"I'm just going to take Sheri to the store. Get a grip."

Sighing with irritation, he conceded, "Fine. You wanna take the truck?"

"Oh! Yeah, that would be great."

Sheri changed from her micro jean skirt into a pair of micro jean shorts, and we were ready to go.

"I can't thank you enough for your help, Kenna. You really don't have to do this. It's not like Jason deserves it," Sheri said as she plugged in the iPod Phil had handed to me on the way out.

I had no idea how to use one, seeing as I was technologically retarded.

She started looking through the music selection. "What should we listen to?"

"What's on that thing?"

"Um, this seems to be his classic rock one. Led Zeppelin's on here-"

"Put them on," I said.

"Which album?"

"Led Zeppelin IV."

"Black Dog" began blasting through the speakers. I got my groove on and busted out singing. Sheri giggled.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just awesome," she replied, "you being a Led Head."

"Why's that?"

"Because Phil worships them. All the guys do."

"Yeah, I get that," I said, smiling.

For a few minutes, we simply listened to Robert Plant wail.

As I drove past the regular grocery store, she gave off a little twitch. "Aren't we..."

"I don't recommend nonorganic food to patients. We're going to All Organics. It's where I shop anyway."

"Oh. Okay. You consider Jason a patient?"

"Well, yeah. As a doctor, I have a moral obligation to treat him as one."

"I thought you were more like a physical therapist."

"Well, I practice therapeutic medicine. What I do utilizes massage and chiropractic work and acupuncture, but I'm a licensed doctor. I just choose to treat patients with more natural remedies, like diet and manual manipulation instead of prescribing painkillers. Masking symptoms does nothing to cure the cause."

"You don't think Jason should be on painkillers then?"

"In this instance, I do. He had his face mashed in. He needs anything he can get his hands on to dull that kind of pain. But he can also eat things to help the healing process, and it'll keep him healthy while his body repairs itself."

She nodded, looking out the window and watching the scenery slip by.

"You're a really nice person, Kenna," she said after a comfortable stretch of silence. "I've never met anyone like you."

"You've met Alys and Lili. Alys is a hell of a lot nicer than I am. But I'd have to say we're both nicer than Lili. She can be a bit evil-in a good way though. They're both loyal to a fault, and once you get to know them, you'll see it for yourself."

"You were willing to give me a second chance. Not many women in your position would do that."

"My position?"

"You're Phil's woman, Kenna-his Baby Girl. The power you hold is quite considerable."

"Huh," I grunted, a little stunned that I held power of any kind when it came to my longtime crush.

"Any other woman would have had me thrown out the day after the party when I told you to fuck off."

"Well, I treat others how I'd like to be treated, I guess. I try to put myself in other people's shoes, understand where they're coming from, and not judge too much, you know? We all have our own roads to walk in this life, and every experience we go through makes us more of who we are. I have no idea what brought you to this point, but here we are, in the same car, with the same goal. Whatever else has brought us here, it shouldn't be held against us."

She turned startled eyes on me. "Okay."

"Do you have any other friends besides the guys?"

"Not really," she sighed. "I've never really had girlfriends."

"What about those chicks you were at Bougainvillea with that night?"

Smiling sadly, she replied, "They weren't my friends. We all just had one thing in mind that night, and we decided to car pool."

"Yeah, all right."

"The girls I do hang around with...you know, the groupies? They're all just a bunch of catty bitches who only care about the next score or which one of the guys they feel like banging. And they'll bang all of them-let's be honest about that. They'll be nice to your face, but then they'll have no problems with stabbing you in the back, if it'll get them what they want. It's sad I acted that way that night. I guess they'd rubbed off on me more than I'd thought they did."

"Well, I find it pretty fucking impressive that you recognized your own shortcomings, and I think it's even more impressive that you want to do something about it. It takes a great strength of character to do that."

She blushed prettily. "Thanks, I guess."

Pulling the Black Beauty into the little strip mall where All Organics was located, we hopped out and headed inside. Watching Sheri walk in front of me, I was desperate to get her to eat more. She was already gorgeous. All she needed was some meat on her bones.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Sheri? And before I ask, I want you to know that I'm asking as a medical professional, and if you choose to answer, it's in the strictest of confidences."

