Page 31 of Ring My Bell

She started to say something, then paused, and smiled again. “This isn’t a favor for him. It’s a favor for me. I hate people like Raymond Montaine. I’ve had to deal with them for my entire career. And if I can help anyone get out from under that sort of influence, I’m all for it. And besides, I don’t sign people just because I feel bad for them. From the videos and recordings Gerald’s sent me, I can tell you’re individually great. But together,” she pushed away from the table and rapped her knuckles on the wood, “you’ll be amazing.”

Chapter Twelve

IGGY

I was going to die. I was already dead. I was dead and in heaven. Or as close to it as I could get without actually being dead. “Pepper Soames touched my hand,” I sighed. “And she wants us to be on her label! I don’t know which is more amazing!”

Mathis grunted, irritated as he tried to make the narrow bed less cramped and failed miserably. “Are you sure you don’t want to sleep in the master? I’m six foot three. I’m hanging off this thing.”

Waving him off, I nodded. “Sure, go for it. You fight it out with Paige while I just sit here and die oh my god!” I fell back on the bed, wincing when my head hit his knee. “You’re real boney.”

He nudged his knee against my shoulder, and I rolled onto my side, giving him a pout. “Why aren’t you as excited about this as I am? Or even, like, at all?” Pushing up onto my hands and knees, I crawled carefully up the bed to stretch out next to him. “Tight fit,” I remarked with a heated smirk. “But I like it.”

As I wiggled, making sure we were touching almost everywhere, he let out a groan. Mathis squeezed my hip with one hand as he propped his head up on the other. “It’s hard for me to be excited about what’s essentially a favor for a friend. I know she said it wasn’t really, but if Gerald hadn’t pulled strings, we wouldn’t be on her radar.”

“You weren’t upset when Gerald’s string-pulling got us stage time tomorrow night.”

“That’s different!”

I nipped his scruffy chin. He swatted at me gently, and I laughed. “How? How is it different? Gerald knew someone who could help, so he asked. And P.S., we’re gonna have to talk with him about how he knows so many people in the right places.”

Mathis snorted. “Maybe we can make him our agent.” We both froze. Mathis’s smile was a little devious, a little excited. Mine was likely the same as the thought percolated along and became a solid yes. “I mean,” Mathis said slowly, “he knows the industry from the inside, right? And he’s great at promo. He just needs the resources.”

“And he’s a sneaky little bastard, with all these connections and knowing which string to pull when and where…” I nibbled my lower lip and then ducked my head to snuggle against Mathis’s chest, feeling him go still before relaxing against me. “I think it’d be great. I’ll ask him tomorrow. What about Paige, though? We can’t just kick them back to LA and say ‘good luck with the ride share and pizza-delivery gigs.’”

“I mean, we could,” Mathis pointed out, “but that’d be kind of a dick move.”

“Pepper seemed to have some project in mind for them. But I don’t want to just assume. I mean, Pepper Soames is amazing and would never lie—don’t give me that look! She’s got a rep as a super-scrupulous businesswoman!—but saying she’s got a project in mind isn’t the same as offering Paige a deal.”

“Proof is in the pudding.” He slid his hand down my back until he found that spot. I made a little purring noise and awkwardly slipped my leg over his.

“You don’t seem as excited about the deal with PepperPot, though,” I said, and he groaned in a not-sexy way.

“Iggy, it was a conversation, not a business meeting. And she might be one of your personal heroes or something, but she’s a businessperson. And if she crunches the numbers—or, more likely, has them crunched for her—and we don’t make financial sense, the deal is gone like smoke in the wind. All her pretty words won’t mean shit if we’re not a good investment.”

My eyes stung, and I wanted to tell him to shut up, he was wrong, just fucking believe in magic goddamnit. Instead, I pressed the flat of my palm to his chest and closed my eyes, feeling the steady thump of his heart. The heat of his skin was soothing in a strange sort of way, grounding me when I wanted to fly off the handle and insist I was right.

“I know it’s very pie in the sky right now,” I said after a few long, slow breaths, “but it’s there, in our sky. And I want to talk about it on the off chance it does happen, and she does come to us with an offer, okay? I don’t want to fumble in the dark over this. And if you don’t want in… Say so now. Or as soon as you know. Because I don’t want to drag you into something you don’t want.”

“Else.”

“What?”

“Something else I don’t want.”

I jerked back, eyes searching his face. “You don’t want to be here?” I asked softly, hoping he didn’t hear the quaver in my voice. “Mathis…”

“At first I didn’t. You know that. And I told myself you dragged me into it, but…” He tugged a loose lock of my hair, twisting it around his finger and giving it an experimental pull. “You made some compelling arguments. And the fact I was stagnating and letting myself fester was also a motivating factor. I needed the push. And I’m glad I got it.”

His kiss was tender, almost chaste. A brush of lips over my forehead. A tangle of fingers between our chests. “I’m glad. And I don’t feel like you’re forcing me to do this. I made the choice. I can say no whenever I feel like.”

Shit. I thought of the website, of the social media I’d set up… And I closed my eyes. “So. Not so funny story. I might be dragging you into something you don’t want…”

Turning away, I dug my phone out of the pile of clothes by the bed. Unlocking it and finding the webpage took me a second, but when I did, I handed it over to him.

He shot me a confused look, then smirked at the phone.

Then he frowned. “Wait, is this legit?”

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