Page 38 of Green Flag
It couldn’t be my normal country taste. It had to be… sexy. It had to get me a job. The first few drafts may have gone too heavily on the storm metaphors. The second draft was a little too cringe. Once I realised talking about the danger might be insensitive post-inquiry, I started all over again.
Cringe was fine. Sexy cringe was better.
And, soon enough, it came naturally to me.
I recorded myself over and over with a generic strum of chords. I spent half an hour rearranging the words and changing the pauses before sending Luca and Fia a snippet.
FIA: Yes then!!!!! Nearly done with your awful school grades.
Her reply made me smile. His made me laugh.
LUCA: Now, before I open this, do I need to be alone?
EVERLY: It is 100% PG.
LUCA: Shame.
My heart pounded as I waited for him to watch it in his trailer. I hadn’t written anything in months. Nothing like this.
He didn’t send words — he sent a video. He was in bed, the camera quality grainy in the darkness.
I swallowed and pressed play.
His low, tired voice sent shivers down my spine.
“If you don’t release that, I will,” he said and sang one of the lyrics, perfectly out of tune. “And my voice is awful.”
He breathed in deeply and sat up in bed, the duvet falling to his waist. The camera stayed on his face, showing just collarbones and shoulders. If only he tilted it a little lower…
“You put that as part of your application, Everly, and you’re in. They can’t deny you when you’re literally a country star.”
High praise. I swallowed, eyes pricking. I’d been a country star for about a week. Tops.
“And you have so many followers,” he added. “They would be stupid not to keep you.”
But if Dad didn’t want me here, I wouldn’t be staying.
Maybe if I showed how it would keep me out of trouble…
But my track record at these events, with the people at StormSprint, wasn’t exactly squeaky clean.
More like filthy.
Because of Pedro.
The judgement over our age gap. The internal investigation into me when he was arrested.
“So send it,” he urged. “Before I send it to Livie myself.”
My stomach tied itself up in knots as he waved a kiss and the video ended.
There was no hiding the fact that Livie scared me with her all-work attitude. I didn’t want to disappoint her, but I also didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of her.
But what I wanted more than anything was to be on the brain of a certain number 68.
Luca.
* * *
