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“That surprises you?” I asked.
“You just don’t sound like you’re from the Southwest,” she said.
“Yeah, my mom was from Southern California, so I guess I sound more like her than anyone else.”
That was true. And wehadlived in Oklahoma for a time when my dad was relocated there for work. But after my parents divorced, we moved back to my mom’s hometown of Huntington Beach, California, where her family lived.
I started singing in chorus in high school, and it came out that I had a talent for it. Next thing I knew, I was being carted around to auditions. At the age of sixteen, I was snatched up to be in a group with three other guys my age. Unity 4, we called ourselves, but we’d developed the nickname UN4 in the press. Eventually, it stuck with fans, and we incorporated it into our branding.
For about five years, we were one of the biggest recording acts in America. But all too soon, that came to an end.
“What about you?” I asked between bites. I was eager to steer the conversation away from me.
Cheyenne looked at me again, but this time I felt my heart stir. Oh yeah, there was definitely something here. She had to feel it too. I just needed to play my cards right, and I could get this woman into bed.
But something nagged at the back of my mind. A voice, saying there was no way I could walk away from this woman after just one night.
“Born and raised here,” she said. “I moved off to Texas for college and ended up staying in some apartments with a couple of girls I graduated with. I do app development from home. It pays pretty well, and I enjoy it.”
She was smart too. Yeah, this woman was definitely unlike anyone else I’d met. She was the type of woman I could fall in love with.
But that wasn’t an option if I wanted to maintain my anonymity.
3
CHEYENNE
Not until the next morning was I able to get five seconds alone with my best friend. Apparently, something was going on with her and that military recruiter buddy of her brother’s, but she had to separate from him to get ready to walk down the aisle. That was when I grabbed her.
“He doesn’t look at all familiar to you?” I asked as we stood in front of the bathroom mirror in her bedroom—the bedroom she’d been sleeping in with this Maverick guy.
“Who?” she asked.
We’d just been discussing Slade, and I hated to sound like I was fixated on the guy. But we could at least finish our conversation about him.
“Slade,” I whispered, glancing at the door. As far as I knew, nobody was around, but better safe than sorry. “He looks just like Slade Shepherd.”
“Who?” Abbie stopped brushing her hair and looked at me.
“Slade looks like Slade Shepherd,” I said. Unbelievable. She seriously had no idea. “He was in UN4. ‘She’s My Girl’. That was their biggest hit, but there were so many others.”
I looked around for my phone. If I played her a few notes, she’d definitely recognize it. But my phone was back in my room.
A smile slowly spread over Abbie’s face as she got it. Then she started humming, leading to singing. I was smiling too, for a few seconds, anyway—until I realized we might be overheard.
“Okay.” I touched her arm to stop her. “That Slade guy looks just like Slade Shepherd. There was Josh, Vic, Grady, and Slade.”
I ticked each one off on my fingers as I said the name. Abbie stared down at my fingers, but with each one, her smile faded a little more. By the end of it, she had a pronounced frown.
She looked up at me, still frowning. “So, you think Slade is from a boy band?”
“Where’s your phone?” I looked around, assuming she had hers.
She looked around too, then seemed to realize the same thing I had. “In my room. We had to grab this bathroom when we could.”
“I’ll tell you what,” I said, looking in the mirror. “I’m ready. I’ll go grab my phone.”
But as I reached for the doorknob, the door burst open and Erika poked her head in. “We need you in the living room.”
