“Everything okay?”
“More than okay!” Beck grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me, a beaming smile on his face. “Phil sent us the songs.”
“Already?” I look from one to the other in disbelief. Colin and Jax nod in unison. It’s only been five days since we recorded. I didn’t expect the mixes to be ready until next week at the earliest.
Our songs are finished!
“Phil emailed us about an hour ago.” Beck finally lets go of me.
“Have you listened to them yet?” My voice sounds so strange I have to clear my throat, but that doesn’t change the fact that I suddenly have a lump there.
Our songs are really done. So done that we can listen to them.
“What, without you?” Colin gives me a disapproving glance that makes me grin. “Like we would.”
“Why do you think you have so many unread messages and unanswered calls on your phone?” Jax winks as he takes off his hat and runs a hand through his spiky hair.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize, but Beck just waves it off.
“We’re here now. Rudy’s speakers are better than ours at home anyway. Is he here?”
“No, just Evie.” I glance over my shoulder to the café. Three tables are occupied, so Evie is standing in front of the espresso machine making coffee instead of scrolling through TikTok or checking Insta like she usually does.
“So we can play the songs here?”
I roll my eyes. “We’d be able to if Rudy were here too,” I reply. He would be the last person to stop us.
“True.” Beck puts his phone in my hand. “I already downloaded the songs.”
As I walk away, I type in his passcode. He’s had the same one for years because he can’t remember anything else. We all know it. Beck always says we’re his backup in case he ever forgets it.
I connect his phone to the speakers with an aux cable; Rudy is so old school that nothing here works with Bluetooth. I scroll through the download folder, and adrenaline rushes through my body as I find the tracks. My hands are shaking. This is really happening. We recorded our songs in the studio, and now we can listen to them.
I want to press play, but I can’t. Rayne isn’t here. And she should be.
“East, what are you waiting for?” Colin asks impatiently.
“Rayne.” I look at my friends. “We can’t do this without her. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t be standing here right now, about to listen to our songs.”
Jax groans. “Are you serious? I mean, I get what you’re saying, but come on, East. We’re dying for this!”
“I know, but...” I stop, unable to press play, even though Iknowthat’s what Rayne would want. She knows how important this is to us, and how long and hard we’ve worked for this moment. But I want to be here when she hears our songs for the first time, especially “Dance with You ’Til Midnight.”
“Then call her and tell her to come over,” Beck suggests.
“I can’t.” I glance at the clock hanging above the cash register. “She’s still in class.”
“We could listen to the songs now, and when Rayne comes later we could just pretend we haven’t heard them yet,” Colin suggests.
“Because we’re all such amazingly good liars, right?” I say. “I can’t do that. I can’t lie to her and I don’t want to. And I know she wouldn’t mind if we listened without her. If I called her now, she’d probably ask me what I’m waiting for, but...”
“Yeah, then what are you waiting for?” Beck asks.
I grimace. I can’t make up my mind. I want to hear our songs now. But I also want the first time I hear them to be with Rayne. Especiallyoursong.
I take a deep breath. “Okay, I think I have a plan.” An excited tingling spreads through me. We recorded four songs, one of which belongs to both her and me. The one we wrote together that night on the beach.
“Does your plan include us?” Beck gives me a knowing grin; he probably figured out what I was up to even before I thought of it myself.
