Shit. “You’re not even a trial lawyer,” he complained. “You’re supposed to let it slide when I say things like that.”
“I don’t remember signing anything to that effect.” She smiled, full dimples. It was extra cute with the pregnancy weight. “For what it’s worth, whatever you have going on with River suits you.”
“You know… I think so too.”
Chapter Twelve
Loved You Wild
Briar Bookerwas a goddamn genius.
River and Lara spent Thursday morning with Amanda, filling out paperwork and listening to her strategize. Then they went over to Briar’s studio and Briar astounded them with the depth of their knowledge and insight into River’s seedling of an album.
“The songs are all pretty different now,” Briar explained as they sat in the sound booth. “But they’re also—and I don’t mean this to be offensive—they’re bare-bones. There’s so much room to play. I think adding the right instrumental tracks can really help pull it all together. The question is what instrument or instruments, and do we use that alone, or can we actually work in a motif….”
River slid the headphones over his ears before they even finished talking and gestured to Lara for his guitar. Here, this part of the patter song—it needed a bass lick. And in a differentkey, a different instrument, that same series of notes would work in the pop ballad.
Lara grabbed a set of headphones too and listened for a minute, nodding. “Yeah, like that,” she said. “And maybe something similar on trumpet, in a different key, for the pop song? Like, kind of Beatles-y.”
River was already nodding along before she finished the sentence. “And we can tie it in on the bridge of—”
He didn’t know how long they sat there, alternating between plucking out notes on guitar (River) and keyboard (Lara—for now) and jotting things in their notebooks, before Amanda pulled the headphones down.
“Oh,” River said. He looked at Lara, who was coming out of the same music trance he was, then Amanda, then Briar. “Uh. Sorry. Got carried away.”
Lara snorted, the color in her cheeks high with enjoyment. River knew she’d be perfect for this.
Amanda rolled her eyes, but Briar only craned their neck to read River’s chicken scratch. They tapped the page thoughtfully. “You know, that one’s almost done. We could do a better demo today, take some video, get it on TikTok tomorrow.”
He caught Lara’s nod of agreement—and deference—out of the corner of his eye. Biting his lip, River looked at Amanda. He didn’t think she’d go for it—she always liked to have a full strategy ready.
But if one of these songs didn’t get out into the universe soon, River would explode.
Thankfully Amanda only raised her hands to say, “Just remember to keep itanonymous, right?”
That would be easier here than in River’s home studio, which had featured on more than a few of the Flat Tires’s TikToks.
Oh, but that also meant—
“Substitute guitar?” Briar asked.
Ugh. “Maybe we do it in black and white,” River countered. He’d get to play his baby, and the deep burgundy color wouldn’t give him away.
Lara shrugged and started unbraiding her hair. “Works for me. Nobody recognizes me with a ponytail.”
“I’m gonna leave you three to it.”
River barely noticed her leaving, already dialed in on Lara and Briar’s ideas for turning “All that Glitters” into something that would lure new fans to a TikTok account.
“Let’s do a fresh recording first,” Briar suggested, “and we’ll shoot the main part of the video while you play. Then we can do some mixing until we’re happy with it and put the pieces together.”
River didn’t sing lead vocals for the Flat Tires. Ward had a distinctive voice and a broader range and the lung capacity of a humpback whale, so River’d always just done backing tracks. It made that part a little easier to keep anonymous, and a little more difficult when Briar offered interesting suggestions like “try jumping up the octave here.”
River’s falsetto got a workout, and Lara gave him the expected amount of shit, but they recorded a more dynamic song, full of tension that built to the bridge.
While they waited for the video to process, Briar spun their chair toward River. “I gotta say I’m excited for this to pop up on TikTok so I can listen to it.”
“You’re going to have the file on your computer,” River pointed out. “You could listen to it whenever.”