Eyes bugging with nervousness, she stammered, "O-okay."

"Do you have an eating problem?"

"You mean, like anorexia?"

"Yeah. Or bulimia."

"No. I don't think so. Why? Do I look sick?"

"You look like you're starving for a cheeseburger."

"That does sound pretty good now that you mention it." She laughed.

"Maybe we should make some for dinner tonight then."

Whipping out her phone from her extremely tiny shorts pocket, Sheri pushed a couple of buttons. After a few seconds, she said, "Hey, Phil? We were thinking of burgers for dinner tonight. Anything in particular you guys want?"

"Damn, Sheri-"

She held up her hand to silence me, and I snapped my mouth shut, a little shocked that I'd obeyed her command.

In my upbringing, we had eaten what we were given. If my parents had made burgers, we'd gotten fucking burgers. There had been no special orders.

"Okay." She handed me the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Baby Girl." His smooth voice had me creaming my jeans.

"Hey, babe. So...burgers for dinner tonight?"

"That sounds pretty fuckin' tasty."

"There's the grill at my place. We can use that."

"Naw, we got one."

"Yeah, okay."

"What else do we need? We got all that ground beef. Will that be enough?"

"Depends on who'll come for dinner. We can count on Alys-"

"That'll make X's day." He chuckled.

"And Lili. Jason won't be able to eat a burger, but we'll make him something else. Maybe chili?"

"Damn, you're gonna make dinner for all of us?"

"I guess. You guys can help, you know."

"Too fuckin' right. Just get whatever you need, and Sheri will pay for it."

"It's not a big deal. I don't mind pay-"

"Baby Girl, don't fuckin' start. She gets reimbursed by the band, all right?"

"All right," I conceded.

We ended up getting a few more packs of ground beef, a brick of cheddar cheese, a huge bag of big, fat soft white rolls, and potatoes to make potato salad for us and mashed potatoes for Jason. Everything else we needed was at the house already.

Making a quick sweep through the beauty product and soap aisle, I picked up some stuff to have in Phil's shower, so I wouldn't have to keep using his soap. I went all out and bought a pouf, too.

"Organic shampoo?" asked Sheri, looking skeptical.

"Yep. I only use all-natural organic stuff on my hair and skin and rock-salt deodorant."

Sheri shot me a startled look. "Oh."

"Personal preference. I don't like the chemicals in regular cosmetics."

She ended up buying herself some body wash, shampoo and conditioner, rock-salt deodorant, and organic coconut oil for a moisturizer.

Sheri paid for everything, except for my personal purchases. My cleanliness was not to be reimbursed by the band. She was their employee, so if they wanted to pay for her personal goods, that would be up to them.

We dumped the grocery bags in the bed of the truck and jumped into the front. My phone started ringing, and I fished it out of my bag.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Baby Girl."

By the gods, I'll never get tired of hearing this voice. "Hey yourself. What's up?"

"I didn't tell you I love you when I spoke to you."

My face burned, and my crotch tingled. "Oh."

"I love you," he said, his voice caressing into my ear and snaking its way to my groin.

"I love you, too," I whispered, a little embarrassed to say it in front of someone else. "We'll be home in a bit."

"Sweet."

Sheri's face split into a huge grin as I stuffed my phone back into the Burlap Beast, but she said nothing, and for that, I was grateful. It wasn't that I was embarrassed of how I felt about Phil, but I wasn't used to publicly announcing my feelings, no matter what they were. It was just something else I'd have to work through.

Or maybe Phil is just a little too comfortable with letting the world know exactly what is in his heart, I thought dryly.

As the reigning Grill Master of our household, Alys got the monster grill fired up. Even though our grill back home was charcoal and she wasn't an expert with gas, she didn't blow a crater in the backyard when she lit it up.

Bonus!

Fishing an iPod out of a pocket in his baggy shorts, Phil plugged it into a sound system and ordered me to choose the music. I came across Flogging Molly's Swagger, and I couldn't resist. It was the Celt in me. Dancing around the kitchen with Lili and Sheri, we got the rest of the food underway as Alys flipped the burgers. Lili actually offered to mix up the potato salad.

"Who are you? And what have you done with Lili?" I asked in mock incredulousness.