AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shake my head, trying to hide my grin. Henry hates Krista, I think possibly more than anyone, aside from his father and Ashleigh’s. “I know you would.” I pull out my phone and unlock it. “I wish I’d gotten it on camera,” I admit as I hand him my phone.
He takes it from me as he stands. “C’mon.” His head jerks, and he leads me downstairs to the lower level, through the family room, and to his office. He pushes the door open and steps aside, allowing me to enter first. I walk to the low-sitting armchair in front of his desk as he walks behind it, opens a drawer, and retrieves a cord. He connects the phone to his computer and starts the transfer, then walks around the desk once more and leans against it with his hand propped behind him. “Why couldn’t you do this?”
“I know how to create music, not restore it. I’m not a sound engineer.”
“And I am?”
“No.” I shrug as I sink deeper into the chair and cross an ankle over my knee. “But you know how to do this, and you have the equipment to do it.”
“And you have access to an entire recording studio with state-of-the-art equipment that costs more than my house. I’m not getting your point.”
“There’s not one. I just want you to do it. You’re on paternity leave, so you have more time than me. Best friend duties and all.”
“Sounds like I need a replacement.”
“Funny, I was just thinking that a few minutes ago.” His eyes pop wide, and I grin.
The door swings open, slamming against the wall, earning the exuberant firecracker a glare from her boyfriend, who is really trying hard to pretend he’s the serious one of the duo when we all know he isn’t anything near serious most of the time. Just a cranky asshole when things aren’t going his way. With Ashleigh, they seldom go his way.
She looks between us with narrowed eyes. “You better not have started without me.”
“Sit down, Trouble.” Her mouth opens to argue but then snaps shut with a hiss.
Henry pushes off the desk and is standing next to her in less than a second. “What was that? Are you in labor?”
“No, dickface, it was a kidney shot. Stop hovering. When I’m in labor, you will fucking know.”
“Okay.” I wave my hands before Ralph and Alice get into another argument. “Let’s see if I have anything we can use.”
Ashleigh shoves Henry away, making him glare. These two are all glares and growls.
She falls into the seat next to me as Henry returns to the desk. He leans over, pressing play, then moves to the chair Ashleigh sits in, lifts her, then sits, pulling her into his lap. As soon as the recording starts, my head falls back, and I groan, dragging my hands over my face. It’s muffled. Really fucking muffled.
Henry shoots me a look of warning as he sets his finger over his lips. Each of us squints and makes faces as we listen, as if that will help us hear better. The ache in my temples increases with every second of the five-minute conversation that passes. By the time it ends, my fingers are massaging my temples. Most of it was too muffled to understand. Of course, Krista’s grating shrieks were perfectly clear.
“Now what?” I don’t lift my head or open my eyes as I speak. It just seems like too much effort right now. “Her first confession was a fluke. This one…”
“Yeah, I didn’t understand any of it.” The pity in Ashleigh’s voice makes my stomach clench. There is no way I’ll get all that again, and the thought of trying makes the pounding worse.
“Give me a few days,” Henry says.
That makes me look up. “Why? You heard it, man. There’s nothing salvageable with that recording. I shouldn’t have put the damn thing back in my pocket.”
“Just let me try before you give up, okay? If it doesn’t work… well, then we’ll all make her fucking listen. I know that’s why you haven’t forced it yet. You don’t think she’ll believe you.”
“H, brother, even you said she wouldn’t believe me.”
“But she would believe me. And her brother. We all know the truth.” Ashleigh tries to spin a positive except…
“The only reason any of you know that Krista and I never slept together is because I told you what she said. Lily will think you’re all being too naïve. Or, knowing her dramatic ass, traitors choosing my side.”
“Why does it even fucking matter if you slept with Krista? It’s not like she didn’t go home with that guy,” Henry asks with a huff. Ashleigh slaps him in the chest. “What? It’s true. We all saw her. They weren’t even together.”
My mouth twists as I consider what he said. The truth is, I know exactly what the problem is. It’s taken me a while to put it all together because I’m an idiot, but something I said to her once popped into my head a while ago. Something, I realize now, was taken out of context. “It’s about who,” I tell him.
Ashleigh looks at me and smiles, then whacks him again. “What the hell was that for?”
“Because you’re an ass. And an idiot.”
