And something twisted inside of me. I might be heading out there without my manager or my agent, and without my band. But I wasn’t going to be by myself. I was going to be with Connor. Was he the one I would have chosen? Absolutely not. But he was better than being alone.

  Hey, I knew his mom and dad. I was almost sort of related to his best friends, through marriage to my best friends if nothing else. He was practically required to take care of me if I got into trouble.

  His eyes came down and he caught me watching him. His mouth twisted in a tired, sort of hopeless smile. “I guess you heard all the news.”

  I returned his ghost of a smile. “All the news about there not being any good news, you mean?”

  His half smile turned into more of a wry grin. “Yep. You ready for this?”

  “No. And yes. But I’m glad I’m not going by myself.”

  He held his hand out toward me and though my instincts told me it was a no good, very bad idea, I reached out and took it, just to feel the comfort of having someone else there with me.

  “Then let’s get this done. Great Falls, here we come,” he said, squeezing my hand.

  I squeezed back, though I didn’t answer him, and walked with him quickly toward the front door of Nashville International.

  Great Falls, here we came.

  I hoped the town was more ready than we were.

  CHAPTER 9

  Connor

  I stood up and stretched, trying to get the kinks out of my knees. Flying from Nashville to Great Falls hadn’t been quick—six hours—and it had been even worse because we were crammed into coach. That had been fine for Olivia, who topped out at about 5’5”, but I was 6’4”, and fitting my legs into that tiny row had been nearly impossible.

  “I can’t believe they didn’t even get us first class,” I said, handing Olivia the backpack she’d brought with her.

  She shrugged into it, looking like a little kid about to go off to school, and I stifled a smile. She saw it, though, and jabbed a finger right into my ribs.

  “Are you going to laugh every time I put this on?” she asked, eyes narrowed.

  I gave her my most charming grin. “Probably. That going to be a problem?”

  “Yes,” she said, her voice prim. “And to answer your question, I’m not at all surprised about the seats. We’re talking about a record label that thinks it’s funny to send us out on the road without any backup. I’m surprised they flew us all the way to the city where we’re starting.”

  I didn’t want to tell her, but I agreed with her. When Danny had called with the details for our tour, I’d been shocked and horrified. Sure, some tours were smaller than others, but I had a lot of friends who’d gone out on small tours and none of them had to travel without even their bands or equipment. We had our guitars—at least I hoped they’d managed to make the trip with us—and had been promised that each venue would have amps for us to use so the audience could at least hear our music.

  And that was it. No support other than what Olivia and I could come up with ourselves.

  I would have thought it was some sort of joke except that no one was laughing.

  I shouldered my own bag and stood back, blocking the rest of the crowd so Olivia could get out of our row without being run over. “I still feel like this can’t actually be happening.”

  “Unfortunately, cowboy, I think this is definitely happening.” Olivia ducked in front of me and hustled down the aisle, her red hair up in a messy bun and her backpack dwarfing her tiny frame.

  I grinned, not even bothering to hide it now that she wasn’t looking, and walked after her.

  “Stop grinning,” she said over her shoulder. “I know you’re laughing at me.”

  The grin dropped off my face. “How the hell did you know that?”

  “I have eyes in the back of my head. So I’d be careful if I was you.”

  The moment we stepped off the stairs leading down from the airplane, flashes started going off, accompanied by the sound of cameras clicking.

  Strike that. One camera was clicking. One flash was going off.

  I put a hand up, shielding my eyes, and squinted as I tried to figure out what was going on. Who the heck was out here on the tarmac taking pictures of us? Did anyone even know that we were on tour, or who we were?

  I doubted it.

  When the stars cleared out of my eyes, I saw a tall, skinny guy with black-rimmed glasses in front of us, his legs clad in blue denim and his shirt sporting the words Led Zeplin. He had a cowboy hat on and a camera round his neck, and he was grinning like he’d just managed to get backstage at the biggest show he’d ever been to.

  The second he saw me looking, he stepped forward, hand outstretched.

  “Connor Wheating? I’m Colin Cravers, head writer at Uncommon Country. It’s so nice to meet you.” He turned and looked way down, finding Olivia’s eyes and grinning even wider. “Olivia Johns? Gosh, it’s good to meet you. I’ve been following your career ever since you were playing with Dean Summers. It’s a real shame what he did to you.” He dropped his voice and leaned toward her like he was going to tell her a secret. “For the record, I was on your side. I think we all know that most of those songs were yours, not his.”

  Olivia took his hand, opened her mouth to say something, and closed it again, a frown creasing her brow. “You know who I am?” she asked.

  “Of course! I used to follow you through Nashville!” Colin crowed. “Back when I lived there. I’m out here now, but the moment I heard you were coming on tour, I knew I had to get here and cover it.”

  His eyes went to the other people getting off the airplane. “Where’s your crew? Did you bring the whole band? Or do you have a new band now that you’re with Connor?”

  He looked at me again and I had the distinct feeling that he was doing his best to remember that Olivia wasn’t the only one here. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that he was more than half in love with her. Judging from the flush creeping across her cheeks, she’d realized it too, and was horrified.

