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“Yes.” She folded her arms to match his. “Though I can leave if you prefer. I just thought?—”
There was a muscle clenching on and off at the side of his jaw. She held her breath, wondering if he was actually going to say “yes, go.” But then he relaxed and sat down on one of the stools by the counter. “No. Stay. Sorry. I’m in a foul mood but I shouldn’t take this out on you.”
“Anything I can do to help? Were you calling Jay?” It seemed the most likely option.
“Yes,” Zach said. “But apparently he’s in meetings for another hour. So I just have to sit on my hands until then. No, scratch that, first I have to go meet the guys I’d hired for the band at the ferry and tell them they might as well turn around and go home.”
What the hell? “What are you talking about?”
“They’re here to play with me at CloudFest. No CloudFest, no need for a band.”
No need for him to stay on Lansing any longer. The thought flashed into her head and she almost lost her breath. No. Not yet. She wasn’t ready for him to leave just yet. So she had to convince him to stay. “That’s ridiculous. We’ll find you another gig. And in the meantime you can rehearse with the guys. We can even spend more time recording.” She was talking too fast. She made herself stop. Breathe.
“Isn’t the studio booked pretty solid around CloudFest?”
“Yes, but a lot of the acts bring their own producers and engineers. Besides”—she waved her hand in the direction of Grey’s studio—“you have another studio you can use.”
“Recording requires a producer. And you can’t tell me you have much spare time from now until the festival starts.”
“I’ll have some.” She moved over to stand beside him. She wanted to put her arms around him, but the tension radiating from him didn’t exactly invite her any closer. “And I’m happy to spend it with you. Besides, you’ll need to rehearse before we can record the arrangements.”
Zach looked unconvinced but a little more tension drained out of him. Good. More relaxed meant that he wasn’t going to do anything crazy. Like leave. At least she hoped not. She moved in, put her arms around him. “Billy’s a prick,” she said. “But we’ll figure this out. The music is too good. You’re too good. It will be fine.”
His arms came around her and she hugged him harder. She had no idea if what she’d said was true or not. Truth was, the music business was a fickle bitch and no having a pedigree and talent like Zach was guarantee of success. They both needed this album to work. She didn’t want to think about what it might do to her chances of building a producing career if the album failed. Zach could bounce back from that but the fact that he’d taken a chance on a rookie producer and then not delivered the goods would blow back on her. So even more reason to make sure it was perfect. That he stayed until they had it right.
And call her crazy but now that they didn’t have the looming deadline of CloudFest hanging over them, she was hoping that might just take quite some time.
“Are you coming back to the studio?” she asked, letting go of him.
Zach straightened. Shook his head. “I’m going to stay here. Talk to Jay. Then I’ll come back. Tell Eli to go meet the guys. I’ll meet them back at the studio later today.”
She nodded. Faith had told Eli at the same time as her. She’d never seen Eli truly angry before but he’d gone lethally quiet, his brown eyes turning cold when Faith had delivered the news of what Billy had done. She’d always thought of Eli as Billy’s sidekick. Her first thought was that he’d most likely side with his dad, but he’d been horrified. He’d left to see if he could talk Billy out of it at the same time she’d left to find Zach. But she wasn’t going to tell Zach that. No point getting his hopes up. Sal had always said Billy was stubborn as a herd of donkeys, so she didn’t think Eli was likely to succeed in changing his dad’s mind.
“Okay. I’ll see you back there.” She leaned in again. Kissed him, fast and hard. “Everything will work out. Trust me.”
Faith was waiting outside for Leah when she got back to the studio. She looked worried.
How long had she been standing there? Since Leah had left?
“How is he?” Faith asked.
“Angry. But still here,” Leah replied. The flash of relief on Faith’s face told her she wasn’t the only one who’d been wondering if Zach would just pack up and go.
Faith scowled. “I could strangle Billy.” Her hands flexed at her side as though she was imagining doing just that.
“I think there’s a line forming for that privilege,” Leah said. “You think Eli will be able to get him to back down?”
Faith shook her head. “Grey was about the only person I ever knew who could really talk Billy out of something when he’d made up his mind. And even he only succeeded about half the time. I don’t like Eli’s chances. Not even if he drags his mom into it. She’s never really put her foot down with Billy about this kind of thing. Family stuff, yes. Business, not so much.”
Eli’s mom, Nina, was kind of a force of nature. But Faith was right. She gave Billy his freedom. “And he can really do this? Just take any slot he wants?”
Faith nodded. “Yep. I rang the lawyers. They checked the wording. He’s right. I can’t stop him. In a way it’s easier that he wants the secret gig. It would be all kinds of awkward to have to bump the closing act this late. At least a change in the secret act doesn’t screw up all the promo.”
No, it just screwed over Zach. “I still don’t understand why he’d do this now,” Leah said. “He could have told you months ago if he wanted the secret gig. Or the headline slot for that matter. Why wait until now?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. I put some feelers out. Tickets for the Erroneous tour aren’t moving as fast as they’d like, but it’s not like they’re bombing.”
“You think there’s something else going on?”
