

  “Hey,” she said, opening the door. There was a surprised look on her face as she gazed at me and as her eyes went lower I could see her blushing. Oh shit! I’d forgotten that I’d taken my jeans off and was standing here in just my T-shirt and boxer briefs.

  “Hey, I don’t suppose you have any coffee do you?” I asked naturally, pretending that it was completely normal for me to be standing here in my tight white briefs that didn’t hide much of anything. Not that I cared. I had nothing to be ashamed of down below. Nothing at all.

  “Coffee?” She blinked at me and I could tell that she was confused. “I thought you were rushing to work?” Her beautiful brown eyes stared into mine and I watched as she tucked some runaway blond hairs behind her ears. Her lips puckered in a confused way. They were plump and pink and looked like they were just waiting to be kissed.

  “Yeah, I was, but I left my suit at home, so I’m just going to chill today.”

  “Oh, wow,” she said and I could see her staring at me wonderingly. She most probably thought I was some sort of sexy arrogant asshole. “Um, let me check if I have any coffee beans.” She walked away from the door and I stayed in the hallway. I could see Frosty standing at my front door peering out curiously. “Here we go,” she said, and she walked back to me with a small bag of beans. “These are beans from Kenya, dark roast. Enjoy.”

  “Oh you sure I can have these?” I asked, knowing African beans were pretty pricey.

  “Yeah, you can pay me back in another way,” she said with an impish smile and I watched as her two front teeth bit down on her lower lip. I wondered if she was deliberately trying to tempt me. She had to know the effect she had on me, didn’t she?

  “Well that sounds like a deal I can definitely make.” I gave her my half-smile that drove all the women crazy and she just laughed girlishly at me and pushed the bag into my hand.

  “I’m sorry to be rude, but I’m about to leave now and have to go.” She grabbed her handbag from the table and I watched as she slipped her feet into a pair of black pumps. She closed the door behind her and stood next to me. She gazed up at me expectantly and I wondered if she was hoping for a kiss. Maybe we were on the same page after all. “Uh, excuse me.” She grinned at me. “Can I pass?”

  “Oh yeah, sorry.” I moved to the side. I was blocking her entrance way, and she needed to get past me; she wasn’t just standing there waiting for a kiss.

  “No worries,” she said with a small smile. “It was nice meeting you today, Carter. Hopefully I can make it tonight.”

  “I’ll have my fingers crossed.” I said honestly. “And it was great meeting you as well, Lila. I think this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

  The music was loud as I walked into Rockwood. I recognized the band on the stage; they were a young jazz group, and I knew they weren’t getting paid for being there tonight. I watched as one of their girlfriends walked around with a hat collecting tips from the patrons. None of them put their hands in their pockets. They weren’t there to listen to them. They were here to listen to me. I watched as a huddle of women in the corner looked over at me whispering. I gave them a huge smile, but didn’t go over to them. Instead I headed to the bar. I needed a drink.

  “Hey, Carter, you’re here early.” Betsy, the cute red headed bartender handed me a beer. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.” I grinned as I grabbed the glass. “Figured I would see who else was playing here tonight.”

  “Some jazz kids. I think they go to Julliard.” She nodded toward the enthusiastic youngsters on the stage. “They’re good, though this crowd doesn’t really appreciate their brand of good.”

  “You know jazz doesn’t sell as well as rock and roll.” I laughed and looked around the room. I saw many familiar faces as I surveyed the room. We’d really developed a small cult following in our two years of playing. It made me feel proud to have brought a real crowd out tonight. Lila would be impressed if she came. I hoped she was going to come.

  “Shannon was asking about you.” Betsy leaned forward with a wicked smile. “She’ll be happy to see you.”

  “She’s working tonight?” I asked and tried not to groan. Shannon was the other bartender. A hottie from Atlanta that had moved up to New York a year ago. We’d gone on a couple of dates a couple of months ago, but she’d been looking for something much more serious than I was looking to give. We hadn’t even hooked up, which I was glad about because she’d been blowing up my phone weekly asking if I wanted to go out. I’d politely declined at first, but I’d ignored her last couple of texts.

  “Yup.” Betsy grinned. I knew she was itching to see some drama go down. Betsy and I had never had anything, but she’d hooked up with Harley in the past and while she liked me, she was eager to see me and the guys get into woman trouble. It seemed to make her feel better about life. She was a cute girl, and I’d not really understood what she’d seen in Harley in the first place, but I guess women just have this thing for musicians, hot or not.

