Jimmy found a chair beside Eddie and listened to him recant everything that had passed at Rachel’s house. His manager laughed a loud hoot that echoed through the studio’s front lobby. “I told you a cat was a bad idea.”

“Man, c’mon.” Eddie glanced up from the list of tracks they planned on recording. “You were the one who told me to get it. What was it you said? ‘All dames like something cute and fluffy. Think animal.’ Remember?”

“Yeah, but I was thinking a stuffed toy. You know, like the ones they sell at the store with some roses and chocolate – not a real, live pet. You came up with that kind of brilliance all by yourself.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything to stop me?” Eddie griped.

Jimmy raised his hands in defense. “What was I supposed to do? You had already gotten the cat… and there was no way that thing was sticking around here. I’m allergic to the little beasts.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I still think they’ll make a great team… eventually. Anyway. Did you already do the sound check? I want to be ready to record as soon as she gets here.”

Jimmy shook his head. “That’s a pretty gutsy move there, boss. You don’t even know if she wants to record with you. To answer your question, though, yes. With the hourly we’re paying on this place, you best believe I’ve got all my T’s crossed. All the equipment is primed.”

“Good… and to address your concern, I know she’ll want in once she gets here. You saw how she looked up there on stage. She was a complete natural – born to sing.”

Jimmy shrugged. “Yeah, she did look pretty good up there. Maybe even better than you.”

Eddie scowled. “Seriously?”

“Hey, she’s a pretty face with a nice set of pipes and curves in all the right places.”

“And I thought I was the one with the roving eye,” Eddie grumbled.

“Eddie, what do you want from me? I’m still a man with two good eyes. Don’t worry about me honing in on your turf, though… Yeah, don’t give me that look. I know what’s going on in that lovesick head. Just make sure this recording is as far as the two of you go. I don’t want to have a mess on my hands to clean up after you break some disabled girl’s heart.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “That’s a real nice way of putting it. And besides, it’s not my fault those other women fell a little harder than I did. I warned them upfront that we were just having a good time.”

“Yeah, okay.” Jimmy waved away the lame excuse and started scrolling through his cell phone, mumbling something about “Mr. Heartbreaker” under his breath.

“Hey, I heard that.” Eddie sat back in his chair, his arms crossed in defiance. “It’s not like that with Rachel anyway. She’s different.”

“Qué cosa de Rachel?”

Startled, Eddie jumped up out of his seat while Jimmy nearly slipped out of his and onto the floor. A tall, dark woman stood before them. Beside her was Rachel, arms crossed with a look of expectation to the woman’s unanswered question. Eddie quickly recovered.

“Uh, hello. I didn’t know Rachel was bringing a friend with her.” He gave Rachel a quick wink before offering his hand to the other woman. “Name’s Eddie.”

“Yeah, I know.” She placed her palm in his and briefly shook. “Me llamo Luciana.”

Rachel quickly spoke up. “Yes. Where are my manners? Eddie, this is Lucy. I met her through her husband down at the VFW. Lucy, I don’t think I need to tell you this is Eddie Rivera.”

“Nope,” Luciana shook her head. “No intro needed for one of the up and coming artists in Latin rock. After all, I’m the friend who introduced her to your music.”

“Nice. Well, thank you for that. Sounds like I wouldn’t have met my new backup vocalist without your help,” Eddie said.

“Backup vocalist?” Rachel asked, approaching both him and Jimmy. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What are you talking about?”

Eddie approached her, eyes pleading.

“I wanted to ask you yesterday, but was afraid you’d say no after that fiasco over lunch.” He brought his hands together in a way he had only done when one foster parent had taught him how to pray. He made a ‘puppy dog’ face. “Please sing with me.”

Surprised, Rachel glanced over at Luciana to gauge her opinion. Her friend eagerly nodded with excitement. Rachel looked back at Eddie, his bottom lip still hanging far out. She bit her own in an attempt to fight back a smile. “Don’t do that. You look like a stray begging to be taken in.”

I wouldn’t mind being taken in by someone like you.

The thought flashed so quickly that he hardly had time to process how he felt. He was here to think about his music – not women.

Well… not this woman.

