Page 137 of Crescendo

“Don’t worry about it,” Sian said. “Let’s get in there, celebrate Ella’s win, and send you all off for your final week in style! Real life will be back before you know it, better enjoy this while you can.”

I followed them inside. Hannah’s new real life was looking quite a bit different these days. She wasn’t going back to the life she’d entered Crescendo with. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to either. I just had to go back to it to see what needed to change. And, once I figured that out, then maybe I’d get the girl too.

Chapter 29

Lydia

Brett Downing didn’t smile, because he was the sort of man who was constitutionally incapable of a display of joy or appreciation, but the slow nod was the closest anybody could ever get.

“I like it,” he said, once the music and the scene on the TV had stopped and the studio fell quiet around us, and Natália, sitting across the table from me, looked like she’d break out crying in relief. On the video call, Hannah’s and Eliza’s faces lit up in the same relief—they’d done the final song together with Dodge, me in the room virtually, a throwback to the jam sessions we’d had back at Crescendo, but they wisely kept Dodge out of the conference call. “Yeah,” Brett went on. “It’s got a lot of punch. A lot of energy. Suits the scene.”

“So, green light to work everything through to completion from here?” I said lightly, and he nodded, pushing his chair back, standing up from the table.

“I’ll talk to the rest of the production team, make sure we’re all moving forward. Can’t spare another second. Guess you’re as good as they say, Lydia.”

I smiled. “Wasn’t just me. Couldn’t have done it without a whole lot of help from a whole lot of people.”

Brett Downing gave me and my moving statement about three milliseconds of consideration before he left the room, that jackass. Natália took about three more milliseconds before she jumped out of her chair screaming in excitement, threw herself on me in a hug, and I squeezed her trying to make sense of what she was saying in that upper octave I didn’t know humans could reach. I was pretty sure it was neither English nor Portuguese but a secret third language that only Natália knew.

“We did it,” she squealed. “We’re scoring a movie!”

“You say that as if that’s not what we do all the time…” I still squeezed her back, though, and I humored her when she stepped back from the hug for a quarter second before she hugged me again.

“I’m so grateful for your help,” she said. “I thought I’d never make it through this and dealing with Brett being—”

“Wedon’t knowif he can still hear you.”

She pursed her lips, miming zipping them shut, as she actually stepped back from the hug. “Thank you, Lydia.”

“Don’t undersell yourself. You’re damn good at what you do. Besides—I’m not the one who wrote this song. Scrappy little goblin who crawled out of a Liverpudlian gutter somewhere wrote it while pining for a girl who very obviously wanted her back—”

“Listen,” Hannah said, “I’m gonna need you to shut your bloody mouth.”

Natália put her hands on her hips, shooting them a look on the screen. “Don’t say that about Lydia. She’s officially tied for my favorite person in all the world.”

I really had made progress coming to terms with Natália and Melinda dating, because a month ago, that sentence wouldhave given me a stroke. Now—well, I didn’tnottwitch a little, but I could be excused for being a little protective.

“Great work, both of you,” I said, looking past Natália and at the screen. “And Dodge, too, I suppose, if we must acknowledge him… you all hit the nail on the head with this one.”

Eliza smirked down the camera. “I know,” she said. “Thereisa reason Hannah and I played together all the time, you know. I’m glad to know you acknowledge it.”

“I’m still confused by you playing the drums, but I guess here we all are. Anyway, it’s so damn late there, I’ll let you both go, but I’ll be in touch for the final recordings, the mastering, everything.”

“And youaretelling her about it,” Eliza said, her voice sharp. I sighed, sinking back in my seat, giving them a tired smile.

“Of course. We still talk all the time. Even if it’s hard around her job and how much work I’m doing right now…”

“You know,” Eliza said quietly, “she’s basically just waiting for you to ask. I’m going to bequiteupset if you hurt her.”

“Ah. Aren’t I touched by how much you care about our happiness together, Lizzy?”

I got the exact same scowl from both of them. It was cute how much they were in sync.

“I’m not planning on leaving it like this,” I said. “Just… it’s not the right time. Not with her just getting back to work. Not with recording getting into full swing.”

“That sounds like a neat excuse,” Eliza said lightly.

Yeah, it did, didn’t it? I knew full well it was because I was scared shitless. Because I had no idea how Ella would react—if she’d actually be willing to open herself up to someone when she was still wary that anybody close to her might leave forever.

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