  “Oh well, that’s cool,” I said nonchalantly, hoping that Shannon wouldn’t pull anything if Lila showed up. That would be all I needed. I wasn’t really sure why I cared so much. It wasn’t as if I even knew Lila. We’d barely even met. But there was just something about her cute face and her passive aggressive texts that had gotten to me. I wanted to see if she would be as exciting in the bedroom as I imagined her to be. Not that I just wanted to get to know her just for sex; I also enjoyed talking to her. S
he seemed fun. I wanted to roll my eyes at myself. She seemed fun? Really Carter.

  “Here she is.” Betsy’s excited voice interrupted my reverie as Shannon came to stand next to her. “Hey, Shannon, look who it is,” she said as if Shannon couldn’t and wouldn’t recognize me standing here right in front of her. I put on my most dazzling smile and gazed into Shannon’s almost black irises.

  “Hi there, how you doing?” I said as if I hadn’t been ignoring her.

  “Forget it, Carter.” There was no smile on her face as she responded to me, her ebony skin glowing. “I don’t have time for your BS.”

  “My BS?” I threw my hands up. “I’m offended.”

  “Yeah right.” Shannon gave me a look and then gave Betsy a look as if to say, are you buying this crap? “Betsy, I’m knocking off early, okay? Stallone wants to take me for drinks.”

  “Yeah, no worries.” Betsy shrugged. “More tips for me.”

  “Um, is anyone else working? This place is packed tonight.” I looked around the room and even more people had piled in while we’d been talking.

  “I guess they’ll have to line up then, won’t they?” Shannon gave me a look, her beautiful model face looking satisfied. Aw, this was part of her plan to get me back. I got it now. “Bye,” she said, and I watched as she sashayed from behind the bar and left the room.

  “You do realize you’re going to be slammed, right?” I looked at Betsy who was grinning.

  “Dude, that’s double tips for me.” She shrugged and then winked at me. “That went better than expected, eh?”

  “Disappointed?”

  “Slightly.” She laughed and then she shooed me away. “Move now, boy, there are other people lining up to be served.”

  “Bye, Betsy,” I said as I stepped away from the bar and looked toward the entrance to see if Lila had somehow arrived in the last couple of minutes. I pulled out my phone to see if she’d texted me for directions or anything, but I suppose Google Maps could have given her any information she needed. “Are you going to come, Lila Delilah?” I mumbled as I stared at the screen that had a few missed calls, but no missed texts from Lila. I didn’t know why I cared so much. I never cared this much. And then because sometimes good things do come to those that wait, I felt something in my body stiffening as I heard a familiar laugh. I looked back toward the entrance and there she stood, in a short black dress with a low cut V-neck. She looked amazing and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her as she laughed again at something the bouncer was saying to her. Finally, she walked into the club and I walked over to greet her.

  “Hey, sexy,” I said as soon as my eyes met hers. She grinned at me and I gave her a lazy smile as I admired her body, so curvaceous and soft. Her long blond hair was hanging straight past her shoulders and it looked silky, like fine spun gold thread.

  “Hey,” she replied, her voice almost a whisper, as if she were shy. Her eyes bore into mine seductively and I could feel the sexual tension between us rising. It was easy to forget that we’d only met that morning.

  “I like that necklace,” I said and reached over to touch the fine piece of silver that was hanging between the curves of her breasts. My fingers grazed down her neck as they played with the chain and I stopped just short of her heaving bosoms. I could see the vein in her neck throbbing as we stood there close to each other.

  “Oops, sorry.” She gasped, a small smile on her face as she fell into me. Some guy having pushed past us to get to the bar.

  “Nothing to be sorry about.” My hands clung to her waist. Her body felt warm and I could feel her heart beating against me. I wanted to lean down and kiss her, but instead I thanked her for coming out.

  “No worries, thanks for inviting me. This is awesome and I can’t wait to see you perform. You play guitar, right?” she asked reminding me why she was here. I wondered what she would say if I told her all I wanted to do was take her in the back room, lift up her skirt and bend her over.

  “And I sing,” I said as I nodded; not daring to tell her how badly I wanted her. “We’re a local band, but we have a lot of support.”

  “This is a cool spot. I’ve never been to Rockwood Music Hall before,” she said and looked around the venue. My eyes were glued to her neck, and how delicate and feminine it was. I was also enjoying the smell of her. She smelled like fresh strawberries. I wondered if that was her natural odor or her bodywash. She’d obviously gone home to change. She certainly hadn’t been wearing that sexy dress this morning when she was headed to work.

  “We’re going to go on in about ten minutes,” I whispered into her ear wanting to tease her before I went on stage. I allowed my tongue to lightly touch her inner ear to see how she was going to respond. Was she feeling the heat between us as badly as I was? I smiled as I got my answer. Not only did she not pull away but I could also feel her body trembling. She was definitely feeling it and before I knew what was happening, I could feel her fingers on mine touching me softly. I could feel myself hardening next to her and I knew that if this continued at the pace we were currently going, I’d be lifting up her dress and doing naughty things to her right here in front of everyone. “I have to go to the back and grab my gear and get ready,” I said hastily. There was going to be a music exec here tonight. I still had to go on and play, no matter how badly I just wanted to be with Lila. “However, let’s get a drink when I’m done, yeah?” I stared into her eyes and all I could think about was feeling her softly parted lips on my now very hard cock.

