Page 58 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

Lyric burst into giggles, and Henry shook his head with a half smile.

“I’ll send you a calendar.”

Odd and Emerson got quiet before Emerson inquired, “What about sex in the venue?”

By the time they arrived at the venue, the crew was in the middle of setting up the stage, and Nohen collected his things before following Henry and Lyric and the others through the winding backstage area and to the green rooms.

“Sound check in thirty. Then you have free time until—when?” Henry asked Lyric, taunting her.

Nohen coughed a laugh into his palm as Lyric ground her teeth.

“Seven forty-five,” she answered shortly.

She turned her back just in time to miss Henry’s grin, and Nohen shook his head at the alpha. If his goal was to piss Lyric off, he was doing a mighty fine job of it.

“Okay, I’m going to touch base with the crew. Don’t make me hunt you down later. Seven forty-five,” he warned, just as his walkie-talkie crackled.

He answered the static with one hand as he slid his tablet into his arm and pushed the door open.

Nohen turned just in time to watch Lyric cover her mouth with her hand, hiding the way she’d been mimicking Henry. It pulled a laugh from his chest, and Lyric smiled warmly at him.

Watching them go at it for the next six weeks was going to be its own form of entertainment.

Desi bumped into his shoulder and offered him a bottle of water. He thanked her just as she tipped hers back, whispering, “Let’s make a bet. How long until they’re fucking?”

Nohen’s laugh came out choked, any humor strangled by the jealousy that crept up out of nowhere and wrapped around his ribs.

“What?” he asked, quite intelligently.

“How long until you think they’re going to fuck?” she asked again, just as blatantly.

“Uhm…” He stalled, glancing over to Lyric, who was talking to Adra in a low voice. “Henry? Or them?”

Desi hummed and seemed to consider it. “You’re right. It could be any of them. But Henry? I don’t know… He’s so bossy, and Lyric is not the kind of girl to take orders from anyone, especially an alpha. Butting heads is going to turn into bumping uglies soon enough.”

With that, she shrugged, pulled out her phone, and answered a call from Amber. “I’ll be on the bus, come get me before sound check. Hey, babe,” she said into the phone and walked out of the room.

Since Desi had abandoned him, he sipped his water and glanced around the green room. A bowl of snacks and bottled water sat on the table, as well as… He drifted closer with a frown. Gummy bears?

“Hey, what’s u—No way, they found them?” Lyric exclaimed as she came closer. Her casual question turned into utter delight as she tugged the bowl of gummy bears closer.

They were all one color, a light pinkish-orange, and Lyric plucked one free of the bunch with two perfectly painted nails. He couldn’t help but stare enviously as she lifted the tiny bear to her lips and popped him inside. Her jaw worked as she chewed, bobbing her head side to side happily.

“Try one,” she offered, and shoved the bowl in his direction.

Nohen arched a brow at her odd enthusiasm but followed her lead, grabbing a single bear and biting right through it.

“You did not just decapitate the peach gummy bear,” Lyric said, eyes jumping to his from where they’d been studying the way he ate the bear. Or maybe she’d been studying his lips the way he had hers.

Or maybe he was just a big dreamer.

Nohen fought a smile as he popped the rest of the bear into his mouth and then sucked the stickiness off the pad of his thumb. “I so did. And he was delicious,” he taunted.

He watched her gaze dip once, twice before he couldn’t take it anymore. Like a coward, he opened his big mouth to distract her—before he leaned forward and kissed her. “Are these rare or something? You seemed surprised to find them here.”

Lyric shrugged and ate another gummy. “You’d be surprised. There are a ton of lost flavors that are almost impossible to find. Peach is one of them.”

“So you asked for an entire bowl?”