by Caisey Quinn
“We’re now boarding passengers in group one. That includes all first-class passengers and those of you in our Elite and Platinum Traveler Rewards programs.”
I take my place in line, and the attractive brunette with the microphone to her mouth makes eye contact as she rattles off more of the flight information. I tip my cowboy hat at her.
When I reach the entrance to the sky bridge connecting the building to the plane, I step out of line in a moment of panic. I watch as everyone else says their goodbyes and boards the plane.
“Sir? Will you be flying with us today?” The attractive brunette reaches for my boarding pass.
My mind and heart engage in an all-out war. Turn tail and head home to my sister and best friend—to my band—or get on this plane and leave them behind.
“Sir?” The flight attendant looks less interested and more irritated than before.
Handing over my boarding pass, I adjust the guitar on my back and take the first step toward a neon dream I’ve been chasing for as long as I can remember.
I knew I’d get here one day—I just didn’t expect to be alone.
Leaving Amarillo Playlist
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia”—The Charlie Daniels Band
“If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)”—Alabama
“Whataya Want from Me”—Adam Lambert
“Beneath Your Beautiful”—Labrinth feat. Emeli Sandé
“Ring of Fire”—Johnny Cash
“Set Fire to the Rain”—Adele
“Love Runs Out”—OneRepublic
“One Night”—Christina Perri
“All Your Life”—The Band Perry
“Metamorphosis”—Philip Glass
“Dust to Dust”—The Civil Wars
“Let the Drummer Kick”—Citizen Cope
“If I Lose Myself”—One Republic
“Somewhere in My Car”—Keith Urban
“Eavesdrop”—The Civil Wars
“Bluebird”—Christina Perri
“Lover Dearest”—Marianas Trench
“The End”—Kings of Leon
“Time to Go”—Sara Swenson
“Dream”—Priscilla Ahn
“Dust”—Eli Young Band
Acknowledgments
WRITING THE NEON DREAMS SERIES HAS BEEN THE MOST AMAZING experience for me. I’ve grown a great deal as a writer and as a human being. I’ve learned so much and been supported and challenged and I have so many people to thank for that.
I am so lucky to have the family that I have. Without them, I could never write the books that I do. I am so grateful for each and every one of you—there aren’t even words to express how much you mean to me.
Without my rock star of an agent, this book would not be in your hands. Big hugs of love and gratitude to Kevan Lyon for taking a chance on some random lady from Alabama! I am so grateful to Kelly Simmon of InkSlinger PR for connecting us! Thanks, KP! Without Amanda Bergeron’s tireless efforts and unfailing ability to see even more potential in my characters than I did, this book wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable as I hope you found it to be. Thank you, Amanda, for your patience and for your faith in me.
I have lots of teary hugs saved up for the ladies on the marketing team at HarperCollins as well! Thank you, ladies, for your enthusiasm and support. I can’t even begin to describe how amazed I am by the art department and the perfection that they create. I am so excited to be a part of the Avon/William Morrow family. Speaking of which, I have to thank the sweet ladies who were so kind to me at RWA, many of whom made time in their own hectic writing schedules to read this novel. Thank you Jennifer Armentrout, Candis Terry, Jennifer Ryan, Cora Carmack, and Jay Crownover. I can’t describe what it felt like to meet so many authors I admired, not to mention knowing that they were reading my words. (There was a lot of wine and anxiety medication involved.)
Thank you to the cover model, Louise, and photographer Mark Hare, for allowing us to use this image for the cover. I think I stared at it for a month straight.
I have a fabulous street team, the #BackwoodsBelles, made up of some of the most amazing ladies that I am beyond blessed to know. The same could be said for my beta reading group, CQ’s Road Crew. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a wonderful support system, but I’m glad I did it. Thank you, ladies, for always having my back!
