Page 63 of Of Heartbreak and Harmony
“And what do you do with that list?” I ask.
I’m certain I already know the answer, and I doubt she’ll tell me the truth, but I ask it anyway. She flattens her lips between her teeth before giving me a forced smile.
“It’s for personal use.”
I flare my eyes and nod slowly. “Right.”
A dozen different statements circle around in my head, but I don’t let a single one of them fall from my lips because I have even more reasons to stay quiet. Eighty thousand of them, to be exact. I’m not flying off the handle and rocking the boat. I’m not screwing up this opportunity by being hotheaded. And anyway, what’s the point of dredging up the past? The damage is fucking done, and there’s nothing I can do about it now even if I wanted to.
“Okay, so, anyway,” Mabel says, awkwardly cutting into the tension brewing between me and Sav. “I hope you weren’t planning to keep that a secret or anything, Callie. It’s only a matter of days before it makes it to the press, especially now that word is out that you’re on tour with us. I’m surprised it hasn’t already.”
I sigh. “I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret. It just didn’t come up, and it doesn’t matter anymore.”
And honestly, I just assumed my band wasn’t big enough to garner any sort of attention. Black Widow barely signed us before they unceremoniouslyunsignedus. We never even released a full album. For all intents and purposes, my time with Caveat Lover might as well havebeen a fever dream. Or, as my mom likes to call it,an impulsive, immature mistake to be blamed on my father’s wild genes.
That last thought makes me check my phone, but my mom still hasn’t returned my calls or texts. I do, however, have three new texts from my sister.
Glory Bell
Torren King ate ur other sneaker. Sorry.
Can I have ur RazzyRed lipstick?
Miss u.
I smile to myself as I text her back.
Me
Your dog is a menace. Yes, you can have my lipstick. I miss you too.
Tell Mom I love her.
I slide my phone into my pocket and look back up at Mabel and Sav. Both are watching me curiously, and since I don’t know what to say, I say nothing. The flare of indignation I’d felt moments earlier flickers out, leaving me feeling awkward and uncomfortable. I look away, uncap my mineral water, and take another sip. I glance toward the spread of pastries and fruit on the table on the wall and intentionally avoid Red’s eye. I take a deep breath and then blow it out slowly.
Awesome. Now it’s even more awkward.
I’m relieved when someone knocks on the door, but my relief is short-lived when Jonah and Torren come walking into the dressing room. Jonah meets my eye and nods, all traces of his earlier humor gone, and I nod back. Torren, on the other hand, barely even looks in my direction. It hurts just long enough for me to harness that pain and turn it into anger.
Dickhead.
My ass cheeks were good enough to cradle his erection last night, but now he can’t even spare me a second glance. I let that thought fuel me, pouring more and more gasoline on it until I’m raging on the inside. It’s necessary because he looks so fucking beautiful right now thatanything other than pure fury is at risk of being forgotten in favor of blind lust.
His curls are perfectly messy and artfully falling into his eyes. His fitted jeans are low-slung enough to show the deep V of his pelvis, and I can tell he doesn’t have underwear on. I have to look away quickly the moment I notice a very defined dick print in the denim, but his bare chest isn’t much better for my nerves. His chiseled pecs and abs must have some sort of oil rubbed on them because his tattoos and muscles are glistening. When I start to involuntarily catalogue his tattoos, I force myself to look away, and my eyes run straight into Jonah’s.
He takes a sip from a bottle of water without looking away from me, and then he takes a few steps toward me.
“You look beautiful.”
His voice is low, the words spoken so only I can hear them. I try to fight my heated flush and lose.
“Thank you.”
His lips turn up slightly at the corner. Another ghost of a smile. Considering how rare they are, it makes me feel rich. A poor miner stumbling upon gold dust.
“Are you going to watch the show from the floor?”
“Is it up to me?”
