Page 58 of Sounds Like Love

My eyes widened. Then a blush crawled across my cheeks.Oh.

He cleared his throat and turned back to the rack of Hawaiian shirts. Aloud he said, “Besides, it would be much harder for us to cowrite if I’m on the other side of the country. So I’d rather not be, if you could get used to me in real life?”

I glanced away, tugging on my braid awkwardly. “I mean, we could Zoom.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Do you think Fleetwood Mac could’ve written ‘Silver Springs’ overZoom?”

“This is not going to be our ‘Silver Springs.’”

“No, you’re right. It’s going to be our ‘Don’t Stop.’”

“You are very confident in yourself.”

He pulled out a floral print and inspected it with mild curiosity, but then put it back. “Or maybe I’m confident in you. In us. They don’t have any plain black shirts,” he added, sighing.

I wasn’t sure I’d heard correctly—confident inme? I wasn’t even confident in myself right now. “Why?”

“I don’t know, because they hate slimming colors?”

“No, I mean—you should wear one of these,” I said, grabbing a pink Hawaiian shirt and holding it up to him. “You’ll blend in better here. Right now you look like you’re going to a funeral for that greasy train inStarlight Express.”

He took the shirt and held it out at arm’s length, frowning at it.

“I mean,” I went on, “why are you so confident in me when I haven’t done anything to earn it?”

He took out a yellow shirt and compared it to the pink. “Because.”

“Because?”

He nodded. “Because.”

Because. It was a word that felt … possible. And it was the last sort of answer I had expected from Sebastian Fell, but I was beginning to realize that maybe I didn’t know him at all. There was a version of Sebastian Fell built up in my head that did not exist.

Before I could overthink it, I wrapped my arms around his neck.Thank you, I thought, and hugged him tightly.

He went rigid in surprise, his breath catching against my ear. Then he melted into my hug, and returned it, closing his arms around my waist. His hug was strong, and he smelled so good, like bergamot and oak, soothing and safe.“Does this mean you won’t throw me off the balcony now?”

I bit in a grin.We’ll see.

He huffed a laugh. “Also, your friend has been staring at us without blinking for a whole minute. Is she okay?”

We let go and I turned to find Gigi, still in the women’s dresses section,mouth open, staring at us like we were glowing neon orange. “Oh. Right. While you’re here, might as well,” I added, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him toward Gigi.

Be nice, I told him.She really, really loved you as a teen. Still kinda does, I think.

“A fan?”he asked, suddenly nervous.

She won’t be weird. She’s my best friend.

Regrettably, she was weird.

“Oh my god! You are so much … person-y-er in person!” she said, throwing out her arms. “Do you hug? I hug.”

Sebastian smoothed on a smile, looking to me as if I was going to save him. Oh my sweet summer child, absolutely not. There was seldom anything that could make me step between Gigi and whatever she loved—too much chocolate and her irresistible urge to want to pet a tiger, so far—and he would not join that list. So as he went in for a hug, she jumped at him, pulling him in so tightly I was half-afraid she’d snap his spine. When she finally let him go, she turned to me and whispered, “He evensmellsnice!”

“Okay, calm down a little,” I advised. “You’re scaring him.”

“Sorry, sorry, we just don’t really get famous people around here,” she said to him, beginning to babble. “I mean, we getfamouspeople, sure, but no one I really pay attention to. We get bands and things—I work at the Rev, you know? You’ve been to the Rev. Everyone knows you were at the Rev.”

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