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“I’m sure Billy has a shovel somewhere.”
“A shovel?”
“To help with the digging yourself out part,” Eli said and then laughed as Zach pitched the bottle cap back at his head.
Chapter Five
“That’s some voice.”
Leah jumped, her hand knocking one of the knobs on the mixer out of place. Zach. That was all she needed.
She was already running on a night of broken sleep, having been too angry when she’d arrived home to do much more than toss and turn. Facing Zach again so soon was the last thing she needed. So what the hell was he doing here?
It wasn’t as though they had anything to talk about.
She reached to turn off the recording—Nessa having broken off mid note to wave her guitarist, Clay, over—and the sound from the booth, moved the knob back to position for the next take, and swiveled around in her chair to face him.
“Yes. She can blow the roof off.” She narrowed her eyes. Why was he waltzing into her studio after telling her she wasn’t good enough for him last night?
Her glare was wasted. Zach was staring through the glass at Nessa, who was talking with Clay, curls bouncing as she gestured enthusiastically and talked a mile a minute. He looked … impressed. He also looked good.
Dammit.
She was mad at him. She shouldn’t care what he looked like. She should be immune to his stupid charms. But he was kind of hard to ignore. His jeans were battered and torn—and not the kind that came that way from the store—and he wore a T-shirt that had seen better days and his hair was all over the place and he still looked like he should be on a billboard or a magazine cover.
She, on the other hand, looked like normal everyday Leah. Jeans. Converse. T-shirt that was hopefully unstained with coffee. She glanced down at her chest. Yep. Stain free. And at least she hadn’t worn yoga pants to work today.
“Who is she?” Zach asked, tipping his chin toward the booth.
“That’s Nessa Lewis.”
He looked blank. “Should I know her?”
Leah stared up at him. “Are you kidding me?”
“What?”
“She’s the first singer Faith’s been working with for her new foundation.”
Zach hitched a shoulder. She took that as musician code for “Nah, I got nothing.”
Okay, so maybe Faith was right and Zach was just another self-absorbed wannabe rock star these days. Maybe she’d dodged a bullet last night. “Wow. I knew she was pissed with you but you two really haven’t been talking, have you? Or have you just not been paying attention?” The last part came out sharper than she’d intended. She took a breath, rubbing at the bare place on her finger where her wedding and engagement rings used to be. She couldn’t afford to get into an argument with Zach with a roomful of musicians standing just a few feet away, separated only by glass. She doubled-checked that the intercom was off.
“I know she started another foundation. And that she’s running a development program for female musicians. I just didn’t remember the chick’s name.”
“Chick?” Ugh. “Double wow.” She didn’t know exactly what to say. Everything lingering on the tip of her tongue was bound to start the fight she really didn’t want to have. Too much chance of saying things she couldn’t risk saying to him if they had a real argument.
“Are you mad that I didn’t know her name or that I turned you down last night?”
“Triple wow.” She gritted her teeth, then forced herself to relax. “And you know, right now, Zach, three wows and you’re out. I’m kind of busy here.”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“Well, I don’t particularly want to talk to you right now. So, please go.” She made a shooing motion toward the door to emphasize the words.
Zach stayed right where he was. “Why not?”
“Leaving aside last night? There’s the fact that Faith’s my best friend. You haven’t exactly been setting yourself up to win any brother-of-the-year awards over the last few years. You hurt her. So you figure it out.” She rubbed her thumb over the base of her ring finger again.
