Wild Collision (Us 4)

Not a little bit.

Nope.

I don’t.

I really don’t.

Why don’t I believe myself then?

6

Hollis

I nod along to the music, a smile on my face. The guitar notes for Midnight Eyes linger in the air as Fox redoes some of his part.

Magic, it’s what we’re creating here with Hayes. Our music is flowing and sounds like it never has before.

It’s better, somehow more powerful.

It’s a risk to release our ballad first, especially when pop is so huge, but this song encompasses who we are as a band. What we want to sound like, who we want to be, and Hayes agreeing with us means the world because he knows the music industry inside and out. If he didn’t think releasing this song first was wise, he’d strike us down and pick the single himself. He has the right to do it too.

In front of the booth Hayes grins from ear to ear, bopping his head along.

The door opens and Mia pops in with a cup holder full of coffees and in her other hand a bag of burgers from a local diner. Hayes asked her to run out since we were all starving and in no place to leave.

She doles out everyone’s coffee and food. We have regular drinks in the fridge and I grab a water since I have no desire to drink coffee with my burger.

Mia sits down in the chair we moved into the room for her since after the first day she refuses to sit on the couch and let me stand. In fact, she avoids me at all costs and it’s beginning to boil my blood. It’s not like I have some life threatening disease she’ll catch by breathing the same air as me.

Even if I’m irritated by her behavior I can’t help but watch her every time she’s near.

I try not to, oh how I try not to, especially with Hayes so close, but she’s like a siren and I’m caught in her dangerous melody. The way she moves, the way her hair falls over her shoulders, the way her eyes flicker taking in everything around her, it all draws me in. I’ve never been like this before. Not ever. I don’t know what it is about her that’s different. I haven’t even thought about going out and picking up a chick since I first encountered Mia. It’s … weird. I don’t even know what I want from her, if it’s even anything, but she fascinates me. Not because she’s beautiful, which she is, but she’s … different. Unique. I’ve never met anyone else like her.

I try my best to force thoughts of the redhead from my mind, but even as I eat, my eyes keep straying in her direction. Thank God Hayes is so into what’s happening in the booth he doesn’t notice me glancing at his daughter every two seconds.

I only wish I could understand why I’m so drawn to her. Yes, she’s beautiful, fucking gorgeous actually, but millions of women are. It has to be more than her looks and those staggering curves, something only Mia possesses.

Rush nudges his leg against mine and I know he’s caught my wandering eye.

A silent reminder of everything I could fuck up if I pursue this … thing I feel.

I know, I know. As much as I want to see where these feelings could lead I’m forbidden from it.

I can’t risk this for the guys, and I can’t risk it for me either, not over a woman.

I give her one last lingering stare as she curls her legs under her, eating her burger without a care in the world. A lot of women would’ve gotten a salad, not wanting to look like a pig in front of us guys—guys who are definitely pigs in more ways than one. But Mia doesn’t care. She’s not looking to impress anyone, espe

cially not us, and it’s refreshing if I’m honest with myself.

Even with our moderate success, women still push themselves at us. I guess to brag about bagging some guy in a band. We’re nothing to them as much as they’re nothing to us. They use our fame and we use their bodies. It’s mutual, but someone like Mia … she looks down at us. Fuck, if it doesn’t make me look down at myself for everything I’ve done in the past. Everyone I’ve used for one brief moment of pleasure. She doesn’t know the long list of mistakes I’ve made. She barely talks to me, avoids me, all she judges my character by is her assumptions. If she knew … well, everything she already thinks and her reasons for avoidance would indeed be valid.

I swallow past the lump in my throat, not used to the shame clinging to me like a second skin.

What’s happening to me?

Why the fuck do I care what she thinks?

She’s nothing.