Page 97 of Next Time I Fall (Excess All Areas 2)

Matt held out his hand. “Matt Palmer. It’s great to meet you. This is my brother, Jase and my—”

“Glad we could help you guys out on Willow’s platform. She’s at one hundred and ten million followers because we’ve curated her content so carefully. You’re lucky we picked you. Let me go grab her and introduce you.”

He didn’t wait for introductions to finish before he walked through the throng.

“Want to bet his daughter’s success is the first thing he mentions to anyone he meets?” Luke whispered.

Cerys glanced over her shoulder. “I thought exactly the same thing. Thought it might be judgemental of me to assume he’s probably never achieved anything in his life beyond being Willow’s sperm donor.”

“Cerys,” her father warned, but Luke grinned.

Her eyes followed Darrin as he approached a woman perhaps a touch younger than she was. Her dark hair was pulled back off her face, and she held her phone out in front of her, spinning slowly in a circle, clearly filming.

“Did he just knock her arm down?” Luke asked over Cerys’s shoulder.

“If I’m being generous, I might say he was encouraging her to stop filming, but it did look like that.”

“What a dick. Dad always used to say that to judge a man, you should watch how he treats a woman,” Luke said.

“Your dad sounds like he was a wise man.”

“Yeah, he was.”

Darrin approached them. “Willow, this is Sad Fridays. Can you believe your breakup video led to them coming to record their album here? What we were able to do for them? Would you guys be up for filming some content for Shamaze?”

Jase put his hands up. “Sorry, mate. Happy to take a picture but the whole dance choreography storytelling thing is your territory, not ours.”

Luke nodded. “We’ve got rhythm, but not necessarily moves.”

Willow tipped her head to one side and smiled at Luke. “I’m sure I could teach you.”

“I might just let you.”

Cerys glanced at Jase and raised an eyebrow at the obvious chemistry between the two of them.

“We could do photographs,” Jase suggested.

“That would work. I’m Willow. It’s great to meet you all.”

Jase shook Willow’s hand and introduced her to the band and Jimmy. “And this is my girlfriend, and the band’s assistant producer, Cerys Hughes-Bexter.”

Despite being a capable, independent woman, being introduced as his girlfriend, as being his, felt ... good.

Luke shook Willow’s hand, and Cerys noticed the way he slid his fingers along hers slowly when he let go.

“It’s nice to meet you. I was hoping to meet you during the day. I’m a total early bird,” Willow said.

Cerys grinned. “Bands are very often night owls. We came straight from the studio.”

“Without the opportunity to meet with you, I would have snuck to bed with a good book hours ago.”

“You’re doing partying wrong,” Luke declared. “Come hang out with us one night. We’ll show you how it’s done in England.”

“Ignore him,” Cerys said, realising Luke was grinning and more talkative than he had been the last couple of days. Still riding his coke high. “They’ve got a handful of days to finish the album, and Jimmy came along to make sure nobody stays too late.”

“Willow, guys, let’s get those photos.” Darrin gestured to a spot over by the boxes that transported all the studio’s instruments.

Alex whispered something into Luke’s ear as they lined up, and Luke laughed, stepping closer to Willow and sliding his arm over her shoulder as everyone squeezed in for the shot.

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