she’d walked into the studio, but that didn’t matter. She was a beast on the drums and put everything she had into playing. That’s what we needed.
Josh loved that we had a female drummer, said it gave us an edge and made us different. He was banking on Charlie bringing in more fans. Men wanted her and women wanted to be her. Win-win, according to Josh.
I didn’t give a shit about that. As the bass player, finding the right drummer was key, since we played off each other the most. We’d needed someone behind the kit who could rock out and make us cohesive again. It was a tall order, but Charlie was proving every day that she was up for it.
The fact that she enjoyed giving Jax shit whenever she could was icing on the cake.
“Stop calling me Ellie,” Jax growled out.
They acted like squabbling siblings, which was better than Jax trying to get in her pants—his usual MO. Bash and I had laid down the law on that as soon as we’d asked Charlie to join us. The man had a reputation of fucking anything that breathed, but he’d promised to keep his hands off of Charlie. Not that she’d given him any hint of being interested. I was glad that there was no sexual tension in their bickering.
Bash walked over to the music stand in front of Jax and scribbled something. We were working through two songs that Bash had written for the new album. We were supposed to be on a break for the next two months, but when Bash had the songs flowing, none of us wanted to ignore that.
The man had been on fire since he’d hooked back up with Cassie, and I couldn’t be happier. They’d gone through some shit, but I knew they were perfect for each other once Bash had finally gotten his head out of his ass and cleaned up. Cassie was Jamie’s sister, and she was family. I’d kept in touch with her after Jamie passed. She’d been a part of our lives as long as Jamie had, and breaking the bond was something I never considered when her brother died.
She centered Bash. Made him the man he should be. They were better together. But, if he fucked up, bandmate or not, I’d already warned him that I’d inflict bodily harm on him.
“Okay, let’s go through it again, and then we’ll break for lunch. Cassie is on her way over with food,” Bash said.
“Yes. I’m starving,” Jax all but shouted.
“Jesus, Ellie. Relax, would you?” I said, and he turned to glare at me while I casually plucked at my bass.
“You know, Tris, I never gave you a real nickname. Some might say I’ve gone easy on you, but keep it up and I’ll start calling you Sinny. Yeah, we can go with that, the Sinny who never sins.”
I groaned. “You’ve tried that one before, and it never stuck.” After fifteen years of friendship, I should have known that taunting the man never ended in anyone else’s favor except his, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe the wallpaper dust had gotten to my head.
Or maybe it was Evie. I’d thought about her more than I should have and was bummed that we hadn’t run into each other again yesterday. It’d become a thing. Three times in less than a week had to mean something.
And if I wasn’t mistaken, she’d enjoyed flirting with me at the coffee shop the other day. I couldn’t help but wonder how often she was there, but I would not sit in that shop and wait for her. That was ridiculous, for multiple reasons. One, fans might start to notice, and I had no desire to be hounded. Not that I drew that kind of attention—thank fuck. And two, I’d never sat around waiting for a woman. Never felt the need.
Until Evie.
Which was absurd since we’d had a grand total of maybe fifteen minutes together.
But there was something about her—aside from the fact that she was stunning. Her laugh got me in the gut every time. I wanted to spend more time with her.
I hadn’t invested any time with another woman in years. Not since Monica. But Evie didn’t strike me as being anything like my ex.
“Hey, Sinny, you with us?” Jax called out, drawing my attention, and I groaned.
“You started that, man,” Bash said. “Never give this asshole an inch. You know that,” Bash said.
“Pipe down, Wolfie. I want to practice so we can wow