Chapter 21

Fifteen Minutes Later – Luke

When Ellie tentatively poked her head into the recording studio, I stopped singing and all the guys turned to look. Her eyes widened and then she winced. Her cheeks turned bright pink. She was smiling, but I could tell she was a little nervous too because of the way she was tugging at her ring finger. I'd figured that out about her.

"Sorry," she said in a cute half-whisper, biting her lip. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

I already wanted to kiss her again.

"It's fine. Come in, come in." I motioned her in with my right hand.

When she turned to shut the door, all three of my dumbass bandmates turned to me, widened their eyes, and mouthed the word "hot." Jesus, keep it cool, idiots. I mean, did they not think I already knew she was hot? I've got two eyes.

I quickly refocused my gaze on Ellie, who'd already turned back to face us. "Ellie Hoffman, these are my bandmates." I nodded toward my friends. "Guys, this is Ellie."

She gave an adorable little finger-wiggling wave and said "hi" again.

"Nick Holt, Liam Dashwood, and Christopher Wentworth." All three of them waved back to Ellie as I said their names.

"Nice to meet you," she said.

"So, you're the new nurse?" Liam said. Leave it to Dashwood to speak first.

"Yep. I'm just helping Luke out for a little while." Ellie was still tugging at her ring finger. I wished I could make her feel at ease.

"She's not just a nurse," Wentworth pointed out. "She's Meg's best friend."

"Oh, yeah," Dashwood replied. "I remember Meg telling us her best friend was a nurse practitioner."

Ellie's attention had snapped to Wentworth. "Christopher Wentworth?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "You used to go out with Jeremy Remington's sister, Ariana, right?"

Wentworth flushed. He hated to talk about Ariana. Though he did it often enough when he was drunk. They'd been together way back in college and had some sort of a bad break-up that he refused to talk about. Remington didn't know the details either. We all just sort of never brought it up around Wentworth, but Ellie couldn't have known that.

"Uh, yeah, a while ago," Wentworth mumbled before dropping his gaze to his guitar strings. He acted like he was tuning the thing, but it was already tuned.

"And how did the rest of you meet?" Ellie asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"We met in San Francisco." Dashwood lifted his chin in my direction. "This dude used to come and watch an old band I was in. One night he bought me a drink and told me I was better than the rest of the band."

Ellie's eyes widened. She turned to me and smiled. "You did not!"

"I mean, it was true." I shook my head at Dashwood. "Had a hell of a time convincing him to move to Milwaukee though."

"Also true," Dashwood shot back. "But damn glad I did." He gave Ellie the same grin that made hundreds of girls toss their panties at him on stage. I kinda wanted to punch him.

"And I auditioned for them when they came back to Milwaukee," Holt added from behind the drums. I was grateful to Nick for taking the attention off Dashwood.

"Cool. Cool," Ellie said, nodding. "Well, you're obviously a good team. I mean, your success has been amazing."

"It's all Knightley," Dashwood added. "He wouldn't let us quit."

Ellie's eyes widened again. "You were gonna quit?"

"Talked about it," Dashwood continued. "Of course, once we started getting steady gigs around Milwaukee, it was better, but not gonna lie, that first year was rough."

Ellie glanced at me and gave me a shy smile. "Yeah, well, Luke's pretty amazing, following his dream and everything. I'm glad you all found each other."

Whoa. Did she really think I was amazing? Or was she just saying that to talk me up in front of my friends? Either way, it was a nice thing to say. Damned if I didn't blush a little.

"Don't let me hold you up. Go ahead and practice," Ellie said next.

"You can come sit next to me," Dashwood offered. Wait. Did he just wink at her? Shit. Dashwood was a total player. And yeah, it takes one to know one, but still. My nostrils flared.

I glanced over at Ellie. She tucked her hair behind her ear again and giggled. "Okay."

Oh, hell no. I pushed the stool next to me out with one foot. "I already saved you a seat over here, Ell." Fine. I'd never called her Ell before, but there's a first time for everything, and besides, I wanted Dashwood to get the picture. The picture being he wasn't about to hit on Ellie. She was my sister's best friend. She was off limits.

Yeah, asshole, like you haven't been hitting on her all week.

Thankfully, Ellie just said, "Okay," and climbed up on the stool beside me.

I had the urge to reach out and run my fingers through her hair. But that would be weird to do in front of the guys. I mean, then it would turn into a whole thing, and they would rib me about it endlessly.

"Wanna hear our new song?" I asked Ellie, trying my damnedest to forget about her hair. Or how good she smelled.

"I'd love to." Her smile was huge.

Normally, I would've shown her how I could play the guitar, but given that it wasn't an option with my arm broken, I instead waited for Wentworth to begin playing the bass. Then I closed my eyes and sang into the microphone in front of my stool.

When I opened my eyes again, Ellie was swaying to the music and had a sweet smile on her face. How could I have ever thought this girl had a stick up her ass? I mean, she was driven and organized, but those were good qualities. What I'd always assumed was her being super controlling had actually been her way of dealing with the bad hand she was dealt in childhood. I mean, she'd had zero control over anything in her life except her grades. It made sense.

I sang my heart out, happy that Ellie was there to listen. It felt good to share what meant most to me with her. I told myself it was because she was from home. She'd known me when I was young, but it was more than that, and I knew it.

When the song ended, Ellie clapped. "That was fantastic," she said, glancing around at everyone.

"You really like it?" Dashwood asked.

For some reason, I wanted to growl at him. I'd been about to ask her that.

"Yeah, I really do." Ellie nodded vigorously before meeting my gaze, her smile widening.

Damn. I was proud. Proud of the music and proud that Ellie liked it. It felt nice to sing for her.

We played a couple more songs while Ellie sat on the stool and swayed to the music. When we were finished, the guys started packing up.

"So, none of the rest of you were hurt in the accident?" Ellie wanted to know.

"I wasn't on the bus that night," Dashwood said with yet another shit-eating grin.

"Yeah, because you were with a groupie," Wentworth snorted.

"Have some respect," Dashwood replied. "She is a fan."

"I guess you got lucky in more ways than one that night," Ellie said, which prompted a round of hysterical laughter from the guys. Damn. Ellie was funny.

"You could say that." Dashwood winked at her again. And I wanted to punch him again.

"Nick and I walked away with just some scratches," Wentworth explained as Holt nodded. "Mark and the bus driver were fine."

"Who's Mark?" Ellie asked.

"Our manager," Dashwood said. "So, Ellie, you single?" he asked, hosting his guitar case onto his shoulder.

"Damn it, Dashwood," I grumbled.

"What?" He shrugged, an innocent look on his face.

"Don't hit on Meg's best friend." I gave him a look that could melt ice.

Dashwood held up both palms in surrender. "Sorry. Damn. I didn't know you would be so defensive about it."

"Ellie's my nurse. She's not here to be sexually harassed by you," I informed him.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure that's why you're so defensive, not because you've already got a crush on her yourself," Dashwood shot back.

Hell. I couldn't deny that. I glared at him, but my silence said all that needed saying.