Lucy Jane
The first rule of touring? Don’t fall for your crew.
Especially not the grumpy, emotionally caged, impossible-to-read sound guy who acts like tolerating pop-country singers is pure torture.
Patrick “Patty” O’Shannan clearly doesn’t want to be here. He does his job and barely looks at me unless it’s to scowl. But my last sound engineer quit days before the start of my first tour, and Patty? Well, he was my only option.
The deal is simple: he helps me survive the tour, I help him save his family’s bar, and then we go our separate ways. No complications. No getting attached. No wondering why a small-town bartender is so impossibly good at music.
Only, things get complicated fast.
Like when a rowdy fan gets too close, and Patty steps in before security can. Like when I struggle writing a new song, and he mumbles the perfect lyrics. Like when a booking mix-up leaves us with only one bed, and suddenly, the space between us isn’t enough. Like when I admit I’ve never been kissed, and the label wants me to kiss the famous Connor Nash—and Patty looks at me like it might just break him.
Now, every glance is charged, and every accidental touch lingers. But Patty has secrets, and the closer we grow, the riskier things get.
Can I really fight for the man who refuses to fight for himself? Or should I walk away before I lose everything—including my heart?
