Love Struck (Miss Match #2) (28 page)

“Did I scare you?” She looked positively gleeful at the thought.

“You know you did,” he muttered. He really was not in the mood to banter.

“I’m sorry about last night, kid.” Her expression grew serious. “I know how that feels.”

“Know how
what
feels? Worried sick about your friend, wondering if he’s in a hospital or a gutter somewhere?” The bitterness in his voice surprised even him.

“That, too. Come on, I’m a roadie. I’ve pulled more of my friends out of gutters than not. No, I mean the girl.” She gave a little eyebrow waggle.

The girl.
That ache in his chest deepened at the mention of her. But of course, that wasn’t what Sammy was referring to. “She was irresponsible. I thought she was better than that. I guess I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did.” That hurt too. Really hurt.

“I think you do. I talked to her this morning. She saw him hurting, wanted to keep him company. Something no one else on this bus has been doing.” Sammy’s tone made it clear she more than included him in that statement. “Anyway. She’s a good kid, that one.”

Eli didn’t like the sincerity he saw in her eyes. “Are you trying to make me feel guilty for what I did? I get to be upset.” Jax had called him out on his true motives for calling the cops, but it didn’t mean he had to admit to them. Especially not to Sammy.

“You do get to be upset, but not because the two of them went out running around after the show. You get to be upset because you’re into her, and she’s looking quite struck by him.” She turned and gave Lacy and Jax the once-over herself. “Sure not how I thought this was going to end up.” With that, she heaved herself up and headed back to her usual seat.

“Yeah. Me either,” Eli whispered to himself.

He turned back to glance out at the window. The trees lining the highway sailed by in a repeating pattern of sameness. There was a rhythm in it, and probably a metaphor for his life. Something about the comfort in consistency. Something about how he couldn’t really be moving on if he was still trapped in the same bus, with the same view.

Something that turned into a lyric began weaving through his consciousness.

There’s a path I’ve been taking

Leading me where I’m meant to go

But I keep coming back to

You

I’m only on loan here

I can’t stay when I’m meant to fly

But I keep coming back to

You

To you

I won’t let this hold me

And yet I can’t let you go

There’s words shared between us

And feelings I’ll never show

But just so you know

Can’t love you or leave you

So I’ll love you and leave you

In Baltimore

Lacy’s laugh pulled him from his composition. He refused to look back at her. Also, he didn’t want to write this song anymore. He would eventually, because that’s how songs worked.

But right now he couldn’t bear to think about Lacy. Couldn’t
let
himself.

He wanted to think about LoveCoda instead. She was his anchor. If only she were in his life for more than just an hour every night. He needed her as much during the daylight—more even. Especially after having missed their date the evening before because he’d been stuck with that stupid client of Lou’s.

An idea struck him—one that should have seemed so obvious but had never occurred to him. Why did he have to wait until their date time to send her a message? He could send her one now just as easily. Though he’d always sent to her through the website, he knew that SoWriAn had a phone app. Maybe she had it. So maybe she wouldn’t be available. She could respond later. At least it would make him feel more connected to her.

And he needed that right now. So needed that. Sammy was wrong, this wasn’t about Lacy and Jax. Scratch that. It
was
about Lacy and Jax. But it didn’t need to be. Not outside of Baltimore. Not in the rest of the world where he spent most of his time. And that world he could fill with any girl. With LoveCoda. A girl who just happened to look like Lacy in his imagination.

He pulled out his phone and after a few minutes found the app and downloaded it. Another few minutes and he was logged into the site. Jesus, he was an idiot for never considering this before. Now to think of a message.

He typed and erased several before settling on
Thinking of you. As always.

Feeling better already, he pushed send and smiled to himself.

Not even half a second later, he heard a ping coming from the seat where Lacy usually sat. He glanced over and saw her phone sitting there. Well, that was awfully coincidental—her phone pinging just as he’d sent his message.

It
was
a coincidence … right?

Of course it was. But just to totally drive the impossible idea out of his mind, he entered another message to LoveCoda.
I’d love to hear from you anytime.

Again, Lacy’s phone pinged.

