Partially because I wanted her to eat. Partially because if this was going to the the last time I got to see her, I wanted to keep her for as long as I could.

  No, I didn’t know for sure that it would be the last time I was going to see her, but if I was going to tell her everything about how I’d been orphaned and then ended up in the music industry, and how I’d never had anyone I thought I could trust and how that had—maybe—led to a path where I’d never believed I could trust anyone—then it was going to take a while.

  Okay, so that might have been too much for one breakfast.

  But I wanted to give her something.

  “So what do you get when you’re getting a full breakfast?” she asked, her eyes going back to her menu.

  I jerked a bit, surprised. My mind had been so caught up in black thoughts about my past that I’d thought for sure she’d have asked something serious. The light question about breakfast was unexpected.

  It was also perfectly Lila.

  “Pancakes,” I said immediately. “When I grew up... Well, I didn’t get them often, and since I got old enough to order them for myself, they’re pretty much all I’ll eat for breakfast.”

  She looked up and I saw the question in her eyes about why I hadn’t had them when I was a kid. What sort of upbringing could possibly have resulted in me not being allowed pancakes. Any normal person would have asked. They would have pressed for details long past what I was willing to give, and made it awkward and horrible.

  Instead, she leaned toward me and narrowed her eyes. “Chocolate chip or regular?”

  I leaned in as well, suppressing a smile. “Regular. Putting anything in hotcakes ruins them.”

  She laughed at that, her voice loud and joyous, and nodded. “A true connoisseur, I see. At some point I’ll need to take you home for my mother’s pancakes. I’ve been ordering them in restaurants for years and have never found anyone else who could top her.”

  Okay, I hadn’t expected that, either, and I didn’t want to think too hard about the fact that she thought she was going to take me home to her parents. Her family in Nashville, with their big house and traditional values and pancakes for breakfast. Everything normal and good about a family.

  It wasn’t for me. But I also wasn’t going to discount the idea that it might be, one day.

  Instead, I waved the waitress over and ordered us both a stack of pancakes. Lila added eggs and bacon to hers and I added hash browns, and we both laughed and agreed to sample what the other had ordered just in case we liked it better.

  And from there, the conversation went on to the song we’d sang together on stage and how Lila might come up on stage some nights to perform with my band. She thought it would give Taylor a chance to really fall in love with her and asked if Anna could come, too, and I laughed and told her that they were going to take over my band before too long and the guys would forget all about me.

  Before long, the conversation was so normal and friendly that I forgot all about trying to apologize to her. She didn’t seem like she needed it, and if she had questions about me or my past... well, I figured she’d ask them on her own time.

  And then, right as I was starting to think this might all be just fine, and that we might be okay, someone stopped next to our table.

  “Lila! Thanks so much for your advice last night. I had the best time.”

  I looked up, confused, to see the guy she’d been talking to during the show last night. The guy I’d called her away from, my heart burning with jealousy and the need to have her all to myself.

  The guy I’d forgotten about until right now.

  All the good feelings disappeared in a puff of smoke and I felt my hands squeezing into fists. This guy had just interrupted our breakfast—which I was sure the photographers were shooting—to what, remind her that she’d given him good advice last night? What sort of advice had she given him? Had she seen him again? Maybe after we got off the stage?

  Some small, rational part of my brain said that she’d probably given him advice that didn’t mean anything. What sort of drink to get or which band he should stick around for. She wasn’t the sort of girl who went beyond that with a stranger, I didn’t think.

  And yet, the larger part of my brain said, she’d gone farther than that with me. And I’d thought I’d been special.

  Maybe I wasn’t.

  I got up without saying anything, threw some cash down on the table, and stalked away. I didn’t want the drama of caring so much about a girl I didn’t know that well. I didn’t want the danger of hurting her by caring for her.

  And I didn’t want to risk her happiness—or my own—by keeping this going. Sure, I’d told Taylor I would. My spot on this tour depended on it. But surely we’d done enough by now. I’d taken about a million photographs and had her up on stage with me, for God’s sake.

  Taylor could take that as good enough.

  I was done putting myself out there and getting hurt.

  LILA

  I watched him walk out, my jaw practically on the table in shock.

  “Sorry, did I interrupt something?” the guy from last night asked.

  I looked up at him, only now remembering that he was there and that he’d said something to me. Something about advice, wasn’t it?

  “No, it’s fine,” I said faintly. “Um, you’re welcome.”

  I didn’t know what the guy meant, exactly, and couldn’t even remember his name—had I ever known it?—but I didn’t want him hanging around any longer. I also didn’t know what I was supposed to do now. What the hell had this guy said that had set Rivers off? He’d been talking and laughing with me like everything was fine—like he hadn’t left me standing in the hall on my own last night—and then suddenly this guy shows up and...

  Wait.

  Last night when I was talking to this guy, Rivers had called me up on stage. Now the guy showed up again and Rivers stormed out in a huff. Was there something about this guy that specifically set him off? Or was it the jealousy I’d thought it must be last night? Could it be that Rivers had gotten so attached to me that he didn’t want anyone else talking to me?

