CHAPTER TWELVE
VERONICA

“So…” I say while watching the view through the bus window. “Tell me, something.”

Travis snickers and kicks his feet up on the small table in front of his seat. “What do you want to know, doc?”

“Whatever,” I scoff, reaching across to shove him lightly in the shoulder. There are a lot of things about him I want to know, starting with why he was acting so weird earlier. “Why were you so upset during the auditions?”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to answer that just yet,” he says while dragging one hand down his face.

“Okay…” I can’t help but wonder if he feels the spark between us the same way I do when his eyes meet mine. Like right now… He’s watching me and studying every move I make. What’s he looking for? If I had to guess, I might get my own hopes up too much. “Why did you ask Master Wang to draw your soulmate in the first place?”

He shrugs and scratches the back of his neck. I noticed he does that when he’s nervous. Does that mean he’s about to lie, or just uncomfortable with the question? I have no clue, but I’ll find out—one way or another. “I’ve always been a hopeless romantic,” he finally says.

“That was one of the first things I noticed about you,” I admit.

“What do you mean?” his voice squeaks with surprise. “Is it that obvious?”

I nod. “Yeah, it is.”

“How?”

A slow sigh escapes as I try to find the best way to explain without giving myself away. “You see, the best possible versions of everyone around you, even when it might be difficult to find the good in someone.”

He nods, slowly. “I always try to find the good in people.”

I’ve seen that, even in the short time I’ve known him. “You’re always focused on your crew because you know they make the whole family unit, you and your brothers have created, stronger.”

His lips pinch together in a pucker face pout. “And because I’m carrying around a picture of someone the universe says is my soul mate?”

“Yeah, there’s that too.” I can’t help but laugh. It’s not because I think his mission with this is funny, but it’s ironic. The one who sees him for everything his soul is, and not just the image on stage, is sitting right in front of him and he can’t open his eyes wide enough to see her—to see me. Maybe that’s a good thing. Who knows what he’d do if he found out my history, or my past portfolio of work? “But, I’m not sure you’re as much of a romantic as you think you are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he says, clutching his chest like I’ve just fatally wounded him.

“Don’t pretend you couldn’t have love in your life right now, if you wanted to.”

His eyes go dark as his eyebrows draw together. “I’m not sure I follow.”

“You’re on stage almost every single night…”

“Not every night.” His head bobs back and forth. “Things are just starting up again. There was a lot of down time.”

“Whatever,” I say, waving my hand in front me, “I refuse to accept the idea that he wasn’t out there front and center, constantly. One look at the Amaryllis socials reveals that fact. “You’re out there every single day, in person or not, with women throwing themselves at you. Are you telling me you couldn’t find love if you wanted it?”

He shrugs and crosses his arms over his chest as he pulls his legs back off the table, letting his feet thump against the floor. “Maybe I want something more than just someone who likes how I look.” He glances at me out of the corner of his eye.

“Or falls for the performer who they don’t actually know anything about?” I ask, hoping my question didn’t cross a line.

“Exactly.” His hand brushes against mine as he moves to sit on the small sofa next to me. His bus is huge, but even a huge tour bus doesn’t leave much room for personal space. I’m grateful for the lack of space, which might be a first. His eyes are dark and brooding as he watches me.

Did my question hit a nerve? “What do you want then?” I let myself ask despite the risk of breaking the moment.

“Someone who knows me,” he says without a second of hesitation.

“How do you expect to find that when you don’t let anyone in?”

He scoffs and tilts his head to the side enough that I feel the warmth of his breath against the bare skin of my shoulder. “I let one person in,” he says, letting the sarcasm drip off his words.

Asshole. He knows what he’s doing to me. “Maybe you should ask yourself why you let that one person in then.”

He pulls back as he seems to ponder my words. Maybe he is asking himself why and can’t find an answer. Wouldn’t that be my luck? I try to get him to look deeper and just push him further away in the process. Sigh. I pull out my phone, looking for anything to break the awkward silence of the moment, and pull up the website for Master Wang. The banner across the top says, Stop Going from One Shallow Connection to the Next. Find your Soulmate Today! “Do you believe in all this?” I ask, turning my phone around so he can see the webpage.

