Rocking His Fake World (Love You Forever #3) - Alexis Winter Page 0,19

you’d like to come check it out.”

“Oh,” I say, pulling my attention away from the papers. “Watch you practice?”

“Mom suggested that since you bought me the guitar and paid for the lessons that you might want to see your money being put to good use. But you don’t have to if you’re too busy.”

“Oh, no, I’m not too busy,” I reply, checking the time on my watch.

“Okay, great. I’ll see you at the store soon.”

“Sure. Bye, Mack.”

I drop my phone onto my desk and try focusing on my paperwork, but my mind is instantly on Luna. I wasn’t planning on seeing her today—wanting to start putting a little distance between us, but how can I say no to Mack? My niece has never called me or asked me for anything before. I can’t tell her no the first time she does. Plus, I do need to pay Luna for taking time out of her busy schedule to teach Mack. I guess the only thing I can do is go and support my niece and her dreams. Imagine the story she’ll tell when Luna gets famous. She’ll be able to tell everyone that her first guitar teacher was Luna from The Wonder Kings before they hit it big.

I force myself to focus on paperwork until I have everything finished, then push away from my desk to make the drive across town. When I get there, Luna and Mack are already in the back of the store. They both have their guitars in hand and they’re hooked up to the amps. Someone else is running the register and there are a few customers walking around. I walk closer to the back, but not all the way. I don’t want to distract them from their lesson.

I watch Luna as she works with Mack. She shows her something on the guitar and watches as Mack repeats it. She stops and corrects her when she doesn’t do it exactly right and compliments her when she does well. She’s calm and patient and an all-around good teacher. Watching the two of them together makes my stomach tighten and my heart race. Seeing Luna in her element only makes this craving take hold that much stronger. I don’t know how the hell I’m ever going to get away from her.

Luna looks up and sees me watching, then smiles and tells Mack she’ll be right back before getting up and walking over to me. She crosses her arms over her chest and smiles as she comes to a stop in front of me. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

I nod toward Mack. “She invited me to crash the lesson. And I realized I hadn’t paid you for the lessons yet, so . . .” I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out a check, handing it over.

She takes it, looks down at it, and folds it in half, sliding it into her back pocket. “Thank you. She’s doing really well, huh?”

I nod as I watch her play—she’s concentrating so hard on plucking the right strings. “She has a good teacher,” I reply with a grin.

Her smile widens and she rolls her eyes as her cheeks flush. “Are you doing anything later?”

I shrug, unsure of how to answer, knowing I need to stick to my guns and stay away from her before I end up with my heart broken.

“We have band practice tonight and Wesley will be there. He needs to take some pictures of us for the label meeting. I could really use a buffer.” She bats her long, dark lashes and smiles sweetly.

I want to say no. Actually, I want to say yes, but doing that would be no different than me pulling my heart out of my chest and throwing it on the floor and asking her to stomp on it.

“Please?” she asks again in her sweet voice.

I laugh and shake my head. “How could I say no to that?”

Her smile is full-blown now. “Thank you. We’ll finish up here in a few minutes, then you and I can head over.” She goes back to Mack to finish up their hour. I take a seat on a stool at a nearby amp station, watching as the lesson continues. My mind is a total mess though. I guess I should wait until Monday to find out if the band is getting signed before I overthink myself to death. If they don’t get signed, then she won’t be leaving and there will be nothing standing in our