In My Father's Shadow by Jl Paul

front of the stage as they hopped up and down and threw
their bodies around in their style of dance.
    “Come on, James,” Ally called. “This is our fathers’
music. We must dance.”
    He grinned. “No.”
    She sighed and walked over to his side of the table.
“One of those girls up there will probably notice you and think –
hey, he’s cute and he dances. I should give him my number.”
    He raised a brow and checked out the girls still
jumping around in front of the stage. “Fine,” he said as he
reluctantly rose to his feet and allowed a beaming Ally to drag him
to the dance floor. “But it better be one of the pretty ones.”
    Cole laughed when he spotted Jamie out on the dance
floor with Ally. She’d once confided in him all the secret ploys
she had to get Jamie to dance and he briefly wondered which one
she’d used this time.
    He watched as she moved gracefully, her body in sync
with the music, and fought a sudden urge to join her so he could
touch her cheek and kiss her. He quickly shook the thought out of
his head and forced his concentration on the song, getting the
right beat.
    As they finished the song, he noticed a man much
older than Ally stroll casually across the dance floor, eyes set
determinedly on Ally. He tapped her shoulder and she turned and
smiled politely. He couldn’t hear what the man was saying but he
didn’t like the way her lips tightened as she shook her head. He
looked around desperately for Jamie, wondering where he’d gone. But
RJ beat him to it. RJ pegged Jamie in the head with a skillfully
aimed pick then nodded in Ally’s direction. Jamie’s eyes narrowed
as he shrugged off a clingy female and pushed his way to Ally’s
side, draping an arm around her shoulders. He offered his hand to
the man who shook it, talked to Jamie for a few minutes then made
his exit, waving as Jamie led Ally back to their table. RJ
announced that they would be taking a twenty minute break and
shoved his guitar in the stand. Cole crammed his drumsticks in his
back pocket and jumped off the stage directly behind RJ. A gaggle
of girls impeded their progress, asking for autographs. They signed
a few before pushing through the crowd to join their friends at the
table.
    “Make a new friend, Al?” Cole asked as he dropped
into the chair next to her.
    She crinkled up her nose. “No. He had to have been
older than my dad!”
    “What did he say to you?” Ren asked.
    Her eyes darkened as her glare made a circuit around
the table, stopping on each of them. “Were you all watching me when
you were supposed to be playing music?”
    “Of course,” RJ answered. “Especially when pedophiles
are involved.”
    She rolled her eyes and huffed, crossing her arms
over her chest and wiggling an angry foot. Cole put his hand on her
leg and gave it a squeeze. Fireworks went off in her lower stomach
and it took all she had not to reach out and touch him.
    “Just accept it already, Al,” Cole said in a low,
sexy voice. “We’re always going to look out for you.”
    “Yeah, yeah, I know,” she conceded in a huff. “But
you have to remember that I’m perfectly capable of taking care of
myself.”
    RJ leaned over the table to smile warmly at her.
“That’s what we let you think, dear one.”
    She groaned and turned her back on them, her eyes
roaming the bar area in search of the older man -she wanted to
avoid him at all costs. She didn’t see him but instead found a
woman who had to be in her early twenties smiling serenely as she
watched Ally’s friends laughing at the table. Jealousy surged
through Ally’s veins as she sent the woman a death glare. She was
far too old to be eyeing Ally’s friends and she was determined to
keep her away at all costs.
    She smiled to herself as she realized she was doing
the same thing to them they had done to her – overprotecting. Just
as she’d claimed she was perfectly capable of taking care of
herself, she knew the same ran true for the boys. But she just
couldn’t