Page 94 of Love is a Lyric
Tucking the clipboard under her arm, she walked through the arena, saying hello to people with a smile and quick dip of her head. She could be content on this tour, happy even. After a concert in St. Louis, they’d piled into buses to make their way to the music capital of the country.
Next, they were off to Cincinnati for a couple days and the promise of seeing Chase. He was driving down from Columbus, but she suspected it was mostly to get backstage at a Drew Stone concert.
Pushing through the glass doors, she shielded her eyes from the sun. Nashville was a great city. She’d watched from the bus as they’d driven in, but they only had two days there and as much as she wanted to explore, she had no time or energy. Even if she did, she didn’t have anyone to explore with.
So, she crossed the street in front of the arena, looking up at the Hilton rising over her. Hotels like this would fill her next year. Hotels and buses. In some cities, they’d stay on the buses, others they were lucky enough to have an entire hotel floor just for the tour.
The blazing sun beat down on her as she walked into the lobby, crossing it quickly to reach the elevator.
Once she’d reached the fourth floor, the doors opened, revealing two security guards standing in the elevator alcove. They didn’t know her, not yet. She flashed them the badge hanging around her neck, and they nodded without a word.
As she trudged by them, she couldn’t help thinking about all the people onFate’s tours who’d known her on sight, the ones she’d spent time with, playing cards and passing the days.
She’d develop that here, it would just take time.
A pair of dancers smiled at her as they passed. That was a new one for her too.Fatehadn’t used dancers, only a few backup singers and extra band members.
But if there was one thing she’d learned about Drew in the last week, it was that he loved to dance. He never stopped moving during his concerts, dancing with the strength of an athlete, the grace of someone who’d been on skates their entire life.
And he loved the big numbers with dancers clogging the stage.
Slipping her keycard into the slot on her door, she sighed when it flashed green. As soon as the door shut behind her, she set the clipboard on a dark wooden shelf and stripped out of her clothing.
She turned on the shower and stepped under the spray before it warmed, letting the ice cold blast wake her from the fog she’d been operating under.
It was in moments like that, where the only sound was the spray of water, the heavy release of her breaths, that she couldn’t hold herself up anymore.
The tears came as they had every day since the announcement of Quinn and Ben’s engagement. Tears for all the lies she’d told, for the things she hadn’t said.
She felt like the biggest idiot in the world. Ben Evans and Quinn Hayes were end game. Their fans knew it long before Piper admitted it to herself. Whatever she’d been to him, whatever they’d shared, it had only been a tiny blip in his much greater love story.
Lifting her chin, she left the water run through her hair, down her spine, washing away the doubts bottled up inside her. The fears.
The one person she hadn’t lied to was Chase. She did love Ben. And she’d survive it.
Even if it stole all her tears.
Even if she had to scratch and claw to the surface.
Once she’d scrubbed herself, she turned off the water and stepped out into the hotel bathroom, wishing she was home.
A home she didn’t have.
She’d lived in the Evans’ house, in Quinn’s, but never her own. Wrapping a towel around her body and another around her head, she retrieved the clipboard and flipped to a new page.
To-Do lists were her bread and butter, they kept her sane and organized in her job as an assistant.
But she’d never made one for herself… full of things that mattered to her.
She pulled the pen free and thought for a moment before writing.Find a home.
After the tour, she’d need somewhere to live, an apartment. But where? Drew based himself in Gulf City, so maybe there?
She had time to figure it out.
A ring sounded through the room, muffled by the clothes on the floor. Piper put the clipboard back on the shelf and bent to pull her phone free of the pants she’d discarded.
Melanie. Again.