“I didn’t,” he says, shaking his head and glancing up to stare out through the window. “But after seeing it all come together for my brothers…” He turns back around and locks his gaze with mine. “I think I do.”

“You think? That’s not the conviction I expected from someone who still carries the image around with him and has people searching the internet to find the woman in the sketch.”

He nods, slowly. “I was more confident a few days ago.”

Ouch. He was more confident in love a few days ago? Before he met me? I’ve single-handedly destroyed this guy’s hopes of finding his soulmate. Go me. Ugh. “Are you afraid she won’t live up to your expectations if you find her?”

“No,” he scoffs. “That would be impossible.”

“How is that impossible? No one is perfect.”

“I never expected her to be perfect. I don’t have any expectations of her. Not really, anyway.”

How is that possible? “You’ve spent over two years looking for her and you’re telling me you haven’t built an image of her in your mind?”

He presses his lips together, forming a tight line and shakes his head no. “The only thing I do expect…” his words trail off.

“The only thing you expect, from her, is…?” I ask, prodding him along.

He shakes his head no. “Not from her. I expect to feel something inside of myself.”

“What do you expect to feel, then?”

“I think,” he leans forward, so there’s nowhere for me to look except straight into his eyes, “there will be a feeling inside of me when I meet the one.” He moves so his lips brush against the sensitive skin just behind my ear. My breath catches in my throat as a shiver shoots through my core. Did he feel that, too? “I think that feeling will be enough to set my entire life off like a spark.” His words are almost a whisper as he pulls back, his eyes meeting mine. I’ve never felt anything as intense as what I feel around him.

It’s terrifying. But how do I know if he’s feeling the same thing, I do? “What if the spark isn’t as strong as you think?” I ask, keeping my eyes focused on his. Being a journalist has taught me how to gauge human responses, so I hear everything they don’t say with their words. The eyes are the window to the soul, or at least that’s what everyone says. If that’s true, then Travis Miller has the most open and beautiful soul I’ve ever come across.

“It will be.” He’s confident and unwavering, and it’s infectious. Would he still let me in if he knew I wrote an article that threatened to bring down an entire industry and subsequently landed me behind a desk at Entertainment4You? Would it even matter, since he’s still on the hunt for his portrait girl? “What if you don’t find her?”

“I’ll find her.”

Sure, you will… I want to scream at the top of my lungs, right now, but I swallow the nerves down and force myself to stick with the plan. “How confident are you of that?”

“Completely.” His face is expressionless. It’s a weird thing to see Travis Miller without an ounce of expression in his face. He’s typically an open book, but I’m not sure how to read him right now.

“How can you be that sure of yourself?”

“I’m not sure of myself. I’m sure of the universe and if the universe says I need to meet his girl, then that’s what I need to do.”

“What if your values are polar opposites?” He can’t be so attached to this idea of his mystery woman that he’d forsake everything he and his brothers have built. Could he?

“What do you mean?”

Ugh! This oblivious, stubborn male act is getting on my last nerve. “What if she’s deeply ingrained in everything Amaryllis stands against?”

“It’s okay to learn and grow,” he shrugs. “That’s how you know it’s real love in the first place, isn’t it?”

Heat floods my face, spreading across my cheeks as I try to find the words to respond. Nothing comes out when I open my mouth to speak.

“Okay, what I mean is this…” he shifts in his seat, so he’s facing me again and tucks one leg under the other. “It’s easy to love someone who thinks the same things you do and believes in all the same things you do. It’s a lot harder to love someone who challenges everything you think you know about the world and your place in it.”

I did not expect that answer from him. “And you’ll be able to love her for who she is and not just the image you’ve painted in your mind of her?”

He lets out a loud chuckle. “Nice try. You already asked me that.”