He cleared his throat, suddenly serious. “Honestly, I just think this would be something good for both of us. You have a beautiful, unique voice and we’d sound great together. Jimmy and I are both sure album sales would be substantial.”

“Not to mention the downloads for individual tracks,” Jimmy added.

Eddie nodded. “Exactly. The revenue for that alone could change the tide for both of us. So what do you say?”

Rachel mulled it over for a moment. “Truthfully? I was kind of kicking myself for not having said yes to begin with. I guess I was disappointed about not being invited to go on the road. The more I think about it, though, the more it makes sense that kind of life isn’t for me anyway. I mean, I’ve got the family business to run. I can’t exactly take off whenever I feel like – even if it would be nice now and then. So, yeah. If this is as close to my dream I come, then I’ll take it. I’ll record with you.”

“Great!” Eddie pumped a fist in the air. He gave Jimmy an “I told you so” look. The manager only rolled his eyes. Eddie ignored him. “Follow me. This is a fast business – especially since the studio is charging us double since we booked it last minute.”

“Why did you book it last minute?” she asked.

“I wasn’t planning on recording anything new.” A provocative grin appeared and he continued in sing-song response in the same tune as his hit, “ and then I met you.”

Rachel bit back a smile. When his expression grew serious again, she did too. “Okay. Lead the way.”

He and Jimmy escorted the women to the studio, Jimmy inviting Luciana to a chair in the control room where a sound mixer waited.

“Come on in,” Eddie welcomed Rachel into the live room, his voice sullen even to his own ears. He couldn’t explain his sudden shift in mood. He should have felt more elated, and on one level he kind of did. After all, he was getting his way – as was Jimmy, who insisted people would think he was taking advantage of a disabled veteran should they be on the road together. At the same time, Rachel wanted this kind of life and it was out of her reach. He felt bad she couldn’t really live her dreams.

“Okay. We can skip the sound check since Jimmy already handled that for us earlier,” Eddie spoke as he stepped up to one mic and picked up a pair of headphones that looked slightly different from the second pair. He began to attach them to Rachel’s wrists. “The studio had a pair of these on hand. That’s why we chose to record here. They’re a set of phones capable of converting the music into vibrations. Of course, you can have the regular ones if you prefer.”

“You did this for me?” Rachel examined the phones he gave her. “Thank you. That was nice of you to go the extra mile like that.”

“No era nada.” Eddie shrugged, suddenly appearing embarrassed. “I just thought it might be something you’d like.”

“I do. Actually, I like them both. I think I’ll use them both, too.”

All business again, Eddie straightened up. He handed her the headset. “Here you go. That is what we’re singing.”

He pointed to a songbook on a stand in front of the mic. Rachel slipped the second headset on and then ran a finger across the sheet of music before her. She slowly nodded. “I can sing this.”

“Okay. Feel up to a practice run?”

“Sure.”

Eddie picked up his own set of headphones. “Remember, just come in on the changes marked for your part.”

“Okay.”

Eddie slipped into his spot in front of the mic and signaled both the sound engineer and Jimmy that they were ready. The music began. It was one of Eddie’s favorite – a slow Mexican ballad they had translated into English during a trip to Mexico a few months earlier. It was the first visit to his ancestral origins and the experience had left him overwhelmed. The food was nothing like the stuff served up in Mexican restaurants back in the states, which mostly consisted of Mexican American dishes. Nothing wrong with that, of course. It was just… different.

The people were different, too. Back home, he lived in a condo where he barely knew his neighbors. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He knew one of them from a brief, passionate encounter. However, she kind of wrote him off when he couldn’t remember her name the next morning. The other neighbor? Some doctor who thought he was too good to acknowledge a greeting even if he was stuck in the elevator with you. Mexico had been different. He could walk down the street and complete strangers didn’t only nod, but they would invite him to sit and even have a drink with them. Talk about hospitality!

The music began and Eddie nodded at Rachel. She nodded back and he turned to the mic, his mind melting into the music. He sang through the first verse, glancing over at Rachel when the chorus began. She joined in as marked, her voice like shattered crystal at a black tie event, drawing attention from everyone in the room. It made him want to dig deeper.

Give more.

