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  He and Danny had been called down to Blue Horizon early that morning. When they got there, it was to find three smug-looking faces waiting for them in the main hallway.

  “What do you think we did? We got you back just like we said we would.”

  “Gentlemen.” An assistant led them into one of the conference rooms housed in the main floor at the record label. “Mr. Pulaski will be with you in a moment.”

  “Seriously,” Elliot said as soon as the door closed. “What did you do?”

  Tate shrugged and smiled. “Nothing really. We sang with the new guys.”

  “And Sasha saw the tape of the audition and realized he doesn’t have shit without you two.” Reece chuckled. “He’s not happy about it, I’ll tell you that much.”

  Seriously?

  Sasha strode into the office a few minutes later. He didn’t bother to sit. “Right about now, I’d like to scrap this whole fucking project and never see any of you again,” he growled. “You’ve caused me more trouble than all my other artists combined. If it weren’t for the projected numbers coming in for your second album I might have done it already.”

  “They’re good?” Tate asked.

  “Astronomical good. The kind of good I just can’t walk away from.”

  “What does that have to do with Elliot and I?” Danny asked.

  Sasha leaned forward and put his hands on the desk. “As much as it pains me to say this, Static isn’t Static without the five original members. It won’t sell as well, it won’t photograph as well, and I highly doubt the tour we’re already planning will come close to selling out.”

  A giddy thrill rose in Elliot’s belly.

  “That being said, you two still fucked up. Royally. We’re showing a surprising amount of support from the fan base, but numbers are down. Not as much as we expected, not even close. But down. Your social media following has dropped, we lost about five percent of the presale dollars on the album in returns.

  “But I thought it was good—” Reece started.

  Sasha held his hand up. “It is. But we’ll still need to spin this hard to make up those numbers.”

  “Wait,” Danny asked. He held up his hand. “I just want to get this clear. Are you offering Elliot and I our contracts back?”

  “Yes,” Sasha said slowly. Elliot could tell he didn’t want to say it.

  “Then I’d like to go over it and the appearance clause with our lawyer. We’ll need to set up a meeting to make sure things are settled for both sides.”

  Sasha gritted his teeth. “I figured as much.” He turned to Tate, Webb, and Reece. “Would any of you like to take this opportunity to skin me alive?” He had the lower hand. He knew it and he clearly hated it. A part of Elliot would’ve loved to take Sasha all the way to the fucking cleaners. But that wasn’t who he was. It wasn’t who any of them were.

  “We just want it to be fair,” he said. “For all of us.”

  “Yes. Have your lawyers look over these. I can meet with you tomorrow afternoon to discuss particulars.” Sasha slid two thick folders towards Danny and Elliot. “Until then, you two need to meet with Rebecca. She has some work to do.”

  “We’re going in with them,” Tate said stubbornly. The other three nodded. Stubbornly. Elliot almost had to laugh.

  Rebecca hugged Danny and Elliot when she walked into the conference room. “I’m so sorry about all of this, boys. I feel like I’ve caused more of it than I fixed.”

  “You were just doing your job, Becks,” Danny said quietly. “All of that crap is over now. Let’s just figure out how to come out of it gracefully and hopefully move on.”

  Rebecca sighed and took a seat. “We need to figure out the best way to deal with this.”

  “Yeah, yeah, to keep the most amount of money coming in blah blah.” Elliot had heard it all a million times.

  “No, not this time. I’m in it to protect you and Danny. It’s only been three days since it happened, and I’m sure Sasha told you that the response has been pleasantly surprising. But if all the stuff about Chelsea and cover-ups came out, I’m worried it will explode in your faces.”

  “How can it not come out?” Danny asked. “It happened.”

  “Not necessarily.”

  “I don’t wanna lie anymore,” Elliot said. “I suck at it, and I freaking hate it.”

  “We might have to tell one more—to save you two and Chelsea. This affects her as well.”

  “So what is it now? Danny broke up with Chelsea, and I was there to comfort him? Suddenly we realized we’d always had feelings for each other, and we fell in love?”

