Rockstar Starter Guide:

1. Get guitar. Get good.
2. Find that girl who drives you out of your damn mind.
3. Make sure that girl refuses to be with you so you’ll have endless material for songs.
4. Get tricked by your brother and her best friend into getting stuck with her in a remote cabin on a stormy night—with only one bed.
5. Decide if it’s better to keep playing your game or risk losing her forever.

Vera Kruger has dyed her hair every color of the rainbow and she’s turned two very important parts of me blue for as long as I’ve known her.

She’s so deep under my skin that she’s a part of me, just like the small town we grew up in. No matter where I go on tour, she’s the one I wish I could come home to. Even if it’s to argue with her about absolutely anything.

When I return to Beacon Harbor for the holidays, I’m not a screwup anymore. I could give her every single thing she won’t admit she needs. Vera thinks we’re too messed up to work together—we just need to get each other out of our systems.

The truth is she is my system.

Now the girl who’s always been hard on me is going to have a hard time getting rid of me.

And I will fight with her every infuriating step of the way until she figures out I’m never going to leave her.