Page 30 of Starstruck
I can’t. She knows me way too well.
Isa and I have been best friends since I started working at Revolution six years ago, right after I graduated high school. She’s been singing since before she could talk. She’s Brazilian, so like my family, hers has also always been very music-oriented. I was raised on rock and roll; she was raised on Samba. At least until she moved here at the age of twelve and fell in love with the world of rock.
She got her first record deal at sixteen, and now she’s twenty-six. She switched from her old label to Revolution around the same time I started, and we’ve been friends ever since. She has the bubbliest personality of anyone I’ve ever met, with a head of long, dark, curly hair, sun-kissed skin, full lips, and chocolate-brown eyes.
And one thing about her: shelovesto get in other people’s business—especially mine.
As is made clear when she states, “Exactly. And guess what? I’m certain he’s been thinking about you, too.”
My eyes narrow at her. “You’re meddling.”
She laughs. “Hey, he came to me, okay? Not the other way around. Though, once I heard the song, I knew I had to say yes.”
I groan, my head falling back against my chair. I don’t evenbother trying to talk her out of mentioning me around him. Once Isa sets her mind on something, there’s no changing it.
And apparently, she has her mind set on Baxter and me. Which is so crazy, it’s laughable.
And absolutely never going to happen.
“Why do you think he asked you, though?”
She takes a sip of the tea in her hand. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’ll bet he’s regretting it right about now, though. I got pretty bossy with him.”
A laugh bursts out of me. “Honestly, I’d expect nothing less. I’m sure he loved that,” I tease, knowing full well that a man like Baxter isn’t the kind to take orders from anyone. “It’s about time someone put him in his place.”
“Well, I’m sure he wishes it were anyone other than me.”
I laugh. She’s probably right. “So, when are you recording?” I ask, taking a sip of my coffee.
“Well, about that…” she begins, and my brows furrow in confusion. “We kind of already did.”
I cough, my hand coming up to my mouth to avoid spewing coffee all over my desk. I manage to swallow roughly, blinking a few times before looking up at her. “I’m sorry,” I retort. “What? When?”
Now it’s Isa’s turn to laugh. “Two days ago.”
“And you’re just telling me this now?” I level her with a look. Now I’m certain she’s meddling. “Isa, what did you tell him?”
She shrugs. “Nothing he didn’t already know.” My eyes narrow at her as I open my mouth to argue, but she holds a hand up to stop me. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him you work here.”
“Fine, but whatdidyou tell him?”
“Pretty much just that you said he was the best sex of your life and that you think he’s arrogant.”
I squint, eliciting a laugh from her.
“Don’t worry, Lennon. He said you were the best sex of his life, too. And you know I would never share anything I wasn’t sureyou were comfortable with him knowing. No matter how much he begged me to.”
My eyes widen, shock covering my face. “Hebeggedyou? For what?”
A wicked look crosses her face. “Your phone number. And it almost worked, but I know there’s a reason you didn’t give him it in the first place, so I stood my ground and didn’t share.” She crosses one leg over the other. “But just so you know, this song was written as a conversation between the two of you.”
My jaw drops. “I beg your pardon?”
She nods, a smirk playing on her lips. “You heard me, Lenny. Do with this information what you will, but if he knew more and had a way to find you, it would’ve been you he asked to sing with him, not me.”
I don’t know what to say to that. I find it hard to believe that Baxter James wrote a song about me, especially after only knowing me for one night. Even if it apparently affected him as much as it did me.
I suppose it’s not entirely outside of the realm of possibility—artists will find inspiration anywhere, and if he’s anything like me when I write, he’ll take every sliver of inspiration he can get. It just seems so far-fetched that I’m really not sure whether to believe her or not.
