Once Upon a Sure Thing (Heartbreakers #2)(2)

“Also, if you dropped me, I’d have to start acting out. Put the napkins on the wrong side of the plate and whatnot. Answer a question in class without raising my hand.”

I shudder. “I can’t even handle that kind of rogue behavior. But no, something else is making me tune into those bands. Don’t get me wrong—I’m a happy camper. But I’d be happier if I had one other thing in my life.” I take a deep breath, girding to spill out what I just realized. “Maybe Campbell was right.”

Jackson stops in his tracks. “Whoa.” He digs into his pocket. “I need to record this for posterity.” Jackson grabs his phone and holds it up, ready to shoot a video. “Say it again. Admit your brother was right. I’ll use this for the video component of my media scholarship application.”

I wave him off. “No way. Can you imagine the hard time Campbell would give me about that?”

Jackson laughs, but persists. “C’mon. It’ll be fun. It’s a rare moment, you have to admit.”

I shrug, and he shoots a short clip. “Fine, Campbell was right.”

“Talk to me. What is Campbell right about?”

As he stuffs the phone into his pocket, I wave my free hand to indicate the lake. “I thought all these games like Monopoly and radio-controlled boats would eventually fill this gigantic hole in my heart left behind when the Heartbreakers split.” I tap my sternum for emphasis. “And I do enjoy them. They are ridiculously fun, but at the end of the day, I still want something else.” I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but my older brother knows me well. He knows what my soul needs—to make music again. Since that won’t happen with the Heartbreakers, the band my brothers and I played in for years, I have to choose Plan B. “I need to start a new band. Campbell has been encouraging me.”

Jackson whistles in appreciation then gets in my face. “I’ve been telling you that for years, man.” He pokes my chest. He pokes it again. “Years.”

“Maybe I wasn’t ready to hear it till now,” I suggest as we head along the curvy path. “I guess I kept hoping Campbell would see the light and want to start up again with Miles and me. But he’s content as a teacher and with the band he moonlights with, and Miles is busy with his solo tour. So, I need to form a new band. Something local. Something manageable. Like Campbell does with the Righteous Surfboards.”

“I’m down with this. So what’s the problem?”

“Here’s the thing. Campbell had an idea that I can’t get out of my head.”

He taps his chest. “Lay it on me.”

“Chances are I’ll be seen as a Heartbreaker,” I say, taking a beat. “Unless I do something different. Radically different.”

“Shave your eyebrows and mime the songs?”

“No, smart aleck.” I pause for dramatic effect, sweeping my hand out wide, like I’m lighting up a marquee. “Picture this: Miller Hart and Female Singer To Be Determined. It’s time for me to sing with a woman.” I shoot him a curious glance, since I’m honestly not sure how someone—anyone—will react to this plan. “What do you think of that idea?”

“I’m a seventeen-year-old straight guy. Natch, I think singing with a lovely lady sounds awesome.”

“Speaking of lovely ladies, I need to go meet Ally. I told her I’d help her with a project.”

Jackson furrows his brow. “Um, to point out the obvious, why don’t you sing with her? She was the Queen of YouTube.”

I laugh. “Have you ever heard the two of us sing together?”

“Um. No. Has anyone?”

“My point exactly. It isn’t pretty.”

On that note, I say goodbye to Jackson. After I stop by my apartment to drop off the boat, I head downtown to meet my best friend.

It’s a damn shame we can’t harmonize for crackers.

But then again, singing with your best friend seems like a surefire way to torpedo a relationship. I’ve been there, done that, and have a truckload of medals to prove it.

If there’s one woman I want to keep in my life, it’s Ally.





Chapter 2





Ally



Time to bring it home. Make them feel everything.

I raise my chin, move close to the mic, and say the final words. “A fresh new hurt surged inside her from this knowledge, but with it came a bold determination to find who had ripped this hole in the fabric of her world. She would track down whoever it was, man or woman, beast or machine. And she would exact revenge. For her people. For humanity.”

Dramatic pause.

“And most of all, for him.” A beat of silence.

And I’m done.

I shove off my headphones and breathe the deepest sigh of relief, now that I’ve finally, after all those grueling vocal miles, crossed the finish line.

I open the door of my booth, step into the control room, and pronounce “THEEEEEE ENNNNNND” to the gal on the other side of the glass. “That’s five hundred pages of epic battles, sword fights, brutal deaths, and stolen kisses in the can.”

“And that’s a big old hallelujah to us.” Kristy joins me in a raise-the-roof dance from her post at the sound desk.

The latest young adult fantasy novel I narrated required a full week in the booth to knock out the story of a seventeen-year-old orphan who rises above her station to become a warrior princess and save her people from intruders from another land.