Here With You (A Laurel Heights Novel) - By Kate Perry Page 0,4

good for most people."

He put his sunglasses back on. "We aren't most people, Nic. See you tomorrow."

She watched him swagger away, his stride easy and loose, looking like a hero who'd ridden into town on a white steed.

But he wasn't a hero—certainly not hers.

She touched her lips, still feeling the sting of his kiss. What had she just got herself into?

Chapter Two

"I can't believe you're leaving me. You just got here."

"Liar." Grif smiled at his friend KT as he stuffed a pair of jeans into his duffle bag. "You hate having people around. When I showed up on your doorstep, you barely resisted the urge to slam the door in my face."

"Well, I can't deny that. Especially when it's a man with a bag and his guitar." She lounged across her guest room's bed. KT lived like a hermit in the mother-in-law unit of her parents' palatial home. They'd met at a party years ago, after his first hit single Lost. KT had been hiding behind a huge potted plant, looking miserable, and they'd ended up in the music room with her critiquing Lost.

"Remember how you told me you never dated musicians?" He yanked a shirt out from under her. "I'd like to point out that I ended up in your bed."

"My guest bed." She kicked him half-heartedly. "I still don't fraternize with musicians. They're all crazy."

"Yourself included?"

She held two fingers up. "I cannot tell a lie."

Grif smiled. KT was unique, with her own set of quirks, but she was the most talented songwriter he'd ever met. She only wrote for other people and never sang in front of anyone, but that first night they'd met she'd had one too many shots of whiskey and had broken her rule. Angels coveted her voice. He'd asked her once why she wouldn't sing more, but she'd told him to buzz off in less polite terms.

He looked around the room to make sure he remembered everything. His guitar, Tallulah, waited for him by the door. He hadn't opened her case since the last night of the tour he'd just ended. That was three months. He missed her, but at the same time he had no desire to touch her.

"There's this." KT held up his necklace.

"Thanks." He took the leather chain and slipped it over his head.

"How metrosexual of you." His friend smirked at him.

He didn't bother to reply. He wore it because it gave him a place to hang the arrowhead Nicole had given him before he'd set out to make a name for himself. As he'd packed up his car, she'd hugged him, slipped it into his hand, and whispered, "For protection, and to think of me."

KT stretched her long body, hugging a pillow to her. "So tell me about this woman you love."

"It's not like that," he said as he zipped up his bag and set it next to his guitar case. "We've been best friends since junior high."

"It's like that, especially if you're hiding out from your entourage to hang out with her on the sly."

"I told you why I'm hanging out with her."

"To reawaken your muse." She made crazy eyes at him. "Stay with me and I'll bitch-slap your muse awake."

"Thanks for the offer," he replied dryly.

"What are friends for?" She sat up, the pillow still in her lap. "Really. I want to know what the woman who brings the great Griffin Chase to his knees is like."

Nicole was stunning.

It'd hit him right in the middle of his chest when he saw her. Luminous, with her glowing skin and dark shiny hair that trailed over her creamy shoulders.

In retrospect, he guessed he assumed he'd find the same girl he'd left. Pretty and popular Nicole: the smart and funny girl with the ever-ready laugh. The girl everyone loved because she always made a person feel better than he really was.

She was still all that, but with an added layer of complexity.

She was sexy.

Last night she'd worn a flirty dress that left her shoulders bare and knee-high red boots that made him want to strip that dress off and see her in nothing but the footwear. Her voice was even different than it had been years before—deeper, nuanced, and mysterious.

But her eyes got him the most. Her eyes showed the way to heaven.

"Well?" KT prodded him.

It wasn't supposed to be this complicated. He shook his head. "There aren't words to describe her."

"You're such a goner."

"I'm telling you, it's not like that. Look at us. I've stayed friends only with you."

"That's because