Page 11 of Places I've Never Been

Brandon laughed harder.

Flynn mocked him through fits of laughter. “I want you. I need you! Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby!”

Adam picked up a pillow and threw it at him. “Let’s find someone new. Someone fresh.”

“Yeah, someone who doesn’t want to get in Adam’s pants.” LT chuckled. “Like a nun.”

“I’d be more than happy to do that, if there was anyone left to find. Men, I need you to work with me here. Help me, helpyou.” Lucas turned to Adam. “I’ve done all I can on my own. Give me a name,—any name—that you’re willing to work with, and I’ll do my best to get that person onboard.”

Adam opened his mouth to protest that it wasn’t his fault, but before he could launch into the same tired speech he’dgiven a dozen times before, everyone shouted out two words in perfect unison: “Mattie Bellamy.”

Brandon nodded enthusiastically. “He’s been beating it to her poster since high school.”

Adam levelled his best glare at his soon-to-be-dead younger brother. “Shut the hell up, Brandon.”

Lucas raised his eyebrows. “She’s locked into an extremely lucrative project with Devon Morales right now. Not sure she’ll even take calls, but I can check with her manager.”

“She’s done with him, according to Twitter and Instagram,” Cooper said. He raised his phone and showed them the screen, then flipped it around to read, “‘Truth is, I loved her, and she used me. Hashtag hurts when love dies.’”

“Ouch,” LT said.

Adam frowned. He followed Mattie Bellamy on all social media platforms, but somehow he’d missed that one. “What a prick.”

“You’ve had a thing for her forever,” Flynn said. “Have you even tried to meet her?”

“No,” Brandon supplied before Adam could speak. “He worships her from a distance.”

“Why?” Flynn tapped the back of his chair. “You’re hot. If I were a chick, I’d totally do you.”

“I wouldn’t,” Brandon said.

“I wouldn’t do either one of you.” Adam glared at them. “Leave it. She’s busy.”

“No she’s not,” Cooper said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. They broke up. Here, this one spells it out. ‘She knows I wrote the words. I’m done letting her ride my coat tails. Just wish it didn’t hurt so much. Hashtag Heartbreak Blues.’”

“That’s complete and utter bullshit. There’s no way he wrote that song.” Adam hummed the first few notes, then sang the next line. “‘I’ll be there like the sun after the storm.’ Hemight have had a hand in the melody, but the words are all hers.”

“What makes you say that?” Lucas asked.

“Dude,” Brandon said, “he knows every note of every Bellamy song. Don’t test him. We’ll be stuck listening to them the rest of the day.”

Adam gestured at Cooper. “If you queue up ‘Every Rainy Day’ off the first album, the words mimic the second verse of that, but more important, listen to the bridge. It’s basically a lead-up to the melody they used for Morales’s shiny new hit, which wouldn’t be a hit at all without Mattie Bellamy. The guy’s a complete ass.”

Lucas held up his hands. “No need to prove it. I believe you.”

Adam paced to the door of the studio and back. If Mattie Bellamy was available, this could be a fantastic opportunity to meet her. Brandon wasn’t wrong. Hehadfollowed her for a long time.

He remembered the first Bellamy song he’d ever heard. Every time “I Won’t Let Go” came on the radio, he was instantly transported back to his bedroom in the same house his parents still owned. He’d been trolling YouTube when he came across someone’s recording of The Bellamy Sisters in concert.

Whoever made the clip obviously had a thing for Della, but Adam’s attention had been drawn by the honey blonde who stayed in the background, either on the keyboards or on backup vocals, until the part of the song that brought her to the front of the stage. Her face was radiant and filled with promises.

In his fantasies, she sang thatsong just for him.

All the thingsthat I thought but I never said,

All the dreams that I reached for but I somehow missed,

All the times that I wanted your arms around me,

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