All I Need (Hearts of the South) (22 page)

“They’re gorgeous.” Looking at them made her want to cry. He’d seen them, glowing and alive, and thought of
her
. She swallowed against the lump in her throat and smiled at him. “You’re going to have to get Landra something else for Christmas.”

He made a
pfft
in his throat. “Cash and a card and she’s happy.”

She laughed, the sound shaky to her own ears, and turned to slip the earrings into her lobes. Shining with fire and light, they swung against her artfully disheveled hair, a careless style that took her longer to create than she would ever admit. She turned to him. “Thank you.”

He moved to edge her hair behind her ear, and she caught his wrist. “Nope. You touch me now after giving me these, and I’ll jump you right here, then Troy Lee and Clark will have to play without you.”

“I’m good with that.” A muscle flicked in his stubbled jaw, his blue eyes smoldering. “Go ahead and jump me. Clark would bitch for weeks, but it would be worth it.”

“Later.”

He lifted the violin case again, muscles shifting under cashmere. “What are the odds later would involve you wearing nothing but those shoes and maybe those earrings?”

“Better than you’d get in Vegas.”

“Oh, I’m in then.”

* * * * *

Patrons packed the Cue Club, and he hadn’t been far off—she wasn’t underdressed and she came darn close to being overdressed.

“Is it always this crowded?” Pressed to his side, she spoke close to his ear.

“Sometimes.” He steered her toward the tables set to one side of a scuffed dance floor. “A lot of people are here just because of Beau and Andy. There’s Bennett and your sister.”

She peered through the crush and found Amy, clad in a sparkly turquoise tank and black slacks, standing with Rob near the bar. Hand linked with hers and violin case in his other, Emmett urged her in their direction. “Come on.”

The curious looks they engendered didn’t fly under her radar, and a hefty dose of jealousy simmered in some of those glances. He’d not been kidding about the gossip mill around here.

“Hey.” Amy greeted her with a bright smile and a hug, touching their cheeks together. She looked around at the crowd. “Can you believe this?”

“It’s amazing. Like one of Mom’s fundraising shindigs.” Savannah felt the loss of Emmett’s warm hold on her hand as he released her to shake Troy Lee’s hand when he joined them. Emmett leaned down to hug the pretty blonde accompanying Troy Lee.

“It is so good to see you here.” The blonde kissed his cheek.

“I didn’t think you were coming.” Troy Lee clapped his hand on Rob’s shoulder. “Who’s with the baby?”

“My mom and daddy took her back to Valdosta so they could have her to themselves tonight.” Amy linked her arm with Rob’s and smiled at him. “So we get to celebrate our first date night as parents.”

“You guys are going to start soon, right?” The blonde gestured toward the stage, where Clark Dempsey fiddled with wires. “Before this crowd gets restless?”

“Yeah.” Troy Lee started to drape his arm across her shoulder, and she ducked out from under it.

“Great.” She patted Emmett’s chest with one hand and whirled away toward the bar. Rob and Emmett watched her go, both bearing similar expressions of shock.

Emmett tagged Troy Lee’s arm. “Is she mad at you?”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“You didn’t compare her to a Caddy again, did you?”

“No.” Mouth set in a grim line, Troy Lee jerked a hand through his short hair. “She’s pregnant, she’s not happy about it, and somehow it’s all my fault.”

Emmett shook his head. “Told you to get a vasectomy when I did.”

“Can we just go play?”

“Yeah.” Emmett leaned down to brush his mouth across Savannah’s. “See you later.”

“Well.” An impish grin lit Amy’s face, and she grabbed Savannah’s hand. “Come sit with us. There’s an extra chair, and you’ll save me from having to converse with my bitchy partner or listen to Rob talk shop all night.”

Grateful for time with her sister, Savannah complied, even smiling through the handful of selfies Amy snapped once they’d placed drink orders. The large tables scattered about the room seated ten, and she found herself with Amy and Rob along with Amy’s partner and her husband as well as the rest of Chandler County’s investigative team.

