Doug meets me in the hotel lobby with a sympathetic look. If anyone gets life on the road and mixing business with pleasure, it’s him. He’s one of the most successful tour directors in the business, and he’s not only married to one of his ex-clients, he’s gay. He knows how the business can chew you up and spit you out. And he can see that I’ve been gnawed on. Still, his sympathy doesn’t help my situation. I’ve read through about a dozen entertainment news articles shared all over social media about my infidelity to Tony. My infidelity. It makes me sick.
Doug immediately wraps his arms around me, and it warms my heart. I’m not surprised by his affection. He has always been fatherly toward me, and at times like this, the comfort is appreciated. “Let’s go grab a drink.”
I laugh and wipe a tear from my eye. “It’s nine in the morning.”
He winks. “As good a time as any. Come. We only have an hour.”
He leads me to the hotel bar and orders us bloody mimosas and a fruit platter before turning to me with a sigh. “How are you holding up?”
I shrug. “I woke up to a million messages telling me I’m an asshole for cheating on Tony with Wolf and that I’m off the tour. Doug, the media can say whatever they want about me. I don’t care. But they should know that Tony and I have been over for a while now. And Wolf—I think I really messed things up with him. My career, too.” I bury my face in my hands. “If this is the end of my career, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Are you and Wolf really a thing?”
His question doesn’t shock me like it should. I guess I’ll be asked this a lot. I nod. “It shocked me too, trust me.”
“That’s new for Wolf, but I’m not surprised he fell for you.” I want to smile at the compliment, but my heart still hurts. “I guess you knew it wasn’t going to last with the way his reputation precedes him.”
I can’t agree with Doug on this one. I’ve gotten to know Wolf pretty damn well, and he’s done nothing but prove everyone wrong. He’s never once hurt me—not until today, when he called my secrets ridiculous. I know it wasn’t his intention to hurt me, and in his defense, I haven’t exactly confessed my reasons for keeping my lyrics private. I wasn’t ready to go there. Even after he told me about his parents … it just wasn’t the right time.
“I don’t believe rumors anymore.”
“Really?” Doug asks, but I can tell he’s reading in between the lines. “Okay, then, care to tell me who the mystery songwriter is? This ‘Dangerous Heart’ song is a sensation, and it hasn’t even been recorded yet.”
My face heats. Doug is one of the few people who knows about my songs. “It’s a mystery for a reason.”
He sucks in a breath. “Holy shit, Lyric. I was right. Your dad would be so proud.”
“The point of the mystery,” I say dryly.
He sighs. “Lyric, you’ve got to let it go, don’t you think? This grudge you’re holding against your parents. It’s only hurting you. Maybe they deserve to suffer for everything they’ve put you through, but you deserve to be happy.”
“I was happy until Tony showed up and I got kicked off the tour.”
“This isn’t about one tour. This is about your life and understanding your self-worth. You had a unique situation growing up; it wasn’t the best—I get that. But you’ve done pretty damn well for yourself despite it all, and that’s something to be proud of. But you’re holding yourself back. Settling on these one-off road jobs for what? To get away from your problems? They’re never going to go away if you don’t face them. Why don’t you take this time for yourself? Deal with the heavy shit and then come back?”
“Come back on tour?”
He shrugs. “Maybe after you deal with all of this, you’ll have a better idea of what you want for yourself. I can tell you one thing: suppressing your songwriting is a mistake. A huge mistake.”
“I’m not suppressing it,” I say. “I’m just hiding it. I don’t need that kind of attention on myself.”
Doug groans. “Hiding it is suppressing it. Writing for yourself may be healing, but that kind of talent should be shared with the world. Shit, Lyric. You don’t see it, do you? What you can do with words?”
“You sound like my father. Doug, really. I get what you’re doing, but right now, all I can think about is what the fuck I’m going to do once I leave this tour.” And how much I’m going to miss Wolf.
Doug’s hand reaches the back of my neck and squeezes. “Okay. I’ll let up on you. Just go talk to the executives. I don’t think your career is over unless you want it to be. I was only trying to convince you that maybe this was all for the best. Sometimes you need hurdles in life, the kind that come out of nowhere and make you stumble. Because when you get back up, you have a chance to dust yourself off and change direction. But it’s your life, and the path you follow is your choice to make.”
My car is waiting for me when Doug and I finish breakfast. I’m buzzing from the alcohol, which is probably a good thing because I see the tour buses pulled up to the side of the hotel. The band and crew are already boarding. I try not to pay attention to who is getting on, afraid to make eye contact with one person in particular. And then a warm body brushes past me, and my heart stops. I know it’s Wolf by the smell of his aftershave and the electricity that moves with him. When he continues walking by without a word to me, my heart cracks a little. I know the silence is my doing. This time, I have no one to blame but myself.
I want to reach out to him, to run after him when he nears bus number one. I want to jump on it with him and say to hell with my career, but my feet feel like lead. He deserves an apology, at least. An explanation. He deserves so much more than I’m giving him right now. I know that getting in the company car without talking to him could be the absolute end of any communication between us from here on out. My throat constricts at the thought. My chest is heavy, making breathing the most difficult fucking thing in the world.
“Do you want to say goodbye?” Doug asks.
I take a step toward Wolf, my eyes never leaving his back, even when he disappears onto the bus. My eyes follow the faint outline of his body as he walks straight down the narrow passageway toward his room. And then I stop myself and swallow, knowing there’s too much damage to undo. There are no promises that can possibly make anything better.
I shake my head and face Doug, running a finger below my eye to catch a falling teardrop. “Oh, sweetie.” He pulls me in and holds me for a minute, but it only makes the tears fall harder. “I’ll call you in a few days. Everything will be okay.”
With a final nod, I wipe my tears with the back of my hand, push my shoulders back, and slide into the backseat of the car. My eyes return to the windows of the bus, hoping to catch another glimpse of Wolf. At this point it’s hard to make anything out through the tinted windows, but I know he’s there. I know he’s already shredding every last thought of me, because while I came on this tour to run from one dangerous heart, I smacked right into another … or so I thought.
Come to find out, the only dangerous heart around here belongs to me.
Next in the Stolen Melody Duet … Turn the page for more! And
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