I scratched my beard at his question. “In terms of skill or mentality?”
“Mentality, of course,” the redhead clarified. “We all know she’s got what it takes in terms of skill.”
It was a hard question to answer. Adeline still didn’t strike me as a risk-taker, but then again, this weekend had showed she could go out on a limb when she wanted to.
“She’s afraid of believing in herself,” I mused.
“Question is why? And can we change that?” Cole added.
“If we’re right about the events of this weekend, we’re getting through to her,” Ezra said, looking for any reaction on my face, which of course he didn’t get. “Let me guess, she didn’t want to tell us about you two because she’s worried about our reaction. I thought you hinted to her that we’d be fine with it, Cole?”
“I did. But you’ve got to admit, this is an unusual arrangement. We’ve all had more time to come to terms with it,” Cole added.
Ezra sighed. “Who would have thought it’d feel so fucking right.”
Even though I was keeping my mouth shut, I couldn’t help but agree with Ezra in my head. My initial hesitations had all but disappeared by now. Somehow, all of us being with her felt organic. Natural.
And what about Abel?a voice cautioned inside my head.
If she got through to that salty motherfucker, it would be a miracle.
“Part of getting her to agree will be making sure she’s comfortable with this whole thing,” Cole said, making a circle with his arms to emphasize he was talking about our relationship.
“I agree.” Ezra stood up to pace the room. “There’s also Abel. He seemed a lot better this weekend, but who knows if he’ll be back in one of his moods now that we’re back.”
“He told me he wrote a song with Adeline,” I offered, remembering what the singer had told me before they left.
“Whoa,” Cole exclaimed as Ezra stopped his pacing. “That’s huge. If that’s not a sure sign she’s perfect for us, I don’t know what is.”
“It’s funny, because between all of us, I think she and Abel are the most similar.”
Ezra and Cole waited for me to continue.
“They both want something so badly they’d rather give up instead of risk failing. Adeline wants to be a career musician, but instead, she feeds that intense desire with crumbs, and it can’t do anything but start to eat her from the inside. Abel wants Bleeding Moonlight to be successful, but he’s terrified we won’t be able to without Charlie, so he wants to break up.”
We all pondered that for a minute.
“I think you nailed it on the head,” Ezra said after a while. “The crazy thing is that they can each be the solution to the other’s problem.
“Hmm,” I nodded. “We need to talk to Abel about asking Adeline to join the band before we hint at anything to her, but in the meantime, I was thinking we do something to cheer her up.”
Cole sat up straight, his eyes shining with excitement. “I know the perfect thing. I just got four tickets to a Mastery concert on Thursday. I can call my contact for a fifth, and we can all go together with Adeline. It’s in Philadelphia, so we could record during the day and leave after six for the drive.”
I knew Adeline liked Mastery because we had played one of their songs earlier. I grinned at Cole, “I think this is going to be a ton of fun.”
* * *
Abel opened the door with a scowl on his face. Obviously, his improved mood hadn’t extended past the camping trip.
“You’re not sick anymore,” he concluded after giving me a once-over.
“I had a good nurse,” I responded gruffly.
“Hmm, Adeline to the rescue once again.” His voice was laced with sarcasm I really did not appreciate.
“We have something to discuss, sunshine,” Cole said, pushing Abel aside and walking into the house.
We crowded around his kitchen island, waiting for Ezra to make our case. He was always best equipped to get through to Abel.
