piercings and some purple hair dye and you’d think I was out purse-snatching old ladies.
“You’re doing our next album, yeah?”
“If it floats your boat, I’d be honored to do your next album. But my answer on dating you won’t change.” With that, I sling my purse over my shoulder, throw them all a parting wave, and head for the door before he can waylay me further.
This man could talk for hours if I let him.
And despite Harry’s propensity to flirt with any young, attractive female who crosses his path, working with him is an experience I didn’t think I’d be afforded so early after starting my career as a producer at Turn Records.
It is insanely cool I was given the chance to work with Cyber’s Law. I mean, the Cyber’s Law, right? I remember a million years ago when my brother’s band, Wild Minds, opened for them. Now my brother is headlining world tours, playing to sold-out stadiums. It’s seriously a trip.
All of this is.
This new job. This new life. This fresh start I needed like nobody’s business.
Shutting the door behind me, I head for the elevator that will take me down to the garage. It’s Friday night and after the long weeks spent here, I intend to celebrate the completion of this album with a steady flow of margaritas, pajamas, and Netflix. I’m also contemplating making a spread of enchiladas to go with it.
How’s that for trouble?
Bounding toward the elevator, my finger a hairsbreadth from hitting the down arrow, I stop dead in my tracks at the sound of voices. But not just any voices. Familiar voices. Familiar voices that belong to my brother and his friends.
Crap in a jar of mustard. He can’t find me here.
Frantically, my head swivels left and right, and for a fleeting second, I debate hitting the down button and taking my chances. But those voices… they’re close. Growing louder. And I’m out of time.
Something tall and green catches my eye and I rush behind it, practically knocking the freaking plant over in the process. It sways dangerously and I have to grab it by the thick stalks, yanking it back before it goes crashing to the floor. As it is, some dirt spills over onto the pristine carpet and the flimsy fronds sway.
I can only hope no one notices that or me as I cower behind it like the coward I am, hiding from my brother. Well, and Henry too, since I’m sure he’s with Keith. But let’s be real here, he’s the last man I want to see. I’d take Keith over him any day.
Just as I get myself settled in a position I hope renders me invisible to human eyes, my brother, Jasper Diamond, Gus Diamond, and Henry Gauthier step into view, flanked by their manager Marco Morales. They’re all laughing and shooting the shit as they head for the elevator I was so nearly on.
I thought they were still on tour.
I must have miscalculated my days. Dammit.
If they catch me here, the jig is up, and I do not want the jig to be up. At least not yet. It will change everything. And not in a good way.
Since I started working at Turn Records last month, I’ve been avoiding my brother and his bandmates like the plague. Between my overprotective brother who does not see me as anything other than his baby sister that he partially raised and freaking Henry who had to go and ruin me the last time I saw him, this duck and cover routine is a necessary one.
I know I’ll have to face Keith eventually.
I know I’m being childish about that.
But this is not the moment for it with Henry right beside him.
I hate the gorgeous bastard. Hate him more than I hate crab, and I’m deathly allergic to crab. My main problem with Henry is not that he screwed me or even that it was only going to be a one-and-done deal. I had accepted that when I accepted his crude offer. The problem was that I thought he finally saw me.
And he didn’t.
Childhood crushes are a nuisance like that, and mine stems back a long way. The one good thing my brother’s asshole best friend did by fucking me in a public place like the nameless side piece I was to him was to finally cure me of my lifelong, insufferable obsession with him. Silver lining, right?
Random bits of conversation and laugher flitters over to me and I slink down farther, wedged between