Page 38 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

Whether she knew it or not, Desi came to her rescue as her phone appeared in her hand, the screen bright with a new text message.

“I’m going to call it a night. Someone’s waiting on me,” she said with a wink.

Nohen chuckled and caught Lyric’s gaze. She answered his unasked question by tilting her head toward the table, and they returned together.

“We didn’t even eat yet,” Emerson complained.

“Oh, I’ll eat when I get home,” Desi assured him.

Lyric snorted at the innuendo, hugged her goodbye, and then she was gone.

“I think I’m going to call it a night as well. We do still have to rehearse tomorrow,” she said, hoping Desi’s departure would mask her sudden need to escape.

Nohen sighed dramatically. “Alright, alright. Be the boss, why don’t you?”

“Boss, huh? I like the sound of that.”

“Let us walk you to your car,” Adra requested, and Lyric nodded after only a short hesitation.

After paying separately, they headed for the back door. Lyric had only argued once to put it on her tab. She was mostly just grateful to get out of there and be on her way home. Her heart pounded as she shoved the push door open, and a deluge of memories was barely held back by her will.

The sun had set by the time she stopped by the driver’s side of her car, and she turned with a smile.

“Thank you for drinks and dancing. I enjoyed getting to know you all a little more. Hopefully we’ll have time to have a repeat before we’re shoved into the bus, yeah?”

She ignored the awkwardness of speaking to them as a group when she felt as if it were the end of a first date.

“See you guys bright and early? Nohen, there’s this thing called an alarm,” she began with a wink.

He rolled his eyes, and before she could prepare, he erased the space between them to peck a kiss to her cheek. She froze, and a car near hers beeped, it’s lights flashing through the night.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll take that into consideration... Boss,” he teased, and began walking to his car. “Goodnight!” he called out as he ducked inside.

“And you two are full of surprises. See you tomorrow,” she said.

Before they could get any bright ideas, like hugs or kisses, she had her door open and was sliding inside. She glanced up at them from her seat. “Drive safe, goodnight!”

Her car door cut off any response they might have had, and later, she would wince and feel guilty for being so short with them.

But in that moment, she just wanted to get home, shower with her scentless body wash, shampoo, and conditioners. The vanilla ones sat to the side, but she ignored them. She didn’t want to smell like anything, especially alphas.

Then she planned to crawl into bed to escape the ghost of her mother’s voice before it could become too loud.

She got one of her two wishes.

By the time Lyric pulled into the parking space that matched her apartment number, she had never been so relieved to arrive home.

After locking the door behind her, she tossed her keys on the kitchen bar to her right and made her way to the bathroom.

She cranked the water on, turning it to hot, and then stripped off her clothes. They went into the hamper, and she swore she’d have to wash them as soon as possible if only to get the hint of scents of the others out of the threads.

Her senses were dulled enough that she couldn’t place exactly what each of them smelled like, but she knew she liked it.

Which was dangerous all in itself.

Stupid.

Trying to get to know them before the tour wasn’t the stupid part. It was the whole liking them more than she should have part that she disagreed with.