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The ringing of her phone in her purse startled her. Grateful for the distraction, she fished it out. Lexie’s name flashed on the screen.
“Hi, Lexie,” she answered.
“Hey, Cassie. How are you?”
Cassie’s gaze went to Zac, but he had his head together with Beau, discussing something to do with the next song.
“I’m okay, thanks. What’s up?”
“Connor mentioned Zac was taking you to the studio today. And I know he’ll probably be there all day, so I thought I’d check in with you and see if you wanted to come and hang with me, Eden, and Summer for a couple of hours. I thought you might enjoy a bit of girl time.”
A tentative smile crossed Cassie’s lips. Some time away from Zac might be exactly what she needed to sort her feelings out. And for someone who hadn’t had a lot of girl time in her life, it sounded perfect.
“Let me just ask Zac if he minds if I don’t stay. Can I call you back?”
“I’m going to jump in the car now. Just message me if you’re in, and I’ll swing by and pick you up.”
“Okay. Thanks, Lexie.”
They hung up, and Cassie waited for the guys to finish the run-through of the song they were working on. Then she hit the intercom button.
Zac looked up. “Everything okay?”
Cassie hoped he wouldn’t be offended if she asked to leave. Hopefully, he’d understand. “Lexie just called and invited me to hang out with her, Eden, and Summer. I told her I wanted to check with you.”
“Hold on,” he told her.
He murmured something to the guys, then put his guitar down and came out. “Is anything wrong? You looked upset before.”
“Everything’s fine,” she lied. “It’s just, it was nice of Lexie to invite me, and while I love listening to you play, I thought maybe it would be good to…” Her voice trailed off. She hesitated to say it would be good to get to know the women better, because the truth was, she probably wouldn’t see any of them again after she went back to Las Vegas. “Let you concentrate on what you’re doing while I have some girl time.” The words felt strange coming out of her mouth. When was the last time she’d had girl time outside the tour they’d just returned from? Had she ever, or had she spent all these years letting her whole life revolve around Bryan?
She held her breath, not sure how Zac would react. But he just searched her eyes, then nodded. “Yeah, I guess there’s no point in you hanging around here. We’re going to be a few hours. Is Lexie going to pick you up?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Okay, that’s good. I assume she’ll just drop you at the apartment afterward. You remember the code, don’t you?”
She nodded.
“I’ll see you back there later today, then.”
He dropped a kiss on her head, then headed back into the rehearsal room. She felt the distance open up between them again and hated it.
Cassie let out a sigh, then messaged Lexie. A dull pain throbbed behind her ribs. A pain she had no one to blame for but herself.
ChapterThirty-Six
Zac took a long pull of his beer, then leaned back in his chair, enjoying the warm evening sun on his face. A burst of laughter from across the table had a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
He was sitting with his Fractured bandmates and their women at an outdoor table in Connor and Lexie’s cliff-top garden. Drew was down at the other end of the table, on the phone as always. Their manager was more work-focused than he was. Cassie was sitting to Zac’s left, her forearm brushing his as she put her drink back on the table. They’d been home for almost a week now. And he’d adjusted more rapidly than usual to being off tour. Normally, it would take a few weeks to get used to not performing constantly. But maybe that was because this time, he had something to distract him.
Or someone.
Cassie was wearing a pretty yellow sundress, her hair pulled back off her beautiful face in a ponytail. The tip brushed the smooth skin of her back every time her head moved as she talked animatedly to Summer.
Lexie and Connor had invited them and the others over for dinner, and now they were all sitting outside, watching the sun set over the ocean. The view was beautiful. The darkening blue of the sky reminded him of Cassie’s eyes. The sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs was soothing after another long day of rehearsals.
Cassie laughed, and something warm came to life in his chest. He wasn’t used to having a woman by his side at one of these get-togethers. But sitting there with Cassie next to him felt good.