“Y’all mind if I join you?” Mackey clapped a hand on Tick Calvert’s shoulder and indicated the empty chair between him and Savannah. With his glass of Scotch, he waved toward the table where Haley, Landra, and a core group of ER personnel gathered. “I’ve worn out my welcome other places.”

Savannah didn’t miss how Landra turned her face away.

The lights dimmed once the music began, and she relaxed into her chair to sip at a glass of Chivas. The three of them were surprisingly good for a small-town band, combining individual talents on the piano, violin, and guitar and letting Troy Lee’s strong vocals take the lead, with Clark and Emmett providing the backup melodies.

The table did indeed indulge in shoptalk, with Rob and the two investigators—Calvert and Cook—tossing around general ideas about the EMT sniper case, but Amy’s partner proved to have a sharp and insightful wit. The music spanned everything from classic to contemporary rock and country, and the dance floor stayed packed for both slow and fast numbers. To her surprise, once Troy Lee claimed the need for a break, Emmett and Clark took the lead on a pair of contemporary praise songs, although the bar crowd seemed unfazed by the unusual choices. Emmett’s voice demonstrated a range and power that matched Troy Lee’s.

Clark rippled a melody across the keyboard, and the regulars went crazy. Emmett set his violin aside in the case. Sweat shining on his brow, he grinned at the crowd over the microphone. “Y’all know I can’t play and sing this.”

Somewhere behind Savannah, a male voice whooped. Emmett launched into a low ballad unfamiliar to Savannah, a song of intense love among ruin and desolation. Lashes shadowing his cheekbones, he sang of losing everything, of being in over his head, of having only what he needed to hold on to. He never missed a note, and as his voice died away and Clark let the melody trail to a stop, a hush hovered for a split second before eager applause broke out. His eyes remained closed a moment, then he glanced at Clark and a grin passed between them. Troy Lee, also grinning, discarded his water bottle and clapped with the crowd.

Savannah blinked hard and brushed a fingertip under her eyes. A quick glance around the table proved she wasn’t the only one emotionally moved.

“Guess his mama didn’t waste money on all those voice lessons when he was a kid.” Eyes damp, Mackey leaned close to Calvert. “Are you really going to put him back in a car if Delk releases him?”

“I’d be crazy not to.” Arm draped along the back of his wife’s chair, Calvert reached for the beer he’d been nursing the last half-hour. To their right, the bartender started turning on lights, and much of the crowd drifted out. “He’s smart, but he’s wasted behind a desk. He can read a situation better than most veteran cops with twice his experience, and I don’t have to worry he’s going to embarrass us.”

“You realize he’s also a total adrenaline junkie, and I’ll have to stitch him up again?”

“Oh, probably a couple of times.” A grin quirked at Calvert’s mouth. Savannah darted a glance at Mackey. Adrenaline junkie? As controlled as Emmett was about his emotions? She didn’t see it. “Maybe not so much now that he’s got a major recuperation behind him. He’ll be a little more cautious, but not so cautious that he loses his edge.”

More patrons wandered out, but a significant portion stayed put, despite the lights being fully up. A server approached the stage with a tray, and Clark and Emmett both took a long, tall glass of amber fluid while Troy Lee accepted a Corona and pushed a lime into the neck. Anticipation hovered in the room.

Savannah caught Amy’s eye in inquiry, but her sister shrugged. “I’ve got no clue.”

Clark rippled the keyboard. “Em, they’re not going home.”

“I know.” With a sip from his glass, Emmett brushed damp hair away from his forehead. Troy Lee reached for his guitar again.

“You know what they’re waiting for.” Clark grinned.

“I do.” Emmett adjusted his microphone stand. “Church on Saturday night.”

Clark plinked out “Jesus Loves Me” with one finger. “And why do we have to have church on Saturday night?”

“Because they won’t let us in church on Sunday morning.”

Calvert coughed a laugh into his fist. More laughter drifted across the room, anticipation building.

