Free Don't Break My Heart (Straight from the Heart #3) by Breigh Forstner

me, but by Lucy.
    She would never admit it, but from the fake smile she would put on, saying goodbye to a girl each time they left the bus, it was obvious.
    “Sure it is, Pauly. I know you pretty damn well and know you care about Lucy, but you’re too scared to commit to her so you hide behind all of these groupies that flock to you.” That sounded more accurate. I didn’t respond to her, taking another sip of my beer and kept my thoughts to myself as I headed back downstairs.
    I grabbed my acoustic guitar from studio and took it out to the edge of the lake, where the fire was getting started. It wasn’t too chilly out, but right on the lake, the water had cooling effect. I wore a band T-shirt and a pair of jeans, plopping down onto a log used for a seat.
    “So what are we going to play tonight?” I said to the group as everyone sat down in front of the fire. “I’ll be taking requests for a short while before I let someone else take a turn.”
    “How about Zeppelin!” Damon started chanting ‘Zeppelin, Zeppelin’ like the drunk ass he was, then singing the intro to Immigrant Song . I almost fell backward laughing at how ridiculous he looked, but then we all chimed in, and I began to play the chords. After that, I played close to all of my classic favorite songs, Hendrix, Clapton, Deep Purple. That was the kind of music I’d listened to growing up, thanks to my grandparents, secret hippies all about peace and love.
    We stopped playing and singing for a minute so we could make our s’mores, the crew sending me off to find sticks for everyone to use. By the time I retrieved them all, I heard a very faint sound of a car pulling back into the driveway. And considering how much property this cabin is on, I only knew it was a car because no one else lives around here for nearly a mile.
    I carried the sticks back and Alex started telling Emily crazy stories about our last tour, which was with Everlasting, all except their drummer, Tyler Donahue.
    “Yeah, you should have been there, Em. After Pauly started dancing with Lucy, another guy tried to weasel his way to her, and Pauly damn near punched this guy in the balls. This was after Charming snuck off with goody two shoes, Bryn.” Alex slapped his knee in amusement at the smug look on Damon’s face.
    “Do we have to bring Bryn up at this time?” Damon whined, the smug look no longer there. “I fucked up big time with her, and now she’s on the road to marriage with fucking Pelton. Lucky bastard.” I knew that after what Bryn had seen in our dressing room in California, she avoided Damon like the plague, and it had killed him.
    Deep down, we all knew that Damon wouldn’t change for a girl. It would take a miracle for him to stray away from his Damon ways. We were almost one and the same in that sense.
    “Oh, stop it, you pussy; you’ll find another girl someday.” Mike threw a burnt marshmallow at him. “Just go to the bar downtown!”
    “Hardy har har, very funny,” Damon replied.
    “What’s so funny?” Lucy asked with a grin on her face, plopping down beside me. She had changed out of the outfit she was wearing earlier and now she was wearing a Sons of Anarchy hoodie and a pair of tight yoga pants.
    “I didn’t expect you back so early Luce, what happened, did preppy boy burn your food?” I jokingly teased her, and she flipped me off.
    “No Pauly, sorry to disappoint; I did what I planned to do. I went to his restaurant, and we had desert. He makes his own family recipe cheesecake, and it’s the most amazing thing on the planet, seriously.” She started gushing, and I looked toward the guys and pretended to gag. I had a dirty vision of licking cheesecake and syrup off Lucy after she mentioned that, so I tried to think of the one thing that would keep me from coming in my pants right there. What that was, I wasn’t sure yet.
    “Well, tell Betty Crocker to come by and make us some food sometime, he’s more than welcome,” Damon said, and I