Page 89 of I Just Want to be Yours

Her eyes narrow slightly, and I do my best to ignore it. “But you think she won’t be?”

My fingers pause, hovering over the strings. “I think she’ll have mixed feelings about it.” I know Margot will be happy for me, but I also know she isn’t thrilled about my life on tour right now. Plus, as exciting as the tour is, it’s still cutting my timewith her over the holidays. Even if those pictures with Tarah never happened, Margot still would have been disappointed to some extent.

She frowns. “Trouble in paradise?”

I get back to playing. “I don’t want to talk about it.” The words come out with the force of a slammed door, so I quickly add, “How’s the new merchandise coming along?”

There’s a slight pause like she’s debating pushing the topic further. I’m relieved when she settles on saying, “Good. Want to see?”

I nod and Mya moves closer, holding up her tablet to show me a new design for American Thieves. With one glance, I can tell she’s changing up the vibe. Everything about the design looks vintage. The coloring has a faded hue, and the retro font and record player icon look like they could be something out of the seventies.

She grimaces. “You hate it, don’t you?”

I blink and shake my head. “Not at all.” Setting down my guitar, I reach for the tablet so I can get a better look. “Why such a big change?”

She takes a breath like she’s rehearsed this pitch before. “Well, most of our merch gets sold to women. I have a few designs in there with the old font and logo—with some minor adjustments, of course. The guys can still buy that stuff if they’d like, but I think a lot of them will go for the newer designs, too. Anyway, women are our main demographic, and a lot of old styles are coming back in a big way. I think they’d eat this shit up.”

I huff a laugh. “I mean, I think it’s cool.”

“Yeah?” She smiles and there’s a hint of relief behind it.

“Have you showed it to the guys?”

Mya reaches for her tablet. “Before you? No way.” She closes the file and opens another one. This one has the sameretro feel but it’s a dripping cassette tape. “What about this one?”

I nod. “I might like that one even more.”

She grins. “Thanks, Lover Boy.”

The nickname hits different this time, but I give her a tight-lipped smile. “Anything else?”

She swipes again. “Well, I had to bring back the floral print, but I made some slight modifications. These will be unique for the tour. Special edition.”

“Right,” I say with a light laugh, but my heart isn’t in it.

Mya glances at me before getting back to work on her tablet. She moves a few things around and flips between different designs. Some look complete while others still look more like ideas than actual merchandise. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about what’s bothering you?” She gives me a sideways glance but continues to keep herself busy.

I scratch the side of my head. “I wish I could tell you.”

This time she looks over at me. “You could try.”

I should keep my mouth shut, but the way she’s looking at me gets past every barrier. It’s because she cares. Her advice might be terrible, and she might stick her nose in things she shouldn’t, but she does it because she genuinely cares and wants to help. That fact alone has my defenses waning.

“It’s more of a gut feeling.” I shrug. “I think something is off with her.”

“With Margot?”

I nod. “You know, she didn’t want to date me.”

“Smart girl.”

I nudge her with my shoulder, and she laughs. “She said I wouldn’t want to be tied down while I was on tour. She figured I’d be too tempted.”

Mya nods. “Valid concern.” I shoot her a look, and she adds, “I’m not saying you’d do anything, but look in the mirror,babe. You might not be able to get every girl who walks through the door, but you could get a lot of them. A lot, a lot.”

“Yeah. Thanks,” I mutter.

“So, what made her change her mind?” She’s turned to face me on the small couch now, giving me her undivided attention.

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