The song finished, and Ari announced there’d be a short break while they prepped to rotate in another musician. That meant a sudden surge of patrons at the bar. Murph appeared from somewhere, and Bruce the bouncer came in to help out as well. Jax spent a few minutes on autopilot, elbows-deep in liquor and mixers.
Then he looked up and found Ari watching him with the hint of a smile. It was a good look for him—like he knew something Jax didn’t. That expression on Ari? Made Jax want to learn all his secrets.
“Hey, stranger,” Jax said, leaning forward across the bar. “Your usual?”
“Hmm, I don’t think so.” Ari tapped his fingers on the bar top, eyes dancing. Oh, was he going to turn the tables tonight? Was it Jax’s turn to be teased? Jax couldn’t wait. “I’m looking for something different tonight.”
Jax grabbed a glass and filled it with ice. “Yeah? You want to tell me about it?”
Ari wet his lips. Jax’s heart stuttered at the quick flash of tongue, but then it was gone. Hewasteasing. “Well, it’s got coconut rum.”
Oh boy. Was he going to order what Jax thought he was going to order? “Uh-huh,” Jax said, grabbing the bottle. “What else?”
“Orange liqueur.”
Jax skipped right past the triple sec and the Cointreau. Only the best for Ari. He snagged the Grand Marnier. “Got it.”
“Grenadine for sweetness.” Oh God. “And some citrus.” Ari gave him a wry look, as though he were almost ashamed of what he was going to say, but he said it anyway: “It should be a little tart.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong. Jax wanted to laugh, but he was so turned-on he could barely pour the alcohol without spilling. He topped up the glass with 7-Up like he was supposed to—it wasn’t like he didn’t know what he was making—but then asked, “Anything else?”
He just had to know if Ari wouldsayit. “A splash of Irish cream.”
Fuck. Jax’s dick did not have aprayer. He was going to be hard through the whole set, but it’d be worth it. “Coming right up,” he said hoarsely.
God. Tonight’s set was going to be interesting, to say the least.
With three of them working behind the bar, it didn’t take long to clear the backlog, and soon Murph was shooing Jax up toward the stage. The crowd let out a cheer as Murph switched off the Spotify playlist and the house mics went live again.
“Friends, Romans, countrymen—” Jax began, sliding into his seat at the piano. Behind him, he could hear Naomi laughing. At the other side of the stage, Ari smirked and raised his violin. “I’ve been freed from the bar, thanks to the relief efforts of Bruce the bouncer. Everybody say ‘Thank you, Bruce.’”
Everyone dutifully thanked him, including Ari and Naomi.
Jax walked up a bunch of arpeggios, D minor, C, down to B flat, then A. “I think we’ve all been wanting to play this since the first time Ari showed up. I hope you’ll like it too.”
He glanced at Kayla, and she nodded. Ari lifted his bow. Jax didn’t need to check Naomi; she was always ready.
“Here goes.”
Kayla counted them in for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
The song was heavy on fiddle, with the piano a thumping, driving backbeat. Ari took the introductory lead at a blistering pace, and it was all Jax could do to keep up and keep the lyrics on-key. As he laid out the terms of the wager between the devil and Johnny, he wondered which of his band mates would take on which role.
It probably shouldn’t have surprised him that Ari chose the devil.
Thank God Jax had practiced the piano part to back the fiddle solos until his fingers ached. It meant he could watch Ari in his element, eyes blazing, slightly sweaty curls flying around his face as he burned through a solo that sounded absolutely nothing like any recorded version of the song Jax had ever listened to. He’d never heard a fiddle that sounded like it wanted you to do a line of cocaine and then drive your motorcycle off a cliff before. Hell, if the devil were real and half as convincing as Ari, Jax’s soul was as good as sold.
He was so distracted that he had to go through the bridge part twice to get to the next verse, which was fine; the audience was still cheering for the first one. But Jax couldn’t justgo onwith the song. He kept his fingers moving and said into the microphone, “Hey, Ari. You know the devil’s supposed to lose the bet, right?”
Naomi kicked the piano bench, which was fair.
“All right, all right, you’ll get your turn,” Jax grumbled, but his face wouldn’t stop grinning.
When the song ended, the crowd roared their appreciation, and Jax made sure to direct that applause at Ari and Naomi specifically. “Wow, I am seriously outclassed,” Jax said with a shake of his head.
“Good thing you’re cute,” Kayla agreed.
He reached into the jar for a handful of requests—something a little less intense, maybe, but also something that would keep the energy high. The night was pretty well shot, and he wanted to end the evening with a bang.
