Page 5 of Another Postcard

“Lunch?”

“Nope.” ThePpopped between her plump lips as she walked away, her hips swinging, keeping my eyes glued to her perfect ass.

I swallowed hard then shook my head to clear it. No worries. Persistence. That was the plan.

5

Brooklynn

“Brooklynn, don’t hold back on that D sharp. You’ve got the lungs, use ‘em.” The tinny voice of Stone Butterfly’s record producer and label contact, Cooper, piped through the speaker from the sound booth. I’d noticed that he was involved in a lot more aspects than I had expected for his job description, but it didn’t seem to faze anyone else, so I didn’t think much of it. Besides, I liked the guy. He had a dry sense of humor and a lot of passion for the music.

I gave him a thumbs up and made a note on my music with a pencil. After a week of rehearsals, we were laying down the first of three tracks for Stone Butterfly’s album. Sheryl had decided to hand over the reins to me completely for backups on two of the last three songs being recorded. Given how long we’d known each other, it wasn’t a surprise to me. She knew I could handle whatever was thrown at me.

Whatever is thrown at you?Okay, so maybe a wrench had been thrown into my reputation for taking everything in stride. An incredibly hot, distracting wrench named Levi Matthews. I wasn’t sure how to handle what I felt for him. The desire was almost overwhelming at times. Although, I had managed to stick to my convictions enough to continue to turn him down when he asked me out. Every. Day.

At least I could find solace in the fact that this weakness was successfully camouflaged. I was the only one who knew that I was teetering on a very thin tight rope, hoping to reach the other side, but so intrigued by the unknown below. Even Levi seemed unaware of just how strongly he affected me.

But, I still had my music to ground me, something I was in complete control of.

“Let’s take it from the key change, guys,” he instructed.

“Hold it a second,” Simon called out as he plucked out a chord on his bass. He tuned a string and played it once again again, his face pensive. Then took a pencil and made a mark on his music, before pointing to me with the eraser. “Hold that G sharp out an extra measure. I’m going to add a chord progression here so that you are singing the leading note and on beat four, Levi will resolve the scale on the tonic while you glide up to the fifth and I drop to the root to create a triad in the next key. I think it’ll make the transition into the key change smoother and give the G sharp a real punch.”

I ran through the music in my head, hearing the way it made the music richer and sexier. “Fucking brilliant, Simon,” I beamed and gave him a high five when he stepped away from his mic.

Levi hummed a little and then bobbed his head up and down with a grin. “I like it. Sasha, add a harmonizing sotto voce run on the piano to keep the music flowing so it doesn’t get choppy.”

Sasha and Simon tested it out on the instruments, then the four of us ran through it. After a minor tweak, we added Matteo, and then Kristi chimed back in after the transition. Satisfied with our changes, we recorded it and then listened to the playback. It was amazing.

In this industry, it was easy to fall into robotic habits, to simply go through the motions. People often lost the magic of it all and suddenly, it became just another job. There was a lot of wasted talent in the world. But with Stone Butterfly, there was always a vibrating hum of electricity in the air when we were making music. We let the magic seep into our bones so that every note came from our souls. I felt it when I walked into the studio that first day and it had been the strongest thing that had pushed me toward signing with them.

“Let’s break here for the night, guys,” Cooper announced. “I’ve got Verruca Salt first thing in the morning, followed by Wrong Direction and their—cough—lovely mother.”

I slapped a hand over my mouth as I snorted with laughter. He was referring to a young female pop star, who was well known for her over-the-top demands and temper tantrums, as well as a teen brother duo who had a lot of potential, but their super controlling—typical stage mom—was always pushing for what she thought was best. She was usually incredibly wrong.

“I wonder what he calls us behind our backs,” Matteo laughed.

Sasha snickered. “Cement Cocoon?”

“Wrong, Ms. Blue,” Cooper stated. The metallic quality of his voice through the speaker did not disguise his sarcasm. “That reminds me, I need to see you in my office before you go.” The muffled sound of a door slamming shut indicated that he’d left the sound booth. It did not escape my notice that he didn’t answer our question.

“Being summoned to the principal’s office, Sasha?” Simon teased, shaking his head solemnly.

“Fuck off, Simon,” she tossed back, grinning. “He’s probably going to give me another lecture and threaten to wash my mouth out with soap.”

“Well, this is bound to be entertaining,” I drawled.

Sasha laughed and shrugged. “It’s not really anything new. I refuse to be anyone but me and trying to force it just means I’ll push back that much harder.” She started to gather her things.

“Aaaaaaand?” I pushed and winked at her. “Give it up, woman.”

She rolled her eyes at my pun, then shrugged with an evil smirk. “I did an interview withHard Notesmagazine and I’m guessing they sent him the advanced copy today. Apparently, I said fuck more than he would have liked.” She rolled her eyes. “Which means I said it at least once.”

“That’s it?” Levi asked, knowing full well there had to be more to the story.

“Okay, so I had a photo shoot for the article and I guess he thinks I took off too many clothes.”

“Translation,” Kristi giggled. “You tookallof them off.”

---