Free Encore (Stereo Hearts Book 2) by Trevion Burns

to Los Angeles to meet with Simon first thing tomorrow morning.”
    “Yoshi, I’m begging you. I’m not asking you to throw away your dream; I just want you to do it the right way,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to look back and wish you’d done it differently.”
    “For the first time in my life, my dream is within reach. If I look back on this day, this moment, this second, ten years from now, and I’m still behind those drums? That is what I’ll regret for the rest of my life. That is what will keep me up at night, wondering ‘what if.’ Adam will understand. Eventually… he’ll understand. I’ll tell him it was all my idea. He won’t blame you for it. He knows you’ll always choose me over him.”
    She breathed out a laugh, the setting sun replaced with a cool breeze, blowing her cottony hair into her eye. She didn’t bother to move it away as her voice went to a whisper. “Who says I’m choosing you?”
    Yoshi’s eyes went big and his mount fell open. A second later, he visibly shook, and when she tried to walk past him, he grabbed for her.
    But she yanked her arm away, hurrying for the stairs.
     
    --
     
    He was right on her heels. From the beach to the hotel lobby. From the elevator to the top floor. As she swiped her keycard, she felt his warm breath on the back of her neck.
    She moved into her hotel suite with a huff.
    Decorated in all white, with an ocean view and the scent of lavender, the room was just another reminder of how good Adam was to them. They always stayed in the nicest hotels, and always in a suite. Adam knew how much she loved ocean views, so he made sure she had one, even if he had to give up his own room to get it for her.
    Drinking in that view at the balcony doors, Aria heard Yoshi stomping in after her. The sound of the door closing. She faced him. Her suitcase lay open on one of the double beds, clothes strewn everywhere, and she was reminded of how excited she’d been for this party just hours earlier. She’d hoped that, by day seven of his birthday week, Yoshi would’ve come to his senses. That he’d have no doubt in his mind how much his band brothers loved him. She’d hoped he’d come to the end of this week and see the error of his ways.
    She crossed her arms tight.
    He lingered in the arched entry, watching her. Sometime during their journey upstairs, he’d gotten rid of the Popeye hat and the pipe, leaving him in just the blue pants and a black vest, open to reveal his six-pack abs constricting with each heaving breath, and his biceps, flexing and un-flexing rapidly.
    “Will you talk to me please?” he asked, saying the same six words he’d been repeating the entire walk up there.
    “I’m not leaving Adam. Not like this.”
    “Yes, you are.”
    “No, I’m not,” she spat.
    “I told you I’d take the fall for you.”
    “You can’t take the fall for this. Eventually, I have to be my own person. Own up to my own choices. He would blame me if I left with you. He would. And with no warning? No one to take my spot? All for my own selfish gain?” she sputtered. “Unlike you, I won’t be able to live with myself, Yosh. I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a grown-ass woman, and following you around like a sick puppy stopped being cute somewhere around my twenty-first birthday. Adam always tells me how strong I am, and that means so much to me, but this isn’t strength. Betraying him isn’t strength. Following you isn’t strength.”
    Yoshi crossed the room in one long stride, arms flexing tighter as he bent at the waist and came eye-to-eye with her. “I’m not asking you to follow me. I’m asking you to climb next to me. Rise next to me. I can’t do it without you… If you’re not there with me, my feet won’t leave the ground.”
    She scoffed and moved away.
    He followed, pressing his trembling hands to his heart as he leaned down and tried to re-claim her eyes. Every time he almost did, she’d turn her back, denying him. “Bo, the more