by Amy Spalding
After our set, I focus on packing up my drums as quickly as I can while hanging on to how the crowd screamed for us. We are Rock Stars. We did something big and right. I just want to enjoy this.
A small man with Elvis Costello hair and glasses walks over to us as we leave our stuff backstage and emerge into the crowd. This must be Nathan’s dude because he’s, like, the only adult here besides the owner.
“Hey, guys,” he says. “Nice set. Very Best Coast, a little Smith Westerns. You’re not signed, yeah?”
I feel like he’s complimented us and pointed out our biggest failing all at once.
Nathan introduces us. “This is Melvin Bernstein.”
“How about we meet next week to talk?” he asks. “I have Nathan’s info. Maybe grab dinner at FOODLAB on Sunset?”
We’re down with that, so we each get his business card like professionals and manage to look chill and respectable until he heads off. That only lasts for a few moments because people we know start flying in at us. Both of my sort-of ex-boyfriends are there, but it’s fine. Milo is alone, and Garrick brought Sydney Jacobs. She is as adorable and blond as I imagined she’d be, and dressed better than me, but it makes me happy that she’s smiling and Garrick is smiling, and clearly they are the happiest ever. I hug them all, even Madison—who’s standing really close to Reid and shooting him looks like he’s the biggest rock star of us all—and Sydney, and bask in the warmth of a billion compliments.
“Hey, look who’s here.” Lucy walks over, her hand clutched around Ted’s sleeve. I’m not crazy about the fact that he had to be LITERALLY PHYSICALLY DRAGGED to me, but he’s here!
“Ted, you’re here!” Yikes. I accidentally say this part aloud.
Luckily, Ted laughs. Then he glances at Milo, and I make a face like, no, gross, which is not nice to Milo but very necessary in this all-important moment. I’m sure Milo will understand when I tell him later.
“Great show, Riley,” Ted says.
“I’m so glad you came.” I want to believe it means something big and romantic.
“I, uh, I wanted to say something to you.” He gestures a few feet away from everyone, so we separate from the pack.
“I wanted to ask you to be my girlfriend,” he says. “But I didn’t, I was nervous and… so, I’m not saying everything you did was cool, but we weren’t official.”
“Still,” I say. “I wanted to be official. I should have said it, but I was nervous, too.”
“Okay,” he says. WAY TO BE VAGUE, TED.
“So do you want to be?” I ask. “Now that you know I’m a big jerk weirdo?”
“You’re not a jerk,” he says. “And I already knew you were a weirdo.”
I grin at him and lean in to kiss him. BUT HE DODGES ME.
“Every single person we know here is watching us,” he says. “And some girl who I think is on TV.”
I turn around, and they aren’t even trying to hide it! We have this huge audience of looky-loos. I’m plotting where we can sneak off to for major making out, but Ted shrugs at me like we may as well just give in. I start to head back to our group.
And he kisses me.
It is not a Ted-style timid kiss; it is a Ted-style big, swoony romantic kiss. It’s exactly what I’ve been dreaming of. I run my hands through his hair, and his fingertips find a gap to graze between my jeans and my shirt I didn’t know was there. Ted tastes like a green apple Jolly Rancher.
“I missed you.” He whispers it right in my ear, his warm breath almost like another kiss. Okay, not almost, but it’s hot. “Can you hang out later?”
“Yes, definitely,” I tell him. “You don’t have to get up early to fry hot dogs?”
“Yeah, but I don’t care,” he says. Then he takes my hand as we walk back over to our group. From the stage I hear the opening riff of my favorite Murphy-Gomez song, and the crowd starts filling in around us.
Ted smiles at me as I grin back at him, and he leans in to kiss me again. “I really liked your song.”
* No girls care about that.
** It’s thanks to your mom, but you don’t have to explain that.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Staying motivated when I first started working on this book was, for a number of boring and depressing reasons, quite difficult. Thank you so much to Nadia Osman for working through scenes with me, writing songs for me, and in general being exactly the friend I needed during this time. I’m glad I could honor your favorite president in this book.
Thanks also to Stephanie Perkins for the insane amount of support, for the mind-bogglingly helpful notes, and for taking my panicky phone calls. Lady, that stuff never went unnoticed.
Thanks to my agent, Kate Schaefer Testerman, for continued awesomeness, three books in!
Thank you times one billion to my editor, Elizabeth Bewley, for the notes, support, and hard work. I laugh now to think this book was in nearly finished shape when it went to you, because through your guidance I ended up someplace far better.
Thanks to the Pams: Gruber for stepping in, and Garfinkel for always being around to assist. A huge thank-you to the whole Poppy/Little, Brown team for always making me feel appreciated and taken care of, and for loving Riley as much as I do.
Thanks to Carrie Harris for drumming help. Thanks to Scott Singer for, as always, the science. Thanks to Todd Martens for major music help. Thanks to Hope Larson for letting me fictionalize her cat. Thanks to Ariel Schrag for naming boys on command.
Thanks to my early readers and note-givers: Sarah Skilton, Courtney Summers, Trish Doller, Meghan Deans, Brandy Colbert, and Jasmine Guillory. A special shout-out goes to Trish and Courtney for the title!
Lastly, of course, thanks to Pat and Mark Spalding for their eternal support.
Contents
COVER
TITLE PAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
TWO MONTHS AGO
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
CHAPTER FIFTY
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
C
HAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
CHAPTER SIXTY
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Amy Spalding
Cover art by Sarah Pierson
Image of lips © Davies and Starr / Getty Images
Cover design by Liz Casal
Cover © 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Poppy
Hachette Book Group
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Poppy is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company.
The Poppy name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
“Everything” © 2014 Nadia Osman. Lyrics written by Nadia Osman.
First ebook edition: April 2015
ISBN 978-0-316-37151-3
E3