I shrug. “It’s in my nature.”

“Why do journalists do that?” he asks, giving me a sideways glance.

“We ask things in different ways because the truth seldom comes out in a direct response, but it almost always comes out between the lines.”

“That makes sense,” he says. “But honestly, I have not painted an image of her personality in my mind. I know one thing about her and one thing only.”

“What the back of her head looks like?” I snort.

He scowls and lets out a deep groan. “That… and she’s the one I’m supposed to find. What that means for us after we meet, I’m not sure.”

“Huh?”

He bites the inside corner of his lip as he seems to be trying to decide if he should say what’s on his mind or not. Finally, he lets out a slow breath and says, “I mean that the portrait girl may not be who I end up spending the rest of my life with, but maybe she’ll lead me to where I’m supposed to be.”

Gasp! My hand flies up, covering my chest. “You’re already preparing to walk away, and you haven’t even met face-to-face, yet?”

“No!” He holds up both hands in defense as his face turns a bright shade of red. “I’m just saying I’m open to whatever the universe throws at me.”

“Are you sure that equals true love? It sounds like you’re already throwing in the towel before you’ve even set foot in the gym.”

“It’s not like that.”

“No?”

“Absolutely not.”

Okay, Rockstar. We’ll do this your way. “Tell me… what does your ideal woman do in her spare time?”

“I don’t know…” he shrugs, flinging both hands out to the side.

“I’m not asking what you’ve expected her to be like,” I say, waving my hands in front of me to clear away that idea. “I’m asking you, right now, in this moment, what do you think her answer would be to that question?”

“What do I think she would say she does with her time?”

I nod.

“I think she’d say she’s trying to change the world.”

Wow. Okay. Those are some big shoes to fill. “So, you think she’ll be larger than life like Amaryllis?”

“Nah. But she wouldn’t be happy or content to just sit back and watch the world devolve around her, without trying to influence it for the better.”

“What about her career?” I ask, wondering if he’s started putting pieces together by now.

“What about it?” he asks with his face twisted into a confused scowl.

It’s not a complex question. “How does she pay her bills?”

“Google said she’s a reporter, but I haven’t been able to find any of her work.”

So, he knows he’s dancing with the devil. “And you’re okay with that?”

“With her being in the media?”

“Yeah. It seems like that is the single trigger point for everyone in this band. Wouldn’t your family’s opinion of her job be an issue?”

“The media isn’t the problem, it’s who writes their checks. I don’t have any issues with the people as individuals.”

“Except Jenkins.”

“Right. He is the one exception.”

“What if you find out she’s not who you thought she was?” What if I tell you the truth about how I landed at Entertainment4You and on your bus, right now? “How will you deal with that?”

“There won’t be anything to deal with. But I see what you’re doing there,” he says, clicking his tongue against his teeth. “All I expect to find when I meet her is her.”

“What if it doesn’t work out?” The words were more difficult to say than I had expected. It almost feels like I’m risking his happiness by putting the idea of it not working out there into the universe. Guilt immediately pangs me in the chest. Where the hell did that come from?

“Then it wasn’t meant to be,” he says with a nonchalant shrug. The way my stomach flips makes my nerves bubble up inside of me. I didn’t expect to feel this way during our interview and I’m second guessing my decision to hitch a ride on their bus all the way to Salt Lake City. I’m not sure I can keep myself together for that long. “But,” he continues, “maybe it’ll lead me to where I’m supposed to be.”

“Do you think you could love someone who isn’t the woman in the picture?” And yet another thing I didn’t expect to be asking him. Am I being selfish?

“A few days ago, I would’ve said there wasn’t a chance in hell,” he admits.

“And now?” I forget to breathe as I wait for his answer.

His eyes search mine for what seems like an eternity. “I think I could,” he finally answers.

“What changed your mind?” I ask, feeling my jaw clench as the butterflies set flight in my core while I brace myself for his answer. Why do I care?

This is a job, I remind myself.

It’s a paycheck.

He’s the subject.

