My Online Crush Swore He Wasn't the Idol, Then His Song Sang My Secrets novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Dock

By morning it had ninety thousand.

I read the comments at the stand with my coffee going cold.

"That's a real star, not a sticker. Look at the line weight."

"Ohio?? Why would he be in OHIO."

"Somebody find this peach festival."

Somebody had.

They'd found the town page, too, and Brynn's blurry photo from opening night.

"Millbrook Crossing. Row F. Two sightings. This is him."

A news van from Columbus drove down Main Street at nine and parked outside the Blue Plate.

Gwen texted me a photo of it with twelve skull emojis.

Jay didn't message all morning.

At noon he called.

He had never called before.

"Hal saw it," he said.

His voice was flat and far away.

"What did he say?"

"A lot. Mostly about the contract. He said if one more thing happens, he's pulling me out. A car to the airport. No goodbye."

"Can he do that?"

"He can do anything. That's the whole point of Hal."

I sat down on the tailgate.

"When?"

"I don't know. Any day." He was quiet. "Come to the lake tonight. Please. I don't want the last time to be a phone call."

I drove out after dark, still in my stand apron.

The news van was gone. There was nobody on Route 9 but a deer.

He was waiting at the end of the dock with his feet in the water.

There was a guitar next to him.

I had never seen him with a guitar.

I sat down beside him and put my feet in too.

The lake was warm as bathwater.

The heron was standing in the reeds, twenty feet away, pretending we weren't there.

"He's still hiding," I said.

"He's good at it. Better than me."

"You drew a star on a little girl's cast."

"She was crying." He looked down at the water. "I've been making kids cry for two years. Standing on stages with my mouth moving and somebody else's recording coming out. I couldn't do it one more time."

"Somebody else's recording?"

He stopped.

"I mean his," he said. "His recording."

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