  This. Was. Hilarious.

  Though it was also pretty unfortunate. Because we didn’t have a crew or a band with us, and Colin Cravers—the only press who was covering our arrival, evidently—was here to see that. Which meant, I guessed, that he’d probably write about it, too.

  Terrific. This tour was off to a great start.

  I looked past Olivia’s fanboy—who I was going to 100 percent tease her about later—and saw...

  Our name on a sign. Handwritten, like someone had just jotted it down. And behind the sign, a guy that was nearly as big as I was, completely with muscles and a t-shirt that looked like it belonged to someone two sizes smaller than him.

  What in the hell?

  I touched Olivia on the shoulder, taking her attention from whatever Colin had been asking her, and motioned toward the Sign Guy with my chin. “Know him?”

  She tipped her head at him, but shook it quickly. “I don’t know anyone in Montana.”

  “And yet he’s holding a sign with our names on it. Seems... weird.”

  She snorted. “Well, go ask him what he wants.”

  I cast her a disillusioned glance. “Sure. I’ll go ask the anonymous man why he’s holding up a sign with our names on it. I’ll go right over there and put myself in danger to satisfy your curiosity.”

  She looked me up and down, one eyebrow lifted into a perfect arch. “Are you too scared to do it? Because if you’re not going to...”

  She grabbed Colin’s hand and turned him so he was standing by her side. “Come on, Colin. We have to go see that man with the sign because Connor’s too scared to go by himself.”

  Colin cast me a wide-eyed look, obviously in over his head, but didn’t protest, and within moments Olivia had him over by the guy with the sign and was nodding quickly, her eyes growing even bigger and her face flushing.

  I was hustling over, intent on telling her that I wasn’t scared of anything, when she turned to me with an enormous grin on her face. In fact, she looked liked she’d just won the lottery.

  I’d been trying to get her to smile like that for years. What the heck did Sign Guy have that had made her light up like a bulb that had suddenly been plugged in?

  “What’s going on?” I asked, coming to a stop next to Olivia and Colin and really hating that whatever had happened, Colin has known about it before me. He was also, I noticed, still holding Olivia’s hand.

  I narrowed my eyes at that and he dropped it quickly.

  As he should. She wasn’t mine to claim, of course, but he didn’t know that.

  I’d thought I was excited about press covering us, but I was starting to really dislike this Colin guy.

  “You Connor Wheating?” Sign Guy asked, sounding like he smoked way too much and didn’t drink enough water.

  “I am. Who’re you?”

  He gave me a snaggletoothed smile. “Name’s Barry. And I’ve got a surprise for the two of you.”

  I exchanged glances with Olivia, who still looked giddy, and I wondered if she got that excited about all surprises. I couldn’t imagine that, really. She’d grown up as one of the richest kids in our small town and as far as I knew, she’d never had to ask twice for anything. Yet she was smiling so hard her face looked like it was about to break.

  What in the...

  I put it away for the moment and walked after our new friend Barry, who was heading for the hangar. He went right past it, though, and then around another corner, and when we reached the spot where he was standing, I looked up and saw...

  A brand new bus. A tour bus. Painted in greens and yellows and with our pictures on the side of it. Our names. And the name the studio had evidently decided on for our tour.

  A bus. But I thought...

  Olivia shoved a letter into my hand, almost jumping up and down in excitement. “It’s from Avery and Parker,” she breathed.

  I looked down at the letter, still confused, and read it aloud. “‘Congrats on your first tour! We heard a rumor your label wasn’t putting out enough money to get you a bus, and couldn’t let two of our best friends go out on the road without one. This is what you get for signing with Atomic rather than Drive In! Now get out there and make some beautiful music. We’re expecting big things! PS, the roadie came with the bus. We didn’t pick him ourselves. He probably sucks.’”

  I stopped reading and looked up at Olivia’s shining face. “Your friends got us a bus?”

  She jumped up and down, squealing, and then threw herself into my arms, half hugging me and half pogo-sticking against me. Then she turned and ran for the bus. “They did! Let’s see what’s inside of it!”

  I watched her skipping toward the bus, still trying to catch up with what had happened. This was...

  So, so weird. First we were on tour without anyone to back us up and now we were suddenly on tour in a bus and with a roadie. And Olivia Johns, the girl I’d always thought of as spoiled and rich, was acting like she’d just been given the first present she’d ever had.

  I remembered thinking at Christmas that she wasn’t the girl I’d always thought she was, and that was even truer now. I’d always thought she had everything. I’d been jealous of her life and her confidence. Over Christmas, when I found out how hard she’d worked to get Parker out of a bad relationship and away from her abusive dad, I’d realized that there might be more to her than I’d realized.

  Now I was thinking she was even more than that.

  She was a girl who might not have had all the things she wanted, but always lived like she had exactly what she needed. She was going to go on tour without a single band member or roadie and make it work, like it was what she’d planned all along.

  But as long as we didn’t have to do it that way...

