Page 69 of The Sound of Us

Nick shook his head. “Not yet. But I’m in it for the long haul. She needs time and I’m more than happy to give it to her. She’s worth waiting for.”

I’d never shared anything personal with friends, not even Jules. I had managed to compartmentalize my life so successfully that nothing crossed through. Nick had given me an opening and damned if I wasn’t going to take it. “I think I messed up. I saw her with another guy and—”

“No way.” Jules stared at me, open-mouthed. “You? Serious enough about a girl to actually get jealous? She must really be something.”

“She is.”

Nick strummed the first few bars of Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden” and Jules picked up the beat. I joined in and we sang the vocals together. It felt good. Like coming home.

“Guys…” Jules grinned. “We’re damn good together. How about we pick up that gig at the Ironhorse tomorrow night? I could try to sober up our keyboardist…”

“I’ve got a band,” Nick said. “Well, part of a band. It’s me and my friend Derek. He plays keyboard. We just lost our drummer to another band, and we’ve been looking for a bass player.”

“Dante?” Jules lifted an eyebrow. “What do you think, and whatever you’re thinking better come out as a ‘yes.’”

I was still tripping on our last song, so the answer was easy. “Yes, but I think we need someone to do vocals.”

“How about Haley?” Nick suggested. “She’s an incredible singer, and she’s always looking for opportunities to get on stage.”

Nick gave me Haley’s number and I sent her a message. Seconds later my phone rang. My phone never rang. I almost didn’t recognize the sound.

“Are you serious?” Haley shrieked into the phone. “You want me to sing with your band?”

“I’m very serious. We need you to—”

“Yes!” Haley screamed so loud I had to hold my phone away from my ear.

I looked over at Jules and smiled. “We’ve got a band.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN“This Is Me” by Keala Settle, the Greatest Showman EnsembleSKYE

Despite Dante’s reaction to my meeting with Blake, I was stoked about the basketball cover-up story, and spent the following week chasing down leads and dropping hints to the athletic center staff that I was interested in any tea they wanted to spill. For a few boxes of lemon squares and a tray of coffee, I got some juicy—albeit anonymous—stories about athletes involved in drunk driving accidents, academic dishonesty, affairs, secret babies and equipment sabotage, but nothing serious enough to warrant a major cover-up.

When my efforts with the staff didn’t turn up any leads, I met up with my old teammates for dinner on the pretense of catching up, but really to find out if they’d heard any rumors. I spent Saturday doing a deep digital dive of both the university and local news for any mention of Havencrest basketball players involved in incidents or crimes, and when that didn’t pan out, I dragged poor Isla to the athletic center on Sunday to drink protein shakes with me in the corner so we could eavesdrop on conversations.

“I’ve never seen this side of you,” she said, watching me slidedown my seat when a few ballers arrived for their protein shake fix. “Do you really think there’s something to this rumor?”

“I feel it the way I felt the story about the high school principal with the fake résumé.” I thumped my stomach. “It’s here in the gut with two strawberry matcha açai protein shakes and a health bar that tasted like cardboard.”

“Leave room in that gut for a few G and Ts,” she said, laughing. “Apparently Nick, Derek, Haley, and Dante have put together a band and they’re playing at the Ironhorse tonight. Everyone from the station is going to be there.”

“Not me. Dante doesn’t want to see me. He just walked away, Iz. He didn’t want to talk, and when I messaged him, he left me unread.”

“He hurt you by not wanting to go public with your relationship. You hurt him by making a date with some random baller who is clearly holding back the information you need for your story so he can get into your pants. You’re afraid of being rejected, and Dante didn’t help the situation by doing exactly that.” She looked over and grinned. “How am I doing?”

“You’ve been talking to Haley about me.”

“I’m insulted,” Isla said. “Chemistry is just as important as psychology when it comes to relationships, although to be fair, Haley did say you have trust and commitment issues, and you’re not going to make things right by hiding.”

“I’m not hiding.”

Isla pointed to the potted palm half covering our table. “You literally are hiding, and if you don’t agree to come to the bar, I’m going to out you as spy to the entire men’s basketball team and you’ll never get your story.”

“You are a cruel woman, Iz.”

Isla grinned. “That’s why you love me.”

A few hours later, we were back in our apartment, warming up with a few margaritas while we got dressed.

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