We Have Till Dawn - Cara Dee Page 0,31

of them to shoot the shit, Maria and I went over the set list—what we had so far, anyway—so she could print it out for everyone for next time.

“So we’re moving ‘Testify’ to the first section?” she asked, holding up her binder.

I nodded and tapped a finger to an empty slot. “Yeah, and this one goes from here to the last one.”

During the event, we’d play five songs in three different time slots. Fifteen songs in total, with breaks in between for other acts. A local kids’ comedian was coming, and there was some auction with the proceeds going to a shelter.

We had thirteen songs at this point. After checking with Anthony this week, we’d added “Stand by Me” to the last slot, and I was fairly certain he’d choose “Washed by the Water” as the fourteenth. It was one we’d performed with the choir before, so it wouldn’t require a lot of practice.

“By the way, is there any news about Nashville?” Maria asked.

“Anthony would know that better than me,” I replied. “I think we’ve shared all the info. You’re in, right?”

“Of course! I’m not missing that.” She bumped her hip to mine, and I grinned. “We’re gonna party it up in the South, papi.”

“Fuck yeah.”

Next spring, we had a gig at a rock festival outside Nashville, and we’d left it open to the choir to join us. We were an on-again, off-again band—or rather, a band with plenty of hiatuses—and it wasn’t anything we put that much energy into. It was just fun to play here and there. This festival happened to be right up our alley, so Anthony had submitted a demo, and we’d been picked in the first selection, which was fucking cool if you asked me. But it wouldn’t make us rich or anything. In fact, we were chartering a bus and staying at the cheapest hotel in the area, and those from the choir who wanted to join us had to pay for their own room and board.

Nine men and women from the choir had signed up, last I checked.

By the time Maria said it was time for her to hurry home, Anthony was alone with Luiz by the drums, and I could finally say hey to Gideon.

“See you next week, babe.” I closed the door after Maria, then turned to the hottest man in the universe. “I don’t wanna tiptoe around anything, so I’m just gonna come out and say it made me really fucking happy that you showed up.”

Gideon had shared with me the countless hours he’d spent in front of the mirror perfecting “casual, polite, kind” smiles, and he wasn’t bad at those. He blended in just fine. But when the smile warmed up his eyes, that was when I knew it was genuine. It was small, but it was there.

“I wanted to see you.” He rose from his seat and smoothed down his suit jacket. “You’re very talented.”

“Thank you.” I wanted to kiss him but figured that would be too much. “Did you dislike these lyrics too?”

I’d been right about the other song. Gideon hadn’t liked it because it hit too close to home. He just hadn’t clarified further than that, so I remained in the dark. Was it about the settling for less than what he really wanted, for instance? Or was he feeling trapped?

“I didn’t dislike them, no.” It sounded like he’d phrased himself that way for a reason. Not disliking them didn’t automatically translate to liking them.

“I wrote it for my brother.” I reached out quickly and pretended to adjust the lapel on his suit. “But if you took something from it, I’d call it a bonus.”

Gideon peered down at his chest, then lifted a brow at me and smirked faintly. “I can pick up some subtle cues, you know.”

“Good!” I let out a laugh.

“I know you don’t want me to hide who I am,” he murmured.

My humor faded, and I shook my head. “No, I don’t.” I spotted Luiz and Anthony coming closer, so I looked over at them. “Good job today, man.” I held out my fist.

Luiz bumped it with his own. “You too. See ya Wednesday?”

“Definitely.” I was gonna go over some advice with him then because he wanted to advance as a drummer.

Once he had left, I could sense that Gideon’s focus was on Anthony, and I wanted to show him he could trust me to make a possibly awkward moment as painless as it could be. Work was mixing with family, and when