Page 60 of Fractured Rhythm

Bash:LOL. I’ll let you get back to staring at cakes. Send me a sneak peek video. I need the stress relief.

Cassie:I’ll see what I can do. See you tonight.

Bash:Can’t wait.

I should probably get back downstairs to the studio and get lost in those cakes, but my email in-box was overflowing and I had a few recipes to try out in the test kitchen upstairs. I spent the next hour cleaning up my emails and researching kid-friendly vegetable snacks for next week before finally making it upstairs to the massive kitchen.

Our downstairs studio had multiple areas so we could shoot half a dozen videos at the same time in perfectly designed kitchen setups, but upstairs was where the magic happened. I spent most of my time overseeing my recipe developers, but sometimes I still had the chance to make the food myself. When I’d graduated from culinary school, slaving away in a restaurant or trying to open my own restaurant hadn’t appealed to me. Working at Scrumptious was the perfect solution because I got to try all sorts of new recipes and cooking techniques and share them with the world—well, at least with our over one billion followers.

I’d even posted a few of the recipes I’d made with Bash’s mom when I was a kid in the last year. She’d always welcomed me into her kitchen, never treating me like I was a nuisance. For the most part, I’d appreciated it then, but as an adult, I was grateful for the time she took with me. I’d needed that time with a motherly figure in my life, since mine had been a pathetic excuse for a parent, if I could even call her that.

BASH

“Let’s go backto the beginning,” I said a few days later. We were in the studio, and it was Charlie’s first day playing with us. She’d jumped at our offer to join Steelwolf, on a trial run. Josh was fucking ecstatic, and the rest of the guys were happy that we’d finally settled on a new drummer. I refused to call her a replacement. No one would ever replace Jamie. Charlie might be playing Jamie’s parts of our old songs, but we’d set her up with a new kit. Jamie’s drum kit was Jamie’s.

Yeah, it was probably overkill or stupid, but I couldn’t get past that.

“That last half sounded great, Charlie,” Tristan said before he shot a glare at me.

I was being a hard-ass, but this shit was important. Our fans expected our music to sound as close to the same as they remembered.

The fans were already getting fired up. Josh had blasted a teaser press release on social media yesterday. We hadn’t said what was going on, just that Steelwolf had some news coming at the end of the week. Guess that was Josh’s way of giving us a little time to make sure Charlie worked out.

How fucking generous.

I hated that any announcement had been made at all. I understood that we had to get back out there, and that social media buzz would sell more albums and build up a frenzy, but we needed more time to make sure everything was perfect.

“Thanks. I’ve been practicing your old songs for weeks. Even before you guys called. I want to do Jamie as much justice as I can,” Charlie said, pushing back a sweaty strand of blond hair behind her shoulder.

The woman was a beast on the drums; I’d give her that. Her pacing was almost perfect every time she counted us in, and she locked in with Tristan immediately. She’d offered a few minor tweaks here and there but, for the most part, stuck to the original recordings.

“You’re definitely doing him justice,” Jax said.

There was nothing aside from pure honesty in the singer’s comment. Jax had kept the flirting to one remark that she’d shot down when she’d arrived. After that, they’d just played. There was still some wariness between all of us because this was a massive thing we were doing. Having Cameron fill in on tour or Rusty record a few tracks was one thing, but this was different and we all knew it.

I wanted to find more flaws in her playing, but after a few glares and comments from Tristan and Jax to get my head out of my ass, I’d tamped down the urge to seek out any mistakes.

Sure, she made some over the last few hours, but we were getting our groove and she was sliding in almost perfectly at this point. The chemistry was there as she teased Jax back or grinned at Tristan when he offered her praise. She was an excellent listener, picking up on our cues. Playing with her was easy—smooth.

We went through “Hard Days,” one of our first songs, once more before we moved on to one of the new songs, “Fight Me.”

“This is going to be epic,” she said after our first run-through. “I’m loving the new music. Great mix from what I’ve heard so far.”

“Yeah, it’ll be off the charts,” Jax crowed, tilting his mic stand back and forth. The man never could sit or stand still.

“Thanks. Josh plans to post a sample online later this week, so we want to get it perfect,” I said.

“I saw his teaser the other day. Really pushing the band back into the spotlight, huh?” Charlie said as she twirled one of her drumsticks.

Jamie used to do that—usually with a shit-eating grin on his face after saying something to rile me or Tristan up. Fuck. I missed that grin, his antics. Well, not all of them. He was a moody fuck when he was high. Manic to the max one minute, and then down and looking for another fix the next. It was a roller coaster I’d wished he’d been able to get off of.

“Bash, you good?” Tristan called out, and I realized I’d been absently strumming my guitar and not paying attention.

“Yeah. Sorry. Got a new song idea,” I lied. By the looks on Jax’s and Tristan’s faces, they saw right through my bullshit.

“Can’t wait to hear it,” Charlie said. “Can we do this one again? Do you mind if I change up something right before the chorus?”

“Go for it. I know it’s your first day jamming with us, but we’re still tweaking our new material, and if you’re going to be a part of this band, we want your input,” Tristan said, shooting her a smile.

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