Page 41 of Melody

Kyle nodded. “Mostly because of that. But Wolf blew us all away with his abilities. And, more than that, he’s been kind of like a…I don’t want to sayleader, andfather figureisn’t quite right, either.Mentormaybe? I don’t know. All I know is he turned out to be exactly what we needed.”

“He and Hayley seem to…are they dating?”

“Yeah. Well, more than that. They live together.” Kyle looked down and turned his hand over so he could hold Scarlett’s in his. She loved how big and strong his hand felt against hers, and she looked back up and smiled at Kyle. He said, “That’s probably something I need to tell you about.”

“What?”

“Hayley and me. We were boyfriend and girlfriend for a long time. Seriously long. We started dating in high school and when her mom and dad kicked her out, she came to live with my family. We lived together for a long time, up until last year.”

“Oh.” Was that awkward or weird? Scarlett didn’t think so, because clearly both of them had moved on. Remaining friends and continuing to work together—although that would never have been possible for Scarlett and her ex—didn’t seem so strange for two emotionally stable people.

As if he could read her mind, Kyle added, “We’re good friends now, but neither of us want to try to get back together. Hayley would tell you our last couple of years together were ‘toxic.’ And she’s right. We fought all the time—and I was so…angry. I took a lot of that out on her.”

“But you’re still friends, right?”

“Yeah. I hope that doesn’t weird you out.”

“No.” Scarlett smiled. “That actually tells me a lot about your values. You already said your band is your family—and I think that kind of affirms it.”

“I’m not kidding about that, either. We spend holidays together—and, I mean, we do lots with each other. Pedro, Adrian, and I rent a house together—and Pedro and Adrian’s sister are dating. We don’t just spend time with each other practicing and playing shows. We genuinely like each other, and now that we’ve worked through all our issues—mostlymine—we’ve really gelled into a solid family. I don’t know any other way to put it. And those guys put up with my shit and still loved mein spite of it. They’re more than just friends. They really are my family.”

Scarlett couldn’t help but notice what he was leaving out. His last two sentences said it all. If the band members were his family…then his thoughts about hisbloodfamily, the ones he didn’t want to talk about, must not have been good.

It also made her realize what a huge hole she had in her own life.

“If you want,” he said, “I can introduce you to everybody next time we play.”

“I’d like that.”

“What’s weird about me and Hayley—if you’d asked me two years ago about our relationship, I would have told you we were gonna be together forever. It wasn’t until we broke up and I started going to therapy that I realized how wrong we were for each other. Neither of us was happy. You’d think we would have recognized that as a sign—but I remember Hayley one time saying her mom had told her something like the madder she got at her boyfriend, the more she knew they were meant to be together. But I know that’s bullshit, and Hayley does too.”

Scarlett nodded, because Kyle’s words were making her ponder her last relationship—verytoxic, to use the word he’d said. Onlytoxicwas an understatement.

She also hoped Kyle wasn’t overemphasizing that he and Hayley were over in a “he protests too much” sort of way.

His next words removed all doubt. “Hayley has found a man who’s perfect for her—and, with time and distance and a lot of time spent with my therapist, I now know the kind of woman who’s right for me.” The way his expression changed made her heart beat harder, because her subconscious was picking up on subtle signals that her conscious brain hadn’t quite figured out. “And I’m looking right at her.”

Part of her wanted to protest…because what heknewof her was a carefully curated history, little bits here and there that she’d felt comfortable sharing, but he had no idea about all that had transpired in her life in the last few years—and, if he knew, he might turn around and run.

The rest of her, though…the part that was beginning to fall for Kyle Horton, the gorgeous man in front of her, with all his virtues and faults, his triumphs and sorrows, was scanning his deep blue eyes, trying to read them, even as her mouth started to water. At first, she didn’t register that he was looking at her lips as his face moved closer to hers. When their eyes connected, he was just a breath away…and then his lips melted into hers. Unlike their first kiss, this one felt less chaste, but it was likely all in her mind. His tongue managed to stir every single feminine emotion inside her, and her muscles grew taut, her nerves became tingly, her brain lit up.

Her lady bits woke up.

When his lips left hers, she begrudgingly opened her eyes. His voice, husky and sexy, caressed her ears, but the words were not what she’d wanted to hear. “We both need to get some sleep. Do you have a blanket I could use here?”

“I’m not sleepy. And I’m thinking maybe you could sleep in my room.”

“I don’t want to kick you out of your bed.”

After that kiss, Kyle was acting so gentlemanly—an assurance that her insistence was okay. “You won’t be. I think we couldbothsleep in my room.” With that, she stood, taking his hands in hers. “After a while.”

His eyes finally registered exactly what she was saying—and he stood and followed her into the bedroom.

CHAPTER 15

Her bedroom wasn’t much to look at—but, then again, she’d never had much of a chance to try decorating a bedroom as an adult on her own. Scarlett had gone from being a little kid in a pink Barbie-themed room to keeping the pink but ditching Barbie in her teen years, then having to become a grown-up overnight, tending to her ailing mother. After her mom passed, it wasn’t long before she was swept up in what she’d thought was love with Tommy Nogales—and, in her grief, she’d taken his advice to sell her childhood home. She’d been considering it anyway, but he made it sound like the only way she could survive. The taxes were overdue and several bills were delinquent, and it had been a good way to get everything paid off.

But that had moved her into Tommy’s apartment—and the bedroom was his.

---