Eli nearly dropped his own cell, catching it before it clamored to the floor. His pulse quickened, somewhat from the near drop, but mostly from the realization that was washing over him like a bucket of ice water.

No. Freaking. Way. I’m imagining this.

He looked back at Lacy’s phone. Then back at the girl-who-just-might-but-couldn’t-possibly-be-the-girl-of-his-dreams. She had her eyes closed now, her head swaying to the music only she—and Jax—heard. His stomach tightened. If Lacy really was LoveCoda, then what was the whole Jax thing about?

Nope, nope. He was jumping too far ahead. One step at a time. It was ridiculous that the two pings could have been coincidental, but it was just as ridiculous that Lacy could be LoveCoda. He had to be sure.

He raked his teeth across this lower lip as he tried to come up with one more message to send Love. Finally he had one.
xxx

Another ping from Lacy’s phone.

Eli shot up from his seat. He had no plans for going anywhere—he hadn’t even intended to stand. Just, his energy, his excitement, his pure and utter shock drove him up.

Lou peeked at him from underneath half-closed eyelids. “Problem, kid?”

“Uh, no. I just really wanted an apple.” Eli headed straight to the cooler, kicking himself. Apple? Seriously? He already knew Lou didn’t generally buy apples.

Eli was already at the cooler, so he didn’t need the confirmation, but Lou gave it anyway. “I don’t think I got any apples. Didn’t know anyone wanted them. I can add them for next time, though.”

“No problem,” Eli said. “I’ll take a string cheese.”
And a peek at the phone on Lacy’s seat.
He grabbed a plastic-encased piece of mozzarella and slowly ripped it open while simultaneously leaning forward to check out Lacy’s cell.

Unfortunately, her cell was facedown.
Dammit.

He snuck one more glance back at Lacy who had her eyes open now was talking with Jax who, appeared to be only half listening while he played around on his phone, and another at Lou, who had gone back to his dozing. Quick—he’d do it quick and no one would see. Eli bent down and snatched Lacy’s phone. He turned it over and swiped his hand across the screen, praying it wasn’t locked. It wasn’t.

And there they were—three notifications from her SoWriAn app.

All from FolxNotDead27.

Holy hell.

Lacy was LoveCoda.

LoveCoda was Lacy.

The revelation sent sparks of fire to every nerve ending in Eli’s body. There were things to process about this, definitely, but his initial reaction was ecstatic elation.

“Is that my phone?”

Funny thing about ecstatic elation—it made it easy to block out the surrounding environment. Eli hadn’t heard Lacy coming back to her seat until she was standing there looking at him holding her cell with a look of wary confusion.

“Yeah, it is.”
Tell her! You have to tell her!

But he couldn’t tell her. Not here. Not like this. “I think you got a message. I was just going to take it back to you.”

“Oh.” Her expression eased as she took the device from Eli’s outstretched hand. “Thanks.” She slid her finger across the screen then read her messages while she stood there. Her brow furrowed for a moment. She glanced back to Jax—Eli followed her gaze to find his bandmate still buried in his phone. Then he followed her gaze back to her phone. She read the screen again, and this time she smiled. Brightly.

She sat down in her seat and began typing something into her cell. Which was Eli’s cue to return to his spot. As soon as he sat, his phone, which was on vibrate, buzzed. It was a reply from LoveCoda—from Lacy.
Thinking of you too.

His heart somersaulted in his chest, something that Eli had always believed happened only to girls. His eyes shot once again to Lacy. Who was staring intently at Jax. Who was still buried in his phone with something or other.

What the ever-living hell?

Seriously, Eli was overwhelmed. And confused. And still ecstatic. He didn’t even know where to begin with his jumble of thoughts. Because, holy shit, Lacy was LoveCoda.

Lacy is LoveCoda.

In his wildest fantasies, his online soul mate was also the cute singer who’d brightened the last few weeks of his life, but never in a million years did he actually believe there was any reality in it. This was like winning the lottery. Or getting a major recording deal.

No, this was even better than that. This was finding that the girl that he very nearly loved online was the woman that he totally loved in real life.

