“Where do you live?” I asked as she pulled up a chair beside me.

“A little town in Texas you’ve never heard of.” She grinned again. Two dimples appeared. She reminded me of a doll. That was it. She had the face, hair, and dimples of a doll. “It’s called Berryville. If I leave, the population will go from 999 to 998. I don’t know how they’ll make it.” There was teasing in her tone. I liked her.

“Wow. Yeah, you might want to rethink that,” I replied.

She giggled, then pulled her legs up in the seat. “So, Matty says you live with Krit and are very important. I’m not to do or say anything that would offend you. I will admit I’m a little nervous about that. Krit seems scary.”

I glanced out to see Krit frowning as he looked over at us. He’d be over here in a minute. This was going to bug him.

“He’s scowling at me. Should I move?” she asked in a quiet voice.

I shook my head. “No. You’re fine. I swear. Krit is just intense. When he finds out you’re Matty’s cousin and not some groupie back here trying to upset me, he’ll chill out.

About that time Matty walked up to Krit, grabbed his shoulder, and said something in his ear. Krit nodded, then looked at me for reassurance.

I gave him a thumbs-up.

He relaxed and went back to warming up and checking the sound.

“Does that mean I get to stay?” she asked.

Laughing, I nodded.

Krit

The girl beside Blythe looked young and innocent. Matty said it was his cousin visiting from Texas. He swore she was nothing like him and that she and Blythe would get along great.

So far Blythe had been fine. Though the girl had kept talking to her and kept Blythe’s attention off me. I didn’t like that. I wanted all her attention. Yes, it was selfish, but f**k that.

During our first break I was at Blythe’s side before she could stand up. “Come here, love,” I said, pulling her up and into my arms. I was sweating, but she never recoiled or acted like it bothered her. She came to me willingly. I loved that.

“Krit, this is Trinity. Trinity, this is Krit,” Blythe said, introducing us.

“Nice to meet you, Trinity. But I’ve got to take my girl away for a bit, yeah?” I hooked my arm around her neck and led her backstage, away from Trinity and her chatty mouth.

“What was that about?” Blythe asked, staring up at me.

I didn’t meet her gaze. I was hiding my selfish behavior the best I could. She was damn near perfect and she loved me, this f**ked-up ass**le. I had to hide my worst traits the best I could.

“Krit Corbin, are you jealous of . . . a girl?” Blythe’s amusement was obvious.

I didn’t respond.

“Ohmygod, you are. Krit, seriously? I don’t swing that way at all. Granted, she’s a very beautiful girl, but I’m in love with you.”

I bent my head and kissed her temple. “Yeah, you are.”

She giggled and laid her head on my sweaty chest. “What am I going to do with you? You’re just getting worse.”

“Keep me. That’s what you’re going to do with me.”

She slid a hand up my chest and left it over my heart. “Yes, I am in fact going to keep you.”

That made me feel better.

“I wasn’t jealous of her. I just didn’t like that she was talking so damn much. I like seeing your eyes on me.”

Blythe nodded. “Got it. And I know, but I was trying not to be rude.”

Figures. Blythe didn’t want to be mean to anyone. She was sweet and kind and mine.

“We can go out and see Trisha. I saw her walk in with Amanda a few minutes ago. Or we can go to the greenroom and f**k.”

She laughed out loud, and my chest squeezed at the sound. “I don’t know, Krit. . . . What do you want to do?”

I turned her toward the greenroom. “With you, love, that answer will always be f**k. I’m obsessed with your cunt, remember?”

She shivered in my arms, and I opened the greenroom and barked at the stage guys to get out before closing the door and locking it behind them.

“Pull that skirt up,” I growled as I stalked her until she was pressed up against the wall.

Of course that’s exactly what she did.

Blythe

“Do you know Green very well?” Trinity asked me.

I kept my eyes on Krit so he’d be happy. He was like a spoiled little boy. It cracked me up. “Yes, I know him pretty well. He’s Krit’s best friend.”

Trinity didn’t say anything for a few minutes, and I was tempted to glance at her. She had asked a random question and then ended the conversation.

“He’s very talented. I wasn’t really expecting that, given what I had seen of him so far. I mean, I didn’t mean to say he was dumb or anything. . . . It’s just that I noticed him . . . or, well, I had to notice him because he came over to Matty’s with some girls, and he wasn’t sober, I don’t think. Matty sent me to my room and argued with Green, and finally the girls left. I came out of the room thinking Green was gone too, but he wasn’t. He was there, drinking a beer. He apologized for the almost na**d girls he had brought with him, then went on to call me a c**k blocker. Matty slapped him on the back of the head, and, well, I was nervous so I went back to my room again. So . . . he seemed not so smart, or maybe he seemed not so dedicated to serious things like being a musician. But he’s really good and he’s very nice tonight. He hasn’t spoken to me, but I’ve seen him with everyone else. He appears a lot smarter . . . than I originally thought. That didn’t sound right either. What I meant to say is that he’s really pretty and I’m glad he’s got brains in his head. It’s a shame when boys are pretty like him and dumb. I’ll shut up now.”

