Shade Me (Rock Stars on the Rise, #4)

I watched him fall apart.

And I swore I wouldn’t be the one to catch him.

The world saw Braden Mitchell as the quiet one.
The steady one.
The bassist left standing after the wedding that never happened.

But I saw the cracks.

I was there the day his bride ran.
I held the note that shattered him.
And I’ve spent the last several months pretending I don’t notice the way his silence is darker now. Heavier.

Interviewing him was supposed to be professional.
Controlled.
Safe.

Instead, it felt like standing too close to a live wire.

Because Braden isn’t the victim the media painted him to be.
He’s not bitter.
He’s not broken.

He’s rebuilding.

And every time he looks at me like I’m more than Dani’s best friend…
more than the reporter who knows too much…

I forget all the reasons this is a bad idea.

I don’t date rock stars.
I don’t fix wounded men.
And I definitely don’t fall for my best friend’s ex-fiancé.

And Braden doesn’t need saving.

He’s already done the hard work of standing back up.

What he wants now is honesty.
Calm.
A love that doesn’t feel like a battlefield.

And that terrifies me.

Because I’ve spent years mistaking intensity for passion.
Possession for devotion.
Noise for connection.

Braden is different.

He’s steady where I’m guarded.
Patient where I expect chaos.
And the way he looks at me makes it dangerously easy to believe I could have something real.

But crossing that line means risking
my friendship with Dani,
my credibility as a reporter,
and the fragile balance holding the band together.

And if this goes wrong…

I won’t just lose him.

I could lose it all.