Yes, loved.

He could say it now that there wasn’t the guilt involved.

Hey! No more guilt! And no more isolating his memories of Lacy to just Baltimore. He could love her everywhere now.

But … but … God, there were other parts of this that were more confusing. He wiped his hand over his face. For one, Lacy had jumped Eli while she had Folx waiting on the side. Did that bother him?

No, that was fine. Mostly it was fine because he’d been the one benefitting. He wasn’t sure that he’d feel the same if she’d jumped someone else. And he’d done the same. They had too much of a natural connection. One they couldn’t ignore. Though they’d both tried. He because he wanted to be faithful to LoveCoda, and her because she’d wanted …

Well, now here was the weird part. She said she’d wanted Jax. And she’d started spending all her time with him. Yet, online she’d been even more committed than ever. Was she two-timing? Or—

Another realization burst through. All of Lacy’s stories belonged to Love and vice versa. Love had lost her fiancé. Lacy was blocked on her songwriting. Love had said she’d written something finally. And that she thought orgasms might help her writing. Jesus, that was after he’d had sex with Lacy. Had he inspired her?

He paused to let himself feel proud about that idea.

Then he was back to sorting out the facts. Such as, why hadn’t Lacy recognized any Blue Hills songs? She’d workshopped more than one of his lyrics. She knew the words inside and out. She’d never heard the melodies, though. Could she possibly have not listened during any of their performances? That didn’t seem like her.

And how the hell did her fling with Jax fit into this whole thing?

Unless … unless she
did
recognize the Blue Hills songs. And, what if, like everyone else, she assumed they’d been written by Jax? Was that jumping to conclusions?

He thought about how she’d said she had a connection with Jax that she couldn’t explain. Yet, come to think of it, she hadn’t really spent time with him at that point. Then he thought about how she looked at her messages just minutes ago—Folx’s messages—then how she’d glanced back toward Jax.

He wasn’t jumping to conclusions. He was standing smack dab in the middle of the most likely possibility. Lacy thought Jax was Folx.

Oh, no, God.

He wanted to stand up again. Needed to pace. Needed to move over to Lacy’s seat and say,
Here I am; it’s me.
Wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her finally without the guilt and with all the emotion he’d been saving for LoveCoda. He wanted to make her his once and for all.

But all the buts …

But the bus wasn’t a great place for a reveal. But they needed privacy. But what if she wasn’t happy that he was Folx?

And what about Jax? Despite all his raging irritations, Jax was the only brother he had. The one he never had. The kind you didn’t leave, regardless of whether they’d saved you or you’d saved them, because in the end it all tangled into a platonic love that wouldn’t fade anyway.

Besides, the bus was pulling into their venue in DC. Which was good. Load in would settle some of his restless energy. And after that …

After that, he’d find Lacy and he’d tell her … everything.

Chapter Twenty-One

“I got the amps plugged in and the wireless mike is on the charger. Anything else?” Eli tapped his foot impatiently while he waited for Sammy’s response. Load in had never taken so long. Every time he thought he was about finished, the roadie had another chore for him. Like she was looking for stuff for him to do. He knew it wasn’t really the case, but it sure felt like it.

And where the hell was everybody else?

Or, more specifically, where were Lacy and Jax? Jax always bagged off early at load in. He wasn’t fond of physical work. But Lacy usually stayed the course. He figured she was probably in the bathroom or something, but then he noticed her guitar was missing from its stand. So she was tuning it. Or running through a song or something somewhere.

Whatever she was doing, he wanted to be there.

Sammy finished surveying his work. “This looks good. I think Wes might need some help with the drums. Check with him.”

God, he couldn’t take this anymore. “Sure. I’ll do that.” He started toward the drummer’s set, but kept his eye on Sammy. As soon as her back was turned, he darted off the stage—which was really just an unoccupied corner of The Night Owl—and slipped down the hallway to the back rooms. He found the restrooms, a supply closet, and the manager’s office with no sign of Lacy. Opening another closed door, he found stairs to the roof. He began to shut it when he heard her.