“My mama, who forced me into piano lessons, and Em’s mama, who forced him into violin
and
voice lessons, did not anticipate their little boys growing up to play in a heathen rock band.” Clark chuckled into the mike. “But they probably should have known something was up when we kept getting called before the deacons because Emmett couldn’t behave.”

“Yeah.” Wry humor twisted Emmett’s mouth. “It was all me, every single time we got called before the deacons.”

“So you regulars know that church on Saturday night involves two things. Some old-time hymns.” Clark’s grin widened. “And a little confessional.”

“Here we go.” Troy Lee crossed his arms over his chest.

“I think since it’s our Em’s first official night back with us and since you all know how he and I met in the church nursery, we should talk about the first night we met Troy Lee.”

Emmett and Troy Lee both swiveled in his direction. “No.”

“Oh, yeah.” Clark played an ominous chord and held it. “Y’all know Em has a little bit of a wild streak and he’s competitive. So he hears about this hotshot new deputy Chandler County has. You know, the one who likes to run patrol cars hot.”

“God.” Troy Lee groaned and dropped his head. Rob laughed aloud, and Amy leaned her shoulder against his.

“So one Saturday night, I’m being a good boy like always, sitting in my ambulance, waiting on a call, listening to Jim bitch and moan, and here comes Em over the radio on our, er, private channel. He’d tracked down said hotshot deputy, and they were out on Stadium Drive. You know, that great, deserted
straight
stretch.”

“Holy hell,” Calvert breathed. Cook, the second investigator, lowered his mouth into his palm, smothering a chuckle.

“Go ahead, Em. Tell the nice people what you two were doing when I got there.”

“Drag-racing patrol cars.” Emmett blew out a long breath and glared at Clark. “Why don’t you tell them the rest of the story, Clark? Who was flagging us and who was timing us?”

“Oh, if I remember correctly, Chief Singleton was flagging you.” Clark winked in the direction of Savannah’s table. “And Investigator Cook was timing you.”

Calvert pinned Cook with a baleful look. “Seriously?”

Cook shrugged. “They were young and stupid, and if you’d found out, you’d have fired Troy Lee on the spot.”

“I might still fire him on the spot.” But a hint of humor lurked around the line of his mouth.

“You’re my best friend, Emmy.” Clark spoke rapidly against the mike, still grinning.

“You’re a dead man, Clark.”

“Maybe you should sing.” He played the opening bars to “Amazing Grace,” and Emmett joined in with strong, clear notes. Quiet settled over the room except for the gentle piano melody and the purity of his voice. Laughter forgotten, Savannah let herself be pulled into the spell of that beautiful tenor. The pair segued easily into a handful of other hymns.

When it was over, the remaining audience drifted out quietly in pairs and small groups. Savannah remained in her seat after her sister and brother-in-law hugged her goodbye and made their way out with the others. Emmett perched on his stool, one foot on the floor, and packed away his violin, sometimes slanting a smile or a comment at Clark or Troy Lee. She watched him, her heart aching for some reason she didn’t quite understand.

Gates had been easy, the best, the love of her life.

She didn’t know how to define Emmett, but oh, she wanted to.

He eased down from the low stage, when she imagined in another life, he’d have leaped. An adrenaline junkie, an incredible musician, a man with depths she didn’t begin to comprehend.

She wanted to peel all those layers away, until he was laid bare with her.

And what exactly did that
mean
?

Case in hand, he approached, a slight smile curving his mouth. He took her breath.

That should scare her to death, send her running, and all she wanted tonight was to live, to breathe him in. She wanted him inside her, running through her veins.

His smile widened to a grin. “Haley’s spending the night with Landra, so I can have a later curfew.”

He held out a hand, and she rose to take it, using the leverage to pull him into her, chest to chest, abdomen to abdomen, thigh to thigh. She held his startled gaze and leaned in to whisper at his ear. “I want you.”

A sharp inhale, and he stepped away, his eyes impossibly dark and intense, like the lime pit in the night. “You’ve got me.”

* * * * *