Page 10 of Everything In Between
“Jersey, come on. We’ve got to go,” Kelsey admonishes me directly.
My eyes are glued to the broad shoulders and determined stare of the man who’s making a valiant effort to get to me. An urging sensation deep in my bones forces me to stop.
“But—”
Kelsey’s arm around my shoulders steers me in the opposite direction of where I want to go. Against my better judgment—and IknowI’ll be getting an earful about this later—I spin out of her grasp and take two wide strides until I’m standing in front of Hayes, meeting him halfway.
Earlier when I saw him on stage, I could tell he was tall, but now I’m struck by how much bigger he is compared to me. Even in my tall, strappy heels, I have to crane my neck to stare at him. We’re close—maybe too close—but I can’t seem to find the urgency to step back. His aftershave, or his cologne, orsomething, tickles my nose with its spicy scent and I want to lean a little closer to pick up the notes hidden within the blend.
“Hi,” I whisper, breathless.
“Hi.” His voice is deep and raspy, and it sends a cascade of goosebumps down my arms.
Hayes has a strong jaw covered in light brown scruff but groomed neatly. The muscles in his face split into a wide grin as he regards me with kind eyes. Butterflies erupt in my belly in a way that makes me pause. It’s a strange sensation I haven’t experienced in what feels like a lifetime.
I encounter people all the time, but I never seem to have this kind of reaction on a first encounter. They’re always excited to meet Jersey Matthews, the pop star, but somehow, by the glint in his eye, I know this man is excited to meetme—Jersey Matthews, the woman.
What an intriguing phenomenon.I feel delightfully dizzy with that realization.
“I don’t have much time—” I hurry out, glancing over my shoulder to see Kelsey glaring at me with her hands on her hips. My cheeks feel warm when I turn back to him and I press one palm against the side of my face, needing to cool down. “This is so embarrassing, but my brother made me promise to get your autograph if I saw you tonight.”
Something unidentifiable crosses his face, and his lips curve up in the corners. He reaches into the pocket of his suit coat and pulls out a blue Post-it pad and a pen, which he uses to scribble his autograph.
“Here,” he says, pulling the top one off and handing it to me before scribbling on the next one and giving it to me, too. When he hands me this second Post-it, our fingers brush and a buzzing sensation travels up my hand. I jerk my hand away as if I’ve been burned and look down to see a series of numbers scrawled in almost illegible handwriting and his name. “Autograph for your brother. My phone number for you. Text me when you’re free. Which... is a long shot, but hopefully you’ll find a few minutes sometime.”
I tilt my head up again, raising my eyebrows in surprise, wondering if this moment is real or if I’m dreaming.
I’m met with the intensity of his amber eyes, like warm sunlight or autumn honey. As they flicker over every feature of my face, I find I can’t help but love being the subject of his attention. He’s looking at me as if I’m the most valuable trophy he’s ever seen. A subtle heat sizzles between us, threatening to rise if we linger too long.
Grasping the notes in my hand, I raise it and nod. “I’ll text you.”
A smile breaks out across his face, revealing perfectly straight white teeth. His whole face seems to light up with that one smile and another current of excitement travels through me. “I’ll be waiting.”
FIVE
jersey
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
“I hopeyou’re proud of yourself. You look like you don’t know what you’re doing up there.” Callum clicks the remote, turning off the video of me dancing up on stage to ad-libbed choreography from my most recent show.
“What do you mean? The fans have been loving the switch. I’ve even seen videos of the dance online.” My fingers twist together in my lap. Many of my songs have built-in dance breaks, which have become a fan-favorite tradition of my tours. I should’ve known going off script with the choreography would’ve landed me a scolding from the higher-ups, but I couldn’t help myself. It felt right in that moment.
“It’s not what you rehearsed, and it’s definitely not what we agreed on.” His tone is flat as he levels me with a steady stare, taunting me to disagree. Which I do, of course.
“I don’t understand what the big deal is. It’s only choreography.”
“Thebig deal, Jersey, is that you explicitly went against what we asked of you.Again. Thebig dealis that we are your label.” I sink further into my chair with the passive aggressive animosity,like a child being scolded. “What we’ve put into this show has cost us a lot of money. What do you think your choreographer would think of you changing up her meticulously thought-out routine?”
“Honestly? I don’t think she’d mind,” I say, and that’s true. I can recall many times, off the top of my head, where she’d ask me if I had any other ideas as we were going through the routine. “She was always supportive of my suggestions during rehearsals. And you know, as well as I do, that we had alotof rehearsals.”
“You’re missing the point,” Cal grumbles again.
“No, I don’t think I am.”
“Listen, I don’t want to get into this with you today,” he says, waving me off. “We have a lot of things we need to discuss, starting with the schedule for your next album.”
“I’m all ears.”Anything to stop the scolding.
