Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 57804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57804 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
I was so jarred with nervousness that I almost forgot my lyrics, but a warm, comforting sensation soon washed over me. I didn’t feel nervous anymore. I felt inspired, motivated to do even better. People talked about that performance for weeks, but all I clearly remembered were Ryder’s eyes on me.
Wyatt looked between us.
“So, you guys know each other pretty well,” he commented.
I shrugged as I avoided everyone’s eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was get into our complicated past with other people. I was still too locked up with nervousness to even mention it to Ryder.
“His sister was a close friend of mine,” I explained, leaving it at that. There was no need to make things more complex than that.
Ryder merely nodded, his smile faltering a little.
“Yeah, we just grew up together,” he said.
Ouch. I knew that was the best thing for him to say in front of the others, but it still stung to be reduced to that when so much more had happened between us. He was my first love and my first heartbreak.
Silence filled the dining room for a few moments until Carson slapped the top of the table.
“Let me go grab my acoustic guitar. We got something awesome to show you,” he said before getting up and hurrying off.
I thanked him in my mind as normal conversation about music picked back up. Honestly, if this visit stayed strictly music-focused, I might feel less conflicted about being here. Every time my eyes met Ryder’s, my heart slipped, feeling like it was beating out of rhythm. I didn’t want to feel like that.
Gathering myself, I moved to the living room with them and listened to an acoustic performance that filled the space with soothing, deep music. I found myself slowly nodding my head to the steady beat that Wyatt made by hitting his palms against the top of the couch cushion, enjoying Amos’s voice at the same time. I had no clue that he could sing that well.
I supposed some things had changed a lot over the past few years.
However, other things stayed completely the same. My eyes shifted over to Ryder, who pitched in a few times for backing vocals. Steadily, a warm sensation bloomed within my chest as I was taken back to those times when we played together, singing and strumming into the night without a care in the world.
If only those moments lasted forever.
Chapter 5
Carson
The smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the ranch house’s kitchen as I dug around in the fridge for the new package of bacon that Ryder bought the other day.
Ryder pretty much had an open door policy, letting the band come and go as we pleased. Since we had a new, gorgeous guest, I wanted to swing by early and cook up breakfast for everyone before we got her properly settled in today.
Honestly, I was excited to get rolling with this new song with Delilah. Music was fun and exciting, and I didn’t want our songs to be the same thing over and over again. I wanted to experiment and take some risks.
My career was the only aspect of my life where I could go a little crazy. A little under a year ago, I was a cocky, careless son of a bitch who drank alcohol like it was water. That was what happened when a teenager became a country star with terrible management.
I attended parties after every performance, indulging in every hot girl that called themselves my biggest fan and threw themselves at me. I didn’t care what anyone said. No one was grown and in their right mind in their early twenties. I was an idiot with a big head.
I left it all behind after facing a hospital visit for alcohol poisoning at twenty-four. I ditched my manager, my stage name, and Texas. After hearing about Amos and the Collectibles online and seeing that they were missing an acoustic guitarist, I reached out to them and auditioned, landing the spot. I left behind a big city for a tiny town. A party life for a quiet one.
Honestly, I still felt out of place in a way. I just wasn’t used to this kind of life, but I wasn’t going to give up on it. I knew that it was best for me, and I wouldn’t ever go back to my old way of life.
I feared that it could possibly kill me.
The moment I shut the door to the fridge, I heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. I turned to see Delilah in a large, white t-shirt that swished along her lower thighs. From what I could see, she only had panties on underneath, showing off her smooth legs. My eyes immediately became latched onto her, admiring the subtle glimpse of her hips through the shirt’s fabric.