Rock Me Gently by HK Carlton Page A

teenage boys around it.
    Lainey bit her lip wondering how he might handle this—all those kids being around the one-point-seven million dollar car. The vehicle cost more than Lainey and Thad’s home.
    “I’m gonna own one of these someday,” one of the kids boasted.
    Jason pulled the key from his pocket and unarmed the alarm, making the boys jump as if they’d been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
    “Step back, boys, and let the lovely lady through.” He opened the door for her and she stepped in. He closed it and walked around to his own side. The boys fired questions at him. He answered every one of them and allowed them a look inside when he opened up the driver’s side .  He was wonderful with them. Another reason that he must make a good teacher.
    “’Kay, guys, if you’ll excuse us, we need to go. But I’m sure we’ll be back and if it’s all right with your parents, maybe we can go for a ride.”
    “Naw way!” “Awesome!” “How ‘bout next week?” “I’m gonna go ask my ma now!” “Me first.”
    Jason got in and started the car. He revved the engine a few times and watched the young faces light up, impressed with the sound.
    He pulled out of the parking spot and casually drove out.
    “I’d peel outta here if we weren’t at church.”
    “I’m sure that would dissuade a couple of moms from allowing their sons a ride with you.”
    He chuckled. “Yeah, but they woulda thought that was so freakin’ cool.”
    She laughed. “Yeah, they would.”
    Jason hit a button and the car filled with music. He sang along to Springsteen’s Born to Run . That was more his thing. Now that he’d used his voice again, he wanted to keep using it.
    “You are a man of many talents, Jase .”
    He inhaled sharply thinking she’d put two and two together and guessed who he was.
    “I think you should give up your day job and take up singing. You have an incredible voice.”
    He relaxed, realizing he’d introduced himself to the minister as Jase.
    “That’s what I gave up to be a teacher.”
    “What?”
    “I told you, I moved around a lot. I sang. In a band.”
    “No way, you did not.”
    He grinned slightly. She really had no idea. “Yeah.”
    “When? For how long? What made you quit? Would I have heard of you? Is that who people keep mistaking you for? It’s not a mistake, they know you?”
    “Whoa, wait. That’s a lot to answer. I don’t know if you’d have heard of us. We went by a lot of different names in the beginning.” That was the truth. But as they got to be more well known, and because he was the front man and did most of the lead vocals and yeah because of his looks, people just associated the rest as his band and it just became The Jase West Band. Like when you hear Bon Jovi you automatically think Jon. Van Halen you think Eddie, not even David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar. “And you know what made me quit. I had a, what is it women say? An ‘a-ha’ moment? I didn’t want to do it anymore. I looked in the mirror one morning and I didn’t even recognize myself. I needed a change. I needed to clean up and grow up.”
    “Okay, so what kind of music?”
    “Rock.”
    “So you went from rock band to school of rock?”
    “Yeah, I guess I did.”
    “Must have been some epiphany,” she commented as they pulled up in front of her house.
    He jumped out and ran around to get her door. Again, he stood in front of her, not allowing her room to think.
    He pushed his glasses up onto his head. Placing his hands on either side of the car’s roof, he trapped her. “So, I’m gonna run home, change, put the Bugatti to bed and I’ll be back to pick you up. Put on your hikin’ boots, baby.” He kissed her cheek. Once. Twice, moving closer to the corner of her mouth. When his lips finally touched her there she turned her face into his and allowed herself to kiss the roughness of his cheek. Then she ducked under his arms and took off up the