Noah, Fox, Abe, and David had come into the diner late one night while she was the only one on duty. At first she’d been wary: fresh off a construction job, they’d been dirty and dusty and frankly rough-looking. But then she’d realized the four were composing a song together, one of them drumming his fingertips on top of the table while another one sang softly, with interruptions from the others about cadence and rhythm.
Smiling as she realized they were just like her, striving to make it, she’d told the group they didn’t have to be quiet since it was only the five of them in the diner. They’d grinned and asked her to be their audience, and she’d found herself listening to what would eventually become the group’s second number one single.
Fox, Abe, and David she’d gotten along with from the start.
Not Noah.
Everything was too intense between her and Noah, too bright and sharp and demanding. She might’ve given in to the raw heat that shimmered in the air whenever they were close to one another except that Noah changed women like other men changed T-shirts. In for a night, gone the next.
Five months ago, things had… changed. Kit and Noah had become friends, and though they’d never so much as kissed, their relationship was the most intimate one she’d ever had. Her heart ached with missing him when they were apart. He knew her dreams and she was starting to glimpse his, and they were slowly, beautifully, making their way from friendship to love.
Maybe tonight they would finally share their first kiss.
Her blood pounded at the memory of how close they’d come last time. She’d been able to count each one of his eyelashes, feel his breath against her skin, see the staccato beat of the pulse in his neck. A single inch and their lips would’ve touched.
She might explode when that happened, she was so ready.
Taking a deep breath as she reached his door, she didn’t knock. He’d told her to just walk in; the last time she’d knocked, he’d still been in the shower, cleaning up after the show, and she’d ended up going in on her own anyway. Kit felt her silly, goofy smile break through her self-control as she tapped the key card on the doorknob to open it.
When the door stayed locked, she looked down.
“Idiot,” she muttered, realizing she had to insert the card at this hotel. “You’d think you were fifteen and about to meet your crush alone for the first time.”
Except that was exactly how she felt. Happy and excited and bubbling with love. Never had she felt this way about a man. She could see the promise of forever in Noah’s eyes, and it captured her heart, her soul, held it prisoner.
Chest tight with the emotions inside her, she pushed the door open. Music filtered out, low and lazy. Her smile grew deeper. There was always music around Noah. Even when he was reading a book, he’d told her he had music on in the background.
“It’s like another heartbeat,” he’d said to her once. “I miss it when it’s not there, even though I might not consciously notice it when it’s present.”
That made so much sense to her, gave her another insight into his mind.
About to call out his name as she stepped into the living area of the suite, something made her stop, dread coalescing into a dark and viscous intruder in her gut. The lights were on, the music was on, and she could see the remnants of a room service tray, so Noah was around, but…
That was when she saw what her subconscious had already noted and processed.
A high-heeled shoe lay on the carpet by the room service tray. The shoe glittered under the lights, sparkly gold with a four-inch stiletto heel.
At that instant, it felt as if that heel were embedded in Kit’s chest, the pain of it burning and burning. She knew she should turn around and leave, but she couldn’t. She had to know, had to be sure. Noah meant too much for her to make a mistake or to have doubts.
Heart squeezing and lungs barely drawing in enough air to keep her from passing out, she made herself walk across the floor to the open bedroom door. And as she walked, she saw the other shoe by that door, along with a knot of black cotton that was a T-shirt flung off without care to where it landed.