Don’t fall—

“I met someone…”

Shit.

---

I let out a slow whistle as I drop my suitcase on the hotel suite floor next to the bed. Amaryllis didn’t skimp on the accommodations, that’s for sure. No wonder the front desk looked confused when I said I didn’t help with my bags. They’re probably not used to having guests here who don’t require pampering. When we pulled into Salt Lake City, I was almost sad that my time on the bus with Travis was coming to an end, but at the same time relief washed over me. Being close to him for so long wasn’t doing anything to help me stay focused.

Thump! Thump!

I freeze remembering the last time there was a loud knock on my hotel room’s door; it was Jenkins. I don’t feel like dealing with him today. Luckily, I think this place might be out of his budget and Alan wouldn’t spring for it. That man is tighter than bark on a tree. “Who is it?”

Thump!

Okay, so the lack of a response is a little unsettling. I slide myself up against the wall, so I can peek through the hole in the middle of the door. At first, I don’t see anything and my heart beats faster against my chest. Then just as I’m about to dial the front desk and ask for security, JT and Alyssa pop into sight making ridiculous faces while giggling from the other side of the door. “Oh my gosh,” I groan, unlocking the door and pushing it open to let them step inside the room. “You two scared the living daylights out of me.”

They both charge through the doorway and wrap me up in a tight group hug. “Ah!” they squeal in unison.

“Whoa.” Alyssa’s mouth hangs open as she turns in a slow circle in the middle of the living area of the hotel suite. “You must have won over the whole band, to get them to put you up in a place like this.”

“It’s where they put their entire team.” I try to blow it off; but she’s right, this is over the top.

“Really?” JT asks. “I need a career change. Are they hiring?” I know he’s kidding, but he’d be a great addition to their team. He’s an incredible DJ and knows how to get a crowd to engage with the show.

“Well…” I say, tilting my head slightly. “Everyone who doesn’t stay on the bus.” My frown pulls my entire face down as I think about how much I wish Travis Miller was staying here, too. Or maybe I wish I were still on the bus. I’ve only known him for a couple of days, but I feel like there’s a gaping hole beside me when he’s not around. I don’t know how to feel about my reaction to him or the things he said on the road. It’s a lot to unpack.

“At least you won’t have to worry about Jenkins in a place like this,” Alyssa says through a chuckle.

“Nope.” That’s for sure. “But he has already made himself known again.”

JT groans and rolls his head back in exasperation. “Oh, no!”

“What’d he do?” Alyssa asks, flopping down on the overstuffed luxury sofa.

“He made a complete ass out of himself,” I say, remembering how close Carter came to being hit by the runaway mini bike.

“As usual.” JT’s eyes roll back in his head.

Alyssa sits with her legs crossed underneath her and leans forward on perched elbows. “What happened?”

“He scaled the fence just before everyone loaded up,” I explain, while straightening the room service guides on the coffee table. “And while trying to capture that one picture he could sell to Alan, to print with his bullshit story.” I fiddle with the flower arrangement, adjusting it so it sits square in the center of the table. It was bothering me. “He almost hurt several people, including London Miller’s son.”

“Oh, shit,” JT squeaks. “The little boy Griffin adopted after he married his mom?”

“Yep.”

Alyssa scoffs and leans back against the white cushions behind her. “That will not go over well.”

“No.” Not well at all. Travis, and the rest of Amaryllis may know he’s my rival, but they don’t know the whole story. I have no idea how they’ll react when they find out. “I’m sure they’ll press charges against him for trespassing.”

“Maybe that’ll be enough to get him off your ass for a while,” JT says, with a hint of humor in his eyes.

“Somehow, I doubt it will be that easy.” I stack and unstack the event brochures left on the stand in the foyer. I can’t get them to line up. Ugh.

Alyssa’s eyes are following me as I continue to move around the room. “Stop fidgeting and tell us what’s really going on.”

Damn it. “There’s nothing else to tell. You guys know it all.”

