“You changed your ringtone to ‘Love River’?” she asked.

I paused as I pulled the phone out of my purse. It took me a moment, but I recognized the melody as one of the songs we’d heard at the concert.

Ryan’s wallpaper was a picture of himself and his wife.

Normal.

His ringtone was one of his own songs.

A step too far.

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Wanted to get in the right spirit before the show.”

Vanessa was too busy merging into traffic, and she didn’t seem to notice what had just happened. She and Jen had been so caught up looking at their pictures that she probably thought I’d given the phone back, and I wanted to keep it that way. No use getting her involved in my stupid decision. I turned the phone over and clicked the button on the side to shut off the ringer. Then I looked back at the screen.

The person calling was named Ray. I bit my lip, and my heart raced as I watched his name flash a few times before finally ending. A moment later, the phone lit up again, and Ray’s name returned.

He was calling back. I swallowed. It had to be Hooks, calling from a friend’s phone. Someone who was with him in the pavilion or on the tour bus, cursing the crazy fan who’d just quietly blackmailed him in front of a horde of people. I waited again for it to stop ringing and then tossed it into my purse.

“Which was your favorite song?” I heard Jen say, and she pivoted in her chair to look at me.

I blinked and then frowned, trying to rack my brain. “Uh, I don’t know. It’s hard to pick,” I said, my mind racing. “What was yours?”

“Probably ‘Out of Time.’ I’ve heard it so many times, but it was so amazing to hear him sing it live.” She squealed and put her head in her hands. “I just can’t believe we met him in person!”

Vanessa pulled onto the highway, and we were finally on our way home. I let out a long breath. There was no caravan of police cars tracking us down and pulling us over to recover the phone. With the glow of the concert traffic dying down, the darkness descended on the car, and we were all silent for a few miles, lost in our own thoughts.

Vanessa was turning onto my block when I heard another noise from my purse. I winced and opened it, fumbling around with the items inside. After a few moments of searching, I recognized the noise as my own ringtone and let out a sigh of relief.

It didn’t last long, though. As I pulled it out of my purse, I saw that it was a number I didn’t recognize. A local number.

Could it be Hooks?