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His smile fades slightly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Cal.”

I glance across the room.

Jonny is gone, but his words aren’t.

You’re a fucking logo.

They sit beneath the adrenaline like poison.

“It was Jonny,” Luca says.

“He doesn’t matter.”

“Then why do you look like you’re about to put your fist through a wall?”

I pull away and hand the borrowed guitar to the organizer.

“I need five minutes.”

“Want me to come?”

“No. Stay here. Make sure the attention remains on Sam.”

Luca studies me, then nods. “I’ve got it.”

I head toward the side exit before the room can close around me.

The door swings shut behind me, cutting off the noise.

Cold air hits my face.

I take one breath.

Then another.

Neither of them makes Jonny’s words feel any less true.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Bea

Ifind him on a bench. I wasn’t even looking for him, but like so many times in the last few months, it seems as though the forces of fate want to keep throwing me and Callum Fox together.

He’s sitting on one of the benches, hunched over with his cap on and his elbows on his knees, staring down at the grass.

I stop on the path.

I could keep walking. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t seen me, and he probably came out here to be alone after performing. But my legs decide for me, and before I know it, I’m sitting down on the bench.

He doesn’t startle. He turns his head, and for a half-second his face brightens up. I can’t help but grin back.

“Doc, I knew it was you from your smell.”

“My smell? What are you, a hound dog?”