I didn’t want Kick to leave my side, and I almost invited her to hang with the band all morning as we prepped for the stage. But I couldn’t risk throwing the band off before our biggest appearance to date. Will and Carson would remember her from that night after the Happy Hollow – Kick wasn’t the kind of girl you forget – and they’d be curious, distracted.

As we sat on the bus discussing the setlist, it was Kick I was thinking about. Which songs had we played that night at the Happy Hollow? I wanted to blow her away. Nearly a hundred thousand people out there, and I was picking songs for the setlist based on what I thought would impress one woman. We wanted to close out the set with one of our new songs. It would be the first time putting something from our new album out there, and we had three songs to decide between that had the right energy and tone for a closer at a big festival. The one we were leaning toward, it was about Kick. And she would know it as soon as she heard it. I could tell the guys I wanted to do another one and that would be that, but I didn’t. I had known when I wrote the lyrics that if she listened, if she paid attention, she’d suspect it was about her. I didn’t expect her to hear it for the first time after we spent the night together. A night that I could really only put down as the best in my life.

God, if I’d had any notion that what I felt for her wasn’t real, it was shot right to hell after five more minutes with her. I fucking loved that the first thing she said to me was to check in about Gracie. Yeah, a drop-dead gorgeous woman with more talents up her sleeve than anyone I’d met, remembered I had a little sister and somehow knew that talking about Gracie would throw any awkwardness between us out the window. We moved right on past the way things were left between us and into the moment from there.

When her sister threw her under the bus, sharing that Kick had no musical talent, I couldn’t believe it. I’d tracked her posts about music and she knew her shit. She didn’t talk like a musician, but she knew what worked and what didn’t, more so than a casual fan. She’d called out well-known bands when they were going in the wrong direction, when a live show didn’t meet expectations. She was brave with her opinions, and her views held weight.

But I didn’t tell her all of that. I let on that I’d checked out her account, but that was it. I didn’t want her to know I’d looked at every photo and read nearly every single thing she’d posted on the Internet. There was honesty between us, but I knew telling her the extent of my interest at this point would have freaked her out. It seemed Kick was willing to let me in, but I didn’t trust she wouldn’t run for the hills if I showed all my cards.

“Yo, Jack,” Townie said, giving a playful smack on my cheek. “Snap out of it, man. Will and I think it’s time to say somethin’ to Carson.”

Carson was here earlier, but he’d gone out a moment ago, saying he wanted food. “Right. Yeah, he looked beat, huh? He sleep here last night?”

“Got back at four this morning,” Will said. “Let’s wait till after the show. Don’t want to set him off right before we go up.”

The three of us were on the same page on that at least. “And we might want to rein in Addy while we’re at it,” Townie said. “Maybe not the best time to bring this up, but she’s startin’ to drive me crazy getting all up in our business. We gave her a couple simple jobs to help out with, and she’s tryin’ to take over our lives? That shit does not fly with me.”

Will added helpfully, “She’s hung up on Jack too, and that shit’s getting old.”

Townie snorted his agreement.

They weren’t wrong, but I was surprised I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. “We’ll deal with that later. Let’s nail down this set. I’m down closing with Fireball.” It was Kick’s song. Guess I was about to show more of my hand. I was holding on to what we shared last night, putting my faith in the connection I knew she couldn’t deny, and praying like hell I wasn’t making a mistake.