Calvin M. Bennett came to New Orleans to disappear. Now the city knows his name—and Jazz Fest is about to make it impossible to hide.

Nine days before the festival, Cal is dividing his time between Miss Jo’s kitchen and a street band that formed without anyone admitting it. Then someone from his former firm arrives with an offer: return with real authority, fewer clients, and the kind of money that can buy a quiet life.

New Orleans has other plans.

When a hotel withdraws from a critical donor preview, the decision threatens artist housing, sponsorships, and the fragile chain of support holding the festival together. Cal sees the hidden problem everyone else is avoiding: no one is willing to take responsibility. Solving it means calling on Miss Jo, his accidental band, the Krewe, and Marisol—the brilliant strategist who can turn a near-disaster into something that looks inevitable.

But every problem Cal fixes makes him more valuable to people who want to claim him. June, the woman who has become his home, refuses to let him confuse being needed with belonging. With the city turning up the volume around them, Cal must choose between the powerful life waiting for Calvin M. Bennett and the imperfect, joyful future he has begun building as Cal.

Rich with New Orleans food, brass-band music, romance, humor, and the machinery behind one of the world’s greatest festivals, Call Me Cal: Jazz Fest is a story about visibility, loyalty, and choosing the life worth staying for.

Book Two in the Call Me Cal series.