My eyes slide over to the counter where the woman — a strawberry haired college student — is holding up a book. Briar smiles. “Have I read it? Autumn, you have got to be kidding. I’ve read it like ten times. It’s one of my all-time favorites.”
Autumn.
Bowen’s sister is named Autumn. How many Autumns can there be in Burlington? She turns and strides by me calling back to Briar, “I should have known I couldn’t discover a great romance novel before you.”
Now that I see her face, I have no doubt that even if there were five hundred girls named Autumn in Burlington, this particular Autumn is Bowen’s sister. Her hair isn’t the same color as his, but her eyes are. And her nose is the exact same as his, only more petite and feminine. She smiles at me as she passes by. “Can I see that? Your description got me.”
She stops and her smile broadens and her eyes light up. “Sure. On a scale of one to five I’d give it ten stars.”
She hands me the book and I notice the hemp bracelets on her arms. Yep. She’s a Whitlock. And at the very same moment she blinks and seems to recognize me. “Are you the singer from that band…. What was the name? Crap… I forgot. But you played at Vino and my brother helped you out when your drummer bailed.”
“Imposter Syndrome,” I say and she nods. “Yeah. Your brother is Bowen?”
I wasn’t lying when I told Lacey and Amy I have zero acting skills. I don’t. But Autumn doesn’t catch on that I already figured out who she is. She just nods and her smile turns proud. “Yeah. Mr. Killer Drummer, Horrendous Bar Back is my flesh and blood. You’re really good by the way.”
“Thanks.” I stare at the book she handed me for a second.
“Are you into romance novels?” Autumn asks. “Because Briar has a book club if you are. It’s super fun and the novels are always good. Always. He’s great at picking them.”
I glance up at Briar and back at Autumn. Do they think I’m gay? Oh shit. Are they asking me to join a gay book club? Am I outing myself? The concern and panic in my eyes must be evident because Autumn starts to backtrack. “It’s open to anyone. And the books aren’t LGBTQ only.”
“No. I mean sure. That’s cool.” Oh my God I couldn’t be making a worse impression if I tried. “Anyway, I’m actually here looking for journals. Notebooks. For writing.”
Autumn nods, taking my bumbling idiocy in stride. “Over here.”
I walk with her to the wall by the check-out area where all blank notebooks and journals are. They’ve gotten some new ones since the last time I was here. And my eyes immediately land on a brown leather one with an A embossed on it. I flip through until I get to C and pluck it out, but I keep looking at the other ones. “So Bowen is going to keep playing with you, he said.”
“Yeah. Which is great. He’s amazing,” I say and hope that sounds casual. “He picks up songs really easily.”
“He and my dad used to jam all the time,” Autumn tells me, her smile turning slightly wistful. “He stopped playing entirely, all instruments, when our parents died and he had to drop out of college, which is a shame. He was doing really well in the music program. He wanted to be a teacher. I am thrilled he’s back at it, now, even just for fun. Gives me hope that one day he’ll want to finish his degree after all.”
I had no idea Bowen hadn’t played since his parents died. Wow. And although I knew he’d been in college when the tragedy struck, I didn’t know it was in the music program I have been coveting and hope to enroll in as soon as my inheritance comes in. I’m just staring at her kind of blankly, so she shakes her head and her cheeks turn pink. “I’m so sorry. That was a personal info dump and completely inappropriate.”
“Please don’t apologize.” I smile at her. “I’m your brother’s friend so consider me your friend too. I’m just a new friend so I didn’t know he hadn’t played in years. He was so brilliant at the gig, and at practice, and you’d never know he’d been on hiatus.”
“That’s because he’s a natural.” Autumn’s beaming again. And then she tilts her head. “So, if we’re going to be new friends, I need a name.”
I laugh. “Right, I’m—"
“Chase?”
His voice floats across the room and seems to wrap itself around me like a hug. I turn to the door with Autumn and Briar. Bowen is standing there, in sweats and a tank top, his feet are in flip flops. His golden hair is unbrushed. He looks like he just woke up and it’s sexy as fuck. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he repeats. “What are you doing here?”
“Buying stuff. What are you doing here?”
“My sister,” he points to Autumn, “forgot her lunch.”
He holds up a nylon lunch bag. I stare at it and then back up to his gorgeous face. Autumn walks over to him. Well, actually, she kind of bounces over. She’s a very bubbly person and it comes out in her gait as well. “Thanks big bro. I was gonna have to go hungry if you didn’t come through. No cash for extra meals these days with Woody’s campaign sucking our bank account dry.”
Bowen hands her the bag. His eyes are still on me but they slide from my face to the books in my hand. “You buying those?”
I look at the gay romance novel and the journal. “Yeah. I mean, the journal. Maybe the book.”
Bowen walks over and takes it from me. I am acutely aware of two things — how my body reacts to his proximity and how his sister and Briar are watching us like we’re animals on display at the zoo. The vibes we’re giving off must be as awkward as they feel. He takes the novel from my hand and skims the back cover blurb. He grins that easy, laid-back smile that I find so damn appealing. “You aren’t exactly the demographic for this.”
“I guess not.”