  Rebecca smiled. “You might be better at this than you think. We can’t lie completely. The older fans have always noticed the feelings between you two. We just have to change the date when you yourselves realized.”

  Danny sighed. “I don’t like it.”

  “D, it’s not the best, but what else can we do?” Tate gestured toward Rebecca. “It’s not like any of these people are going to stand up there and say they told you not to be with each other because it’s bad for sales. The only people who are going to look like assholes if it comes out you were together the whole time are you and Elliot.”

  Rebecca flinched. Elliot knew Tate was right.

  “It’s not the best, Danny,” he said, “but that way we have the boys back. And we can be with each other openly. What’s our other choice?”

  Rebecca waited quietly while the boys stared at each other. Finally Danny nodded. “I’ll put it in motion.”

  DELLY FOREVER!!

  A Candy Scoop Exclusive

  You heard it here first. Delly is official! That steamy kiss shared on the red carpet at a benefit for The Iris Foundation wasn’t for show, ladies. DANNY BRIGHT and ELLIOT PRICE of Static have found true love… with each other. (And if you ask us, it’s been coming for a loooong time!)

  Friends close to the boys said that ELLIOT was really there for DANNY earlier this fall when he broke it off with longtime love CHELSEA PRESTON. The boys bonded, they kissed, and they realized that they’ve always had hidden feelings for each other. We say it’s time to let those feelings out!

  Candy Scoop asked some fans what they thought about our new pop couple:

  “I think it’s amazing,” says Cara D, 19. “I’ve seen the love between them since the very beginning. I’m glad they finally get to show it to the world.”

  Awwwww <3

  “I’m not a big fan of Static anymore,” says Stephanie R, 14. “I mean, they’re cute, but I liked Danny better with Chelsea. Whatever. It doesn’t really matter.”

  Ouch!!

  “I think Danny and Elliot are perfect for each other. I just can’t wait until they get married!” says Alyssa, 15.

  So, ladies. The poll is in, and (for the most part) Delly is a success! You love your static boys and you just want them to be happy. Pssst…. We do too. XOXO

  —CS

  DANNY and Elliot went back to the studio, they finished work on their last few songs, and life seemed to go back to normal—or whatever normal might be for two pop stars who’d just come out as a couple and caused the biggest media circus of the year. Rebecca and her spin machine made them sound pretty good, at least as good as they could sound. Chelsea went along with it happily. She was a really nice girl, after all. Danny couldn’t ask for much more in a fake ex-girlfriend.

  The album went into final production for a late-December release. They were all nervous, clearly. Things weren’t the same as they’d been when they released their first album. Danny hoped the projections were right. Blue Horizon had even planned a concert at their first venue to reacquaint fans with their old music and introduce some of the new songs.

  A concert. Live. Yeah, that was scary.

  Tickets to the concert didn’t sell out immediately. Danny wished he could say they did. But they didn’t not sell out either. Some of their oldest fans, the girls he’d talked to since the very beginning, were actually going to fly out for it, and he noticed the
y’d gained some new fans as well. Looked like Webb had been right. Messages and mentions had been pouring in online ever since he and Elliot had made it official. Yeah, some were awful, full of bigotry and hate. Danny had expected that. But there was so much love, so many kids who said they loved what Static had done for them, that the hate didn’t seem to matter. For the first time in a really long time, Danny felt proud of who he’d become.

  THE night of the concert, Danny thought he might be more nervous than he’d been ever, more nervous than his first concert even. It was the first time… well, yeah. It was the first time they were performing since it all happened. Things were bound to be different. But he took a deep breath and strode onstage with the rest of them, a huge smile on his face. And he realized it really wasn’t very different at all.

  Or maybe it was even better.

  Their energy onstage had always been good—full of fun, laughter, dorky antics, and even dorkier dance routines and games. But there had always been something missing back then, and Danny hadn’t even realized it. When he’d sung to Elliot, the truth hidden in plain view, when they’d touched, love masked as friendship, it had hurt a tiny bit. It didn’t hurt anymore.

