“Your playing was fine,” he added, blinking a few times and making me notice the lush fullness of his lashes. “I’d like to keep working together.”
It wasn’t a flaming endorsement, but at least now he’d gone on record saying that he was fine with me being here. If I’d had more pride or other gigs on the table that paid twenty grand, I might have sneered at him and walked out. Instead, I gave him a terse nod. “I accept your apology.”
Something closer to a grimace than a smile fluttered across his face. Without another word, he moved his attention to the guys behind me.
“I want everyone ready to roll in two minutes,” Abel barked. “We’re not leaving for lunch until you’re able to nail this next song.”
Abel set a frantic pace over the next two days. He wanted to start recording the following week, which seemed incredibly ambitious, and this upped the pressure on me to learn the songs quickly.
I asked Ezra what he thought about our progress when we began to pack up on Wednesday night. “I think we’re on track,” he said. “We have three more songs to rehearse by the end of this week. Feels doable.”
Over the past few days, I’d gotten a chance to know him better, and we’d built an easy rapport. He wasn’t an open book like Cole, or gruffly direct like Silas, but he answered my questions without hesitation and seemed to enjoy working together. He smiled often, but I thought there was something sad hidden in the depths of his eyes.
Cole came to stand by us, drawing me out of my thoughts. “Adeline, do you want to grab dinner with us?”
“Thanks, but I should head back,” I said to him with an apologetic smile. “I haven’t spent much time with my sister, and she’s leaving in just a couple of weeks.”
“Why don’t you bring her?” he offered. “We can all go home to drop off our stuff and then meet at the Italian place on the east side.”
That all sounded great, except for the fact that I hadn’t exactly told Molly what I’d been doing this week. I knew she’d blow this out of proportion, thinking it was going to be my big break or some other nonsense like that. I didn’t want that pressure, but at the same time, I hated lying to her. I’d been telling her that I was spending my mornings at the gym and then working more shifts at the bar.
“What do you think?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows in a way that made me laugh. Cole was easy to get along with.
“Okay, I’ll see if I can drag her out. She’ll want a picture with you guys. She nearly killed me when I told her I didn’t get one at the show.”
Cole smiled, and my eyes caught on the perfect shape of his lips.
“And you haven’t gotten one with us during the past few days, either. We’ll have to fix that tonight.” He looked back over his shoulder. “I’ll go tell the guys, they’re always so goddamn slow getting out of here.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in about an hour.”
* * *
“You are doing what?” Molly gaped at me when I filled her in on my new gig.
“And you kept it from me? This is huge! Oh. My. God. My sister is going to be a rock star!” she shrieked, her palms coming to press against the sides of her face.
“Molly, no,” I said, even though I couldn’t help but laugh at her over-the-top reaction. “This. This right here is exactly why I didn’t want to say anything. It’s just a short gig to help them record one album. Don’t make it a whole thing.”
“But it is a whole thing, Ade. They are huge. I mean huge! You need to start an Instagram account right now and document the process. You’ll have a hundred thousand followers within a few weeks. That’s your platform right there,” she said as she followed me into my room.
I huffed. “Look at you, little miss marketing queen. What are they going to teach you at Northeastern if you already know everything? And no, I am certainly not documenting anything. I’m pretty sure they’re trying to keep this whole album on the down-low for now. So don’t say a word to anyone, okay?”
She groaned, as if keeping it a secret would bring her serious pain. “Okay, I’ll stay quiet, but…oh my God!”
“You said that already. Now calm down, go change, and meet me by the door in ten. We’re going to all have dinner together.”
“Together?” she whispered. “You mean me and you? Or do you mean…”
“You and me and the band. Please don’t scream.”
Molly slapped her palms over her mouth and failed to stifle her excited squeal.
“And I already checked, you can get a picture. Just one. Now go. Hurry.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were in the car driving to the restaurant.
“What are they like?” Molly asked, fidgeting with the collar of her T-shirt. “Are they nice?”
