Page 28 of He's The Reason Why

He stalked over to the mini-fridge and fished out a soda.

He was done.

Done with this song, done with constant rehearsals that never amounted to a finished product, and most especially, done with Piper Vocal Dictator Bellamy.

“We’ve been at this for five days. It’s time to stop obsessing and move on,” Blake said through gritted teeth. “Done is better than perfect.”

Piper snatched the bottle out of his hand. “I told you, no soda while we’re rehearsing. It clutters your throat.”

“Oh, we’re done rehearsing.” He tried to grab the soda from her, but she put it behind her back.

Blake seriously considered making a lunge for it. His throat was on fire, and he really needed a drink. Maybe one with a little more kick.

“We’renotdone.” She arched an eyebrow at him.

“Come on, give it back.” He held out a hand. “I need it. My throat is dry.”

She stuffed the bottle back in the fridge and handed him a water instead. “If your throat’s dry we should send out for hot herbal tea. And, no, it’s not time to move on. It’s nowhere near time to move on, and it won’t everbetime to move on until you start taking this seriously.”

He forced himself to unclench his jaw and sound reasonable. “I’ve been here every single day since the table read like you insisted. I’m Mr. Serious.”

He felt like he was talking with a throat full of gravel. He reluctantly opened the bottle of water.

“That’s just showing up.” Piper looked at him like he was the one being unreasonable. “You have to actually put in the work once you get here.”

His irritation was starting to build despite all of his effort to keep his cool. Her impossible standards on top of his rapidly compounding workload were wearing him thin.

“What do you think I’ve been doing?” His voice cracked.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What was that?”

He took a long gulp of water that burned going down. He really wanted this day to be over, but she’d been singing just as much as he had, and her throat didn’t sound like it wanted to sue for divorce. He damn sure didn’t want to show weakness in front of this woman.

“What was what?”

His voice betrayed him on the last what.

“Dammit, your throat isn’t just dry. Your vocal cords are raw.” She huffed out a sigh of exasperation, and he had to control a guilty flinch. “Why didn’t you say something? We should have stopped earlier, or taken the weekend off. You need to rest them.”

“I don’t need rest.” He hadn’t said anything because the lastthing he wanted was for this process to take any longer than it already was. “We need to finish this track so we can move on.”

Piper walked over to the pit of chairs in the corner and rummaged around in her purse. “If we keep pushing your vocal cords, you’ll be down for at least a month.”

He almost choked.

He had a tentative start date for filmingConnedbased on whenScorchedwas supposed to wrap, but at the rate they were going, they’d never leave this studio. “I can’t be out for a month. I have another project that can’t wait.”

“What project?” She gave him a curious look.

“My next movie,” he said. It came out more clipped and annoyed than he’d intended.

“Your next movie,” she repeated and sat very still. “So because you have something waiting in the wings, this project we’re working on now isn’t important.”

“I didn’t say that.” He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to rein in his frustration. “Every project is important, but you have a serious case of beginner’s overkill.”

“I’ll tell you what else is beginner’s overkill. What you’re doing to your vocal cords.” She raised her hands to the heavens like she thought he was a trial sent to plague her. “God, it’s as if you don’t know how to sing at all.”

“I know how to sing.” His resentment spiked.

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