Rock & Roll Nights: The Lila and Rivers Edit

Prologue One

PROLOGUE ONE

On the Road , with Colin Cravers

My people! I’m baaaaaaaaack!!!

And on the off chance that you don’t remember me—although who am I kidding, of course you remember me—I’ll reintroduce myself. The name’s Colin Cravers, and you know me as your favorite music blogger. You may also know me from that little single that some stations are playing right now, but that’s neither here nor there.

The last time we talked, I’d just been signed to a new contract.

I’d also just been covering one of the most amazing tours of all time, i.e., the tour that put Olivia Johns and Connor Wheating on the map.

If you know, you know.

And that pretty much catches you up on everything that’s happened up to this point.

Actually.

No, I’m wrong about that. There’s more. Like, a lot more.

I came back from signing the above contract (for more on that, check out my website) and found myself once again called into action. Because my sweetheart, that girl who owns my heart, was going on tour again. That’s right, Olivia Johns was going out on the road and taking Connor Wheating with her, as well as the Global Authors and The Leathers.

Rivers Shine and Olivia Johns on the same tour?

Be still, my rock-and-roll heart.

But here’s where things get interesting.

You may know of Rivers Shine. You may have heard of his—ahem—nighttime activities. The drinking. The drugs. The tattoos.

The heartbreak.

What you probably don’t know is that his agent decided that he needed to clean up his act. Particularly if he was going to be on tour with the darling of country music and her equally charming husband.

Said agent decided to throw a girl into Rivers’ life to try to get him to behave. She found another country music darling—one Lila Potter—and put her right into Rivers’ path. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Or at least... Well, it should have been.

Because Lila’s as talented as she is beautiful and has a smile that will light up an entire room. She’s got magical hands on guitar and an equally magical laugh. She traveled out to see Olivia and Connor on the road, to audition for the music contract they’re offering, and she’s bedazzled everyone she meets.

Including, as it turns out, our very own Rivers Shine.

Fam, when I tell you that he was smitten, I mean he was doe-eyed, woozy-faced, drop-down-on-one-knee in love with the girl. She couldn’t go anywhere without him watching her. He stopped an entire show when he thought she was leaving, just to beg her to stay. Their chemistry onstage was scorching, and I’ve heard rumors that they were flat out combustible when they were alone together.

Our boy, it seemed, had fallen in love.

And if you’d asked me two weeks ago, that would have been all I had to say on the matter.

But since that little incident when he stopped the show to keep her with him—to literally run into the audience and beg her to stay—something’s happened to him. All the brightness we saw over the week before disappeared and he’s back to the dark, brooding Rivers we’ve all known for so long. He’s drinking. He’s staying up all night. He’s not talking to fans.

He’s got several new tattoos, and I have to say, they’re not great.

In short, Rivers Shine looks like he’s on his way down the drain, despite his agent’s best-laid plans, and not even his new paramour is able to keep him afloat. We all thought that when she almost walked out, she might have reached into his black heart and taught it to love again, but those of us on the tour are second-guessing our hopes, these days.

Because it sure does look like he’s back to his old tricks.

No one knows why. No one knows what happened.

But we all have the same question.

Will he come back to us? Can Lila Potter save him—and, if the rumors are true, his contract with his agent and label?

Or is he so broken that he can’t find his way back?

I don’t have an answer for you yet, but you know I’m digging as quickly as I can.

And in the meantime, I’m sidling up to Lila Potter as often as I can. My heart might belong to Olivia Johns, but now that she’s off the market, I’m thinking I might have another redhead in my future. And she’s got pale skin and freckles and the most gorgeous smile I’ve ever seen.

Oh, she’s also attached to Rivers Shine.

At least that’s what she keeps saying.

-C