Several of my critique partners were an essential part of making this novel the best that it could be. Elizabeth Lee and Emily Tippetts, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read my hideous first drafts and for your honest feedback. Elizabeth, thank you for naming the band and for the hours on end you let me talk this series out over the phone.
I have a few other first-round readers that I have to send a tremendous thank you to. Amy, Erica, Chelcie, Jaclyn, Stephanie, Tricia, Marie, Kristy, Kelly, Mickey, Natalie, Jenna, Leah, and Rahab, y’all are precious to me and I love each of you! Just as I love and appreciate all of you who take the time to read and review books and blog and post about them. There aren’t enough thank-yous in the world to say how much I appreciate y’all!
The dedicatee at the beginning is my brother and I have to thank him for driving me crazy all those years with constant guitar ballads coming from his bedroom and for explaining to me his many, many theories on the integrity and importance of music. Thanks for being you, little brother.
And here’s where I get mushy. Music is such an integral part of who I am, it’s almost impossible to articulate. When I was barely tall enough to sit in the front seat riding with my dad in an old pickup truck listening to what my mom referred to as “knee-slapping” music, I had no idea that one day he would be gone and those songs would forever be the music playing in my internal memory box. Just like I didn’t know that one day anything and everything by Boyz II Men would remind me of that painful eighth-grade breakup, or that Aerosmith’s “Crazy” would still conjure up the tingles of my very first kiss even fifteen years later. Shania Twain and Bryan White crooning “From This Moment” will always paint a clear portrait of my wedding day and there are so many songs on the soundtrack of my life that they’d be impossible to list here. I don’t know how to go about thanking music, so I will thank the folks who support musicians. Thank you, music teachers. Whether you teach kindergarten kiddos to sing “The Wheels on the Bus” or you’re the maestro of a world-renowned orchestra, what you do matters and I am grateful for it. Thank you to the many musicians who have struggled and overcome and made their music despite the odds. Every musician I’ve ever met has a story about “this one time” when someone gave them a chance or a shot that led to their lucky break. Thank y’all for giving me mine.
To those of you who sing in your car and don’t get embarrassed when the guy next to you notices and to my family for letting me sing off key in the car at the top of my lungs—I love y’all.
And lastly and most important, if you read this book in its entirety and for some crazy reason you are still reading my overly emotional babbling nonsense, thank you. You are the ones I get emails and Facebook messages and tweets from and you make my world go ’round—literally. If I could see you in person I would hug you entirely too hard. If you come see me at a signing event, it’s likely that I will!
This series is a lot of things. It’s a glimpse at the backstory of a band. It’s sexy, and gritty and romantic—sweet at times and ugly at others. But at its core, it’s about dreams. Since I was a little girl writing silly stories and buying every single Babysitter’s Club book I could get my hands on, I dreamt of being a writer. As I got older and the reality of how many writers actually got publishing deals and made a living with writing alone set in, my dream began to seem like just that—a pipe dream that was fun to imagine but not likely to happen in real life.
If you are reading this, my dream came true.
Never ever stop dreaming. And more important, never stop trying to achieve your dreams. While it might not be feasible to make it the cent
ral focus of your life (unfortunately, we can’t pay bills with dreams or eat them), do something every day that keeps your dream alive. Your future self will thank you.
Y’all, I’m shutting up, I swear, but I know I forgot at least one person because I always do. To that person, or those several people I should have mentioned but forgot, please forgive me. You are likely the most important folks and I take you for granted! I am a flawed human being; thank you for loving me anyway.
About the Author
Caisey Quinn lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband, daughter, and other assorted animals. She is the bestselling author of the Kylie Ryans series as well as several new adult and contemporary romance novels featuring Southern girls finding love in unexpected places.
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Credits
Cover photograph © by Mark Hare
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
LEAVING AMARILLO. Copyright © 2015 by Caisey Quinn. Excerpt from Loving Dallas copyright © 2015 by Caisey Quinn. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-236681-8
EPub Edition March 2015 ISBN 9780062366825
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