Page 11 of The Sounds of Her

I wave Megan over. She drags her chair closer to me. Jenna greets her with a big smile, asking how Joey is, telling her they watched his fight.

“He’s good. Great,” Megan smiles. I nudge her and point at her hand.

“What’s the news?” Jenna asks.

Megan holds up her hand. Jenna leans forward, squinting into the screen, then her eyes widen. “Is that a wedding band?” she screams. “You got married! Oh my God, Megan! I’m so happy for you. Why didn’t you call us? Did it happen in Las Vegas? We would have come. We’re right near Vegas.”

“Okay, calm down, woman. The girl can only answer one question at a time.”

“Sorry, sorry,” she looks anything but sorry. “Tell me everything.”

Megan explains how he proposed, and he wanted to get married straight away. Jenna interjects excitedly, her voice getting progressively louder.

“What the hell, Jen?” Adam’s voice has her turning her head away from the screen.

“Megan and Joey got married,” Jenna jumps up, the phone swings as she runs across the deck of Adam’s LA beach front house.

I shake my head at Meg as the phone goes back up to Jenna. Adam is standing beside her, holding a spatula and wearing an apron. I point at him and laugh, knowing Sandy, Jenna’s mom must have bought it. The slogan says ‘Madam, may I recommend the sausage’ and there is a finger pointing downwards. He glares at me, then he grins at Meg.

“Congrats. Tell Joey too. He’s a lucky guy,” he winks, kisses Jenna, then disappears.

“Okay, Meg, I promise I’ll be quiet now, keep going.” She rushes back to her seat. Megan opens her mouth, but Jenna holds up a hand. “Wait, wait.” We watch her get settled. She picks up her margarita. “Okay, go.”

I sit back as Meg tells us all about her special day. When Elsa arrives, we have to go through the entire story again. Nick appears behind them, leaning down between their two loungers. He grins, congratulating Meg, whose face must be killing from all the smiling.

I sip my coffee and watch her animated face. Megan deserves this after what she lived through. It’s wrong of me to be jealous. Doesn’t mean I’m not.

I’m officially the only single one of our crew. It becomes a little harder to keep my smile in place.

Fortunately, no one notices.

Chapter Four

It’s been a while since I set foot in this recording studio. Kono and Jasper produced our last two albums in New York. Before that, we always recorded here. I know this place like it’s my home, we’ve spent so many hours here.

I greet Dean, the tech who is already behind his sound board desk. We slap hands, then go through what we need to change on the track. It doesn’t sound to me like there is any problem with the recording. Dean agrees, but I have nothing else to do today, so I head into the sound booth, put on my headphones and play the song.

Once Dean is happy with everything, I come out to listen. Both versions sound the same, but who am I to argue? Only the guy who wrote the damn thing. We shoot the shit for a while, Dean telling me he misses having the band around. He struck up a bit of a bromance with Jordan long ago.

We’re laughing at some of the shit he used to get up to, when the door opens. I trail off when Madison walks into the room. She gives me a look.

“Dean, could you give us a moment please?” It’s a question but comes out an order.

Dean heads out, leaving me alone with the viper.

“What the fuck is this?” I get to my feet once the door closes.

“Do you have to be so vulgar?” She arches a brow.

“Vulgar? Me?” I huff out a laugh.

“We need to talk.”

“No. The recording is done, so I’m out.” I head towards the doors, but she steps in front of me.

“I said we need to talk.”

“About what?” I stop and turn to face her. “It’s a little late to talk, don’t you think?”

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