Page 63 of He's The Reason Why

Piper, Gina, and Jeremy got into line. Piper watched Rachel saunter past, then turned her microphone, so she faced him with her back to Rachel.

He raised an eyebrow at her. It was a ballsy move.

Piper’s dimple winked at him.

“Are we ready? Is everyone awake?” Tamar asked.

Blake added his voice to the general chorus of “ready,” but as he listened to Piper warm up her vocal cords, he knew he wasn’t anywhere near ready for what was sure to be weeks of intense, close, personal contact with Piper Bellamy without breaking his deal with Marshall.

Chapter Eleven

Group sessions with the entire main cast lasted a little over a week. Every day, they focused on scenes dictated by the animators in order to speed up production, and every night Piper followed Blake home to spend a few hours running lines for the next day.

She couldn’t help but notice Blake seemed different ever since she’d spent the night. He was polite, pleasant, and watched her surreptitiously when he thought she wasn’t looking, but their conversations felt a little stiff and centered mostly on work.

What was that all about? Up until that point, she could have sworn he had actually been interested in getting to know her better.

Piper sat in her kitchen, having a last sip of caffeine before she left, when her phone chimed the special ringtone for Della, “You’re So Vain.”

She turned the sound off.

The phone vibrated with several incoming messages.

She stubbornly went to rinse out her mug and put it in the dishwasher.

The phone vibrated again.

She could just leave the stupid thing here in the kitchen for the rest of the day. She didn’t have to read any messages or respond to any calls if the phone wasn’t with her.

The phone buzzed like an annoying gnat.

Piper snatched it up and checked the stream of texts.

Good morning! Know you’re busy. Just wanted to tell you.

Thought a lot about what you said.

I’m sorry I made you feel second best.

You were NEVER that. EVER.

You have an amazing voice, and amazing talent, and there’s no Bellamy Sisters without you.

It was sweet, but Piper wasn’t fooled. Della was great at twisting emotions to get what she wanted, and it was easy to send a text. Too easy. Maybe if she’d said all that in person…but she hadn’t.

I don’t want it to be like before either.

I want something better, for ALL OF US. Together.

That means YOU.

Piper’s heart melted a little. Maybe Dellahadbeen listening. She pictured herself on stage with Mattie and Della, stood side by side, singing and sharing the spotlight. The image lifted her heart.

Check this out. Mattie’s latest. Let us know what you think.

Piper clicked the link, and a PDF of a song downloaded. It was just lyrics on a page in a battered notebook with notes in Mattie’s handwriting. The song was about family standing together, and she saw from the scrawled notes in the margins that there were solo sections for all three of them, with the chorus and bridge in harmony together. She could sense the beat from “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge as she read it.

She hummed the notes she thought might go with that beat, then sang the first line. It wasn’t right, but it was enough to prove the song had a lot of potential.

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