Sindy’s shift at the diner flew by. For once, she wished the day dragged on. She wasn’t looking forward to seeing Lucas after what happened yesterday, but if she planned on moving forward with a career in music she needed to get past it. She showed up at rehearsal, shoulders back and her head held high, although her heart raced and her mind was all over the place.
Thankfully, Tessa and Mason were already in the studio when she got there, and she greeted them with a wave. She didn’t dare look at Lucas. The exchange they would have shared would have been a dead giveaway, and she didn’t want anyone to know that they had slept together. She froze. Maybe they already knew. Lucas and Tessa were close, and Mason was like a brother to Lucas. Tessa would have said something, she reasoned. The girl was so outspoken, never sugarcoating her words.
Play it cool, she told herself as she unlatched her guitar case and slipped the strap of her Strat over her head.
“Need help with that?” Lucas asked.
Sindy’s heart rate sped up. “No. Thank—” She shouldn’t have looked at him. His gaze rendered her motionless, and she forgot what she was about to say.
“I was thinking about the way you changed up the riff inThe Stage.”
She raised her brow.
“I think we should go with it.”
Her mouth fell open and her cheeks burned, enraged at the way he suddenly changed his mind. “Nowyou think we should go with it?” She lowered her voice to a raspy whisper. “Do you think I slept with you just so you’d take my suggestions?” she hissed, eyes narrowed into thin slits.
“No! Of course not. I just think that maybe I was being too—”
“Too damn self-righteous?”
He had the nerve to smile, that God damn bewitching smile that he thought was so damn irresistible.
“Relax,” he said, holding up his hands. “I’m backing down. You won. This round.” He looked over his shoulder as he walked away and gave her the onceover, that cocky smile still on his lips.
The man was infuriating.
“We’re trying something new,” Lucas told Tessa and Mason. “We’re gonna use the alternate chord progression Sindy came up with onThe Stage.” He glanced at her. “It’s not that bad. She convinced me to give it a shot.”
Sindy fumed. She knew what he meant by “convinced”. She inhaled a deep breath and swore steam would shoot out her nostrils when she exhaled.
“Go ahead.” Lucas nodded at her. “Show ‘em what you got.”
Instead of snapping at him or coming up with a witty retort, she channeled her energy into her guitar and delivered a fierce and ardent version ofThe Stage. She stopped after the last chorus to get their reaction to her take on the song, slapping her strings to silence the sound.
“Holy shit! That rocked.” Tessa gave her brother a playful nudge in the shoulder. “She upstaged you, big brother.” Mason laughed at the dig, but Lucas scowled, clearly not one to handle criticism so well.
Sindy gloated. “Let me show you the chord progression again, Lucas.”
“I got it,” Lucas said, sternly. “Show off,” he muttered under his breath.
Victory. It never felt so good. They ran through the song a few times with Lucas adopting the new riff as if he’d written it himself, and Sindy playing along backing up his lead. It amazed her how quickly he picked up the changes and ran with them. Watching him play was an amazing thing to witness. She needed to reel in her need to control everything, because she could learn so much from him. And he wanted to teach her. Too bad he was such a jerk.
After thirty minutes they took a break. The uneasiness returned to Sindy’s stomach as thoughts of last night with Lucas flashed inside her head once again, and that damn couch mocked her with memories of what transpired on its surface. Few things unnerved her, but being alone with Lucas overshadowed all of her other previous trepidations. Tessa and Mason were on the other side of the room, but they may as well have been in another zip code. She needed the awkwardness to be over but didn’t know how to move past it. Sitting on one of the amps, because she’d never sit on that damn couch again, she fiddled with the strings of her guitar until a black boot landed next to her leg.
Lucas put his guitar on his knee and rattled off the hook fromRock God. “I think you should come in with something like this.” He played a short melody. “What do you think? Do you need me to play it again?”
“No. I don’t need you to play it again.” She repeated the notes, but her head was reeling with too many thoughts, and she forgot how it ended. Flustered by his open legs spread in front of her, she was forced to look at his crotch and her mind went blank. Damn him and those sexy tight jeans. She pulled her eyes away and looked up at him. He was smiling with perfect white teeth. “Can you play it again for me?” she asked.
He chuckled and played the short melody. She paid close attention this time and mimicked what he played.
“That’s good,” Lucas said with a smile. “Do you hear how the heaviness of what you played enhances the riff? It ties in with the rhythm. You, Tessa and Mason need to lock in that sound.”
Normally, she would have thought he was talking down to her, explaining things only an educated music major would understand, but she realized that playing rhythm guitar required a different skillset than taking the lead, and he was only trying to improve the music. She turned off her defensive mechanism, for once, nodded, and accepted his advice.
Over the next few days, rehearsal sessions became bearable. She reined in her smart mouth, curbed her teasing smiles, and paid attention. She actually began to understand some of the concepts Lucas taught her. In turn, Lucas backed off on his elaborate knowledge of music theory and concentrated on teaching her to read notes on paper. He was nicer. More patient. They hadn’t argued. They talked and discussed the music and exchanged ideas.
Tonight’s session went smoothly. They’d perfected several songs so far and had played them for the last two hours without a hiccup. For the first time since Sindy joined Prodigy, she felt like part of the band.
