"Jesus," Jake said, shaking his head a little. The harmonica was being played by Matt, who was sitting in one of the deck chairs next to the hot tub. Inside the hot tub were the two girls who were Matt's dates for the night. They were both naked and hotly caressing each other's bodies, their tongues in each other's mouths.
"Wassup?" Matt said nonchalantly, taking the harmonica from his mouth. The two girls didn't even break stride. "I'm just adding a little musical score to the action out here. You guys wanna stay and watch?"
"Uh... no, maybe later," Jake said. "We'll go over to the side of the house."
"Suit yourself," Matt said, taking a sip from his drink.
Jake led Rachel — who was still quite agape — over to the corner of the house, as far away as they could get from the hot tub while still being able to see the ocean.
"Are you okay?" Jake asked her.
"Those two girls were... were... and Matt was just... he... I mean... does this kind of thing go on a lot with you guys?"
"With Matt it does," Jake said. "He's kind of like a kid in a candy store sometimes. Do you want me to take you home?"
"No," she said immediately. "I'm sorry. I'm not a prude or anything. I've just never seen anything like that before. I've never even imagined something like that before."
"I'm sorry," Jake said. "Sometimes I forget how shocking our lifestyle might seem to someone who hasn't been around it."
"Is he going to... you know... have sex with them? Or are they just lesbians?"
"Oh he'll have sex with them all right," Jake said. "He's just enjoying a little warm-up action right now." He slid closer to the rail and put his arm around her, pulling her next to him. "How about we forget about that for the moment and just enjoy the ocean?"
She stiffened a little at first but finally allowed herself to snuggle into him. She laid her head on his shoulder and they simply stood there for a few minutes. The sound of the harmonica started up again, drifting to them on the breeze.
"He really is good with that thing," Rachel said. "If you can forget what's going on while he's playing it it's actually kind of... you know... romantic."
"Yeah," Jake said, playing with a lock of her hair. "I didn't even know he played the harmonica." He listened to the melody Matt was putting out. It was sweet and melancholy at the same time. There wasn't a note out of place or played sour, this despite the fact that Matt was loaded up with three different kinds of intoxicants and probably sporting a hard-on. Jake began to listen more closely, straining to hear the music.
Rachel turned her face up to Jake, signaling in that age-old manner that she wanted him to kiss her. But Jake didn't kiss her. Rachel was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment. His ear was still tuned to Matt's harmonica and an idea — a crazy, probably impractical idea — was starting to form in his head.
"Jake?" Rachel asked, confused, wondering why Jake was staring straight ahead blankly. Was he having a seizure or something? "Jake?" she said, a little louder this time.
"Harmonica," Jake whispered. "Son of a bitch."
"Jake, what are you talking about?"
He shook his head a little, seeming to clear it. He was clearly excited about something and it wasn't Rachel. "Come on," he told her. "I need to talk to Matt for a second."
"You want to go... go back over there?" she asked.
"You can stay here if you want," he said. "This is important. Really it is."
He started heading back toward the hot tub. She hesitated for a second, wondering what the hell was going on, and then followed, more than a little nervously. When they arrived back at the scene of the action the action in question had progressed quite a bit. The redhead was now sitting on the edge of the tub, shivering in the night air, and the brunette had her face buried between her legs, lapping away at her. Matt was playing like mad on the harmonica, his eyes drinking in the sight, his shoulders moving back and forth to the rhythm. He looked up when they came tromping over.
"Decided to watch the show after all?" Matt asked. "Pull up a chair."
Jake wasn't looking at the two women though (although Rachel couldn't take her eyes off of them). He was looking at Matt. "Where did you learn to play the harmonica like that?" he asked him.
"This?" Matt asked with a shrug. "I've always known how to play it. It was the first instrument I learned how to play when I was a kid. I've had this one since I was about twelve or so."
"No shit?" Jake asked. "You're a fuckin' master with that thing."
"I'm a musician, Jake," Matt said. "And a fuckin' good one at that. Why does it surprise you that I can play the harmonica?"
"I never really thought about it before," Jake said. "I think I have an idea."
"What?"
"Come in the house," Jake said.
"Right now?" Matt asked. "In case you failed to notice, I'm about to get into some serious double-team action here."
"You can get action anytime," Jake told him. "Come in the house. Right now! And bring that thing with you."
Jake pulled him to his feet and practically dragged him inside. The party was still in full swing and the stereo was blaring out Earthstone's latest CD. Jake went over and shut it off, causing silence to descend upon the entertainment room.
"What the fuck are you doing, Jake?" Matt asked. "Tell me what this shit is about."
"Get me a guitar," he said. "An acoustic."
"A guitar? Right now? What the fuck for?"
"Just do it," Jake said.
Matt seemed about to say something else but then he took a good look at Jake's face. He turned to Charles, the butler. "Hey, Chuckie," he said. "Go up to my office and grab that Brogan six-string that's stuffed in the closet. Bring a couple of picks down too."
"Right away, sir," Charles said. He headed for the staircase.
"What's going on?" asked Nerdly, who had been making out with his date when the interruption came.
"Ask Mr. Coitus Interuptus here," Matt said.
"I think I found a way to work I Am Time," Jake said.
"What?" asked Darren. "How?"
"Oh no," Matt said, shaking his head in disgust. "You can't seriously be thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?"
"I think I am," Jake said. "I play a solid backing with my guitar and we substitute the lead with Matt's harmonica."
The rest of the band all stared at him as if he'd lost his mind.
"No lead?" Coop asked. "Are you high?"
"Yes, I am," Jake said. "That's how I got the idea."
"Jake," Matt said gently, as if he were dealing with an unpredictable psycho, "we can't not have a lead guitar in one of our tunes. That's even worse than not putting Nerdly's piano in. That's not even rock and roll."
"I know it sounds crazy," Jake said, "but I think we can work it. Just play the same notes at the same tempo on the harmonica as you were doing on the guitar when we tried to nail it down. It'll mix. I'm sure of it."
"That might be true," Matt said, "but it won't be a hard rock song, it'll be blues. We're a hard rock band, not a blues band, remember?"
"Just try it," Jake said. "Right here, right now. I'll play your acoustic and sing the lyrics. You play lead on the harmonica. Just do it once and see what it sounds like."
Matt sighed. "All right," he said. "I'll try it. And then can I get back to my fornication?"
"Of course," Jake assured him.
Charles came downstairs carrying a white Brogan acoustic guitar by the neck. He handed it to Jake along with a couple of guitar picks. Jake set it in his lap and cracked his knuckles, limbering up his fingers. He then picked up the guitar and gave it a quick strum. It was slightly out of tune but not enough to matter for this particular experiment. He put his left hand on the neck, grabbing an F chord, and then began to strum a nothing rhythm, just to get the feel of the unfamiliar guitar.