"Pippa!" Rory's smile blazed as he turned to find his redheaded lady, looking sleek, classy and incredibly tempting. Certainly too tempting to keep him from setting down his guitar, stepping off the stage and scooping her up for a sound kiss.

He let his lips linger on hers until Dave interrupted them with a cheerfully mischievous throat-clearing. "Hey, Pippa," the blond keyboardist chuckled. "I think somebody might have been missing you at our last few performances. Just a wild guess, you understand."

"Yes, thanks awfully for the insight, David." Dave laughed and rejoined the other band members, every last one of whom was grinning at the two of them as they tuned up. Even Nil spared them a wink before sinking back into his pre-show meditations. Rory turned back to Pippa. "He's right, of course. And you look fantastic."