Page 33 of The Sound of Us

Chad grinned. “I knew I could count on you.”

“Hey, interns,” Siobhan shouted down the corridor. “Stop gabbing in the hallway. The microphone in Studio A is broken. Dante’s going to the storage room to get another one. You should go with him, so you know where it is.”

“I’ve got a class,” Chad called out. “Otherwise, I would have loved to be of service.”

“Laying it on a bit thick there,” I whispered.

His laughter made his eyes crinkle. “That’s what the girls say.”

“Ew. Chaaad.” I mimicked his earlier whine. “Don’t. Just… don’t.”

“Skye, you go with him,” Siobhan called out from the doorway of the studio. “I’m pretty sure Dante keeps his coffin down there, and since he’s been wandering around in the daylight, he probably needs to recharge. I hope you make it back alive.”

My heart skipped a beat when Dante walked out of the studio. I hadn’t seen him in two days, and it suddenly felt like forever. Hadhe been that gorgeous on Tuesday? Was that why I’d been frozen in place watching him play?

“Are you ready for an adventure, buttercup?” Dante seemed all cool and relaxed, like he hadn’t poured his heart out in a song only to have me bolt from of the room like a startled deer when Molly sent a message anyone with half a brain could understand.

“Is there something about this storage room I need to know?” I looked back over my shoulder as I followed him away from the stairs and down a dimly lit hallway. “Do we need supplies? A headlamp? Hardhat? Pickaxe? Should I leave a trail of breadcrumbs?”

“Officially, we’re not supposed to be down here.” Dante pushed open a metal door to reveal a dark, narrow hallway. “The building was built in 1906 and the foundations are crumbling, but we ran out of storage room and the university wouldn’t give us any extra space. Noah only lets a few people down here and no one is allowed to go alone in case the walls cave in.”

I lifted my gaze to the exposed beams and pipes in the ceiling, then to the cracked concrete walls and stained, uneven floor. My pulse kicked up a notch and it became difficult to breathe. “I wouldn’t do well if there was a cave-in. I can’t handle small spaces. Maybe you should take someone else…”

The overhead lights flickered on and off. Dante looked up at the ceiling, a frown creasing his brow. “Or, was his concern ghosts…? I can’t remember.”

“Jerk.” I punched him in the arm, and he gave a chuckle.

“I’m kidding. It’s old, but it’s still safe. I wouldn’t bring you down here if it wasn’t.”

“Good to know you’re not the type of guy to put innocent interns at risk.”

“What is your type?” he asked over his shoulder. “You said it wasn’t me, so…”

“Sports guys, I guess.” I didn’t have anything to lose by being honest. “My dad was very controlling when it came to my free time because my focus was supposed to be on basketball. He would only let me date other athletes because they understoodthe lifestyle—going to bed early, waking up at four or five in the morning to practice, watching what I ate, no drugs or alcohol…”

“Sounds dull.”

“He didn’t want me to date at all,” I said. “He thought it would distract me, but my mom was worried that I’d miss out on high school experiences and wouldn’t… know things when I left home.”

A smile tugged at his lips. “So, your mom wanted to pimp you out?”

“That’s not—”

“I’m just messing with you,” he said. “So, sports people. What are they like? Never had one myself.”

“Usually, the only thing we had in common was sports.” I bit my lip considering whether to share. “I only had two serious boyfriends—one in high school and one my freshman year—and they both cheated on me, so I’m kinda done with the whole relationship thing.”

“They were idiots.”

My stomach tightened, expecting some kind of quip, but he wasn’t laughing. “Yeah, they were.”

“What about musicians,” he said lightly. “Ever date one of those?”

I bit down on a smile, grateful he was walking ahead and couldn’t see me. “I heard they have huge egos. I don’t think we’d fit.”

“Good thing I’m humble.”

“This underground space is amazing,” I said as we made our way through a maze of hallways. “From the outside you’d never realize there was so much down here.”

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