Page 30 of For One Night Only

She smiles sadly at me. “Yeah, I should. Your friendship still matters to me, even if I’m still a little mad at you.”

“Keels—”

She interrupts me, her voice going dry. “No. I know I can never fully understand what happened between you two, or why you left. For what it’s worth, I forgive you for all of it. I know you’re trying to make this work, so I’ll try to have an open mind going forward instead of dwelling on ancient history that doesn’t help anyone.”

My eyes sting, and I blink quickly, trying to recover. “Wow, thank you for saying that.”

She smirks. “You forgive me too, right?”

I laugh, and all the tension between us snaps. “Of course I forgive you. We’re still family.”

“You bet your ass we are.” She shakes her head but pulls me into a tight hug. I forgot how great Keeley’s hugs are, like she’s holding on with her whole body—probably the product of her being in a close, loving family.

She draws back and glares at me. “You be careful with Caleb, though. He’s still so soft, and I think this whole pretend romance thing is a bad idea.”

“He told you about that?”

She rolls her eyes. “He didn’t have to. I’ve been online. But I think it’s just going to complicate all of this, and we have enough old wounds.”

I bite my lip, heaviness sinking into my chest. “Well, I doubt he’ll be on board now.”

She raises a brow. “You know that man would do literally anything for you, right? He’ll get over today and play along. Just…don’t break his heart again.”

Who’s going to stop him from breaking mine?I want to ask, but Keeley’s phone rings, and she waves and hurries down the hall to her own room.

The thing is, I don’t want to break Caleb’s heart. I also don’t know how to convince Caleb that I’m not scheming to make him record an album. But maybe if I just apologize for the way this all started, that’ll be enough to get him to trust me again.

Hell, it’s worth a try. So I listen at the door connecting our rooms until I hear him shuffling next door, and I knock.

It’s loud enough that I’m sure he’ll hear it but soft enough that he can ignore me if he’d rather just pretend he didn’t. I don’t want to push him, especially if he’s already feeling vulnerable.

But after a couple of heartbeats, he opens the door a crack. His hair is damp and his face is flushed, like he’s just taken a shower, and his white T-shirt clings to his pecs in a distracting way.

A way I can’t think about if I’m going to get all of this out.

“Can I come in?” I ask. And forget butterflies—my nerves are swarming in my stomach like agitated bees.

“Sure,” he says quietly, eyes downcast.

His room is identical to mine but flipped, like stepping into a mirror dimension. It’s weird to know our beds are only separated by a thin wall. For a few precious years, nothing separated us at all. But I shove those memories away and turn to face him. His eyes are tired, but there’s no ice left in his gaze.

“I’m sorry,” we both say at once. We stare at each other for a second, and then laugh.

“Me first,” I say. “I really should have warned you about Label. They’ve been on our case about GB3 for years, since our contract is still valid, but I didn’t think they’d try to sink their claws back into you so quickly.”

He sighs, running a hand over his hair. “I should have seen it coming—Wade warned us, and I knew they were involved.”

“Yeah, but still. I should have warned you too.”

He grins ruefully. “I should have heard you out instead ofassuming the worst. Anxiety got the best of me, but that’s never an excuse. I’m truly sorry for my behavior.”

“I really don’t blame you.” I hate that I made him anxious, and I kind of wish he’d yell at me more. I deserve it. I ruined everything back then, and it’s up to me to prove I won’t repeat past mistakes now.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Keeley called me a dick for how I acted.”

“Of course she did.” I laugh. “Still, you have every right to assume the worst in me. You’re right that I have selfish reasons to do the concert—but now that we’re all together, it also feels right, doesn’t it? Like after all those years of rumors and distance we can finally come together and send Glitter Bats off in style.” I don’t voice my hope that things could continue after this concert, because he’ll never want that. It would just drive him away even faster.

He nods, sinking onto the bed. “Yeah, it’s been too long since we were all together. It’d be a shame to leave this all behind without seeing it through.”

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