  Was he the sort of guy who not only had the tattoos and heartbreak, but also a healthy dose of protective jealousy?

  Or was he just too dramatic to bother with?

  Honestly, I didn’t know which was a better option. Neither was going to be okay if he didn’t learn to express his emotions a little bit better. This stalking off in full-on brooding mode didn’t do anyone any good. It just left room for doubt.

  Maybe I should swear off breakfast with rock stars, I thought. Maybe I should go back to Nashville where I knew what to expect and who to expect it from. Get myself out of this whole rock-and-roll world full of guys who did things that didn’t make sense.

  Leaving, though, would mean leaving my chance at a contract behind. Right now, I had a good shot at that contract. Taylor had practically promised it to me. All I had to do was keep pretending to be with Rivers and keep him on the straight and narrow.

  The problem was, I was starting to have real feelings for the guy.

  Things were getting a whole lot more complicated than Taylor had probably intended. And I wasn’t sure how to protect myself from that.

  I got up slowly, still not sure what I wanted to do, and walked toward the door. One thing was for sure: I wasn’t going to sit here and eat breakfast by myself when Rivers Shine had just walked out on me again. I’d go outside, get some fresh air, and try to get my brain working. Maybe I’d go find Anna and see if she she had anything useful to say on the subject. I might also find Taylor and tell her that this whole thing was getting too complex. If I was lucky, maybe she’d let me out of the deal early for good behavior.

  Except that would mean losing my right to spend time with Rivers.

  I wasn’t sure I was ready for that.

  I pushed through the door, still thinking, and came to a sudden, lurching stop.

  Just in front of me, maybe 20 feet from the restaurant, Rivers was standing looking back at me, his expression torn between sorrow and something that looked a whole lot like resignation. My eyes rose to meet his and something passed between us...

  And then a girl came running in from the side and threw herself at him like she knew him way better than I ever would.

  I watched her grabbing at him while he tried to push her off, his eyes still on mine, but then saw him shake his head at himself and give it up. He turned to her, a slight smile on his face, and put his arms around her.

  While I was left standing alone.

  I turned, my heart breaking, and walked quickly back toward the hotel. Of course. Of course there was another girl waiting in the wings. What had I expected? I’d already been thinking about calling this whole thing off due to Rivers’ behavior, right? I’d already had a plan to talk to Taylor and drop it. Tell her it was too much. I’d gotten in too deep and now I wanted back out again.

  I wanted my equilibrium back.

  And Rivers, it appeared, wanted to live a life where he was free to turn away from me and talk to other girls whenever they appeared at his side. He’d basically deserted me last night in that hallway, and really, I should have known right from the start. When we first got on tour, he spent entire days ignoring me. He didn’t want a girlfriend. He’d never wanted a girlfriend. He’d only been hanging out with me because Taylor had told him he had to.

  I’d only been another contract for him.

  Well, now I was going to end that contract.

  And that was going to be all there was to it.

  LILA

  “Stupid hotel,” I hissed. “Stupid place, having their building set up like this.”

  I hustled down the stairs and paused at the door, absolutely hating that I had to do this. I’d spent about ten minutes arguing with Anna upstairs and telling her exactly why I had to leave—namely, Rivers Shine himself—and that I was leaving her behind to try to salvage the contract deal with Taylor James.

  Granted, that deal had been with me, not Anna, and my friend was going to have a time talking her way into Taylor’s good graces. But Anna could be charming when she wanted to, and she was just as talented as me. I was hoping she’d pull it off.

  Because I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t keep my spot at Rivers’ side or fulfill the terms of the deal I’d made. Rivers had crawled right into my heart and made himself at home, and then he’d taken out a knife and stabbed me.

  I didn’t trust myself to be around him anymore. I didn’t trust him to be around me.

  Unfortunately, to get out of this fucking hotel, I had to walk right through the show he was currently performing. Whoever had built this place had thought it was a good idea to make the whole bottom floor the performance venue, which meant the reception was on the second floor and the only exit onto the street required one to walk through the audience of whatever show was going on.

  I leaned my forehead against the door and breathed out, feeling the beat of the music through the floor and hearing the echo of Rivers’ voice as he sang some stupid ballad to the audience.

  I snorted. The guy had told me he didn’t write love songs and yet they’d been playing them nonstop ever since. Or… Well, ‘nonstop’ was probably an exaggeration. They’d added one love song to the lineup at the shows. And he’d been singing it to me.

  I guessed after today, he’d be singing it to someone else.

  And good luck to him. I didn’t care. I didn’t want anything else to do with that. Because I was finished dating—or fake dating—rock stars.

  I pushed the door open, stepped through it, and then walked quickly into the crowd, intentionally not looking at the stage or the man on it. I didn’t need to see him and I didn’t need him to see me. I wanted to get through the audience and out of this room as quickly as possible. I already had a taxi waiting for me outside and a ticket on the next bus out of town. Everything was set up and ready, and my only job was to get out of the building without being discovered.

