Page 67 of Everything After

“Go home, I don’t need you today. Grab some lunch and take a swim or something, you’ll only be in the way here,” I murmured to Oscar, dismissing him.

“No,” he replied sternly.

“Yes,” I insisted, eyeing him carefully.

“I’ll sit in the car. Give me the keys.” I knew it was an argument I couldn’t win. Not after what had happened in the coffee shop. Relenting, I dropped the Merc key in his hand and Oscar headed out the door.

As I turned to walk to my seat, I glanced past Maz to the band in the booth. Rage instantly charged every cell within me once I’d taken in what I saw, then my heart stopped for a beat.

“Fuck.” The word burst out of my mouth just as a surge of adrenaline coursed through me. Jealousy narrowed my eyes when I saw Cody’s hands all over what was mine.

The silent scene in front of me looked intimate. Way too intimate for my liking. A sudden pain in my jaw made me realize how hard my teeth were clenched, then a small muscle close to my ear began to tick. It was only when I became conscious of it that I remembered to breathe.

My eyes narrowed as I focused on Lily, and for a moment I felt my anger dissipate when my love for her dampened my rage. Even though I couldn’t hear anything, I knew from Lily’s closed eyes and the way her body swayed that she was lost in the song, feeling the emotions of the lyrics and living every word of the story she sang.

Once I’d dragged my eyes away, switching my gaze to Cody, the ominous feelings I’d had before about him and Lily being in the same room came roaring back. Even from his profile stance I could read how much he wanted her. They stood, each facing the other on either side of the mic.

Cody appeared enthralled while he watched my girl singing, and as they appeared to take turns, I guessed they were singing a duet. Lily sang first and Cody followed, then they both sang together at what I guessed was the bridge in the song.

Blindly placing the tray of coffees down in slow motion, I wandered behind the mixing board, stiffened and folded my arms in full view of the booth window. Maz briefly glanced up, lifted and waved a spare headset toward me, then continued with what he was doing. Taking them from him, I slipped off my beanie and put them on.

The instant I caught the name of the song at the start of the bridge my fists clenched. The song “What He Can’t Know” was littered with soulful lyrics about a secret love that had lasted for years.

My basic instinct was to go rip that booth door off its hinges and drag that weaselly fucker Cody out of that studio by his stupid gel-styled hair.

When he appeared to massage my wife’s shoulder, a sharp pain made me clamp my hand to my jaw and I realized that I’d cracked one of my molars.

To Lily’s credit as the song came to an end and she opened her eyes, she sidestepped away from the mic and glared at her bandmate. There was a short exchange between them with Lily’s hand over the mic.

“Wha-what happened? It was going great,” Maz queried, frowning.

I reached over and pulled Maz’s headphones away from his ear. “Her bandmate got handsy,” I informed him before letting go of his earphone again and strode toward the recording booth door.

As the door was locked for recording, I couldn’t enter without a release, so I banged on the glass with my wedding ring. No one turned around so I marched back to Maz and knocked his headphones off his ear this time. “Tell them to release the fucking door,” I ground out.

“What the hell did I miss?” he asked, his brows knitted in confusion.

“You were sitting right here. You didn’t see it?” I fumed, gesturing toward the window.

“See what? One minute they were making an amazing connection on the track and the next Lily abruptly stopped.

“Yeah, because that fucker was taking advantage and pawing my wife while she was trying to sing.”

“Get the fuck out here,” I bellowed, pointing at Cody through the window and gesturing to the recording booth door.

The shock on Cody’s face made it clear that when he’d seen me leave, he’d thought I’d gone for good.

Lily frowned as she marched toward the door, and I saw the red recording light that still reflected against her skin go off.

“Alfie! What are you doing?” she hissed, with her arm stretched out across the doorway, like I was the one in the wrong.

“What am I doing? What the fuck doeshethink he’s doing?” I yelled in a menacing tone, eyeing Cody over Lily’s shoulder.

Lily twisted her body to follow my gaze, and her shoulders sagged in disappointment. When she turned back to look up at me, she placed her hands on my chest and shook her head. “Wait a minute. It’s fine, he was acting out the lyrics.”

“No, he was pawing you,” I stated.

“Calm down. If that’s how you feel, then that’s a conversationIneed to have with Cody.”