Sully pins me with a heated look. “I welcome all feedback.” He grabs the keys from his pocket. “I’ll drive.”
“You don’t have a driver?” I drop the brush onto my bed and slip on a pair of black ballerina flats before grabbing my purse.
He shakes his head. “I’m not that big of a celebrity.”
I lock the door and follow him toward the SUV I thought was shady and slide into the passenger’s seat. All my nerves are on high alert. My palms are sweaty, and I should focus on breathing to avoid hyperventilating.
I should be cautious. I’ve been burned before, trusting someone only to end up with my heart in pieces. But everything about Sully feels different—right, even. Still, I can’t ignore the nagging voice inside me. Amy and Gigi are already stirring up trouble, and I haven’t even met them yet. I don’t want to be the one to cause a rift in the band, but there’s something about Sully that makes me want to believe him. I want to trust him; I really do.
He’s not just the best sex I’ve ever had; there’s something deeper, something real between us. He’s the calm to the storm inside my mind, the only thing that makes me feel grounded when everything else feels chaotic. But if he’s lying to me…if he’s playing me like everyone else has before…this could destroy me. I’m terrified of trusting him completely, but a part of me hopes I’m wrong. I hope he’s the one who won’t break my heart.
15
Whenwearriveatthe studio, Ben and Lars fist bump Sully as he walks in. Their smiles grow when they see me behind him.
“You have a hot shadow,” Lars jokes.
Sully drapes his arm around my shoulders. “Don’t I know it?” He nods to the sound booth where Charlotte is singing.
“You wanna hear?” Ben hits a button and Charlotte’s heavenly vocals filter into the room.
Sully pulls out the chair and gestures for me to sit. I’m afraid of touching anything. This board looks like it can launch a NASA rocket. How do producers figure out how all these switches and computers work?
After a couple of minutes, Charlotte stops and pulls the headphones on her ears down around her neck. “How was that?”
Ben hits an intercom button. “It was perfect. Sully’s here so we’ll do his riffs and vocals now.”
“Thank God. I need a break.” Charlotte exits the sound booth and instantly hugs me when she sees me. “I didn’t know we had a guest.”
Sully grabs his bass guitar from its case and steps into the sound booth. He strums a few warm-up chords before Lars taps a few buttons, starting the recording.
His fingers dance over the strings, and something deep inside me aches, wishing those fingers were strumming something else.
Charlotte chuckles and leans her arms across the back of the chair I’m sitting in. “He’s exceptional, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” I can’t take my eyes off of him. He shreds and it’s hauntingly dark. Some chords make me want to weep. Then when he sings the first verse, my heart skids to a stop and melts away.
“Don’t tell him I said that. It’ll go straight to his head.”
A smile curls my lips. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
Sully plays the guitar too aggressively and a string snaps. “Shit,” he says.
Ben face palms and hits the intercom button. “Dude, I told you that pick wasn’t going to work.”
Lars shakes his head as he grabs a box of strings and walks into the sound booth.
Charlotte snags my wrist and pulls me outside. “I need fresh air. Being in a band with those three can be a lot.”
“But you like being in a band, right? You never thought of going solo?”
She leans against the brick wall and crosses her left ankle over her right. “When I was younger, I wanted to be solo. But I like being in a band. Not all the focus is on you, even as the singer. I know my boys will back me up, and it’s nice to have others to bounce ideas off of. And it’s a bonus to travel the world with my husband.” She spins her weddingring around her finger. “Even if he can be annoying now and again.” She smiles. “What about you? Seeing you with Sully after Vegas must mean something.”
“Oh.” I hug myself. “He found where I worked and asked me to dinner.”
“And then brought you here?” She tsks. “Boys.”
“He came by my apartment because of the Insta post about Gigi.” I stare at the crack in the sidewalk. Not wanting to see her reaction and fear Sully really is playing both sides.