“So,” JT says, crossing his legs and throwing both arms behind him, so they’re resting on top of the sofa cushions. “You spent the entire trip here on a bus with Travis Miller and you expect us to believe there’s nothing to tell?”

Alyssa scoffs. “There has to be some juicy stuff in there.”

“Nothing happened.” I’m annoyed with how much I wish there was something to tell.

“Nothing?” she asks.

“I call bullshit,” JT says with one eyebrow cocked.

Alyssa nods. “Yeah, me too.” She crosses her arms over her chest and wears a look that says she knows me too well to fall for that.

“The only thing that happened was talking,” I say, defensively throwing my arms out to my sides.

JT claps and bounces up and down in the seat with excitement. “Did you tell him you’re the girl he’s been looking for?”

“No.”

“You probably should,” Alyssa says. “We all know you’ve fallen for him. Maybe if you told him, you like him then he’d call off the hunt for the portrait girl.”

That’s a terrible idea.

“You should,” JT adds.

“Why?”

“Because that way when you two finally get over trying to pretend you’re not into each other there won’t be this massive mountain of lies to jump over first.”

Why does he always have to be so observant? “We’re not pretending. We’re genuinely not into each other. This is a job. That’s it.”

“Right,” Alyssa says, popping her chewing gum. “Then I guess you’re ready to turn in the story Alan told you to write?”

“I don’t write what I’m told. I write the story that needs…”

“You write what needs to be told,” JT says, mocking me with his hand opening and closing like a mouth. “We get it, but that’s bullshit, and you know it.”

“How do you figure that?” I demand, putting one hand on my hip.

“You’ve been at this magazine for three years,” he says. “You write their stories every single time.”

Alyssa holds up one finger. “Except this time.”

“Exactly,” JT singsongs with a nod. “You’re not writing this story for Alan because you aren’t ready to turn it in, so you’re sending it out everywhere under the sun except to the one place who could pull you off the subject.”

“If I was going to write it, why wouldn’t I want to turn it in?”

“Because if you did, your time with Travis Miller would be over and it would be time to go back home.”

Groan. Why are best friends like this?

“Then just admit it.”

“Admit what?”

“You like the rock star,” Alyssa answers, with her hands gripping her forehead like she’s about to blow a fuse.

“Of course, I like the rockstar.” Everyone likes Travis.

“You know what we mean.”

“Even if I did, he thinks his soulmate is this perfect vision Master Wang drew for him. He does not know how to have a real relationship with a woman who is right in front of him.”

JT scowls at me and lets out a loud huff of air. “How would you know that? You haven’t let him see the woman in front of him.”

“He has no idea who I am.”

“You aren’t letting him know who you are.”

“I’m not stopping him.”

Alyssa gets up from her spot on the sofa and walks over to me, wrapping one arm around my shoulders. “You aren’t showing him, either. If I had to guess, I would bet you go into full work mode when you’re around him because you’re afraid he’ll see through you if you don’t.”

I don’t like feeling called out like this. “I just don’t know what to do. I’ve gotten myself into this situation and I don’t know how to get out of it without hurting us both.”

“There’s not much left for you to do other than just be honest and let the rest work itself out,” she says.

“You can’t control everything and force life into a nice neat little package,” JT says, joining in on the group hug. “Sometimes life is messy, and that’s okay. Just be open and the rest will happen naturally.”

“Have you been taking those meditation classes Master Wang offers on his website?”

“No, but I was thinking about it. He really knows his shit.”

“Not funny.”

“I don’t know,” Alyssa giggles. “I thought it was kind of funny.”

“What are you going to do?” she asks.

Sigh. “I’m going to tell him.”

“How? When?”

No clue. “Did you get the story I sent last night?”

They both nod. “I sent it to the list of possible publishers as soon as I saw it in the inbox,” Alyssa says.

“Good, after we know who’s picking it up, I want to write the full article for our website. The fandom will be searching their asses off to get the rest of the behind the scenes look. If we can make them trend right now the academy won’t be able to ignore them. If I get you the draft, can you polish it up and get it ready to go?”

