Let Me Be the One Read Free Page B

staring out the window. His beautiful, bright Suzi had retreated into a shell before they’d left home, and he’d only seen glimmers of her all night. “Jason has some really good ideas, but he’s gonna be a pain in the ass to work with.”
    “Exactly.”
    “I’m going shopping with Bonnie Ellis tomorrow,” Charity sang.
    “This is going to be the big breakthrough, man,” Greg said. “This is going to be huge.”
    “I know.” Logan caught Suzi’s eye. Maybe she was jealous that Charity nailed a meet-up with Brian Ellis’s wife. Suzi didn’t like shopping, and Bonnie Ellis had been kind of a bitch all night, but that didn’t mean Suzi wasn’t down about it. “You got along well with Cass,” he said to her.
    “She’s very nice,” Suzi mumbled.
    “I can’t believe you told Jason you hoped you kept him up.” Greg snorted. “I thought I was going to die laughing.”
    “Jesus Suzi, that was so dirty,” Charity howled.
    “I didn’t mean it that way.” Suzi twisted sideways in her seat. “I meant up as in with nightmares.”
    “But the way you write…” Greg whistled. “Sometimes you keep me up . Hey!” A thump had preceded his protest.
    “You are gonna be so fucking famous,” Charity said. “And then we are going to live in a huge house like that, and I am going to fuck you on every square foot of it.” There were kissy noises on the other end of the line. Logan hoped someone was watching the road.
    Suzi turned forward, staring out the windshield. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
    “I know, Suzi.” Reaching over, he lifted her hand to his lips. She didn’t seem happy. Why wasn’t she happy? Meeting two-fifths of Touchstone should have made her whole year. When he met her, she’d had a Touchstone poster hanging on the wall of her dorm room above the poster of his band. “It’s going to be great. They read your books.”
    “Yeah. That’s good. They didn’t say if they liked them.”
    “He said your compliment meant something because they’d read your books. I think they liked them.” The porno sound effects through the phone intensified. Not the soundtrack he needed for this conversation. “Hey, you die in a car crash now, and I’m gonna kill you.”
    “Fuck you,” Greg said. Charity giggled.
    “We’re home. See you tomorrow.” Logan disconnected the line. “Jesus, she’s hammered. I’m glad we got out when we did. I think she was working up to hitting on Jason or Brian.”
    “Would she have?”
    “When Charity’s drunk enough she’ll hit on anyone.”
    Suzi twisted her hands together in her lap. “I should have told Greg to stop her earlier.”
    Logan laughed. “Earlier, as in when she got dressed? I can’t believe she went there like a total tramp. You looked fantastic, Suzi. You were the most beautiful woman in the place.”
    “Do you think I annoyed them when I was talking about the album? I was trying to cut Charity off before she said something even dumber than talking about songs from the wrong album.”
    “You were fine.”
    “I told them their platinum album was interesting .” Suzi groaned and covered her face. “Damned with faint praise. I love that album. ‘Love Lies Bleeding’is so beautiful it makes my mother cry. Why couldn’t I have said that? Lyrical complexity? I sounded like a professor.”
    “It was good. They weren’t mad.”
    “Oh God, I just about propositioned Jason in front of his wife. You don’t think–—do you think I caused an argument between Jason and Cass?”
    Well, at least she wasn’t worried about missing an outing she didn’t want to go on with a person she didn’t like. He should have guessed she’d be more inventive with her stress. “I don’t think so.”
    “But at dinner he said I was a pretty young thing, and she sounded annoyed.” Her sweet face wrinkled with worry.
    “I think he said that because you’re pretty and you’re a lot younger than he is.” Logan shook his head. “He’s like fifteen