“Already started,” I say, checking the time. “My first potential collaborator should be here any minute now.”

  “Look at you,” Chrissy says. “Making my job easier again. I thought I was going to get you in a good mood before dropping this bomb on you, but there you are. Already hyped. A lady could get used to this.”

  “What bomb?” I ask as I take a nervous sip of coffee.

  She grins. “I have a surprise for you.”

  “Another bus?”

  “No. Even better.” She leans forward. “You’ve got an interview today, babe.”

  “Really?” I ask, my stomach leaping. “With who?”

  28

  KNOX

  “Jonny Red?”

  Jordan nods from her table near the front of our bus. “Yes,” she says. “Jonny Red.”

  “What the hell does he want?”

  She scoffs. “Gee, Knox. I don’t know. The lead singer of the most popular rock band in the country brought a song out of retirement last night after declaring his rekindled love for his ex-muse. Maybe — just maybe — he wants to talk to you about that.”

  The rest of the band stares at me from around the bus. Some eyes are more judgmental than others.

  “Okay, first of all, sarcasm does not become you, Jordan,” I say. “And also, I did not declare my love for Harmony. That’s insane. The rest, I’ll give you,” I add with a shrug.

  “Jonny Red’s people contacted me this morning and begged for an interview,” Jordan continues with her clipboard now in hand. “He wants to be the first jockey to talk to you and Harmony together, so he’s offering a lot to make it happen. Today.”

  “He just wants to talk to me?”

  “You and Harmony, yes.”

  I shake my head. “Nah, we don’t do that.”

  “I know.”

  “Criminal Records don’t do solo interviews. It’s all of us or none of us.”

  “And that’s exactly what I told them,” she assures me. “So, he agreed to have the whole band, as long as you’re all at the station at two today.”

  “With Harmony?” Katrina asks.

  “With Harmony, yes,” Jordan says.

  And just like that, we’re Criminal Records... and Harmony. I guess I have no one to blame for that but myself.

  Addison peeks over the top of her phone. “Harmony’s already agreed?” she asks.

  Jordan nods. “Last I heard from Chrissy, yes. If we’re all in, then she is, too.”

  “I’m in,” I say, thinking about Paul Monroe and our stupid agreement. And his giddy messages following last night’s performance.

  Asshole

  Ah! Much better, Mr. Benton.

  “It’s good buzz for the tour,” I mutter. “And it shines a light on Harmony like the label wants.”

  Yes, Mr. Monroe.

  Whatever you want, Mr. Monroe.

  “Jonny Red is one of the most listened to shows on both sides of the Mississippi,” Jordan says in agreement. “The label should be thrilled.”

  “All right.” Addison shrugs. “Might be fun.”

  “Well...” Katrina’s little voice barely carries over the sounds of the bus. “He’s also a shock jock. He may drill us with some tough questions.”

  “Kat’s right,” Jonah says, his eyes on me from across the bus. “You sure you’re up for that, Knox?”

  “Sure,” I say. “Why not?”

  “He might ask you to play Pure Blue on the air,” Katrina says. “Are you up for that?”

  “Yes!” I say, perhaps too harshly. “Guys, if I wasn’t okay with this, I wouldn’t have agreed to it. So, please, stop with the nanny state already.”

  They go quiet.

  “Okay, then,” Jordan says, breaking the silence with authority. “Once we get to San Francisco, we’ll check into the hotel. You’ll have an hour or so to relax, get some lunch, then we’ll be at the station by two. That sound good?”

  Everyone makes noises of agreement. Except Bronson, of course, who merely gives her a thumbs up before resting his head back and closing his eyes again.

  As I glance around, my morning caffeine kicks in, and I notice that we’re two people short. “Hey, where are August and Moondog?” I ask.

  Jordan doesn’t look up from her clipboard. “Oh, they’re on Harmony’s bus,” she says.

  “What?”