“Yeah,” JT says, nodding. “Proofreading and polishing… that’s kind of what I do.”

Alyssa grabs my face and forces me to look her in the eyes. “Please tell me you will not publish it until after you’ve told him.”

I shrug. 

“Roni, seriously.”

“I have a plan. It’ll be okay… I just need you two to get the site up, running, and connected to all the major ad services.”

“Ad services?” JT purses his lips together. “Are we mega-phoning this in?”

“Yep.”

“This isn’t to bury Alan or Jenkins anymore, is it?”

I shake my head no. “It’s because if I’m going to tell Travis the truth, then I need him to know where my heart is first, and it has to be larger than life if he’s going to hear me through all the noise.”

“Larger than life is what I do best,” JT says, rubbing his hands together with a wide toothy grin spreading across his face.

Tap. Tap.

“Is that someone else at the door,” I ask, my eyes darting to the door leading into the corridor.

JT shrugs and hops over the back of the sofa. “I’ll check it out,” he says, rushing to peek through the hole in the door. “It’s probably just room—”

“What?” Alyssa asks, her hands suddenly clutching the throw pillow to her chest. “Who is it? It’s not Jenkins, is it?”

JT shakes his head no and rushes back over to the sofa, diving into the cushions. “It’s a super-hot, mega famous rockstar who isn’t here to see either of us,” he says, grabbing Alyssa’s hand and tugging her into the bedroom area of the suite.

“Wait, what?” she says, pulling against him.

“It’s Travis-effing-Miller. Come. ON.” He tugs harder on her arm and drags her with him as he makes his way into the other room.

I gather up their bags and toss them into the bedroom with them. “Shh!” I hold one finger to my mouth as I start to pull the door closed. “He can’t know you’re here. I didn’t tell him or the Amaryllis crew about any guests.”

“Don’t worry about us.” JT pushes me backwards and shoves the door until it latches. I hear the lock click as he pushes the button on the other side of the door. “Get your butt over there and let him in,” he hisses through the doorway. I can hear Alyssa’s voice whispering something to him but can’t make out what she’s saying.

Tap. Tap. This time he knocks louder, but still soft enough it wouldn’t disrupt the guests in the other suites. “Roni, are you in there?”

“Coming,” I call back as I pause to check my reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall in the foyer. Why do I care how I look? I just spent more than ten hours on a bus with him. He’s already seen the raccoon eyes. But still… I grab a makeup wipe from my bag and clean up the dark smudges and pinch the tops of my cheeks to give a hint of a blush. That’s better… kind of. Ugh. “Hi,” I say, forcing away any hint of exhaustion from my voice as I open the door to find Travis running his fingers through slightly damp hair. It’s another one of his nervous habits. I noticed it on the bus. “What are you doing here?”

“I… uh…” he stammers. “Was I interrupting something?” he asks, nodding towards where the throw pillows are still thrown on the floor behind me.

I shake my head. “No. You are definitely not interrupting anything. I always throw the pillows on the floor whenever I get to a new place…”

“You do?” he asks with an eyebrow cocked as he tilts his head lower. I imagine him trying to study my expression to see what I’m hiding.

I nod. “Yep. It’s a habit I’ve had since I left for college.”

“Why?” he asks, drawing out the sound for what seems like forever.

“Because… it makes me feel like I’m back home. You know? Kids, chaos, pillows thrown everywhere…” I laugh and throw my hands up, hoping it comes across as a throwaway gesture instead of a nervous one. I push the door open wider. “Would you like to come in?”

He nods and ducks his head to avoid the door frame as he steps into the room. I hadn’t noticed how tall he is before. I knew he was taller than the average man I’ve known, but in the huge arenas and venues, it didn’t really hit me. On the bus, everything feels bigger because it’s such a cramped space. But having him here, in my room, standing next to me it’s hard to miss. “I was wondering if you weren’t doing anything tonight, if I could take you out to some of my favorite spots in the city.”

