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Zac closed his eyes to listen. Her shaky voice was almost too soft to hear.
“The slide of your hands on my skin chases the dark away,
You wrapped yourself around my heart long ago,
When sunbeams flared too bright in my eyes,
You wrapped me around your heart just as tightly,
And now, entangled, we stay.”
The words had to be about Bryan. He was the only man she’d ever been with, and it was too personal not to be based on her own experience. He wanted to ask her about it, about Bryan. About what had been between them. But he wouldn’t. He was already more invested than he should be. He didn’t want to know what might happen if he let himself get too curious.
The draw he felt toward her was already too strong.
He opened his eyes and found her watching him nervously. He nodded. “It’s good.”
Something like disappointment flitted across her face. As if she were hoping for something more. Zac could imagine Bryan telling her the same thing. Right before he went back to doing whatever it was that was more important than Cassie sharing a part of herself with him.
She closed the book and went to stand, probably to return it to her bag.
“Wait,” he told her. He shut his eyes again, remembering her words. He turned them over in his mind, looked at them one way, then the other. Something clicked and his fingers moved. He started singing one of Crossfire’s new songs. One that until now hadn’t quite been working. He made some changes on the fly, adding some of Cassie’s words.
“I’ve gotta feeling you know this isn’t right.
Got a feeling our hearts are wrapped up too tight.
We’re fighting a cold war with the words we don’t say.
But we’re in too deep now, so entangled we stay.
You gotta know I’m feeling this isn’t right.”
It needed a bit of massaging, but he liked it. It fit. He smiled and opened his eyes. Cassie was staring at him with parted lips.
He put his guitar down. “It’s rough, but it’s good. If you let us use it, we’ll give you a songwriting credit and a royalty payment.”
“Wh-what?” She sounded winded.
“I’ll run it past the guys and see what they think. But if they like it, we’ll pay and credit you.”
Cassie’s laugh was slightly hysterical. “It was a couple of words. You don’t have to credit me. Or pay me.”
He leaned forward and reached over to grab her wrist. “Yes, I do.Wedo. Your words, Cassie. Not mine. Not Devon’s, or Beau’s, or Caleb’s. Yours.”
She looked down at where his fingers curled around her arm. “You could have just as easily come up with them on your own.”
He let go and leaned back. “Yeah, we might have. But we didn’t. And now this song is done, and we can move on to the next one. So, you just saved us some very valuable time.”
She opened her mouth, but he cut her off. “We’re done arguing about this. If we use your words, we’ll credit and pay you. Now it’s late, and we should take advantage of having an early night. Are you sure—”
“I’m sure, Zac. This is very comfortable, and more than big enough for me.”
He nodded and stood, looking down at her sitting there so small on that big couch. The sight warmed him in a way he didn’t want to examine.
“Good night, Cassie,” he murmured.
He didn’t know what the expression was on her face as she said good night in return, but the chaotic mix of emotions that swirled through him as he walked away told him it meant trouble.