That was a mouthful. Trinity had managed to get my complete attention with her long ramblings about Green. The two things she said that stood out most were that Green had been ignoring her all night and that she thought he was pretty. That was very interesting. Green was a nice guy, and if he’d met Trinity before, even drunk, I can’t imagine he’d ignore her. He never did that.

I studied her for a moment, and the pink in her cheeks told me she was embarrassed about her outburst of information. Did Trinity have a crush on Green? Surely not. He was not only too old for her, but she was Matty’s cousin. This would end very badly. Unless, of course, Green’s ignoring her meant he was fighting off any attraction to her. It was possible for Green to fall for a girl and change his ways. He was an easier bet than Krit before I came along.

“Green is in law school. He’s actually brilliant, and, yes, he’s very talented. But you’ll learn, if you’re around these guys very much, that musicians are an odd sort. They live life their own way. As for ignoring you, I wouldn’t read anything into it. He’s just focused because they’re onstage. He has his game face on, where he flirts with the fans and brings in the crowd. It’s what they do.”

Trinity looked very thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. Thanks, Blythe.”

I nodded in return and looked back at Krit, who was waiting on me to look at him. I grinned and blew him a kiss. He caught it and pressed it to his lips, then winked at me. I could just imagine the females swooning in the audience right now. I was one very lucky girl.

Krit

Two weeks later Blythe had sold a monthly total of twenty thousand books.

I had a paid-for diamond hidden under the bed.

All plans to propose were on hold.

FUCK!

Blythe

I typed the last word of my second novel and dropped my hands into my lap. The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that came with knowing I had written two complete novels was extraordinary.

There were still the edits and the rewrites I would need to do, but the story was complete. Within a month I could upload it and click publish again. The power that came with that surprised me. I hadn’t expected this feeling of triumph. Several times over the past month I had thought about calling Mr. Williams. Also known as the man who helped give me life.

I wasn’t sure what I would say, though. He did raise me, in the loosest sense of the word. Mrs. Williams, his wife, and not my mother had done most of it. The discipline and emotional abuse—Mr. Williams had just stood back and let it happen. He had only intervened when he thought he needed to.

Since I didn’t know he was my father until last year, there was no connection or love there. I didn’t find myself wanting to bond with him. To me, he seemed like a hollow old man who relied on the pulpit he stood on every Sunday and told people what Jesus wanted them to do. I had stopped listening to that a long time ago.

In my opinion, Jesus didn’t want parents to abandon their kids and let them grow up in a home without love or affection. So he’d failed miserably there. I wasn’t of a mind to forgive that.

Calling him and telling him about my book seemed pointless. And he wouldn’t approve of it if he read it. There were parts that I had changed and made very fictional, but they were still based on the life he let me grow up in. If anyone would catch on to that, he would.

I put Mr. Williams out of my mind. One day maybe I’d call him—or maybe I wouldn’t. He had made no effort to contact me. And I had a family now, and friends. I had the love he’d denied me.

Standing up, I stretched my back from sitting all day long at my desk and went to make a glass of sweet tea. Before I could get to the kitchen, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to reveal Green looking like he hadn’t slept in days.

“Green . . . are you okay?” I asked, worried he might be sick. He looked ill.

“No. God, no,” he said, running his hand through his hair, then cursing a streak. “I f**ked up, Blythe, and I know Krit’s not here, but I need advice. From a girl. Or anyone at the moment who I can trust and who isn’t an idiot. Then I may need you to lock me in a room and protect me.”

This did not sound good. “Come in. I was just going to get some tea. Would you like some?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “No, but lock that door. Bolt it too. Just in case.”

“You’re starting to frighten me, Green.”

He walked over, dropped onto the sofa, and buried his head in his hands. “He won’t murder you. Just me. He’s gonna kill me, and I f**king deserve it. But she’s just so . . . and her hair . . . and she smells . . . FUCK! What did I do? I swear to God I’m never drinking again.”

I sat down on the chair across from him. “Slow down. Let’s start with who is going to kill you.”

Green pulled his hair as he kept his head down. “Matty.”

Oh no. “Green . . . what did you do? Did you, uh . . . touch Trinity?” The fact that he was ignoring Trinity at the gigs for a week and a half, and then two nights ago he kept looking at her, then jerking his gaze away had caught my attention. But I decided it was harmless..

“She was a . . . virgin,” he choked out.

Was? Oh no. Ohno ohno ohno . . . “Green, please tell me she was willing . . .”

He dropped his head farther into his lap and groaned. “God, yes she was willing. I’m not a f**king ra**st. But she was so f**king willing about everything I did that I missed the signs. Until I was inside her, being squeezed to death by her tight pu**y.”

“TMI, GREEN!” I stopped him.

He lifted his head and frowned. “Yeah. Sorry, it was. But I didn’t know, Blythe. I seriously didn’t know. I was drinking, and Matty was passed out. She woke up and all that hair of hers was messy and she wasn’t wearing a bra. Then she smiled at me with this cute little sexy look, and she has f**king dimples so damn deep, GOD! I’m just a man, Blythe. I’m just a motherfucking man who f**ked his friend’s virgin cousin.”

He was really in trouble. Matty was going to kill him, or he was going to go to jail. “How old is she? Did you get her age first?” I asked, ready to go hide him if I had to.