  Of course at that minute, the music died suddenly, leaving a deathly silence in its wake.

  I tried to keep walking. Tried to pretend I hadn’t noticed that the music had stopped. I prayed no one had noticed me—although that was probably difficult, as I was the only person shoving her way through an audience that was all standing still.

  “Lila Potter,” a voice suddenly said into the silence. “You running?”

  Well, shit.

  I stopped in my tracks and stood still for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. Turn and look at him? Or keep going?

  The problem was, I didn’t run from a challenge. Even when that challenge came in the form of a guy who’d stolen my heart right out of my chest and then proceeded to stomp all over it.

  I turned and looked up at him, but didn’t answer. When the spotlight spun from the stage to highlight me instead—stupid, complacent crew!—I shielded my eyes. I couldn’t see Rivers anymore and that wasn’t okay. I wanted to know where he was and what he was doing. I wanted to know what to expect from this.

  Or what not to expect.

  Why had he even stopped me? From what I saw this morning, he didn’t even care about me.

  I saw the people in front of me moving around, shuffling like they were trying to get out of the way of something, and tensed myself. What was going on? Was I about to be thrown up to the front of the crowd or something?

  No one grabbed me, though, and moments later I saw someone making their way toward me. Someone tall, in jeans and a white t-shirt, his arms covered in tattoos. The light spun off me and my eyes adjusted to show me that the guy in front of me also had dark hair and eyes, his cheekbones wide and his mouth held firm and flat.

  “Are you running away?” he asked hoarsely.

  I shrugged. “Not running, no. Leaving, yes.”

  His eyes shut in pain but opened a moment later, his hand reaching out for mine like he was looking for some sort of lifeline. “Don’t go. Don’t leave.”

  I almost pulled my hand away. Almost. “Why not? Looked to me like you already found someone else to warm your bed.”

  He huffed a breath that could have been a laugh but definitely wasn’t. “Lila, I don’t even know that girl’s name. She was drunk. Wanted an autograph. That was it. She was nothing. Nothing.”

  I tipped my chin up, not ready to believe a word of it. “Really? And what am I? Because the last time I checked, Rivers Shine, this whole thing was fake to start with.”

  He pulled me against him, his shirt damp with sweat and his skin like molten lava. “Not to me.”

  I stared into his eyes, trying to decide whether that was true or not. Trying to figure out whether he actually meant it or if it was just another mask he was putting on.

  Trying to figure out how I felt about the whole thing.

  I’d spent the last week pretending to be this guy’s girlfriend. Bailing him out in front of the press—and onstage—and doing my damnedest to make it believable. And in between those bailouts...

  I’d seen who he really was. Started getting to know the broken boy who had grown up into this heartbreaker of a man.

  And I’d thought I had a good handle on him. I’d thought I knew who he was, deep down. I’d thought he might care about me as much as I was starting to care about him. Only to walk out of that diner this morning and find him all over some other girl like he’d never even heard my name.

  He’d undone most of the work we’d accomplished over the last week, but that wasn’t even all of it. He’d broken the trust I was building with him and slashed right through the feelings that had been growing in my heart.

  He’d ruined whatever we’d constructed together.

  And now he was standing there asking me to forgive him and throw him another chance.

  On one hand, I wanted to push him away. Knee him right in the stomach and tell him I never wanted to see him again. I wanted to get the hell out of this town and run to Nashville, where I could get myself back together and try to forget that I’d ever heard the name Rivers Shine.

  On the other hand, in the wings, Taylor James was waiting. Watching. No doubt wondering what I’d do.

  Because that other hand—the one I was seriously looking at now—was holding a the chance at a record contract. If I stayed, I had a shot at a record deal with one of the best companies in the industry. I had a shot at staying on tour with Olivia and Connor, maybe even performing with them, and getting Anna and me a deal.

  If I stayed.

  If I gave Rivers his second chance.

  I stared at him, deep into those dark, pained eyes, and bit my lip. I didn’t know if I could handle all the damage the industry had done to him. Didn’t know if I could help him carry the baggage of being abandoned as a kid and then shoved into a world where no one took the time to take care of him.

  I didn’t know if I was big enough to do any of that.

  But I did know that somewhere along the way, I’d fallen in love with him. And that had to count for something, right?

  That, and the shot at a contract.

  “Promise not to break my heart?” I asked quietly.

  Rivers held up one hand and put the other on his heart. “I swear on everything.”

  Did I believe him? Honestly, I didn’t know. But I was willing to give it a shot. I leaned forward, getting as close as I could.

  “In that case, Rivers Shine, you’ve got a deal.”

  THE NEXT CHAPTER…

  You didn’t think they were done, did you? Did you think that was it?

  Oh boy were you ever wrong.

  Lila and Rivers might have their HFN but they’re going to have to work harder for their HEA! Join me for the second half of their story in Guitars and Mistakes, out in February! I would give you a teaser for the book, but I suspect you already know there’ll be a bad boy rock star, a sunshine good girl, some rock and roll, and a misunderstanding or two.

  But I promise they’ll get their HEA.