  “They’re on Harmony’s bus,” she repeats, as if that information isn’t massively fucking important.

  “Harvey is on Harmony’s bus?” I ask nervously.

  “Yup.” Jordan replies.

  “What’s Harvey doing on Harmony’s bus?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “But why is he there?”

  “I... don’t know,” she says, glancing up.

  “Why don’t you know? You’re the manager.”

  “I’m not his manager.”

  “Well, where is his manager?”

  “August is with Harvey,” Jordan says slowly. “On Harmony’s bus.”

  “But why are they on Harmony’s bus?”

  Jordan eyes me curiously. “You all right, buddy?” she asks.

  Everyone else stares at me, too.

  “I’m fine,” I say, shaking it off. “Just... they usually ride with us, that’s all.”

  What are you gonna do?

  Surprise me.

  I dare you.

  For fuck’s sake, Harmony. I wasn’t serious!

  “Well, we’re all going to the same place,” Jordan says. “So, you can catch up with Harvey and August when we reach San Francisco. Okay?”

  I scan the road ahead, spotting her giant pink monstrosity on the highway about a half mile ahead of us.

  What are you doing, Harmony?

  Jonah nudges me with his foot across the bus. “Knox?” he asks. “You good?”

  “Yeah,” I answer, not really good. “All good.”

  Harmony. Harvey. Harmony and Harvey.

  Why is he there? What is she doing to him?

  Fuck, what have I done?

  Jonah rises off his seat and plops down onto the space beside me. “You sure you’re all right?” he asks, keeping a friendly, discreet tone that doesn’t carry around the bus.

  “Yeah.” I check for prying ears, but the girls have broken off into their own conversation and Bronson’s gone back to sleep. “Why?”

  “Because last night was kind of...” he hesitates, “intense.”

  “Was it?” I ask.

  “You’ve barely said a word since.”

  “I haven’t?”

  Jonah squints.

  I tilt away from his probing Botsford eyes. “Okay, yeah. I guess I have been a little quiet. Maybe.” He leans in, his face coming within an inch of mine. “What are you doing, Jo?”

  “You didn’t... with Harmony last night, did you?”

  “What?” I screw up my face. “No.”

  “No?”

  “No!”

  “You weren’t alone with her at all?”

  “No. Well... not since the show, anyway.”

  “The show?” He sits back, deflated. “When were you alone together during the show?”

  “During your solo set,” I say. “No one told you?”

  “No. What happened?”

  I exhale hard, not all that eager to relive it. “It was only for a minute,” I answer. “Long enough to really piss her off, though.”

  His head falls, making his blue beanie slip slightly above his ears. “How?”

  “I played Pure Blue.”

  “Yeah, and why exactly did you do that again?”

  “I don’t know! Because I’m stupid and impulsive.”

  He nods in agreement. “And she didn’t like it?”

  “I didn’t ask. I just... snapped. All she did was ask if I was okay, and I fucking snapped. Playing that song brought back some really repressed shit, so I took it out on her, obviously. And Harmony...” I chuckle.

  Jonah says nothing, but looks nervous.

  “She let me have it,” I say. “She laid me out the way only Harmony can. I can’t even say I didn’t deserve it.”

  “Did you apologize?”

  “Nope.”

  “Fuck.”

  I look forward through the windows, searching for pink on the horizon. “And now Harvey’s on her bus doing who knows what.”

  “Yeah,” Jonah says. “Should we be worried about that?”

  “I don’t know. I hope not.” I shrug. “Maybe it’s fine.”

  “Is it?” he asks. “We’re two shows into this tour and you guys are already doing foreplay.”

  “What part of what I just told you is foreplay?”

  “For you guys? All of it.”

  We laugh.

  “Maybe you have a point,” I concede. “Okay. I will apologize to her. Try to smooth things out.”

  “Please do.”

  “Enough about me and Harmony,” I say, nudging his elbow. “How’s Marla?”

