Obviously these people love Liam if they’re messing with him. I was concerned my ownsistersmight not understand why he’s with me; what will the band and crew think? They know this version of him better than I do. Will they be confused how I fit here? With Liam, with them?
I chew over what to reveal about our situation all the way down, guilt spreading into every finger and toe.
“PAIGE!” Misha calls as I head toward the stage. She’s behind the keyboard dressed in an oversized Titans T-shirt and a pair of biker shorts, anklets bejeweled across her skin just above her Birkenstocks. She waves at me big.
“Paige!” Bright-eyed Penelope Parker leaves her mic and leaps off the stage, bounding toward me like an antelope. She’s short and thin, almost waiflike, with Nordic-blond hair and skin I imagine I could crack if I squeezed her too hard.
Penelope has no such reservations. She pulls me into a hug withwaymore force than I’m expecting, squealing like a little girl. “I can’t believe you’re real! I mean, Liam mentioned youyearsago, and here you are! In the flesh!” Penelope pulls back and observes me, tilting her head up to do so. I’m not tall, but she’sshort.
“Come.” She pats the neck of my guitar case twice, grabs my free hand, and leads me in the direction from whence she came. “We need you onstage.”
“Wait.” I freeze and Penelope turns back. “That’s not—I’m not—I’m just here…”
“With Liam,” Penelope finishes, smiling warmly. “I know. But Misha says you’re good with arrangements. That’s my favorite part of sound check. We’re nearly done with the boring stuff.”
“No, really, I—”
No,really. I drop her hand and take a step backward, right into Liam’s chest. Even without turning—even before he wraps an arm around my waist—I know it’s him.
His voice is a warning. “Stop overwhelming my girlfriend on her first day, Penny.”
Pennycrosses her arms over her chest, pouting. “But I want to bond with her.”
Liam’s grip on my waist tightens possessively as though he’s direly afraid of that happening.
“You should be with your band on the first day,” I jump in. “I’ll join you for sound check another time.”
“Tomorrow?” Penelope asks. “In Seattle?”
“Um, yes. In Seattle.”
“If she feels like it,” Liam clarifies.
Penelope rolls her eyes at him and twirls, anteloping back to the stage.
“Penelope is a pint-sized ball of demands,” Liam mutters in myear. “Don’t cave for her if you don’t actually want to play with them.”
I spin, propping the guitar case on its base between us. “Believe me, not hell or high water could get me on that stage if I didn’t want to go, not even Penelope Parker. But I don’t mind sound checking in any empty venue with someone else’s music.”
“Today it’s sound check, tomorrow it’s opening for her,” Liam mutters. “That’s how Penelope is. She’s fucking sneaky.”
“You have to like her a little bit if you agreed to another one of her tours.”
“Can’t remember why. She made me replace a speaker earlier because she stubbed her toe on it, and therefore it’s forever cursed.”
“Musicians are a superstitious bunch,” I say with a grin. “Though nowhere near as bad as baseball players.”
Liam’s smile is forced. He doesn’t meet my eyes. “Good thing we don’t have any of those around here.”
My eyes narrow as I watch him. He’s acting fidgety, his focus switching between my left shoulder and the stage. And because Iknowhim, I knowwhy.
“Oh, my god.”
“What?”
My voice lowers. “You’ve slept with her. Penelope.”
I don’t mean it to come out accusatory, but it does.
