Page 92 of Places I've Never Been

Adam sat on the loveseat with Mattie. “I really liked what you came up with for the last verse.”

It was a lame start to conversation.

“Thank you.” She sounded so distant he barely heard her.

Brandon walked up balancing two plates of food and a bottle of beer. “Hey, Mattie, want me to give you a few lessons on the board? Adam’s a lousy teacher.”

“No, thanks,” Mattie said. “I think I’ll stick to the beach. That really wore me out.”

“I promise it gets better,” Brandon said. He loweredhimself onto the love seat next to them and arranged his plates around him like a buffet.

Adam tried again to get her attention. “I think we’ll finish the second song tomorrow, don’t you?”

Mattie nodded.

The knot of tension in his stomach tightened. She wasn’t frowning, but she wasn’t smiling, either. She looked like she had a stone in her shoe that she just couldn’t shake.

He shifted his chair closer to her until they sat face-to-face with their knees almost touching. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” Mattie took a long sip from her cocktail.

“Did something happen while we were out on the water?”

Mattie’s gaze shifted to the left, then back. “Not really.”

Adam looked to see who’d caught her attention. Flynn lay on the lounge chair beside them, snoring. “Did Flynn do something? He’s an immature brat sometimes.”

“Flynn was actually quite helpful,” she said with a dangerous lilt.

It sounded like he’d just tripped over something important. “Really? How?”

Mattie pressed her lips together in a gesture he’d come to interpret as Southern politeness at war with the words she wanted to say.

He leaned toward her. “Come on. Just tell me.”

She sighed, then nodded as if she’d just agreed to some internal debate. “Remember the photo they took of us the day we met?”

He thought about it. “Us shaking hands at the studio. Right, so what about it?”

“Piper sent me a link.LA POPhas picked it up, so we’ve gone national. It’s next to a headline that reads, ‘Bellamy Babe Banished.’ They think you and I escaped to a tropical island.”

He could see how upset she was, but he didn’t see any issues with what she’d shared. “So?”

She gave him a look that told him he’d missed something blindingly obvious. “How’d they know we’re on a tropical island?”

“It’s just a lucky guess.” He shrugged. “It happens. Nobody actually knows we’re here except us.”

Mattie wiped the condensation on her glass. “My sisters know. So does Kat.”

“You think your manager leaked the info?” That would explain why she looked so preoccupied.

“No.” Mattie’s voice was firm. “Kat wouldn’t do that.”

“Okay. Who?” He glanced around at the group. Brandon tossed popcorn at Flynn’s open mouth with maniacal glee. Cooper avoided looking at them and ate his sandwich with the delicate touch of a world-class guitarist. LT was nowhere to be seen. “No way any of us would post anything about our location to anyone. They all know how important this trip is.”

To me, he added silently.

“Maybe not on purpose.” Mattie’s gaze flicked back to Flynn.

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