Page 77 of Love is a Lyric
He ignored the man dig and let her words sink in. If he hadn’t already decided, he would now. “I’ll be back in L.A. tomorrow night.”
“Really?” She sounded more relieved than happy.
“I’m flying in with Drew.”
“Good.” She paused. “That’s good. You’ll get through this, Ben. And tell Drew that I’m both irritated with him and proud of him for being there.”
He laughed. “I will. Night, Mel.”
“Night, Ben. See you soon.”
He hung up and set the phone on the deck behind him before turning at the sound of a footstep. He hadn’t heard her open the sliding glass door or close it to block the cold air from mingling with the summer heat.
Piper wore another oversized shirt—she seemed to like those—the sleeves pulled down to cover her hands. He pushed a hand through his hair as he watched her approach slowly, cautiously.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked. They were the first words he’d spoken to her since their conversation in her room, and they sounded lame to his ears.
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Didn’t seem like a sleeping kind of night.” To his surprise, she lowered herself to sit beside him. “You?”
“Uh, no. Not a sleeping kind of night.” He folded his hands in his lap, fighting the urge to reach out and pull Piper closer, to feel the smooth skin of her neck, to taste her lips.
Once wasn’t enough, but he couldn’t help wondering if it was all he’d get.
Piper pulled a small stack of papers from behind her that he hadn’t seen her carrying. “Mel sent me the new songs Quinn has. I printed them out for you.” She handed them to him.
Ben stared down at the music, illuminated by the light on the back of the house. This was why Piper sought him out after avoiding him all day? To give him her sister’s music?
“You know I won’t be able to memorize these.” He tried to concentrate on the words.
Piper reached out and took the songs back. “We need to talk about that, Ben. For the past couple years, I’ve been your crutch, the person holding you back.”
“No—”
“Wait, listen to me. I won’t be with you anymore. Learning songs together was our thing, and it bonded us probably more than it should have, but you should have been working with someone who could help you. When you get back to L.A., I want you to promise you’ll get help. I can’t stand the thought of you struggling when I’m not there to help you.”
“Don’t, Piper. Just… you can’t keep saying things that make me want to chuck it all away.”
“Chucking it all away is stupid.”
“I know.” He jumped off the edge of the deck to get some distance. “But it doesn’t stop me from wanting to do just that. Every time you open your irritating mouth, you say things that remind me how much you care. About everyone!”
“How is that irritating?”
“Because it makes me want to kiss you.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” He sucked in a breath and turned to her. “Oh.”
“I overheard your conversation with Mel.” She changed the subject, her eyes darting anywhere but at him. “Your friends… it’s some kind of support group? How did none of us know about this?”
“Because it’s secret. We don’t tell anyone.”
“Not even Quinn?”
Her question deflated him, and his shoulders dropped. He hadn’t wanted Quinn to know he was a part of something as silly as a rockstar support group. But Piper… her being here, meeting them, it felt right, like she was a part of his life in a way Quinn never had been. “No.” He jumped up to sit next to her again, their shoulders knocking together. “Not even Quinn.”
That seemed to satisfy her. She reached for the music. “Should we go over the songs?”