I can hear Alyssa and JT’s voices whispering from behind the closed door. “What is she waiting for?” Alyssa is asking JT.

“Don’t ask me. I would’ve already grabbed my bag and let the door slam behind me,” JT answers. “Do it!” he’s whisper-hissing from the bedroom.

Travis cranes his neck, looking over the top of my head toward the bedroom. I force a chuckle, a loud chuckle, to cover JT’s voice as I make my way toward the door, where my two best friends in the whole world are hiding and simultaneously about to lose their friendship cards. “Shh!” I cover my mouth with my hand and drag it down to make it look like I’m just flustered by the invitation. “Sheesh, you know… I would love to, but…”

“But?” Travis asks with a skeptical scowl painted on his face. “You can’t?”

“Right.” I nod. “I’m just so… uh… I’m exhausted. You know? I’m just exhausted.”

“Uh-huh.” He nods and takes a couple of steps closer toward me, and the door I’m standing in front of. “Does this have anything to do with the people you’re hiding in there?” he asks, pointing to the bedroom door.

I shake my head. “Huh? I have no idea what you’re—”

Alyssa lets out a shriek and interrupts my attempt to cover my ass. JT is growling and grumbling at her, but I can’t make out his words. Travis is trying not to laugh at my humiliation as my friends completely blow my cover. Sigh. “Okay,” I finally give in and use my key to unlock the door, shoving it open. I don’t look behind me at first because I want to keep my focus on Travis to measure his response. I’m not sure how he would feel about extras being here on Amaryllis’s dime. When his expression shifts to sheer amusement and he tries to force back a laugh that comes out in a loud snort that chokes him instead, I can’t help myself any longer. I turn to see my two friends in a pile on the floor. Alyssa’s heel is caught in the hem of her jeans and she’s trying to yank it out, while JT is pushing against her. “Get. Off. Of. Me. I. Can’t. Breathe,” he groans, pushing her up and rolling her off onto the floor.

“Sorry!” she says through an embarrassed smirk. “I tripped.”

“I gathered that…” I roll my eyes and slowly close the door.

Travis is still laughing. I’m not sure if he’s laughing at the sight or at my humiliation at this point.

“Those are my friends from work,” I admit.

He nods. “The ones you stay there for?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’m glad they’re here with you,” he says through a sweet smile. “It’s always important to bring a piece of home with you when you’re on the road.”

I swallow the lump in the back of my throat, feeling it travel down my throat until it finally lands in the pit of my stomach with a hard thump. “You’re not upset?” I ask through a grimace.

“Not at all.” He flings his hands out to his sides. “They can come out with us if you want.”

I shake my head and hold one hand up like I’m blocking their energy from coming through the door. “Nah.”

“No?” he asks, clearly confused.

“Yeah, no.” I grab my bag off the sofa and sling it over my shoulder. “I haven’t showered. I’m still gross and could use a nap, but I’m pretty sure I’d rather hit the town with you than stay here and listen to Alyssa cursing her stilettos all night for making her trip.”

His face lights up as a smile takes over his features. “That sounds like a great idea to me.” He holds his arm out for me. “And by the way… you are not gross. You look gorgeous.”

Heat rises through my cheeks, and I wonder if he can tell I’m blushing. His smile widens, so I’m guessing he can. “Stop it, rockstar.” I link my arm through his and slap his bicep with my free hand. Damn. That thing is rock hard. “You’re going to inflate my ego too much.”

“Not possible,” he says with a wink, leading me out of the suite and into the corridor. My phone buzzes from my back pocket as he presses the button for the elevator. I tug it out of my pocket and push the button to set it to silent but see the notification from JT as I do.

JT: He doesn’t know how to have a relationship with the woman right in front of him, huh? Looks like rockstar’s do know how to have fun.

Smartass. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from laughing at the message. “Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.” He keeps his eyes focused on the elevator as the smirk creeps across his face. Something tells me Travis Miller will always keep me guessing.