* * *

Was it her imagination, or were they standing closer together than when they first started? She once again joined in and the distance between them seemed to wane as they ended on a final harmonious note. The music faded, but the emotion she felt swelled.

Eddie apparently felt the same. He let out a slow, shaky breath. “You’re beautiful. I mean, that was beautiful.”

A flush of heat rushed to her face. She quickly glanced down, hopeful he hadn’t noticed. She wasn’t used to men casually flirting with her. Even when she was in the army, the men showed her no romantic interest and plenty of respect – much more so than the high school boyfriend who had tried to force himself on her, or Andy Thompson who wanted to steal her farm. Perhaps it had something to do with most of the men in her company having known her brother, or known of him in some way. Even the small amount of joshing she got from the comrades who were attracted to her was little more than sparks that quickly fizzled. But this?

She looked back up. Which one of them was doing the leaning? He was so close, she could feel the warmth of his breath. Just a few more inches and…

His gaze shifted. Then he completely turned away. That’s when she felt the vibration on her wrist. She hadn’t heard even a slight buzz in her ear, though, and knew the power must have been cut off. She looked up towards the control room and saw Jimmy signaling to them.

He gave a “thumbs up” and then circled his finger in the air. It was a wrap.

Eddie slipped his headphones off. She followed suit.

“Time to pack up and move along.”

Move along?

She deflated over the idea of him leaving so soon. “Wow. You weren’t kidding about this being a fast business. We just recorded and now you’ve got to head out?”

Eddie smiled sadly. “Yeah, it’s kind of like that – especially when you’re first starting out and trying to make a name for yourself. Besides having to worry about the hourly charge on the studio, we were only in town for a couple of days. Plus, I have a gig in Florida coming up. Jimmy thinks we might have to cut our time here short – save on hotel costs.”

Rachel schooled her expressions. Eddie had never said he was going to stay. If anything, it was the exact opposite. She always knew he would be leaving. She would not allow herself to feel disappointed about it now. Instead, she nodded her understanding. “True. You are on tour after all.”

“Right,” he agreed. A trace of sadness tinged his eyes and the very air that had seemed charged between them just moments earlier suddenly felt stale.

Rachel cleared her throat. “So I think that calls for a celebration!”

Eddie suddenly perked up. “A celebration?”

“Yes,” she insisted. “You will come over this evening and enjoy some real Southern hospitality… and food… the only way you can find it here in North Carolina.”

Eddie hooted and clapped his hands.

“Yeah, let’s do it!” He tapped the mic to test if it was still on. “Did you hear that Jimmy? Party at Rachel’s.”

Grinning, she looked up to catch Jimmy’s response. He appeared less than enthused.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Eddie shook his head. “That’s the difference between musicians and managers – only one of us knows how to have a good time. Don’t worry about it, though. He’ll be cool.”

He began packing up his equipment. Rachel glanced back up at Jimmy one last time, an uneasy sensation filling her. When she caught his eye, he smiled in a way that didn’t seem quite right before turning away and engaging with the sound manager.

She focused on Eddie again. “Okay. Well, I guess I better go and get things ready. I still have a couple of things to get done around the place.”

He clicked shut the case to his amplifier. “Or I can go with you and help out.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“Of course, I am. You didn’t think I expected you to wait on me. Did you?”

“I guess I kind of thought you would just swing by in a couple of hours.”

“Are you kidding? Surely by now you’ve realized that I’m the sort of guy who likes adventures,” he grinned wildly, “and I plan on experiencing at least some of what North Carolina has to offer before I leave.”

“What could you possibly experience at Linden Land?”

A mischievous look shone in his eyes. “Don’t you have a cow?”

She hesitated, not entirely following his line of thinking. “Um… yeah.”

“Great!” he said. “Then I want to learn how to milk one.”

Startled with shock, she stared at him. Then laughed louder than she had in a long time. “City boy, if you’re wanting to learn how to become a farmer, then you’ve come to the right place. I’ll teach you how to milk a cow. It’s the least I can do after the experience you’ve given me today.”

“Awesome. Give me a minute to finish packing up, and we’ll head over to your place.”

“It’s a deal,” she said and held a hand out for him to shake, forcing herself to ignore the spark that surged up her arm when he touched her.