Page 59 of Anything but Mine

A long stretch of canvass was being papered against the side of the drug store. His face dominated the space. It was a concert shot with him in full gear. Whomever had edited the picture had gone a little crazy with a fade of smoke. It was striking and felt like another person.

How long had it been since he’d been like that on stage? So present and fierce looking? The last few pictures he’d seen of himself had been so vacant. He was so tired of being missing in his own life.

A flash of auburn hair in a severe short cut sucked him back into the moment. She was there? He scanned the faces, but couldn’t find her again. Had he been imagining it?

A horn blare behind him got him moving again. He pulled off to the side and jumped out of the truck, tucking his sunglasses into the front of his shirt. Angry horns turned into a cacophony of noise. The crowd of people started pushing in on him.

“Is that Logan King?”

“Oh, my God. Can I have a picture?”

Logan twirled around, but there was no Aimee in the crush of people. Earnest faces in every age range surrounded him. The flash bulbs from cameras and phones added to the repeated blasts of horns.

Where was she?

His heart raced. The pounding behind his eyeballs funneled all the sounds down to white noise.

“Logan.”

The grasp of a hand on his shoulder had him swinging around with a raised fist.

Zeke raised his arms. “All right. Everybody back it up. We’re doing a special meet and greet later on today after rehearsal. Then you can get a little piece of him. How’s that sound?”

The crowd made sniping comments, but the rushing wind in his head drowned most of it out. Some small part of his brain engaged and he hid what had to be crazy eyes behind shades.

Zeke pushed him through the crowd and back to the truck. Instead of letting him drive, Zeke pushed him further into the cab of the truck. The blast of the air conditioning canceled out the silence and brought the world around him into sharp focus.

“What the fuck?”

Logan shook his head and pressed his forehead to the cool glass.

“You gotta pull it together, man. I was hoping a visit to Bella would get your head on straight.”

He didn’t answer him. Too pissed off and too afraid his voice would sound like a prepubescent. Fuck. He had a dozen interviews to do in less than ten minutes. He hooked the charms from the ends of his leathers into his palm and squeezed until pain fired all of the fog out of his head.

“Dammit, Lo. Another panic attack?”

Logan cleared his throat. “I saw her in the crowd, then there were all these people in my face and I was surrounded.”

“As I said, panic attack.”

He scrubbed his hands down his face. “Christ, I was good literally five minutes ago. I did get to see Iz.”

“So you should be all cranked up and…well, empty of the bullshit if you catch my drift.”

“A cloistered nun could catch your drift.”

Zeke slapped his chest. “Thata boy. There ya are.”

Logan blew out a breath. “I thought she was going to skip this one. Winchester Falls usually isn’t big enough for her to come to.”

“Yeah, but then you went and made it the Must-See-TV of concerts, man. Everyone will be here. I got a call from Charlie that our VIP list could fill the damn barn.”

“Son of a…” Logan tipped his head back on the headrest. “I just want to play. Is that too much to ask?”

“No, it’s not. It’s up to you to get over your shit. This woman is just getting under your skin. And you’re letting her.”

The muscles between his shoulder blades tightened and Logan shut his eyes. Shame and embarrassment swirled in his gut. “She’s not getting to me tonight. I’m going to kick ass tonight—we’re going to kick ass. Hell, even Nash is coming in for the show tonight.”

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