As one of Olivia’s best friends, Avery had put all her weight—not much, with how tiny she was—behind giving them exactly what they wanted.
When my band, Global Writers, was signed to the tour, the dates and locations had already been set. Taylor had told us we didn’t have a choice about where we were going, but I’d jumped in with both feet. I’d spent too much time in big cities, with thenoise and traffic and drama that went with them, and a tour full of small towns had felt…
Like a break.
But I hadn’t expected to find a lot of tourists.
“We’re here for the tour,” Lila said immediately.
I jerked, surprised. “What tour?”
“Olivia and Connor’s. Obviously,” she said, looking like she was rethinking her opinion of my ability to use my brain. “What other tour is in town?”
“Well, I’m in town,” I said, pretending offense.
She rolled her eyes. “And I’m pretty sure you’reon their tour. Or are you here as a groupie? Just a fan?”
I laughed at the sudden change from snark to wide-eyed innocence, and she grinned in triumph. And fuck did I love being the one that had made her smile like that.
I immediately decided that I wanted to do it again.
“I am in fact on their tour,” I admitted. “But that doesn’t answer my question of why you’re here.”
They were actually here, it turned out, for the reason Lila had already given me. The one I hadn’t even remembered, though Noah had thrown it right in my face. The contest Olivia and Connor were running, with one very big prize. A contract with Avery’s label, and Taylor herself. Lila and Anna—who were evidently musicians—had come to try their hand at winning said contract.
They were the very musicians I’d been so angry about.
Not that I was going to tell them so.
Besides, the conversation had already turned to music and how it had affected Anna and Lila’s lives. How long they’d been playing together and what sort of music they wrote, and what they wanted to do with their careers.
Or rather, what Lila’s interpretation of it was. Because Anna didn’t participate in the conversation much. She did a whole lotmore watching, her eyes narrowed and flitting between Lila and me like she was trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
I could have told her, if she’d asked me. But Lila was talking so much I could hardly get a word in edgewise. We’d come into the room to find a bottle of champagne chilling on ice, and between popping the cork—my job, as Lila had said she was too small to get it done—and finishing the bottle, Lila had told me so much about herself that I was starting to feel like I’d known her for years rather than moments.
They were from Nashville and had grown up in the same neighborhood. Lila’s parents were in the music business, and she had three younger sisters who also wanted to be musicians. Anna was an only child but had been adopted into Lila’s family and had practically grown up under her roof. They’d been best friends since they could walk.
“Before that, if you believe our mothers,” Lila added.
That made even Anna smile, and it changed everything about her face. She grew softer and cast Lila a look full of affection and exasperation, something so protective and loving that I suddenly saw what Lila must get to see all the time.
Then she looked back at me and the look disappeared.
The girl obviously didn’t trust me.
I ignored her and went back to staring at Lila. She was three glasses of champagne in at this point and laughing even more easily, and I…
I couldn’t stop wondering what it would be like to kiss her. She’d taken to touching me lightly every time she said something she thought was particularly important, and each touch sent heat coursing through my body. Heat that was a whole lot hotter than anything I’d ever felt.
Heat that didn’t stop at my skin but traveled all the way through my belly and settled between my legs, making me burn in a whole different way.
Maybe shewasthe sun, I thought, too drunk to realize how stupid that sounded. Or maybe she was a star. Equally bright, equally warm, and focused on me with something that made me want to take her inside me and hold her there.
When we finished the bottle, I wasn’t ready to stop hearing her stories. I certainly wasn’t ready to leave the glowing warmth of her presence. I didn’t want to go back to the emptiness of my own room and sit there by myself thinking about how the world had hurt me and how I wasn’t doing anyone any good with the way I’d chosen to face it.
Anna, on the other hand, seemed to have had enough. “Well, I guess we should probably get to bed,” she said, eying the empty bottle. “I think we’ve drunk enough for the night.”
“I’m not tired,” Lila disagreed. “I don’t want to go to bed.”
