No theatrics.Just truth.This is what rock should sound like.
Tony read it aloud, grinning.“Guess someone noticed.”
Jami exhaled slowly, feeling something close to relief.For once, the story wasn’t noise.It was the music.
He caught Carlene’s gaze across the room.She was smiling, small, real, and tired in a way that made him want to take some of the weight off her shoulders.
“You did this,” he said quietly.
Her eyes flicked up.“We did this.”
He wanted to tell her it wasn’t just about the campaign or the song.That something had shifted the moment she’d walked beside him on that dock, their hands brushing in the dark like an accident that still felt deliberate.
But saying it out loud would make it something he couldn’t take back.
Instead, he gave her a soft nod and turned toward the studio.“Let’s make sure the next song’s worth their attention.”
Carlene closed her laptop and sat back, watching him tune.He didn’t see her eyes linger, but he thought she probably did.
The sun dipped lower through the barn’s wide doors, painting the floor gold.When the first note rang out, it sounded like a beginning.
And for the first time since fame had found him, Jami Hart wasn’t sure if what he wanted next was the stage or the woman quietly rewriting his life one steady choice at a time.
ChapterTwelve
The barn had emptied by late afternoon, with only the hum of the amps and the gulls outside filling the space.Jami stayed behind, looping a riff he couldn’t let go of, half-finished, half-magic.The kind of melody that felt like a confession.
Carlene’s footsteps sounded behind him.“Still chasing it?”
He glanced over his shoulder.“It’s chasing me back.”
She smiled faintly and crossed the room, setting her laptop on the piano bench.“That’s usually how the good ones start.”
He played the line again, softer this time.“You’d know?”
“I’ve watched enough of you guys to recognize lightning.”She hesitated.“The clip’s going viral.Twenty thousand shares in two hours.You’re trending.”
He looked up.“Is that good or bad?”
“Too soon to tell,” she said, scrolling.“Most of it’s positive.Some...not so much.”
He frowned.“Not so much how?”
She turned the screen toward him.A headline blinked across the top of a gossip site:
Hart’s New Muse?Meet the Woman Behind the Comeback.
Below it, a grainy zoom-lens photo from lunch, his hand on the back of Carlene’s chair as he held it out for her, sunlight catching the moment.
Jami blew out a breath.“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“They tagged the label.Someone must’ve sold the shot,” she breathed.“They’re framing it like a romance reboot.”
He met her eyes.“And it’s not?”
Her lips parted, a quick inhale, but before she could answer, her phone vibrated again.A notification lit the screen.Her expression changed.“Wait, what’s this?”
She tapped, and a new message appeared from an unknown account:
