Page 26 of He's The Reason Why

He clearly wasn’t getting it. This had been one of the longest days of her life, not a date.

“Blake is a smug, arrogant, misogynistic shit of a man with no sense of personal boundaries. There’sno wayI’m hot for that.”

“No way,” Neil agreed with a nod. “Right. Got it.”

“He’s annoying!” She pushed her message home. “Don’t make that face at me.”

“What face?” Neil blinked with false innocence.

“That I’m-older-and-wiser-and-I-know-better face.”

“It’s all true.”

“You’re only older by seven years, and even if you were a lot older than me, it wouldn’t make you any wiser.”

“I hear what you’re saying.”

“Do you? Do you, really? Because you don’t sound like you believe what I’m saying.”

Neil looked at her. “Oh, I believeyoubelieve it. Plenty of people live in denial.”

“I’m not in denial. I’ve known him one day, and during that day we’ve done nothing but argue.”

“People have a word for what you’re describing,” Neil said with a knowing smirk. “Foreplay.”

The statement caught her off guard just as she was taking a sip of wine. She spilled a little on her chin and quickly wiped it away. “It wasnotforeplay.”

“Not that I don’t totally get it. On a scale of one to hot, Blake Ryan is off the charts.” Neil picked up the script and fanned himself with it. “He’s got those dreamboat eyes and that killer smile and those abs…I’m an abs man.”

“He’s…”

She bit her tongue before she said the rest of that sentence.

The truth was, Blake Ryan was, by anyone’s standards, an incredibly good-looking man. He had blond hair made even lighter by the California sun, piercing blue eyes, and a smile that could melt the entire polar ice cap. More than that, he had an invisible it-factor, a cloud of charisma that constantly surrounded him.

That didn’t mean she was going to swoon. “It doesn’t matter what he looks like, it’s an animated movie.”

“All I’m saying is I’d totally do him.” Neil winked.

“Well I wouldn’t. He’s not taking the music seriously at all. He hammed up the first one, and the duet was more talk than song. He spent all that time lecturing me on my reading skills, but he’s obviously not put in the work where vocals are concerned.”

“I’m sure when you get him into the studio next week you’ll whip him into shape.” Neil stood and picked up the empty bottleof wine. “Do you have any more of this? I’d love for Rupert to try it.”

“I don’t think so. Take him the black label. It won awards last year.” Piper finished off her glass and followed Neil into the kitchen. “Did I mention that Della stopped by this morning? She finally asked me to come back to the group. I’ve been waiting for a year for her to pop that question. Can’t believe she did that today of all days.”

“What did you say?”

“I told her no. I can’t live like that. Not now.” She put her glass into the dishwasher, followed by the dirty coffee cups from this morning that were still in the sink. “I swear it’s like she can’t let me have this one thing without putting her foot in it.”

Neil put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “She can’t take this away from you, Piper. Nobody can. You’ve more than earned your place.”

She stayed where she was, absorbing his simple support while she sorted through what was really bothering her. “What if I haven’t? What if I get in the studio and I screw it all up? I was a wreck this morning, and this afternoon was all Blake.”

“Notallhim. You weregood, Piper. Everyone I talked to said that and more. They wouldn’t have cast you if you didn’t have the right instincts for it. Blake might have shown you the way but you took it from there. Trust me, I’ve done improv before. It takes two to do the tango you did today. You had a Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers moment. You werebothdancing.”

“I don’t know.” She wrinkled her nose. “Music never felt like this much work.”

“That’s because you’ve been doing it since you could crawl. You were too young to understand just how much work it really was.” Neil busied himself tidying up the trash. “This is new, that’s all. As hard as you work, you’ll figure out what you’re doing in no time. Even if it turns out you can’t do this without Blake, Iguarantee he can’t do it without you, either. It’s the two of you together that made magic today, and it’ll only get better from here.”

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