She wasn’t sure how long she spent lost in thought, but when the noise from Trace’s soundcheck went quiet, she snapped out of it.
Just before she could work herself into a full-blown panic attack over the fact that he would be back any minute so they could talk, Lulu burst onto the bus.
“I have a surprise!”
Kylie nearly jumped out of her skin. “You startled the piss out of me, Lu!”
“Sorry, but look who I found!”
Before Kylie could even begin to guess, Mia Montgomery and Lily Taite bounded onto the bus behind her.
Lily squealed and hugged her like they hadn’t seen each other in a hundred years.
“Hey, Lil. Lose anything lately?”
She pulled back and gave Kylie an apologetic grimace. “Kylie, I am sooo sorry about that. I heard you got tons of prank phone calls.”
Mia grinned at her. “Oklahoma probably liked all the attention.”
Kylie nodded. “Oh, I did. Lots of heavy breathers and dirty talkers. My favorites.”
“Speaking of heavy breathing and dirty talking, have you and Mr. Hotpants got it on yet?”
“Lily!”
Lulu and Mia cracked up laughing while Kylie gaped at them.
“I’m starting to think I might be on the wrong bus,” Trace said as he ascended the steps.
“Sweet baby Jesus,” Kylie muttered. Mortification swept over her. She was pretty sure he knew they’d been talking about him.
“Well if it isn’t Mr. Hotpants himself,” Mia said, giving him a quick hug.
If he hadn’t known before, he did now.
Kylie couldn’t bring herself to look at him directly as the other girls chatted with him. When she did meet his eyes, they were dark and hooded. The warning in his look confused her. Until she realized she was still sitting on the countertop.
They’d had a few bouts of making out and more on a similar countertop. She felt her face heat with the realization, and she was pretty certain he noticed.
“Talk later then?” he finally asked her as he headed back to his room.
“Um, yeah. Sounds good.”
When he was out of sight, she returned her attention to her visitors. Who were all looking at her suspiciously.
“No, they haven’t done it yet,” Mia said, side-eying her before turning to Lily. “But they’re getting there.”
“Shut up,” Kylie whisper-yelled at her.
Mia smirked at her. But then she suddenly looked aghast for a brief second.
“Ryans, you ready?” Steven poked his head onto the bus.
Kylie checked the time on her phone. It was barely an hour until showtime and she had a few changes to the set list she wanted to run through once more with the band.
“Crap. No. Just a sec. I’ll be right there.”
Once he was gone, Kylie glanced back at Mia. She seemed to be working awfully hard to keep her even expression in place.
“I didn’t know he was touring with you,” Mia said quietly.
Kylie tried to fight off her guilt. She hadn’t mentioned it to Mia for a few reasons. Mainly because she hadn’t had time to, and also because she still secretly wondered if Mia knew Steven had feelings for her—whatever kind of feelings he was capable of. She was the main reason his band was taking a breather, after all. But he was her friend, too, and she didn’t want to go blabbing his secrets.
She did her best to shrug and appear nonchalant. “He’s filling in for my guitar player for a bit.”
Lily squealed. “Plot twist!”
“Come on, maneater,” Lulu said, helping Kylie down off the counter. “Let’s get you ready.”
OF COURSE Mia and Donovan Taite’s daughter would appear right when Trace was about to pour his feelings out all over the place.
Because that was the way the universe worked.
The night before, he’d stayed awake mostly to torture himself. He wondered if maybe, just maybe, he could live through hearing Kylie and Steven together, then he could survive anything.
But he also knew that if he really had heard anything more than them discussing alternating time signatures, choruses, and bridges, he was going to barge into her room like a goddamn maniac and kick the shit out of Steven for hooking up with a Tailgate Twin and Kylie. In the same night, no less.
But he hadn’t even heard flirtatious laughter. Just them writing music and playing a few chords on her guitar from time to time.
He was pretty sure this was the confirmation he needed. Kylie Ryans and Steven Blythe weren’t a thing. Not really, anyway. He knew there was a good chance they’d slept together in the past. But he’d have to find a way to live with that. Hell, he had quite the past himself. And he knew something now, after seeing Claire Ann all lit up about her new fella, that he hadn’t realized before.