Page 2 of Heartbeat Highway (Love Along Route 14)

“Hm.” Interesting. It always surprises me how differently other people grew up. Somewhere out there is a video of me at three years old, singing in front of all of Crooked, my dad coaching me. It was the first time he ever sent my stuff to an agent.

Not the last.

“Anyway, it’s no secret that I’m not Juliana Margulies.”

“I think you can give her a run for her money,” I say. So I don’t touch her, I pick up my beer bottle and drain it. It does nothing to calm my racing heart rate. I’ve never felt like this with anyone before. It’s so comfortable . I want to share all my secrets. It’s a dangerous and slippery slope.

“What about your family?” she asks.

Maxim arrives at that moment and deposits another bottle of beer and a martini glass filled with a bright pink concoction. “I don’t think they’ve ever made this before, but the bartender says it takes like a sunset on the Mexican Riviera.”

“Ooh, fancy. It’s not like I’ll know the difference.” Lily draws it toward her. “Thank you so much. Let me know how much I owe you.”

“On us. You can be our first fan.” Maxim looks over at me, unable to hide his grin, and then gestures to the club. “I see…someone…over there. Bye.” He abruptly disappears into the crowd.

Subtle. But I don’t hate him for it.

“So…” Lily knees me gently under the table, and the sensation flares through me like a perfectly struck chord. “Your family? Do they love that you’re a musician?”

“Ha.” It escapes me before I can stop it, and she arches an eyebrow toward me. Her fingertips dance up and down the stem of her glass.

“Something you want to share?” I love how she says my name. I can picture her beneath me, crying out as I— “Bo? You okay?”

I clear all naked Lily thoughts from my brain. It’s not only that I’m attracted to her physically. There’s something about her that feels eternal, like this night was destiny.

“I’m fine,” I say. I sip my beer, watching with my heart in my throat as she raises her glass to her lips. That mouth. “It’s just…I don’t like talking about my family.”

“Why not?” She leans closer, expectant but caring.

“It was different for me, I guess.” I shake my head.

“It was always expected that I was going to go into music. My dad is a singer, and my mom…” I picture her as she was when I was a kid, wearing a Crooked T-shirt, my dad’s initials in bright watercolors tattooed on her left arm.

She still hasn’t lasered it off, no matter how often I’ve offered to pay for it. “Well, she loves musicians.”

“She doesn’t sing, too? Or play?”

Interesting. Most women jump right into who’s your daddy .

I kind of prefer talking about my mom. “Can’t carry a tune, much to her chagrin.

For a while, she stayed home. Presumably she was raising me, but I think she really just pined for my dad while he was on the road.

It was practically a profession of hers, wondering where he was, what he was doing.

” Who he was doing. I overheard plenty of late-night, one-sided arguments screamed into the phone.

“That sounds rough.” Somehow she’s closer to me now. Nope, it’s my fault. It’s because I can’t mind my own fucking business and I keep intruding on her space.

“It wasn’t too bad.” I stretch backward to ensure I don’t fall straight into her lap. “I turned out okay. I chose my own path.”

“I like that.” She smiles, and it lights up her face. “I think that’s what I want, too.”

“You deserve it.”

“Really? And why do you think that?”

Because I have the sudden feeling I’m going to marry this woman. I can picture us now, with a music room in our house, turning our eight kids into a rock band. Like Sound of Music but more hard core. “Because I think we’re going to be good friends.”

She laughs and finishes her fancy cocktail. “You know, maybe I am going to like it here in LA. I wasn’t going to come here tonight, but I’m really glad I met you.”

“Same.” I inch a little closer to her, and she doesn’t shy away. “I’d love to hear you sing any time.”

“Thanks, Bo.” She tilts her head and an errant curl falls over her forehead. My fingers itch to wrap it around my hand and feel the silk of her. “Really. Is Maxim as cool as you?”

“Cooler.” Hey, I’m nothing if not honest. Most of the time. I can’t believe I told her something about my family. Something that wasn’t preplanned by Crooked’s publicist. “But he’s not here.”

“True.” She flushes again, and she is the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met. “I guess it’s just us right now.”

“Works for me.”

We’re so close now. Only a few more inches and I could kiss her, run her hair over my hands, tap her skin with my fingertips. “You’re really pretty, Lily.”

Something shifts in her expression. “Bo, I—”

A shadow falls over our table, and I look up, annoyed. That quickly morphs into an entire other feeling.

“Hey, babe.” Kevin, brand new frontman of Howl, pulls Lily out of her seat and into his arms for a quick and audible kiss. He separates from the woman of my dreams with a sucking sound.

Or maybe that’s my stomach falling through the floor.

“Hi, K.” Lily wraps an arm around his thin waist, and my heart sinks even lower. “I met some new friends.”

Ouch. That feels like a gunshot straight to the gut. Fourteen times.

“Hi.” Kevin—I refuse to call him K because I hate him even more now than when we met at last week’s audition-slash-jam session—holds out a hand to me. “Did you get up to sing, babe? I told you. You’re a little pitchy, but we can work on it.”

I drain the rest of my beer in one gulp. This guy is such a douche. I let a thin ray of hope shine through me. I don’t know how long Lily has known Kevin. Maybe she met him through law school, or her apartment complex, or at the fricking Hollywood Bowl. Anything could be possible. Anything.

But what I do know is that this dickhead will let her down. One day. She and I can still be friends. It won’t be forever. I just have to bide my time.

“K.” Lily giggles as Kevin licks at her neck, completely ignoring me. Fine. Two can play that game.

She steps out of Kevin’s grasp. “Bo, this is my boyfriend. K.”

He finally looks up to see me but absolutely no recognition dawns there.

Yup. I’ll just have to bide my time.

It can’t be that long before he fucks this up.