Read Online Night Moves (The Night Songs Collection) by Kristen Strassel - Free Book Online Page A

off Mad Cow Disease while I waited for condiments.
    “Mel, you lusted after him all through high school! And he’s like, not even back on the market yet after the divorce.”
    “You make him sound like a used car.”
    “You know what I mean.” Erin piled up spent plastic creamer tubs like a pyramid. “Tell me how it happened!” Her question tapered off in a squeal.
    I swallowed the rest of my french fry before answering her. “It just happened. We ran into each other and we’ve been together ever since.”
    “Are you traveling alone? I mean, we could drive together.”
    “I’ve been riding on the bus.”
    “Oh.” Erin’s face darkened.
    This was the perfect time to turn this interview around. “So what are you doing here?”
    “I’m here to see Drake.” She leaned forward, speaking in a hushed tone and looking triumphant.
    “Does he…know you’re here?” Something about her wording made me think she hadn’t made much progress from our fan girl days seven years before.
    “Of course he does.” She looked insulted. Rightfully so, I guess. I mean, who would go to Milwaukee in the winter on a whim? “He’s just, you know. Busy. He can’t always have company. He’s got a business to run.”
    Erin had drank the Drake Kool-Aid. “So I hear. How well do you know Drake?” Did she know what I knew?
    She smiled. “Extremely well.”
    “So then you know?”
    She sighed. “That he’s never going to leave his wife. Yeah, Mel, I get it. He can’t. It would totally ruin his public image. And there are other reasons, too. But I know the real him, and I don’t care. I’ll take what I can get.”
    I hadn’t expected that. “Everyone knows that. Have you noticed anything, weird about him, if you know what I mean?” It was still too surreal to just ask someone if they knew their lover was a vampire in the middle of a restaurant.
    “Oh, that he’s a vampire? Of course.” Erin dismissed it like it was no more trivial than her not wanting anything for lunch.
    “That doesn’t freak you out, even just a little bit?” I know I still hadn’t gotten over it, no matter how much I liked it when Ryder sunk his fangs into me.
    “Um, excuse me.” A shy, skinny, middle aged man overwhelmed by a plaid wool jacket and a trucker hat approached the table. I felt confusion spread over my face as Erin looked up at him brightly. It was her attention he was after. “I just have to ask, are you Trixie Temptation?”
    “Trixie Temptation?!” I mouthed at her as she nodded and smiled at her admirer.
    “Oh wow, I love your work. You’re so beautiful.” The man gushed. Erin assumed her alter ego and nodded at him with a frozen smile. What the hell was going on? “Could I take a picture with you? My buddies will never believe I saw you.”
    “Of course.” Erin rose as the man took out his camera. “What’s your name, sir?”
    “Dwight.”
    “It’s so nice to meet you. Maybe my girlfriend will take our picture for us?” She winked at me. Skinny Dwight ogled me, trying to figure out if he knew my ‘work’ as well.
    I sighed, trying not to grimace. “Sure.” Erin put her arm around the man and I captured the moment.
    Dwight kissed Erin’s hand. “Thank you so much for your time, Ms. Temptation.”
    Then he was gone.
    “What in the hell was that about? Trixie Temptation?” I practically shrieked.
    “Shh!” Now it was Erin’s turn to look annoyed. “That’s my stage name.”
    “Keep talking.”
    “I’m a traveling model,” Erin explained. “It’s how I support myself while I’m out on the road.”
    “What kind of model?” Erin was just a little bit of a thing with a pink streak in her platinum blonde hair, a nose piercing and several tattoos. Pretty, definitely, but not in an America’s Next Top Model sort of way.
    “I do fetish shoots. Artistic Nudes. That sort of stuff,” she said casually. She had a way of brushing things off that anyone else would consider a bombshell.
    “Porn?” This