  “Just a drink?” she asked, with a teasing smile and I almost groaned out loud.

  “It’s never just a drink,” I said with a wink and then I leaned forward and kissed her, my hands bringing her body in even closer to mine so that she could feel my hardness against her. I knew it was a bold move, but I was feeling in a bold mood. “Tonight we’re going to make some sweet music, baby,” I said and slipped my tongue into her mouth so that I could taste her sweetness on my lips before I went onto the stage to perform.

  “Okay,” she whispered as she kissed me back passionately, her fingers on the back of my shoulders. I broke away from her and gave her one last wink before I walked toward the hallway that would take me to the back room where my guitar was waiting for me.

  “Hey, man, who’s that hottie?” Harley slapped me on the shoulder as I walked into the back room.

  “What?”

  “That hot blonde.” He smacked his lips together. “With the big rack.”

  “Really, Harley?” I frowned at the way he was talking about Lila.

  “What?” He twirled his drumsticks between his fingers and began nodding his head up and down to some beat in his mind. “Does she or does she not have a big rack?” He winked at me. “I sure noticed you admiring it.”

  “Harley, just concentrate on tonight. Did you see the execs?” I walked over to the corner of the room and picked up my guitar and searched through my case for my cables so I could attach it to the amp on stage. “You got the setlist?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “Bruno wanted to know if we could include some Hendrix tonight.”

  “No, man, we need to stick to the setlist.” I shook my head and looked around the room to see if the bass player was in the room with us. “Where is Bruno? We’re going on in ten minutes.”

  “He went to the restroom.” Harley shredded an air guitar. “He’ll be back. He said that Lucas will be able to join us tonight on keys.”

  “Sweet.” I started to tune my guitar. “That’ll be good. He’s nearly here.”

  “Yeah, man, yeah.” Harley nodded. “So you going to introduce me to the hottie?”

  “Why don’t you just worry about Betsy.” I raised an eyebrow at him and he groaned.

  “Low blow, man, low blow.”

  “When you go low, I go even lower.” I laughed and started ripping some chords. “And her name is Lila by the way.”

  “Lyla?” He grinned. “Like the Oasis song?”

  “No, it’s L I L A.”

  “You k
now how to spell her name already?”

  “Danielle sent me her name with her number.”

  “Oh, she’s Danielle’s friend?” He made a face. He knew better than to mess with Danielle or any of her friends. He’d tried to hit on Danielle a long time ago and it hadn’t ended well for him.

  “Yup, they live next door to each other,” I said before I couldn’t stop myself.

  “Oh shit, it’s going to go down.” Harley started dancing around. “Bow chicka bow wow.”

  “Really, dude?” I shook my head and looked at my watch. “We need to head out. We’re on in a few minutes. You better text Bruno and Lucas and tell them to hurry the fuck up.”

  “Yes, bossman.”

  “You ready?”

  “Let’s rock ’n roll, dude.” Harley high-fived me and we grinned at each other, the excitement palpable in the air. I loved performing. It made me feel so alive, like I was on top of the world and flying through the sky with a crowd of people on the ground just watching me as I soared back and forth. The crowds cheering for me made my heart beat just that little bit faster, seeing the smiles on people’s faces as they danced and sang along to the music always thrilled me. It was in those moments that I actually felt like I connected with humankind. Most days, I thought that most humans were shit, but when it came to music and performing it was all about love. The love of music brought us together, and it was the most epic shit ever.

  “Any special requests?” I called out to the crowd. “We have two songs left before we have to get off the stage.” I listened to the boos and grinned out at the crowd. I could see the two music execs standing by the bar at the back, standing out like sore thumbs in their suits. They seemed to be impressed by the crowds and that made me happy, but not as happy as I felt as I watched Lila dancing back and forth to the music, her body in perfect timing to the beat of each song. Her long hair swayed back and forth as she moved and she looked like she was having a good time. I made eye contact with her a few times and she’d blushed and lowered her head slightly as I’d sang directly to her. I liked that she was a little shy at times. She was an enigma to me. Sometimes she was really bold and outgoing, like some sort of vixen and other times she was shy and innocent. I couldn’t read her, but then I didn’t know her that well yet. I intended to get to know her really well, real soon. “What about you, Lila?” I pointed to her in the crowd and ushered her to come forward in the crowd. “Any special request?”