  They sang right to each other, and sure they cheesed it out and played it up, but it was fun. It was fun to be silly and romantic and to do it in public. When they met in the middle of the stage and drew apart until only their fingertips touched, the girls cheered. When they put their arms around each other’s shoulders during a ballad, Danny could practically feel the audience swoon. He realized at that moment that it could happen. Static could keep on with them as a couple. They could make it work.

  There were no guarantees, but it was a start.

  Before Danny knew it, it was time for the last song, the one Elliot had written for him and sang every damn time with his entire heart in his eyes.

  “So, I thought we’d end with a new song tonight,” Elliot said into his microphone. “This is one I wrote with some help from my good friend Chris Collins. It’s called ‘Catch My Breath’.” Elliot was interrupted by cheers when Chris strode onto the stage, another stool and his guitar in hand. The guys all jumped up to hug him, accompanied by more cheers.

  “Ready, lads?” Chris asked.

  They nodded and returned to their places.

  Chris’s guitar started, joined soon by Reece playing a harmony that blended with Chris’s chords. Danny reached out and twined his fingers with Elliot’s. They always started the song together… so together, they’d be.

  Danny loved Elliot’s lyrics about finding love and knowing it was for real, so he sang with everything he had. When Elliot’s voice went all velvety at the words “what you’d come to mean to me,” Danny nearly choked up, but he sang and smiled and blinked tears out of his eyes.

  Webb and Reece came in next, singing of first kisses in the rain. Danny expected them to camp it up, joke with each other and serenade like they had in rehearsals. But they didn’t. Webb’s eyes were serious. Reece sang and played his guitar.

  Tate took the final verse with Chris singing harmony to him. Danny couldn’t believe how good it felt that way, just their voices and a couple guitars. It was right. He rubbed his thumb across the back of Elliot’s hand. Yes. It was exactly right.

  Elliot ended it, soft and sweet, his voice a low murmur of sound in a quiet room.

  “Spinning, flying, dreaming, falling, Running when I hear you calling, Even when you’re far from reach, I still can’t catch my breath.”

  Elliot paused and let Chris’s guitar echo for a long moment before he practically whispered the final line into his microphone.

  “The one you took from me….”

  The last quiet note died in a suddenly silent concert hall. When Chris pulled his hand off the guitar, the audience went wild. Elliot turned and grinned at Danny and slid off his stool to stand. They’d never let go of each other’s hands through the song. Danny didn’t want to let go, of Elliot’s hand or the moment or the night. He didn’t want to let go of any of it.

  “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” The audience started to chant. Danny looked at Elliot, who had a wild grin on his face.

  Elliot shrugged. “Why not?” he mouthed.

  True. They’d already kissed on television. Why not for their fans, the ones who’d believed in them all along? Danny laughed and pulled Elliot by the neck until their lips slammed together in a kiss. As their kisses went, it was fairly tame. Just a few slightly lusty pecks before he and Elliot drew apart and gave a deep theatrical bow to their audience.

  The audience screamed again. Tate, Webb, and Reece laughed. And everything seemed perfect. Or at least as perfect as it could be.

  “SO, HERE we are.” Reece smiled out at the water. “Crazy couple of days, huh?”

  They’d met at the beach across from the old Band Camp house just to hang out, talk, soak in the fact that they really weren’t done quite yet. It was still surreal.

  Tate laughed out loud. “Crazy? I’m not sure crazy can cover it. Last night was amazing.”

  It had been. The fans, the lights, the people cheering them on for being real, for being exactly who they really were. Danny still figured that everything had been some kind of dream. It seemed impossible that any of it had really happened. That they’d kissed and people cheered and the world had kept spinning.

  The five of them—Danny, the guy he wanted to spend the rest of his life loving, and his three best friends—sat in the cooling sand, listened to the surf quietly, and watched the California sun set red-hot and fiery into the Pacific. They were silent for a long, long time.

