Playing Autumn (Breathe Rockstar Romance Book 1) by Mina V. Esguerra Read Free Book Online Page A

roll.”
    “Rock and roll isn't as big with Haley's parents, though.”
    “So when did you two meet?” Logan's guard went up a tad higher. “I would think Haley would have mentioned it, if she finally—”
    “Recently,” Haley said, breathless. “This summer. It was a whirlwind thing. I didn't have the time to tell anyone.”
    “You're staying at the hotel again?” Logan asked. “We're still on for Saturday, right? When I called you before your flight, you said yes.”
    “Right, of course,” Haley said, like she had forgotten. “Saturday. I haven't forgotten.”
    What Saturday was, it seemed like a big deal. A grin returned to Logan's face. They were not explaining to him what it was, and Oliver shouldn't have been curious. If he were smart, and some independent testers actually told him that when he was younger, he would let this go. Haley was a person, not a prize.
    At least he had his fajitas.

    ***

    Oliver had other minor victories that night: Making Logan wait twenty minutes while he signed autographs and posed for photos with El Cantina patrons and staff. Sitting in the backseat of Logan's Prius, asking inane questions as he drove them back to the hotel. And then at the Lake Star lobby, when he graciously told Logan that he'd leave them alone together so they could catch up, but not leaving before saying “See you upstairs” and leaving a light kiss on Haley's cheek. When he bent down to do this, she grabbed his arm and looked slightly panicked, not sure how far he would go, and then she relaxed when all his lips did was graze her skin. And then he went further into the hotel.
    The Lake Star, now that he had actually paused to take it in, did not look like most hotels and motels booked for him throughout his career. There were bookshelves everywhere: at the lobby, behind the check-in counter, and now that he noticed it, he remembered the one above his room's window that spanned the entire wall.
    “Hey,” Haley said, catching up to him. “What was that about?”
    “I apologize. You sounded like you wanted to avoid him, so I did what came naturally.”
    “Create a relationship out of thin air and rub it in his face?”
    He wouldn't have used those words. But yes, all his previous relationships had been quick to start, created seemingly out of thin air. This didn't feel out of place. “I thought I was helping. But I don't know, he doesn't seem like someone you want to call the cops on.”
    Haley bit her lip. “Logan's not a bad guy, really.”
    “Then this is all harmless fun. If he's really threatened by me, then he'll do something. You might actually like what he does.”
    She was still looking in the direction Logan had taken. “Logan's great, mostly, but he and I broke up because he’s cheated on me before. I don’t think he stopped when he said he did. My parents don't know that. I think even he forgets it, and he starts thinking that I'll be perfect as the mother of his kids. I don't want him to do anything.”
    “What's on Saturday?” he asked.
    Haley let out a deep, nervous breath. “Big date. I think he's going to want to get back together.”
    She said that with certainty but without any kind of excitement. He felt sad for her, realizing that even though he'd been writing songs about people's lives for years, he hadn't bothered with anyone else's except his own.
    She wanted away from this, hence Tampa.
    Oliver nodded. He wasn't from here, wasn't part of their lives, and shouldn't be interfering with what looked like the natural course of things. He was just passing through.

Chapter 9

    Like a hurricane.
    Oliver was being nice, Haley knew, but he didn't realize how being nice was making things complicated. She knew a weekend fling would be nothing to him. It wouldn't lead to love, or any certainty about her life.
    Anything she started with anyone else would seem like another way of avoiding the question: Why not Logan?
    Cass had said that, when they were high school juniors, at a