Page 3 of Heart of a Rebel

“Figured.” I tap my pencil on my notebook, and although his eyes don’t leave mine, I get the feeling he notices. Like he’s the type of man to watch everything playing out around him, whether he’s looking directly at it or not. “Haven’t seen you here before.”

“You just turned twenty-one today. How would you have?”

I keep my eyes on him, and the smallest smirk that crosses his face draws one on my own.

“I’m Eloise.” I dodge his question.

“Adrian.” He breaks my stare, glancing over my shoulder and splitting his attention for a second. He scans the room like at any minute he expects something to happen. Something flashes in his eyes before his gaze once more drops, and he takes a step back to start drying a stack of freshly washed glasses.

“Whatcha working on?” He tips his head to my notebook but keeps his eyes averted, focusing on the glass in his hand instead.

I look down at the page of scribbles in front of me. Half words and half flowers decorating it. “A song.”

“You sing?”

“Sometimes.” I shrug.

It’s not that I don’t have the voice, but Sebastian was always the extrovert of the two of us. He was built for the limelight and all that comes with being the face of the band. Something our female fans seem to appreciate. And I don’t mind because I’d rather stick to my bass guitar and less obvious attention.

“What—”

“Adrian!” Sebastian yells, cutting Adrian off, and I turn to see my brother barreling in our direction.

In the last ten minutes, he’s managed to get drunker, because there’s the faintest stumble to his step now.

Sebastian stops beside me and plants his palms on the bar like he’ll fall over if he doesn’t. He reaches a hand outward and Adrian takes it, giving him a half hug over the bar.

“I didn’t know you were working tonight.” Sebastian grins, then he turns to me. “Remember that guy I was telling you about with the recording space?”

Recording spaceis a stretch. Sebastian said he had this friend with a spare room we could use for recording our demo. He didn’t even mention where he met him, just that the guy offered to help out when Sebastian said we needed somewhere quiet that wasn’t a garage.

“This is the guy.” Sebastian juts a thumb in Adrian’s direction and looks thoroughly amused.

“Nice to meet you,” I say, and he nods back like we haven’t already just done this.

Of course he’s Sebastian’s friend. I’m not sure there’s a guy in town my brother doesn’t know from one place or another. And apparently, Adrian’s no exception.

Sebastian throws his arm around my shoulders. He reeks of alcohol and almost pushes me over at the sheer force of his body’s inability to balance his weight.

“This is the sister I was telling you about.” He rubs his knuckle on the top of my head like I’m a child.

I swat him away, annoyed. We might be twins, but Sebastian likes to treat me like his little sister just because he’s older by two minutes. Not that those one hundred and twenty seconds have done anything to improve his maturity level.

Adrian looks me up and down, those cinnamon eyes knowing just what to do to make me feel vulnerable at one gaze, before looking back at Sebastian. “You’re coming by this weekend?”

“We’ll be there.” Sebastian shakes my shoulders. “Speaking of, you done, El? Come on and fucking party. It’s our birthday.”

I roll my eyes because I’ve told him a hundred times, I don’t give a shit, but he never listens.

“I’m not partying.” I frown. “Just tell me what you actually want.”

Sebastian leans in close to my ear. “See that chick over at the table in the itty-bitty red tank top?”

I peek over his shoulder and spot some blonde chick sitting between Noah and Rome, matching that description. “Yeah.”

“She’s playing hard to get.” Sebastian shakes his head. “Come over and do that thing you do. Make me look good.”

“What am I, a miracle worker?”

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