Bonham (Pushing Daisies Book 3) by Heather Young-Nichols (read people like a book txt) 📕

for their stunts and while so far for me, they’d been benign, they weren’t always.

I busied myself for five minutes then went to the restroom and grabbed a drink after. That was enough to pass the time.

After a deep breath, I pushed into the studio.

Then my steps faltered.

Ned and Brian weren’t alone. Daltrey and Bonham were sitting in the booth while Mack leaned against the wall behind them. Bonham was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt and it was really frustrating that he could make such little effort and look so good. His black hair was styled like he’d just run his hands through it before he’d left the house and that was exactly what he’d probably done.

Bonham’s dark eyes met mine and one corner of his mouth turned up.

We were seeing each other tonight and I didn’t think there was any gray area about what was going to happen. We were going to have sex. Stamp my V-Card. Do things we’d never done before or hell, things I’d never done before, period. I wondered if he was thinking about tonight like I was.

His upturned mouth turned into a cocky smirk.

He knew exactly what I was thinking about.

“Jurnie, come in.” Ned waved me in.

I finally got my feet to cooperate and moved into the booth, coming to a stop between Brian and Bonham. Bonham’s knuckles ran up the outside of my knee. No one else would’ve seen it. Then Mack snorted and I knew he had.

Wearing a skirt to work had become second nature. I loved skirts and they were cool for the summer as well as professional.

Brian handed me a set of headphones like the ones everyone else was wearing. Even Mack. I wasn’t sure why he had them on.

“Do you know why we brought you in here today, Jurnie?” Brian looked like he was trying not to laugh out loud.

“I can guess.”

“We couldn’t get the entire band here and sorry, no Daisy.” Ned sure didn’t look sorry. His eyes danced playfully as he spoke. “Van and Daisy were unavailable, but Bonham and Daltrey were kind enough to come in and talk about… well, a lot of things, but they’ll be playing Little Cesar’s Arena next week.”

I quickly turned to look at Bonham. “I didn’t know that.”

Bonham shrugged, so I turned my attention back to Ned.

“So, Jurnie, are you dating anyone?” Ned asked.

My face burned. Bonham and I hadn’t had the conversation about our relationship yet. Obviously, we were dating, but did he want me to tell people that or keep things quiet? His life was already so public, I wasn’t sure if he wanted everything out there, though I didn’t mean we’d share every detail, given that some were just for him and me. Or I thought they were just for us.

Oh, man. Did he talk to his brothers about these things? I talked to my sister, so it would make sense, but the idea that Mack and Daltrey might know exactly where his tongue had been made me stand up straighter.

“I’m dating someone,” I finally said into the mic that I was going to have to share with Bonham.

“Tell us about him.”

I furrowed my brows. “Wait a minute… You called me in here to ask about my love life when you have half of Pushing Daisies sitting right here. Shouldn’t you be asking them some questions?”

“Like what?” Ned tried not to smile.

“I don’t know, favorite swear word?” I pulled one of the questions from The Actor’s Studio. It was a great question.

“We wouldn’t be able to answer that,” Daltrey’s voice filled my ears.

Shoot. He was right.

“OK, then…” My mind raced trying to come up with questions that were radio-approved. “How about if they could have any superpower, what would it be?”

Mack snorted again. The back of my neck burned with the feeling that he was there and his eyes were on me, but I couldn’t exactly turn around to look at him. Even a small glance would be too much.

“That’s an easy one,” Daltrey spoke first. “I’d want to be able to teleport or fly. All the time on the bus… One of those would make things a lot easier.”

Bonham leaned in. “But the rest of us would be stuck on the bus.”

“That’s your problem,” Daltrey said. “Maybe we’d all have it. Like it’d be genetic or something.” They chuckled together. “Yours any better?”

“I used to think I’d want invisibility,” Bonham said, sounding so serious, I couldn’t tell if this was something he’d been thinking about for a long time or what.

“Like in middle school?” Brian asked him.

“Pretty much.” Bonham didn’t miss a beat. “But now… I almost think I’d rather be able to hear people’s thoughts.”

“Anyone in particular?” Daltrey fought back a smile.

“One person very particularly. She’s the only person whose thoughts I’d want to hear every day.”

My legs were turning to Jell-O as I stood there and suddenly, I wished there was room for another chair.

“See?” I turned to Ned. “There are tons of great questions out there.”

“But I know the answer to the one he asked,” Bonham said, cutting in. I turned to him with wide eyes. “Jurnie has a boyfriend.”

My chest clenched. I wasn’t sure it was a real thing that had happened, but I felt it either way. Before I could come up with a witty retort, Bonham put his arm around my waist and pulled me onto his lap. I scooted to his knee, as that was more appropriate for the moment. Though I didn’t think any of this was actually appropriate.

“Jurnie.” Brian grabbed my attention. “I hope this is OK with you, but Bonham asked if you could come in while we did the spot.”

I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and smiled. “It’s fine with me.” Especially since he’d just said he was my boyfriend on air for anyone and everyone to hear. At the very least I could be thankful that my parents would never tune into this station. As far as they knew, I was