Page 3 of Hero on the Road
It might be a dream, but it was a lot better than reality, and I let myself fall right into it.
Before I could turn to that body and trail my fingers across the velvet of her skin, though, remembering how she felt and the small sounds she made as she slept, the dream shifted and jerked me to another scene.
And now we were onstage, playing our hearts out up there in front of the crowd in the bar, our voices raised in the most perfect harmony I’d ever experienced as we sang the song we’d written together only days earlier. It wasn’t a song I ever would have written on my own. It was all highest of highs and lowest of lows, chords I’d never even dreamt of and harmonies that made me want to either scream with joy or sob.
It was the best thing I’d ever written, and singing it with her, knowing that she felt the same way about it, was...
Maybe this was Heaven, I thought, changing my point of view. Because standing up there and singing on the stage with her again was something I’d been wanting to do since we stepped off the stage months ago. That song had flowed out of us like water when we were writing it, everything coming together so perfectly that no one would have been able to guess that we’d never written together before. And getting up and singing it with her, the notes coming out just right, our voice blending like we’d been born for it...
It had been so natural. So beautiful. Better than sex. Better than love.
Okay, maybe those last two were exaggerations. But still.
I woke up gently, rising to the surface and opening my eyes the moment we stepped off the stage like the dream had finished with me. That hadn’t been the end of the night, though. She’d run off as quickly as she could but I’d caught up to her. I’d left the people from Atomic with Parker, asking her to take care of all the details of the contract, and run after her.
I hadn’t wanted the night to be over.
I hadn’t wanted the thing we’d built together to finish.
And when I caught her, I dragged her upstairs and showed her all the things I’d been feeling and hadn’t been able to say. Things I’d been feeling since high school and evidently hadn’t grown out of. It had been the best night of my life. A record contract and having the girl of my dreams in my arms. Finally.
Finally.
And then I’d woken up to find her missing. Gone like a thief in the night, without any sign that she’d ever been there.
She didn’t even leave a note.
And I hadn’t heard from her since.
The sad thing was, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d always known what she thought of me. We’d been in school together practically since we were born, because that was what happened when you were from the same small town. I’d seen her go from a cute kid to a drop-dead gorgeous teenager. I’d even stepped in to help her when the opportunity presented itself. Not that it had mattered. She’d spent our entire childhood acting like I didn’t even exist. Then she came home for Christmas and needed a music studio for writing music and practicing, and had looked to me with hope in her eyes.
And like an idiot, I’d said yes. I’d welcomed her into my home and let her under my skin, and then gone right ahead and fallen for her.
I snorted softly and sat up, shaking my head. I should have listened to my instincts instead of opening up to her. I’d always known exactly what she was and that she didn’t have any time for me. Everything else had been nothing more than wishful thinking.
But I put my finger to my lips, remembering how much more I’d felt when we were together. There was that afternoon in the hayloft when we’d been tossing hay down for the horses and she’d turned to me, all big gray/blue eyes and flushed cheeks, her hair practically standing on end. The air had been golden with sunshine and dust motes and she’d looked like some sort of goddess, come down to my farm on a sunbeam.
The world around us had slowed to a standstill and she’d been the only thing that existed for me.
And when we kissed...
Hell, I could still feel the magic of it rushing through my blood, and I didn’t think that would ever change.
“Story of my life,” I grunted. I’d always wanted the girl and I probably always would.
No matter how many times she showed me that she didn’t need me back.
I threw my legs over the side of the bed and stood, stretching the stiffness out of my muscles. This hotel wasn’t anything great and the bed was even worse, but I wasn’t sorry. I’d won the contract with Atomic Records the night Olivia and I performed and they’d given me an advance that should have kept me for months. A year, even. I’d given most of the money to my parents, though, hoping it would help them get my dad in with one of the better doctors in town.
It had worked, too. My dad was actually in remission now and living back on the ranch in Arberry, which my best friend had bought from them. Mom and Dad were officially ‘consultants’ on the ranch and I couldn’t have been happier. I’d gone home at Christmas to help them figure out how to make everything work after my dad’s initial diagnosis, and though I hadn’t planned for any of it, it turned out I’d found the answer right there in town.
A contract with Atomic.
Thanks in large part to Olivia Johns, the bane of my existence.
This brought a smile to my face and I stumbled over to get the coffee maker started. The thing was almost shot and I was going to have to see about getting another one, but that could wait for later. Right now, I wanted a hot shower. I stumbled toward the bathroom—just as broken down as the bed—and tried to calculate how much money I had left. Atomic hadn’t come through with that contract yet and I’d spent almost the whole advance. I was playing shows but they almost never paid, and pretty soon I was going to have to find another way to make money.
This was not how I’d seen all of this going. I’d thought I finally made it. I’d hoped that things would get simple and straightforward once I had a contract and that there’d be a specific plan for me.
