Page 23 of Places I've Never Been

“I know what I sound like. It’s more important to hear what you all sound like. I’m a behind-the-scenes kind of girl now.”

She sat in front of the board, put the headphones on, and tapped out a quick reply to Piper.Still here. Will stay in hopes they get bored.

Piper responded with a quick answer.K.

Adam tapped her shoulder. He’d obviously been talking to her, but she hadn’t heard a word. She lifted the headphones. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said there’s no way you’re ever behind the scenes. Your words are out in front, all the time.”

A hint of something flashed across his face. Admiration, maybe. It vanished so fast she thought—hoped—she imagined it.

Another text dragged her attention away from him. This time it was Kat.Devon’s posting again. You might think about responding.

“Great,” she told the screen, “that’s what I need.”

“Were you talking to me?” Adam sounded confused and uncertain.

“No.” She looked up, embarrassed. Her thoughts were so fractured she couldn’t even pay attention to the good-looking man standing next to her. “I…thanks. I think. Sorry, I’m a little distracted.”

“I can see that.” His lips lifted in a crooked smile that she found incredibly charming.

Her professional mask softened a little.

The phone chimed again. She winced.

His eyes sparkled. “You’re very busy and important.”

She scowled at the phone. “I should change my name and number, or maybe move to another country.”

“Sounds drastic.”

Piper sent another link, this time to a Twitter post. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what it said. “My sister likes to make sure I know about all the potential disasters on Twitter.”

“Twitter is like watching a fire that’s trying to take down a city,” Adam said. “It demands an audience while it roars and eats everything in its path.”

“Especially when the story is something like this. Did you know the paparazzi already got a shot of us together?” Mattie searched his face for any flicker of recognition.

Adam’s eyes widened a little in genuine shock. “When? You’ve only been here thirty minutes.”

She nodded at the hallway. “At the door, when we shook hands. I’m sorry. I should have known they’d follow me. Especially this week.”

She pulled up the image.

“It’s part of the game. No big deal.” Adam peered at it, then shrugged. “Why this week?”

“My sisters are in town, for one. And my name has been trending lately, for another.” There was nothing special about the photo. It was just a handshake, and a blurry one at that. But she knew it would mean so much more than that to one particular person. “And itisa big deal. At least, it could be. Dev—my previous project is…never mind.”

Adam’s eyebrows raised in recognition. “Ah, you mean Devon the Douche.”

She stared at him in shock before giggles erupted. “That’s so wrong. He’s not like that, not really. You know Devon Morales?”

“Not personally, but I follow a lot of people in the music industry. He posts everywhere. It’s hard to miss.” He glanced at her phone. “What’s the jackass saying now?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

The link Piper had sent taunted her, but she was afraid totouch it. Maybe it would be better if she didn’t know what he was saying.

Adam sat down next to her and leaned on the board. “It does matter. Whatever is going on is obviously causing you stress, and since songwriting would be a lot easier if you weren’t feeling like that, what can I do to help?”

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