Page 62 of The Music of Us
I assumed Aspen was not, in fact, at a nature retreat. Unless of course, theZinClub Zstood forZen.
Which I doubted.
I eyed the unfortunate row of texts. “You really weren’t kidding about Aspen not being able to work his new phone.”
“Lucky for us,” Jake said. “Because now we know exactly where he’s going to be and at what time.”
“So, what now? We crash this party and then—”
“Bandnap him,” Jake finished.
My eyebrows went up. “Sorry, what?”
“Hey, what’s a little kidnapping between friends? It’ll be fine,” he said, brushing off my concern. “We’ll make sure Aspen comes back with us one way or another.”
I stared at him a beat. “Should I ask?”
“We’ll circle back to the details later. We need to get going if we’re going to make it there on time.”
“Oh my God,” I muttered, starting the engine. “This is a terrible idea. You don’t seriously think we’ll have tokidnaphim, do you?”
“We’ll find out,” he said calmly.
Before I put the car in reverse, I shoved another stick of gum into my mouth and turned on the radio. I needed to hear what song was being requested to distract me from what we were apparently about to do.
Jake cocked his head curiously as the LUVR radio host’s voice filled the car. He listened for a moment before looking over at me, his velvety eyes intense for a moment. I supposed it might’ve been alittlebit out of the ordinary that my go-to wasn’t a Spotify playlist or something.
“I like to hear what songs people ask the hosts to play,” I said defensively, sliding my sunglasses on. “Songs are like a hidden clue to how a person’s really feeling or—”
“All the things they wish they could say,” Jake finished.
Surprised at hearing him complete my thoughts so clearly, my hands hovered over the wheel, unable to pull the car out just yet. I turned to him, my gaze locking onto his from behind my sunglasses.
We’d never spoken about this before. I hadn’t even developed the radio habit until after he’d gone. Yet he said almost word for word what I’d been about to say myself.
How did we end up thinking so alike after years of being apart?
“This is great,” Leon exclaimed, interrupting the momentand bringing me back to the task at hand as he bopped his head along to the radio. “We should definitely call in and request ‘One Way or Another.’”
“We should definitely not,” I countered.
Breaking News: Jake Moody and Leon Ward of the Usual Suspects requested this shady song from the local radio station before their bandmate Aspen Ray mysteriously went missing in the same vicinity.
Jake shook his head. “Plausible deniability, man, come on.”
“You know,” I said as I headed out of the parking lot, “someone once made a joke poll asking which member of US would be the easiest to bandnap.”
“That’s not the most bizarre US poll I’ve seen, to be honest,” Jake replied. Unable to help himself, he eyed me curiously out of the corner of his eye. “Who won?”
“Leon.”
Leon made an indignant little scoffing noise. “No way.”
Jake shook his head. “Not if they tried kidnapping Leon before coffee. He’d leave them crying.”
“You got last place,” I told Jake. “Obviously, they don’t know they can lure you just about anywhere simply by mentioning a cat café in a three-sentence email.”
“Oh? Is that what your letter was supposed to be? Bandnapping bait?”
