Something I was noticing she had a scary-good ability in doing.

“So, you’re not only down with tellin’ a man how he goes about his day, you’re also good with tellin’ him who he can fuck?” Preacher asked Shawn.

I stared at him because not two days ago it was the fourth, maybe fifth time he had eyes on Leeanne and he’d said, “That woman’s not right.”

And now he was okay with her?

“You cannot stand there and tell me you don’t see she’s bad news,” Shawn returned.

“I can stand here and tell you it’s none of my damned business,” Preacher shot back. “Or yours.”

“Preach—” Tommy started.

“No, Tom,” Preacher bit. “This is not how we do shit in this band. You got a problem, you bring it to breakfast or we call a sit down. We do not sneak.”

“We came here because when we go to the band, we want you behind this,” Tommy replied, then he looked at me. “And you.”

Oh shit.

I shook my head, but before I could get words out, Preacher spoke.

“Do not look at Lyla. She’s got nothin’ to do with the band.”

At his ugly, dismissive tone, I felt my head jerk as I blinked.

He was right.

I didn’t.

I was careful with that.

Even between me and Preacher, when the guys weren’t around, I was careful with it.

The band was his. His and the boys’.

There were many reasons I did this, not least of which was that I didn’t want to be forced into the position of the go-between. The middleman. Cast in the role of the speaker for one side or the other. The peacemaker. The deciding vote.

None of that.

Because I was Preacher’s and it wouldn’t be fair because I loved all the guys, but my mind would always be on what Preacher would want.

But more, as noted, the band was Preacher’s.

I’d watched my grandparents, and Gram had her thing, Gramps had his. They both golfed and they both liked to travel. They both worked, different places, different work friends and colleagues. To relax, he liked to stretch out in front of the TV or read. She liked to go shopping or lunch with one of her cronies or lay out in the sun.

They didn’t get along every second.

But they had their life together and their times where they did their own thing.

And they had the strongest marriage (by far) I’d ever seen.

I wanted to build that with Preacher.

This was one of the reasons why I was struggling to find my thing.

I could not also be all about the band no matter how many factors out there were trying to drag me in.

Last, and oh so not least, there was one little way I took care of the guys.