  Jonah’s eyes instantly brighten with the mention of her name. “She started her training with Oliver yesterday,” he says.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “She’s having so much fun. I mean, as much fun as one can have learning the ins and outs of managing a luxury hotel in Las Vegas.”

  Of all the women in this world he could have fallen for and he fell for the one who embraced the life he rejected. Typical Jonah.

  “Such a strange girl,” I joke.

  Jonah chuckles. “I’ll never understand her, but I’ll surely love her ‘til the day I die,” he says, sighing. “I miss her so much already.”

  “You should give her a head’s up about Jonny Red today.”

  He fishes his phone out of his pocket. “Good idea.”

  “We’ll play Marla’s Song,” I say. “Don’t tell her that part, though. It’ll be a surprise.”

  He smiles, but it slips. “You don’t mind?”

  “No. Why would I?”

  “Well...”

  Because Marla is his muse.

  There’s a part of him that feels guilty about that. We’ve never spoken about it, but I can tell. We both fell ass over tea kettle for our muses. His love story prevailed. Mine did not.

  “I don’t mind, Jo,” I say before he can go on. “In fact, I insist. I want to do this for her, for you guys.”

  “All right.” His smile returns. “Then, let’s do it. She’ll love it.”

  I pat his shoulder as he taps out a text. Through the windows ahead, I catch sight of the Harmony bus once again and my chest grips with worry.

  Harmony. Harvey. Harmony and Harvey.

  Wait, no...

  This is something else. Something familiar. Something I tasted yesterday morning when I saw that Gossipa article about Harmony and Logan Shock. Something that hasn’t taken hold of me in a long time, but I recognize clear as day now.

  This isn’t worry.

  This is jealousy.

  29

  KNOX

  When we finally arrive at the Botsford Plaza in San Francisco a few hours later, I practically leap off the bus the moment it stops. Harmony’s arrived a few minutes ahead of ours. I want to know what Harvey is doing on it.

  And I want to know now.

  As I approach it, Chrissy steps off with August. Neither of them seem on edge or bothered in any way. In fact, they seem downright flirty, which means they probably weren’t paying attention to Harmony and Harvey the whole way over here.

  Harmony. Harvey. Harvony.

  Fuck, that’s what people are going to ship them as, isn’t it?

  Chrissy flashes me a smile as I pass. “Hey, Knox,” she greets.

  “Hi,” I say, pushing forward.

  “Hey, man,” August says. “What’s up?”

  “Is Harvey in there?”

  “Yeah.” Chrissy points inside. “He and Harmony are just finishing up.”

  I don’t bother asking what that means.

  I plow past them onto the bus, hearing an acoustic guitar before I even step inside. It’s Harvey, obviously. I’ve jammed with him enough times to recognize his sound, but it takes a moment for me to pinpoint the song.

  Boom Boom.

  He’s... learning it.

  He’s sitting on a seat along the left side of the bus… learning how to play Boom Boom?

  Harmony sits across from him, singing along as she taps the beat against her thigh. “Flickering flames of desire,” she sings. “Burning hotter, reaching higher...”

  I shudder. That horrible fucking song.

  Harvey joins in. “We know it’s wrong, but it feels so right. In the shadows, you’ll hold me tight!”

  Their voices blend... pleasantly. Almost perfectly.

  Oh, I hate it.

  I hate it a lot.

  I hate how good they sound together. I hate how I’m just standing here, unable to say a goddamn word.

  And I really hate how they’re looking at each other so intently they haven’t even noticed I’m here.

  I watch until the song ends. Until Harvey relaxes his posture and Harmony claps with glee.

  “Awesome!” she says. “It sounds so good, Harvey!”

  “Thanks,” he says. “So do you.”

  “You want to get together tonight and keep practicing?”

  “Sure!”

  I loudly clear my throat.

  They look at me. “Oh,” Harvey says, bobbing his pretty little chin at me. “Hey, Knox.”

  Hey, Knox, I mock in my head.

