Page 23 of Heartbeat Highway

“I can’t do this,” I say, possibly to myself, but it’s entirely probable that the entire flipping place can hear me. My feet move backward, but I’m moving through a pit of quicksand.

Then I feel Bo’s hand on my elbow, drawing me forward. “Yes, you can. I’m right here with you.”

“I wish you could sing with me.” I don’t expect that. I don’t. It’s impossible to ask it of Bo. He never sings in public. If I have issues about it, Bo has Issues with a capital I. It isn’t fair of me even to have said it, but I had to. Just once.

Maxim plays a riff on the keyboard, and beside me, Bo mouths, “Pretend you’re only singing to me.”

Yes. That, I can do. I close my eyes and picture the Sing Note, the scent of pulled pork sliders and sweet, sticky cocktails. The feeling of singing with Bo thrums through me.

With my eyes closed, I picture the songs, the blocking. I picture K doing all of this. He made it look effortless, but I knew how long he practiced every look in the mirror. I don’t need that. I’m not him. I’m just me. I look fucking amazing, thanks to Janelle. And if Bo believes I can do this, I can.

So I open my eyes and sing.

CHAPTER 16

Bo

She misses the first cue,but it doesn’t matter, because after the first verse, she’s killing it.

A few of the people in the crowd seem to be wondering where K is, but Dan put out the notice on all our socials earlier today, so most of our fans knew not to expect him. Lily’s winning them over, though. I can feel it. There’s an energy to a crowd, and this one is all in for our new sound.

It’s difficult to play the drums when she looks like that. All I want to do is unlace that bustier with my teeth, let her ass fill my palms as I taste her. I suppose we have time for that.

I love watching her come alive like this, the confidence making her cheeks flush and her smile infectious. With each cheer and successful song, her posture straightens. Law school and that fuckhead K tried to make my girl cower, but look at her now.

She is a curvy goddess, and I’m the luckiest man on earth to be able to witness it.

Toward the end of our set, Dan walks back to me on the pretext of getting water. “Do the duet with her,” he says, picking up his water bottle.

“I’m playing.” I gesture to the drum set.

Dan shakes his head. “We’ll do it with just the keyboard. It’ll be sexy and hot. It’ll make her a star, and you know it.”

I pause for a moment, and run a towel over my sweaty face. It’s true. If I get up there and sing with her—a duet with Bo Harley—Lily will be famous within seconds. She’ll have options, then. She won’t have to go back to law school unless she wants to, and if she does, she’ll have currency.

This whole thing with my dad has that feeling of an old feud, one that isn’t serving me any more. What does serve me is to make Lily happy. Fuck my dad. Who cares when he finds out? I haven’t played his game in ages. He isn’t here. He isn’t Howl. Dan, Maxim, Lily, and I are.

Besides, I’d love to sing with her again.

Maxim glances over at us, and I nod. A smile shoots across his face, and he starts playing the intro to his song, “In the Wings.”

I unclip the microphone from my drum set and stand. The crowd hasn’t realized yet what’s happening, and neither has Lily. She comes in on the downbeat, just like we practiced earlier today. Though we practiced it as a solo.

With her verse done, I lift the microphone and sing.

Holdingyour hair back

When he lets you down

If there were a contest for suckers

I’d surely wear the crown.

Lily turns to me,her eyes bright and alive. There’s unbridled joy in her expression. We come in together on the verse.

Too long I’vewaited in the wings

Hoping you’d see past the one

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