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“Not all of them.”
“Yeah, he has been a bit protective of them. Wanted to keep them on his own hard drive.” It wasn’t entirely unusual. They were just laying down acoustic guitar after all and Zach’s vocals, which they’d probably do again when they got time with the full band. Once Zach decided who he wanted to use as his band. And whether or he wanted to go analog for some of the album. Until then, he wanted to keep everything under wraps, so she’d been happy for him to copy the recordings once he’d assured her he had a decent backup service.
“There was one tape though,” Faith said. “A song called ‘Air and Breath’?”
The one they’d been recording yesterday. “Yeah, that’s what we’ve been working on this week with Eli. It’s shaping up.”
Faith nodded toward the computer monitor where, now that she looked, Leah could see the file name. “I thought so. Interesting bridge though.” She pressed play and Leah heard Zach’s voice say, “Want to fool around?”
Her gut clenched and her skin went cold as though Faith had dumped ice water on her heat. Holy crap. No. She’d turned off the recording last night. She was sure of it. Had she hit the wrong button? Left the recording going? For how long? She slapped pause on the keyboard without thinking. “How much of that did you listen to?” She dropped her bag and leaned against the desk, feeling ill.
“I hit pause right about when you did,” Faith said. “So, you’re sleeping with my brother?” She sounded kind of incredulous.
“Er—” Leah wasn’t sure there was a good way to answer that question.
Faith shook her head. “So that’s a yes? What were you thinking?”
That your brother is smoking hot? No. That would be the dumb thing to say in this situation. “It’s … complicated,” Leah said.
“You know, he’s leaving, right? He’s not going to stick around.”
“Oh yeah, that part is crystal,” Leah said. “That’s the only reason I’m sleeping with him.”
Faith blinked. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not clueless, Faith. I know Zach.”
“Apparently so. Better than I thought.” Those Harper eyes, so like her brother’s, narrowed. “You know, I always thought you had a crush on Zach when we were in high school.”
“I kind of did,” Leah said. Understatement of the year.
“Is that why it’s complicated?”
Leah hesitated. Faith was her best friend. They didn’t have many secrets they didn’t share. But she’d kept this one a long time. And maybe it was time to tell her best friend. So she could keep her from doing the same stupid thing all over again. If she told Faith this was just a fling, then Faith could make sure she didn’t lose her head. Maybe she could say she was just using Zach to finally have a rebound fling.
Which was also true. Just not totally true.
“That’s not the only part that’s complicated.”
“Why?” Faith asked. “Forget that I’m his sister.” One side of her mouth quirked. “I’ll try to do the same—that might make the rest of this conversation easier.”
Leah smiled. This was why she loved Faith. Because she was always there, no matter what. Always had been there. She had a lot of Grey in her but it was well tempered with a lot of Lou. “Okay, deal.” She took a breath. If she was busted, she might as well come clean about everything. “Well, it’s like this. I slept with Zach at my eighteenth birthday party.”
Faith looked startled. Then enlightened. “Is that where you disappeared to that night? I always thought you’d snuck off with Kyle, and were too embarrassed to tell me you’d caved.”
Leah snorted. “No. I would have had to drink a lot more champagne that night to do that.”
“How much champagne did you have to drink?” Faith asked curiously.
“Two glasses,” Leah said. “Zach isn’t a saint but he isn’t the kind of guy who sleeps with women who are drunk.”
“I didn’t think he was the kind of guy who’d hit on my best friend either.”
“He’s not. I hit on him.”
“You sure it was only two glasses of champagne?” Faith said.
“Yes. I can plead temporary insanity, but not drunkenness.” Leah shrugged at her. “You were right about the crush. And I figured he was leaving and it was worth a shot. Otherwise I was just going to spend my life wondering. Haven’t you ever had a crush like that? Wild and mad and entirely a bad idea? One that destroys your common sense?”
