I’d never felt more awkward in my entire life. They both suspected what had happened, and that, rather than Silas, was the elephant in the room.
I shot Silas a desperate look, and he returned it with a barely perceptible shrug. He was leaving it up to me to decide if we wanted to lay it all out in the open.
As we dug into our sandwiches, I stole nervous looks at Ezra and Cole, searching for signs of resentment. I didn’t find any. They kept their faces mostly neutral, sending amused looks in Silas’s direction and in mine, as if waiting for us to break. Maybe they really didn’t mind sharing me. After all, Silas knew I’d been with his friends, and he didn’t have a problem with it. Wouldn’t it be easier to lay it all out in the open right now?
No. I wasn’t ready to face this head-on. The thought of having that conversation made me clam up. And anyway, what was there to discuss if they were leaving in just one week?
“So tell us more about the trip,” I prompted, attempting to end the silence that was starting to feel much too loaded. I was eager to know if they’d been able to convince Abel to keep going with the band, but I didn’t feel comfortable asking that outright.
“Abel fell out of the canoe at one point,” Cole said immediately. “Easily my favorite part.”
He told us a few other funny incidents from the trip, including when Ezra’s sleeping bag almost caught on fire, and when Cole thought that a bunny rustling in the bushes was a wolf.
After we stopped laughing, Ezra took on a more serious tone. “It was good to get away from the town,” he admitted. “I think being here for so long has been hard for Abel. There are too many places that remind him of our visits with Charlie.”
His words were like a knife to the gut. Did I need any more confirmation that they would be out of here as soon as the recording was done? Suddenly, I was no longer hungry.
I stood up to throw my half-eaten sandwich into the garbage. “I’m glad you had a good time. I should head home and get some chores done before my shift starts. See you on Monday?”
Ezra turned in his chair to look at me. “Hey, how did your band’s practice go?”
If there was one thing I didn’t feel like doing, it was replaying that sad tale all over again.
“Silas can bring you up to speed,” I said, casting the guitarist a preemptively grateful look. He nodded in response, an unspoken promise in his eyes.
Ezra’s forehead creased, but I was already clutching my bag and walking toward the door.
“See you Monday, Adeline!” Cole yelled, and I raised my hand in a wave without looking back.
SILAS
“Spill it,” Cole demanded as soon as Adeline was out the door.
I gave him a blank look. I wasn’t going to tell them what had happened between Adeline and I when she’d just held back from saying anything.
That’s not to say I thought her decision was the right one.
“It’s not like we can’t put together what happened here this weekend, but a confirmation would be nice,” Ezra added.
“Well, you’re not getting one,” I retorted. They’d held their tongues pretty damn well about sleeping with her, so why the hell would I play it differently? I stood up from the kitchen stool and collapsed on the couch. Damn, it smelled like Adeline.
Cole let out a long breath. “Okay, we’ll work on our assumptions then.”
“Hold on,” Ezra butt in. “What happened with Through Azure Skies?”
I told them what had gone down on Thursday, and by the end of my retelling, they both wore thoughtful expressions. I could guess what they were thinking.
“How did the talk go with Abel?” Before leaving for the trip, they had told me all about their plans to convince him to stay together after we were done with the album. I was onboard with that plan as quick as lightning and was pissed that I couldn’t be there when they spoke to him.
That is, before Adeline had came by to play nurse.
“We got him to agree to consider it. I think we really have a chance,” Cole said with a hopeful expression.
This was incredible news. Everything was slowly coming together in my head. I gave Cole a hard look. “We should ask Adeline to join Bleeding Moonlight.”
Cole’s face broke out into an enthusiastic smile. “Fuck yes.”
“Do you think she’s ready?” Ezra asked.
