“No, you shouldn’t. I like you the way you are.” Carly held her tighter. “Please remain an awful liar, and always stay a little bit uptight, and don’t you dare lose your cute little organizational skills that make my stomach tighten.”

“You think my color-coded sticky notes are cute?”

“And hot. Those sticky notes get me going. It’s embarrassing to admit that, but entirely true.”

Lauren grinned and pointed at Carly. “Use that onstage. In fact, we could use all of this onstage.”

Carly closed her eyes and dropped her head back like a child on the verge of tantrum. “You’re thinking we should wait until we’re through opening, aren’t you. Just say it.”

Lauren lifted a shoulder. “Well, if Ethan thinks our chemistry is suddenly exponential, it’s something to consider. At least through the reviews. Then, maybe…we reward ourselves, but hang on to that muscle memory of what it felt like. To…want.”

“And I do. Desperately.” Carly headed back to the couch, needing some distance between herself and Lauren if she wanted any hope of clarity on the topic. “I feel like I’m in high school all over again, trying to be good, when I just want to be really bad. Behind the gym. With you.”

Lauren mock-gasped. “There was a time when you tried to be good?”

Carly threw a pillow at Lauren who laughed and caught it. “I’m not a total screwup, you know.”

“Well, you are meeting people behind the gym.” Carly lobbed another pillow, this time smacking Lauren on the shoulder. “But you do have a great right arm.”

Carly stood. “Me, my arm, and my newfound teenage abstinence are heading to our notes session. Coming?”

“Apparently not until we open,” Lauren said with a sly grin.

Carly shook her head and paused. The comment alone had her turned the hell on. “Let’s get out of here before that whole plan flies quickly out the window.”

“Right behind you. Just need to grab my sticky notes.”

Carly blinked. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

“Maybe it won’t be the worst way to die,” Lauren said with a wink.

Carly didn’t know how she’d ended up here. One minute she was living in the lap of luxury with fans and friends fawning all over her. The next, she was in freezing Minneapolis, of all places, in a historic old theater with a woman who now held the strings to her mind, heart, and body.

She wasn’t sure she ever wanted it to end.

* * *

“Where will we pick up our tickets? I want to make sure I leave plenty of time in case there’s any mix-up, and you know how your dad always putters when I’m trying to get somewhere.”

“I know,” Lauren said.