Page 20 of The Drummer

She’s still staring at me, like she wants to say something else. I’ve been in this situation enough to know what that thing is. I’m about to let her down preemptively when I realize she might be helpful.

“Hey, um, just out of curiosity, this whole Luke and Callie breakfast thing, how did that start?”

She shrugs, pleased to have my attention. “I don’t know, exactly. Kind of just happened. Luke had been coming in to stand around for some reason, but we didn’t know who he was. Then one day that other girl showed up and they started talking. Then they started sitting with each other and?—”

“Hang on,he came in to stand around?What do you mean?”

“Exactly that. He didn’t say or do anything. Would just go to a spot in the café and stand there.”

I squint at her, replaying the morning in my mind.

“Why, though?” I ask. “What was he doing?”

Ailee shrugs. “No idea. She was the only one who ever talked to him.”

“Callie?”

“Yeah. We didn’t know he was Luke Craven from Night Shifts Black or we would have been more accommodating.”

Of course they would have. I suppress an eye roll.

“What do you know about Callie?” I ask.

She furrows her brows through a flicker of jealousy. “Not much. Never really spoke to her.”

No surprise there.

“Okay, thanks.”

“Hey, wait!”

I turn back, and cringe at the look on her face. Here it is.

“Do you maybe want to come in for a cup of coffee or pie or something?”

I twist a polite smile. “Thanks, but I have to catch a flight. I appreciate the information. Good luck with everything.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“Yo, what is up with you?” Eli asks, bumping my shoulder with his as he passes. “Why’re you acting like someone shit on your kit again?”

I fire a tight grimace at my bass player. “Again?”

His smirk triggers all kinds of questions as I return to my absent strum of the guitar in my lap.

I never told the others about Luke. There was no point getting their hopes up until I checked out the situation, and now I’m glad I didn’t.

The trip here to Richmond was brutal. No amount of burying myself in my phone and laptop could block out the constant replay of everything that happened since I showed up at Luke’s suite the other day. It stings that my presence didn’t seem to have any impact on my friend.

But hers has.

Shebroke through somehow. That girl woke something in Luke. I saw it at breakfast. The spell clearly didn’t last, but it was enough to offer hope, even though I have no clue what to do next.

“I’m fine. Just tired,” I assure him.

“It’s your own fault for cramming your personal shit between shows. Where’d you go anyway?”

Sweeny stops in the doorway of the green room, his gaze landing on me with the same question Eli just asked.

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