Shit! She stopped her rather active imagination right there. She couldn’t toe that line, even in her thoughts. Not a good idea.

Jack stuck his hands into the pockets of his scuffed-up jeans and rocked back and forth as the elevator dinged open on the bottom floor.

“Well, thanks for coming anyway,” he said softly.

Maybe if she didn’t repress so heavily, she wouldn’t start having stupid daydreams about him in the elevator. Jesus! She just needed to act normal. Clearly, closing off wasn’t working. Maybe cautious would do.

“I wanted to be at the show,” she finally told him as they walked toward the venue. “You know I like the band.”

“They’re so good,” Jack said. “Plus, you think the lead singer is hot.”

“He is hot,” she said as a matter-of-fact. “Everyone who is anyone thinks he’s hot.”

“I mean for a dude, sure. I can pick up my guitar again if you want,” he said with a faint chuckle.

Lexi glared at him. “Don’t even play.”

She couldn’t imagine Jack with his guitar. It wouldn’t be good for her mental health, not after her thoughts in the elevator. She would be better off fantasizing about Kellan Kyle. He was much further out of reach.

“Okay, okay,” he said, throwing up his hands. “Just joking. I’d probably sound terrible. It’s been too long since I’ve played, and I was better at keys.”

“I know, Jack,” she said, following the line of traffic toward Philips Arena. “I remember.”

They stopped talking as they maneuvered through the crowd. Jack pulled out the tickets when they reached the entrance.

The lady wearing a Philips Arena polo scanned the tickets and handed them back to Jack. “Enjoy the show.”

“Thanks,” Lexi said, walking behind Jack into the building.

The arena was already teeming with people talking to friends, looking at merchandise, and standing in long lines for concessions. A smile spread across her face at the energy in the room, and excitement took her over.

She was going to see Kellan Kyle. Holy fuck!

“I think you need a T-shirt,” Jack said, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the merchandise stand.

“Are you crazy? I’m not paying thirty-five dollars for a T-shirt.” Lexi tried to stop him.

“You’re joking, right?”

“What?” she asked with a shrug.

He shook his head like he wanted to say something, and then he reconsidered.

“Seriously, what?”

“It’s just…you just got a new job. This is your first time seeing the D-Bags. They’re your favorite band. You’ve been stealing my shirts for years.”

Lexi bit her lip and tried not to give her thoughts away. She loved the D-Bags’ music, but she had only ever stolen his T-shirts because they were his. She could never tell him that now.

“And you won’t spend thirty-five bucks to get yourself your own shirt?” He tilted his head and smiled at her. “I think you should get it, but it is kind of refreshing to hear that people still care about the price of things.”

“I guess you’ve been spending too much time with the wrong kind of people then,” she said, her face heating.

It wasn’t that thirty-five dollars was too much. She could afford it now, but it felt weird.

Jack kept that goofy grin on his face and then walked forward without her.

“Hey, where are you going?”

He ignored her and bypassed a few girls who were making up their minds about what shirt to get.

“Can I get the plain black D-Bags shirt in black? A small,” Jack said.

“Sure,” a guy said, picking off the top of the pile and handing the shirt to him.

Jack passed him his credit card and signed the receipt.

“Here you go,” Jack said.

He tossed her the shirt. She caught it, not even sure how to respond.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she murmured.

“I’ll let you buy the drinks.” He smirked and directed her in the opposite direction.

She really didn’t know what to say. No part of her had expected Jack to just go buy her a D-Bags T-shirt for no reason. She couldn’t even remember the last time they had just gone out and had a good time together. It was probably in New York over three years ago. That felt like a lifetime ago.

They stopped and grabbed Jack a beer while Lexi simply opted for a Coke. She might have a margarita later, but she didn’t want to drink too much, especially tequila. If she started at the beginning of the show, then she would be in a bad place by the end of the show.

“Where are our seats?” she asked as she followed him through an open entranceway.

Before her was the entirety of Philips Arena. The Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team played their games in the arena, and it was home to some of the biggest headliners of the year in music. Growing up, she had seen concerts here with her parents. It had normal stadium seating, but the venue had arranged seats all along the floor, leading up to the stage. The lights were dim, and the room was twinkling with camera flashes. The chatter was loud over the background music, and Lexi was bubbling with so much excitement that she just wanted to dance to their seats.

“I’ll show you,” Jack said.

Her stomach flipped as he started walking down the endless stairs. He showed their tickets to someone who let them pass to the lower level. Wow, this was close. She normally sat up in the nosebleed section. They reached the bottom of the lower level, and Jack handed off the tickets again. When the person let them through to the floor, Lexi really started to freak out.

“We’re on the floor?” she gasped, grabbing his arm.

Jack’s answering smirk set off butterflies in her stomach. “Yeah. We had a suite, but I traded them in for floor seats.”

“What? Why?” she asked, stunned. “If you had a suite—”

“I thought you’d want to be close,” he said barely loud enough for her to hear over the music.

“I do,” she agreed, lost in the fact that he had traded in a suite because he had thought she would want to sit closer…be closer to the band.

“Well then…good.” He shuffled his feet but kept his eyes trained on her face. “I just thought…it would make you happy. I know I can’t make up for everything, but as long as you’re happy, then that’s all that matters.”

“Jack…” Lexi said, shaking her head from side to side. She didn’t know what to say or how to respond.

“Let’s go find our seats,” he said quickly before walking away into the crowd.

Lexi stood there, stunned for a second, before trailing after him. He just wanted her to be happy. Gah! What was she supposed to do with that?

They walked all the way up to the front, and Lexi was getting close to hyperventilating as they approached the stage.

“Third row was the best I could do on short notice,” he said apologetically.

He was acting as if he hadn’t just told her that he had gotten them third-row tickets.

“But I got us the end of the aisle, so you can poke your head out.”

“Oh my God, I just don’t know what to say,” she said, taking the seat at the end of the aisle. “Third row…on the aisle…so I can actually see something around all the tall people.”

Jack chuckled softly, and she tried not to think about how perfect that sound was. Why…why…why was he doing this? She wanted to ask him so badly, but she couldn’t. She was just going to enjoy the concert. He hadn’t tried anything. That was what she had prepared for. She had prepared for the elevator daydream in her head but not for Jack just being…nice. Her well-built wall didn’t know how to process this new information.

They sat in their seats and chatted about mindless things during the opening act, Holeshot. They were good, but they weren’t the D-Bags. She told him all about her new job and how excited she was to actually work at something substantial after being in school for so long. They talked about the fact that Seth was going to be a father and how terrifying that was to both of them. Not to mention, Seth had just told everyone he was having a girl. Knowing the kind of person he had been in college made that all the more terrifying. Just as she started telling Jack about what Chyna had told her about Milan, the lights went out, and the crowd erupted all around them.