Page 41 of What Happened Last Night

“Does she have an agent?”

“Nope.”

I nodded. “If this works out and you’re all on board, send her to Angie and me.”

Stone shrugged. “There’s something else.” He looked around. “I think we should write another album. Starting now.”

Axel sat up. “Right now?”

Neal gave Stone a narrowed look. “Stone, Raine’s C-section is scheduled in eleven days.”

“I know, Watts.” Stone glared back. “If we start now, we can get at least ten songs written. I heard that riff you were improvising in Minneapolis. I liked it.”

Neal ran both his hands through his hair. “Yeah, that’s been going around in my head.”

“We’ll start with that. Remember when we used to write songs in an hour or two? Before all the bullshit got to our heads? Let’s just fucking do it.”

Denver politely adjusted his frozen peas. “I’m with Stone,” he declared. “New album, let’s fucking go. Someone get me my notebook so I don’t have to get up from this chair.”

“Aw, fuck.” Axel scrubbed a hand over his short beard. Stone could try to boss everyone around, but when Denver said something was happening, then it was definitely happening. “We had Adderall last time we crammed like this. We’ve never done it sober. We’ll at least need some coffee and Red Bull.”

“I’ll have some delivered,” I said. I closed my laptop. Beside me, Luna did the same. “We’ll leave to you to it.”

“Don’t come back,” Stone said as we stood. “Nothing personal.”

I waved a hand as we left the room. “See you in eleven days.”

As we walked to our cars in the parking lot, Luna asked, “Were you expecting that to happen?”

“Not even a little bit,” I replied. “But a new album is good news. They’ll camp out at RKS while they write and use the apartments to sleep. We’ll get supplies sent in. We won’t see them until they’re done.”

“So what do we do?” Luna asked. We’d arrived at our cars, but we paused, neither making a move to get in and leave. “The tour is over and the band is holed up. What now, boss?”

I looked at her, my thoughts turning over. What had happened on Sunday was amazing, but—fuck—it wasn’t right. Luna was my employee. I treated her like we were professional equals as much as I could, but I cut her paycheck. It went against every rule I had to treat her like someone I could fool around with. The lines were too blurred. I’d need to redraw them.

“I’m giving you a week’s vacation,” I said.

Her lips parted in surprise.

I jerked my gaze away from her mouth. I let my gaze wander past her ear on some point in the distance. “I’m taking a week off myself,” I added.

“You are?”

I was making this up on the spot, but I didn’t let on. “I’m going out of town. A getaway by myself to recharge.” Yes, that was good. Physical distance was good.

“Where are you going?” There was a note in Luna’s voice that I couldn’t interpret.

I improvised some more. “I was thinking I’d get out of the city. Doesn’t your family own a B and B?”

“Yes.” She sounded cautious.

“I’ll go there.” I made myself glance at her. Why was her expression so closed? What was she thinking? “If it’s available,” I added.

Luna blinked at me. “It’s shoulder season,” she said slowly. “Summer is over and skiing hasn’t started. I’ll check, but I’m pretty sure I can get you a room.”

I shook my head. “Not a room. How big is the B and B? How many rooms?”

“Four. Will, what are you—”

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