Page 20 of Wild

“Mhmm,” she hums. “Keep telling yourself that.”

I balk. “I’m serious. He’s arrogant, cocky, an asshole—”

“A hot, arrogant, cocky, asshole,” she interrupts.

“You’re impossible,” I groan, throwing my arms in the air.

“Impossibly right.” She sticks her tongue out at me.

With a sigh, I shake my head as another customer comes in and we get back to work.

* * *

I lie in bed,my damp hair spread around me, staring at the ceiling.

For some reason I can’t get Kira’s words out of my head about Hollis liking me. It doesn’t seem plausible. He can’t possibly like me. A guy like him looks for easy, for girls who throw themselves at him, and I’m not one of those girls. There’s nothing wrong with being that way, but it’s not me.

It makes no sense for him to like me, and if she’s right and hedoes, my dad would kill him for it, I’m certain. He’s never taken kindly to anyone I’ve dated in the past—not that I want to date Hollis—and I know he’d hate it if one of the guys from The Wild dated me. He’s always warned me away from guys in bands—and when I asked him why, consideringhe’sa musician and the best dad ever, he said he hadn’t always been the greatest person, he’d done many things he was ashamed of, but meeting my mom and me changed things for him.

I doubt he’d think Hollis was capable of change, and frankly, I’d agree with him.

I don’t even know the guy; a few encounters doesn’t make us best friends. We don’t know each other’s favorite color or finish each other’s sentences. Even if we were friends—which is laughable—I can’t imagine us as a couple.

Mia, why are you even thinking about this? Guys like him ultimately don’t give girls like you the time of day. Besides, you don’t even like him.

I don’t like him.

Not a little bit.

Nope.

I don’t.

I really don’t.

Why don’t I believe myself then?

CHAPTER6

HOLLIS

Inod along to the music, a smile on my face. The guitar notes for Midnight Eyes linger in the air as Fox redoes some of his part.

Magic, it’s what we’re creating here with Hayes. Our music is flowing and sounds like it never has before.

It’s better, somehow more powerful.

It’s a risk to release our ballad first, especially when pop is so huge, but this song encompasses who we are as a band. What we want to sound like, who we want to be, and Hayes agreeing with us means the world because he knows the music industry inside and out. If he didn’t think releasing this song first was wise, he’d strike us down and pick the single himself. He has the right to do it too.

In front of the booth Hayes grins from ear to ear, bopping his head along.

The door opens and Mia pops in with a cup holder full of coffees and in her other hand a bag of burgers from a local diner. Hayes asked her to run out since we were all starving and in no place to leave.

She doles out everyone’s coffee and food. We have regular drinks in the fridge and I grab a water since I have no desire to drink coffee with my burger.

Mia sits down in the chair we moved into the room for her since after the first day she refuses to sit on the couch and let me stand. In fact, she avoids me at all costs and it’s beginning to boil my blood. It’s not like I have some life-threatening disease she’ll catch by breathing the same air as me.

Even if I’m irritated by her behavior, I can’t help but watch her every time she’s near.

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