“I am too.” I squeezed her hand.
“I mean, you knew love like that with Sam, right?” Zoey squeezed back.
“Sure,” I assured her, annoyed at myself that I was not able to tell her that I did know that kind of love, but it was with Jace.
“I really hope that one day we will meet our forever guys and all of us will hang out together.” Zoey sniffed. “I missed you, I’ve been a bad friend.”
“You’re my best friend.” The type of friendship we shared was unconditional. “You’ve never been a bad friend.”
“Even when I disappeared?” Zoey sounded unsure, almost insecure.
“So did I.”
“I feel more grown-up than I should at my age.” Zoey shifted her position to look at me. She reached out and held a big clump of her hair out. ‘I’m pretty sure I’m going gray.”
Mock-scoffing, I got up and put the pizza box on the counter. “I’m just glad we’re back in the same city. We can live in a retirement community together with three dogs and ten cats since we clearly are never going to be able to get over these stupid boys.”
“Fuck Ty and fuck Sam! Zoey thrust her fist in the air.
“Yeah!” I put my fist in the air, figuring there was no need to correct the name.
“And I’m not watching the fucking Emmys.” Zoey flipped the channel and joined me in the kitchen to get dessert snacks. Or, in other words, M&M’s, brownie bites, and Sour Patch worms.
“Me either!” I helped her gather the treats.
Giggling, we sat back down and decided that the safer viewing decision would be the latest season of Ozark. No chance of LTZ landmines with that show.
Until, of course, one of their goddamn songs played in the background.
Glancing over at my best friend when it started, she caught my eye immediately. We both laughed until tears streamed out of our eyes. Sure, our emotions might be all over the place, but we had each other.
The funny thing about having someone like Zoey in your life, it didn’t matter how many minutes, hours, days, or years went by without seeing each other, we’d always have each other’s backs.
We’d always be the first one in each other’s corner.
For that, we were lucky.
Chapter 15
JACE
Scrubbing the sleep out of my eyes after the alarm went off at 6 a.m., I jumped up, threw open the curtains, and surveyed the view of the Hollywood Hills from my hotel suite. Yawning, I put on my gym clothes, had a piss, and brushed my teeth.
Ty and I had both stopped drinking in South America a couple of years ago and had replaced our late-night partying with early-morning workouts. It was awesome to feel healthy and physically fit, it helped our stamina onstage and off.
Not that I needed it off stage much anymore.
Reluctantly, I’d gone along with Sienna and Andrew’s ridiculous plan for Ty to pretend that he had a serious relationship with Ronni Miller. The embarrassing pictures and videos of Ty fucked-up beyond repair, making out with random chicks, and acting like an asshole was all behind us. We’d finally followed through on the plan I’d first hatched in Belfast.
Clean living. Sober living. And for Ty, therapy.
When I heard him knock on the door to my hotel suite, I was ready to burn some calories.
“My dude.” I nodded and let him in.
Ty grinned at me; his long hair was tied up in a top knot. “Weights today?”
“Why not?” I socked him in the arm.
After a grueling two-hour workout, we returned to my suite and ordered healthy egg-white omelets and bacon, because—bacon. He popped back over to his room for a shower and I did the same. Ten minutes later, he returned with his Breedlove acoustic guitar right before breakfast arrived. After we finished eating, we sat down to write.
“How were the Emmys?” I asked. We were in LA to record, which enabled Ty to make another red-carpet appearance with Ronni.
“Meh.” Ty wrinkled his lips. “At least the Grammys have performances. The Emmys are really boring. I felt like a dick, people knew me, but I had no idea—”
“How’s Ronni?” I waggled my eyebrows, hoping that Ty was really moving on. Maybe if he did, then I could.
“She’s cool.” He shrugged indifferently. “We’re becoming good friends, but as you know we aren’t really together. It’s just for show.”
“Why not just get with her?” I asked. “I mean, she’s easy on the eyes. Plus, it gets people off your case for a while.”
“I’m really not into lying. But she needs to dirty up her image as much as Andrew and Sienna think that I need to clean up mine, so—”
“I get it.” I pulled out my reading glasses and the small keyboard I used when I wanted to write music, something I’d been doing a lot more of. Since Alex.
“Do you ever get sick of the travel?” Ty sat back on the cream sofa and crossed his arms. “It’s really wearing on me.”
“Yeah. I’ve spent a grand total of two weeks in Seattle this entire year.” I had been having similar thoughts since Alex and I broke up. “Yet, I’m not quite ready for the ride to end.”
“Me either.” Ty looked off into space and muttered, “I’m not sure if I could handle living in Seattle again.”
“I get that.” I did. Living in Seattle meant possibly running into Alex. I certainly wasn’t sure if I could handle that.
“I’m buying a place here in LA.” Ty sat forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “I put an offer in a couple of days ago.”
“Wow,” I exclaimed. “You’re going to be a land mogul. You’ve come a long