  I found myself walking toward the bus after her, a smile growing on my lips. My steps got faster and faster, and soon I was even with Olivia herself. And when she stepped onto the bus I was right behind her, thinking that this tour had started out weird, but was already looking up.

  Hell, this might turn out to be fun after all.

  CHAPTER 10

  Olivia

  “Where are we going first?” I asked Barry, the guy who was evidently there to take care of us.

  He turned in his seat to look at me, all bushy hair and long handlebar mustache, and I stared back, trying desperately not to laugh.

  I mean, if you’d seen him, you would have been laughing too. He was like a caricature of a person. Sure, he was wearing a tight white t-shirt and jeans, but they obviously weren’t the clothes he was meant to wear. With those bulging muscles and the thick hair covering his arms, plus the puffy hair on his head and the big mustache...

  The man was born to be an old-timey circus guy. He should have been wearing striped pants and a puffy shirt and shouting through a bullhorn about the bearded lady and the strong man or something.

  The thought made me grin—though maybe that was the endorphins over having an actual tour bus—and Connor, who was sitting across from me, caught my eye and tipped his head.

  “What?” he mouthed.

  I straightened my grin, but couldn’t help my eyes, which shifted toward Barry’s enormous form stuffed behind the wheel of the bus. “He looks like he should be working in the circus,” I mouthed back.

  Connor’s eyes shot over to the man and then flitted back to me, a smile growing quickly on his face. His smile brought mine back and within seconds I was giggling, completely helpless to stop it. That started Connor giggling, too, and moments later we were both laughing so hard we were holding our stomachs, our eyes tearing and our laughter echoing through the bus. Every time I thought I might be okay I made the mistake of looking at Connor, who inevitably had his mouth sealed shut and his eyes bulging, and that would start me off again.

  I was laughing so hard I felt like my sides might actually burst, and I could say without a doubt that that had never happened to me before. I wasn’t generally inclined to laughing like a lunatic over...

  Over...

  Over a guy who looked like he should be running a circus.

  That set me off again and before I knew it I was actually howling and definitely crying with how hard I was laughing. Connor was now nearly on the floor he was laughing so hard, and the only thing I could think—aside from the circus idea—was how ridiculous it was that I was laughing this hard with someone I was competing with for a record contract.

  This was ridiculous.

  And it was only the endorphins. I was positive of that much. Because I didn’t know Connor well enough to be laughing like a freaking hyena with him.

  When our laughter finally died down and I had it together enough to face Barry again, I found him staring at us like we were both insane.

  “Are you two going to do that often?” he asked, like he was asking whether we ate corn all the time or something.

  “Definitely not,” I said, wiping at the moisture on my cheeks. “Sorry about that. So... where are we going first?”

  I mean, I assumed he’d have the schedule. He was the roadie, after all.

  “Gibson Park,” he muttered. “Big outdoor venue in the city, where they have a lot of their music festivals in the summer. Label booked you for a smaller show tonight. You’re on at 7.”

  Wait, 7? I looked down at my watch and saw that it was already noon. That meant we had...

  “Seven hours until curtain?” I asked, shocked.

  That was almost no time. We had to get there, get our equipment sorted out, figure out our set list, do a sound check, prep for actually going on stage...

  In seven hours.

  We had seven hours.

  We’d literally just arrived.

  I glanced up to see Connor looking just as gobsmacked as I was. The record was essentially setting us up to fail, right from the start. Why the hell would they do that?

  Although...

  “I guess we’re at least together,” I said finally.

  Whatever happened, it would happen to both of us. And we’d be able to use both our brains to figure out how to get out of it.

  “We’re here,” Barry snapped, shoving the bus into park and whirling on us.

  I turned away from the window, where I’d been watching the city going by, and stared at the man. He certainly wasn’t the most pleasant person I’d ever met, and I wished we’d had someone I actually liked, though I supposed beggars couldn’t be choosers. There was something weird about him, though. Something that seemed so familiar but was keeping right out of reach. I could swear I’d seen him before somewhere.

  You’d think I would have remembered, what with the whole circus thing, but I’d met so many people over the last few months that it could be hard to keep track. Maybe that was it, I thought. Maybe he’d just been around the music scene in Nashville and I’d seen him at a bar or something. The scene tended to be a pretty small world, so if he was a roadie for bands, it made sense that I’d have seen him around.

  And with the look he had going on, I definitely would have noticed him.

  I stifled another smile and turned to stare out at the site of our first show.

  The park, which, according to my quick researching skills, housed everything from a duck pond to outdoor movies during the summer, was already teeming with people, though I doubted they were here for the show this early.

  Wait. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was already 1. Still, if the show didn’t start until 7, it didn’t make sense for so many people to be here already. We weren’t a big group that had a big following.

  Yet.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, indicating all the people.

  “Everything,” Barry replied. “According to the people I talked to at the label, this park does everything. Activities for the kids. Fairs. Farmers markets. Don’t worry; they’re not all here to see you.”

  I scowled at the guy, wondering again whether we knew each other from somewhere, but then realized that it didn’t matter. We were here and we needed to get ready. Regardless of how weird our roadie was.