  “Hi,” I say.

  Harmony hops off her seat. “I’ll text you later?” she says to Harvey.

  “Just let me know when and where,” he says as he slides his guitar into its case. “I don’t have much going on tonight, so I can hook up whenever.”

  Hook up?

  “Will do,” she says. “Thanks again.”

  Harvey leaves with a friendly wave. That’s Harvey, though.

  Nice and friendly.

  Always down to hook up.

  “Knox?”

  I look at Harmony.

  She grins. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” I say.

  “What are you doing here?” she asks.

  I shift casually. “Just... came to check out the inside of Big Pink here,” I say. Pure bullshit. But whatever.

  “It’s great, right?”

  I give it a once over again. It’s like ours. Only smaller. And pink.

  “It’s okay,” I mutter.

  Harmony crosses her arms and waits, clearly sniffing through my bullshit.

  “You were singing,” I finally spit out.

  “Uh... yeah,” she says. “I do that a lot nowadays.”

  “Not with Harvey Moon, though.”

  “You’re right. That’s new.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s learning my song,” she says.

  “Why?” I ask again.

  “Because we’re playing it together at the show this week.”

  Boom.

  “No, you’re not,” I say.

  “Yes.” She smirks. “We are.”

  “Why?”

  Harmony snorts. “Did you hit your head again?”

  “No. I didn’t hit my head again. I have a right to know. It’s my show.”

  “I’m pretty sure you have zero say in what happens in Harvey’s set.”

  “And I’m pretty sure you weren’t sent here to play pop songs with Harvey,” I argue. “You were sent here to be my fake girlfriend.”

  “And I remember something about my tide raising your capsizing boat,” she says, her smile firm.

  “Our boat is not capsizing!”

  “I have a career to launch here and I can’t do it sitting backstage for the entire tour. So, I’m making connections. I’m collaborating. That’s how this industry works.”

  I glare. “I know how it works, Harm. You don’t have to pop-princess-splain how to do my job.”

  “Then what’s your problem?”

  “I—” My tongue ties in knots. “I don’t have a problem. I just don’t get why you didn’t come to me with this.”

  Harmony blinks. “You’re serious?”

  “Yeah,” I say. “Why ask Harvey? Why didn’t you ask me?”

  She stares at me for the longest moment. “You are unbelievable, Knox.”

  “What?” I ask.

  “You seriously think that if I’d come to you, asked you to learn my song, to play it with me on your stage, at your show, that you would have said yes?”

  I shrug. “I might have.”

  “Okay.” Her arms cross tighter. “Knox, will you learn my song and play it with me at your show this week?”

  “No,” I answer.

  She rolls her eyes. “Goodbye, Knox.”

  “Wait, wait, wait,” I say, raising a hand. “Let’s just… talk this through.”

  “There’s nothing to talk through, Knox. This doesn’t concern you.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  “Knox…” Harmony takes a breath to calm herself. “Last night, you made it perfectly clear that you don’t take me seriously.”

  “That’s not true.”

  She blows past it. “I will not let your opinion of me and my work make me stand still,” she says. “Harvey is willing to learn the song before the show. He’s excited to do it, so that’s what we’re doing.”

  “Come on, Harmony,” I say. “You can’t just invade his set like this.”

  “I’m not. I asked him nicely. He said yes.”

  “Of course he did! He’s from the Midwest! They’re way too polite out there. You’re just taking advantage of him.”

  “Like I said,” she says, still very calm, “I’m more than happy to play it with you during your set instead.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “You...” I stutter, unsure what to say as she glares at me with those beautiful, expectant eyes. “I don’t think you’re ready.”

  “Oh, please,” she says, annoyed.

  “No, really! Your first live performance? In front of twenty-thousand people? Have you even thought this through?”

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve performed for an audience.”

  “This is different,” I say. “I promise you.”

  “This is important to me. My mother is going to be there. It’s a dream come true.”