Page 11 of Second to None

“‘Course he’s in,” Mason said.

No surprise there. We’d often joked that even our most dedicated, most outrageous fans didn’t love Neon Circuit half as much as Ellis did. When it had ended, he was gutted—just like me, if for slightly different reasons.

Or maybe not so different. We’d both pinned our hopes and dreams onto passing stars. No wonder we’d struggled in similar ways.

A few seconds of silence spun out between Mason and me. Then he asked, voice gentle, “So, what do you think? California sunshine, get the old crew back together…”

I raised my head and stared out at the familiar fields.Thiswas my life now. The glamour and glitter of LA, its palm trees and traffic and haze of a thousand lights… It all seemed so very far away.

No. Only I couldn’t bring myself to say the word.

All this time, and Cass still lingered at the back of my mind. Seeing him again… Maybe it would be good for me? To witness first-hand that he’d moved on and I needed—needed—to do the same.

Closure.

“Yeah, okay.” I exhaled a heavy breath through my nose. “I’m in.”

* * *

Beverly Hills,Wednesday, August 13th

“What’s it feel like?“ Mason asked. “Being back.”

I turned away from his multi-million dollar view—literally—of LA’s early evening twinkle, the ocean glistening beyond. A gentle breeze flowed in through the open floor-to-ceiling glass door of his living room. HowdidI feel? Knowing this was the closest I’d been to Cass in years, his mansion just a five-minute drive away? His mansion that used to be ours given my house had been more of a fig leaf for the public. Not that we weren’t mostly travelling anyway.

“Ask me tomorrow,” I said.

“After seeing Cass again?” No judgement clouded Mason’s tone.

“Yeah.” I dropped onto his sofa. “Not sure how that’s gonna go.”

Three weeks leading up to this, and Cass and I hadn’t been in touch yet. His and Mason’s PAs had handled logistics, juggled calendars and travel plans. Me, I’d buried myself in normalcy, helping Cosma get settled and polishing another act’s sophomore album, pretending I was fine right up until Emily and I had boarded our plane, when it sank in that yes, this was happening. Unlike me, she’d slept a little on the flight, but she’d still crashed as soon as we’d arrived, not even trying to negotiate for a bedtime story.

Mason handed me a glass of water, then joined me on the sofa. “You’re not the same person,” he said. “But neither is Cass.”

“Is that a good thing?” I asked.

“I think so.”

“I’m fine, you know?” I let my gaze slide back to the view. “There’s no Cass-shaped hole in my life.”

Mason gave my words a second to settle. “Okay, look. I’m not calling you a liar.”

Damn, this smelled like one of Mason’s infamous reality checks. For a pretty chill guy, he could be surprisingly direct when he felt a friend needed to hear a painful truth. He’d been the one to tell me I needed to check myself into rehab. He’d done the same for Ellis.

I was quite certain that I didn’t want to hear this, and just as certain that I should.

“But?” I prompted.

“But...” He slowly shook his head, eyes a little sad as they found mine. “You haven’t dated anyone, Levi. Not since Cass.Five years.”

“I’ve dated!” I said, perhaps a tad too forcefully. It reminded me of how Emily had asked me on the plane this morning, her voice low like she was sharing a secret,‘Did Cass really break your heart?’

What the hell? She knew of Cass, of course—sooner or later, someone would ask her about Neon Circuit, and I’d rather have her hear the stories from me. So I’d made sure to slip a few tales of our globetrotting adventures in with other bedtime stories, and she’d met all of the lads even if she’d been too young to remember Cass.

I’d schooled my features into a casual expression, glancing around to make sure no one could overhear us. Fortunately, the other Business Class passengers were preoccupied with their own affairs, which was exactly why I’d chosen this over Economy. I didn’t want to turn Emily into a spoiled princess, but eleven hours with people whispering and staring was not what the doctor had ordered.

‘Do you even know what that means?’I’d asked her, voice just as low as hers.

---