Read Past Regrets: Love and Friendship, Book 2 for Free Online Page A

by what he’d learned tonight. He was pretty sure Julia hadn’t mentioned a family business, and she’d had ample opportunity to tell him about her mother. He should feel anger, but he was so damn pleased to see her he couldn’t hold onto his irritation.
    “My mother owns The Last Frontier . It’s been in the family for four generations.” Her tight-lipped voice hinted at her conflict. She wasn’t the prim, uptight type, so he wondered why the club embarrassed her.
    “Cool,” Caleb said. “Do you strip as well?”
    Whoa! Ryan glared at his friend. He didn’t want anyone seeing his wife naked apart from him.
    “I’m a secretary,” Julia said in a tight voice. “I don’t normally work here.”
    Caleb raised his hands in surrender. “Just curious. You never said anything when we first met.”
    Julia’s glare darkened. “You two know about lighting. Give me a verbal report on anything that needs fixing.” She wheeled around and stomped away, the slap of her high heels highlighting her annoyance.
    “Did you have to wind her up?”
    “You wanted answers. I asked the questions for you.” Caleb glanced over his shoulder at a burst of feminine laughter. “I told her friends we were roadies with a successful band.”
    “And?”
    “They adore French Letters . Their words. They wanted to know about Dubois and Beauchamp. Their favorites,” he said smugly.
    At the revelation, a flash of amusement doused some of Ryan’s Julia-related anxiety. “Yeah?”
    “I said they were assholes but weren’t bad singers,” Caleb said. “What? I could hardly tell them Beauchamp was standing right in front of them and Dubois is married to their friend. Seymour would kill us for letting out that info.”
    “You’re a pain in my ass.” Ryan stalked off toward the stage, grinning when he heard his friend running after him. Secretly he was glad Caleb was here, helping diffuse some of Julia’s anger and aiding him as he floundered through unchartered waters.
    “She doesn’t want a divorce.”
    “What?” Ryan swung around to face his friend.
    “She watches you when you’re not looking. You’ve hurt her, but it’s fixable.”
    “That’s your considered opinion?”
    “It is.” Caleb’s seriousness gave way to a grin of pure evil. “Perhaps I should give you an incentive. If you fuck this up with Julia and let her get away, it will clear the way for me. She likes me a little bit.”
    “Don’t even think it,” Ryan snarled, possessiveness roaring through him at the idea of someone else with his wife. “Julia gave us a job. We’d better get to it.” He climbed the set of pitted steps at the far end of the stage.
    “You think I don’t mean it. Julia is a sexy woman. She might be the one to make me settle down.”
    Ryan snorted. “She’s my wife.”
    “Only because you thought of it first.”
    “Because I’m the intelligent one,” Ryan said. “Where the fuck are the lights? It’s dark as hell back here.”
    “Isn’t hell full of fires?”
    Ryan groaned, feeling better than he had for months. Caleb, ever the smart-ass. He felt along the wall with his hand. “Ah, I’ve found some switches.” He flicked them and bright light illuminated the stage.
    He and Caleb exchanged a look.
    “I wonder how the acoustics hold up.” Caleb warbled a few notes of a current pop song. “Nice. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
    “Yeah,” Ryan said. “We get a place to practice that’s out of the public radar, and I get to hang out with my wife.”
    “Good plan.”
    “I liked it,” Ryan said.
    “What about Julia’s friends? Won’t they wonder why we’re playing music?”
    “We’ll tell them we got the bug and are starting our own band. Besides, we’re working on new songs. If we play an oldie, they’ll just think we’re doing a cover.”
    Caleb smirked. “I never knew you were so devious.”
    “Whatever it takes to win back Julia,” Ryan said.
    Whatever it takes .
     
     
    “Julia! Where did