  Eventually, Webb held his fist out towards the ocean. “All for one?” he asked.

  Danny smiled. It was cheesy, but it was them. They were together, the five of them, for better or worse. “All for one,” Danny echoed and held his fist out so it touched Webb’s. Slowly, Tate, Reece, and Elliot did the same.

  “Love you guys,” Webb said. “It’s good to have you back.”

  Danny couldn’t help but grin. “It’s good to be back.”

  THEY sat there on the emptying beach and stared quietly out at the pink-and-orange sky. Danny slung his arm around Elliot’s shoulder, and Elliot wrapped his arm around Danny’s bent knee. Everything felt right. Their fame, their success, might only last for another month, another album, another tour. It might disappear overnight. None of them knew. But it finally felt like they could handle the future. As themselves.

  After the sun set and the beach had turned to a strip of dark sand against a night-black sea, the boys stood, one by one, and then turned for their cars, ready to take on the next chapter…

  …whatever that might be.

  M.J. O’SHEA grew up and still lives in sunny Washington State, and while she loves to visit other places, she can’t imagine calling anywhere else home. M.J. spent her childhood writing stories. Sometime in her early teens, the stories turned to romance. Most of those stories were about her, her friends, and their favorite cute TV stars. She hopes she’s come a long way since then….

  When M.J.’s not writing, she loves to play the piano and cook and paint pictures, and, of course, read. She likes sparkly girly girl things, owns at least twenty different colored headbands, and she has two dogs who sit with her when she writes. Sometimes her dog comes up with the best ideas for stories… when she’s not busy napping.

  E-mail: [email protected]

  Website: http://mjoshea.com

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/MjOsheaSeattle

  By M.J. O’SHEA

  Catch My Breath

  Cross Bones (Dreamspinner Anthology)

  Corkscrewed

  Newton’s Laws of Attraction • Impractical Magic

  Stroke!

  Rock Bay

  Coming Home

  Letting Go

  Finding Shelter

  With Anna Martin

  Just Desserts

  Macarons at Midnight

  Soufflés at Sunrise

  With P
iper Vaughn

  Lucky Moon

  Moonlight Becomes You

  The Luckiest

  One Thing

  One Small Thing

  One True Thing

  Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  For M.J., who always keeps me on the right track.

  Chapter One

  DAYTON ITCHED. The deep-down-in-your-bones kind of itch. Sweat trickled down his back, and he longed to rub up against the corner of a wall like a grizzly marking its territory. He didn’t, of course. The lobby of a luxury high-rise apartment building in downtown Atlanta was no place to make like a bear.

  He tapped his foot and tried to ignore the sticky weight of the brace holding his left arm snugly against his body. Never again would he play a pickup game of basketball with a pride of young werelions. One overly enthusiastic body check had sent Dayton into orbit, right into the post.

  He’d driven to Atlanta today to see a specialist. All Dayton knew at this point was that his arm wasn’t working correctly, but the doctor assured him it was just a bad sprain to his rotator cuff. If it didn’t heal up soon, they’d discuss surgery. He didn’t want to have surgery. Kind of like he had no desire to be standing here waiting on the never-arriving elevator.

  His best friend, Tawny, werelioness extraordinaire, had extracted the promise from him. “Just stop by and check on Hart,” she’d begged. “It’s not a big deal,” she’d pleaded.

  Dayton snorted. “Not a big deal for her, maybe.”

  Hart Sherman hated Dayton. Even though they hadn’t seen each other in years, Dayton had never forgotten the menacing glares Hart used to give him, or the fact that Hart would leave the room any time Dayton entered. To make matters worse, Dayton, a full-fledged human, had been allowed to stay with the pride. Hart, a mixed breed, had been exiled. Dayton didn’t understand pride politics, but he knew the pride alpha didn’t want another lion around who was bigger than he was. Hart was huge. Ginormous, really. Something about the combination of a tiger mother and lion father made their offspring supersized.