Page 43 of Places I've Never Been

She decided not to reply to that one, and instead forced herself to read the texts from Della.

I hate that I made you unhappy.

How can I fix this?

I love you.

Please let me fix this.

Mattie sighed and closed her eyes against the obvious pain embedded in that message. She hated this. She hated the hurt that Della had caused, but more than that she hated the rift between her sisters and the indignant anger that crawled back through her heart every time she thought of what Della had said at brunch.

Adam’s band had suffered a loss, too, but they’d all seemed to take it in stride. Of course, most of them were still together, while The Bellamy Sisters weren’t.

They were still sisters. Nothing would change that. They were all still making music in their own ways. They just weren’t doing it together.

But we could be, a small voice whispered in the back of her mind.

For the first time since that awful brunch, she thought about what it might be like to get back together as a group.

She wasn’t sure she missed the stage, exactly, but she did miss the near-constant travel. She loved going to new places. She loved meeting new people, as long as it wasn’t a largecrowd, and she really loved, deep down in her soul, sharing music with people. It filled her in a way nothing else ever had or would.

That’s what had made her so angry. Della had taken all that away.

A tiny jolt of realization flicked at her. Della might have broken up the group, but she hadn’t taken everything away. Not really. Mattie had continued to travel. Maybe not as often as before, but she still went somewhere new every few months. She still met new people, including Delusions of Glory. The only thing she hadn’t done was share music with an audience or her family, but whose fault was that?

Della constantly tried to talk to her, even though Mattie ignored most of her texts. Piper lived minutes away from her, and they had lunch once a week when they were both in town. Lizzie did her best to keep them all in touch with one another like a mama duck with her ducklings.

The anger she’d been holding on to since that silly brunch—since the day Della had split up the group—thinned.

She tapped out a response to Della.I love you too.Then she put the phone back in the drawer, grabbed her bag of notebooks, and set out for the Big House at the north end of the island.

She was glad for the long walk, because it gave her time to think. She was nervous. So far on this trip, she’d played hooky with the rest of the band, but she’d only worked on lyrics with Adam.

Since she’d thrown him in the ocean, the hours had been filled with banter, discussions, arguments, and laughter while they took long walks down tropical trails or along the beach. Working with him didn’t feel like work at all. He listened when she had ideas, he gave honest feedback, and he hadn’t even tried to kiss her.

Why did she feel a pang of disappointment at that?

Now they had to bring the rest of the band in on the project, and the prospect filled her with anxiety. They had the beginnings of a working chorus, but she didn’t feel good about it. A lot of the lyrics she’d jotted down felt disjointed and wrong, and it wouldn’t get any better until she had input from the group.

It was almost lunchtime, and the guys were already in the living room by the time she got there.

Adam leaned against one of the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the beach and watched the room. He wore crisp white shorts, a rough beige linen shirt, and an expectant expression. The brilliant midday sun framed him with an entirely deceptive halo.

She couldn’t stop the grin or the mischievous need to tease him. “Well that’s false and misleading advertising.”

He looked confused. “What is?”

“You, standing there with a halo around you like you’re innocent.”

The guys all laughed.

Adam glanced up at the imaginary halo, then shrugged. “I can’t help it if the sun loves me.”

“I don’t think he’s ever beenthatinnocent,” Cooper said. “Should have seen him in high school.”

Adam pointed at LT. “Hey, he was sent to the principal’s office a lot more than me.”

“Yeah, but that don’t mean you didn’tdomore than me,” LT said. “You just didn’t get in trouble. You’d bat eyes at Mrs. Dixon and she’d swoon and you’d end up inprivatestudy with her instead.”

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