“I’m so proud of you, babe.” She kissed his cheek, and he smiled at her like he was the luckiest guy in the world. They’d been high school sweethearts but had broken up when she’d gone to Princeton. Now that she’d transferred to USC, they’d reconnected at the Battle of the Bands and had been inseparable ever since.

“Hey, I got some killer photos of the show,” she said. “I can’t wait to get them on the website.”

“Cool. Send them to Jared so he can put them up.” He jerked his head toward his brother, who was talking with one of the groupies. “Jared!”

Uh oh. So far I’d managed to avoid all interactions with Jared for my own safety. Kyle had warned me that his brother had a new girl every week, and I knew they definitely weren’t geeky girls like me. If we never met, then Jared could remain the version in my head, the guy who wrote songs that made me feel less alone in the middle of the night and who grinned at the audience like he knew their darkest secrets. Once we met, he would be a real person. But I couldn’t exactly run off now, not with him walking over to us, even though the voice in my head yelled, Go, go, go!

“What’s up?” Jared asked, smiling at us. It was a different smile from the one he used on stage, a private smile for friends that made him look even more like Kyle. I saw the real him for the first time, and it was even better than I’d imagined. I was doomed.

“Kyle talks about you all the time,” Jared said to me, after we were introduced. “Great to finally meet you.”

He hopped off the stage and spread his arms, moving in like he wanted to hug me. This wasn’t all that shocking since Kyle was a hugger, too, but I stood there, frozen and tongue-tied for an excruciatingly long pause. It should be criminal for a man to be so good-looking. How were normal girls like myself supposed to touch the sun without getting burned?

“You too,” I finally said and stepped toward him.

As his strong arms circled me, a little tremor ran through my body, like a static shock jolting right through my chest. He was the perfect height for me to press my face into the curve of his neck and breathe him in, but I restrained myself. The hug was brief, but even that second of contact was enough to leave me breathless. I quickly pulled away and took a few steps back to a safe distance.

“We’re having a party at our place after this,” Kyle said. “You should come, Maddie.”