“You’re only harmonizing half the time,” she griped. “Damn. You’re not competing with Evan. Think of yourself as a back-up singer.”
With zero performance experience, I could only promise to try harder. I nodded at her. “I’ll do better.”
They all stared at me. Then Ji Hoo shook his head. “Man, you’re so different than Stella.”
“Is that bad?” I asked.
“It’s fantastic,” Dana replied. “We might take Racing Sorrow to the next level.”
Evan grinned. “Hells yeah. With Courtney on board, we might even play the state fair this summer.”
I had no idea if he was joking or if that was a hard gig to book, but I smiled tentatively. “Thanks for giving me a shot.”
At the halfway point, we took a break and ate leftover pizza while they told me a little more about their plans to advertise and set up more shows. It felt good to be part of the collective, even if I was the noob. In the latter half of practice, I incorporated their suggestions and I managed to stay on key.
An hour later, we knocked off for the night entirely. Dana and Ji Hoo both had plans for later, so Evan drove them back to campus.
In the van, I asked, “So tell me about the name. How did you come up with it?”
Evan said quietly, “We’ve all got something bad behind us, you know? Without going into our sad stories, it felt right. Every morning we get up, racing sorrow, and telling ourselves this is the day we put it behind us for good.”
“Wow. I love that.”
“Kind of cheesy,” Dana mumbled.
I shifted to meet her gaze. “Not at all.”
When they hopped out of the van, I waved until they disappeared inside the dorm. It wasn’t that late, not even ten, but I’d bothered Evan enough for one day. “I really appreciate the ride home. Thanks again for bailing me out at the music store. I think Dave was about to make an indecent proposal.”
He offered a fleeting smile. “Eh, he gets lonely. You probably kept him in business for another month with everything you bought.”
“I’ll consider my philanthropic quota met for the month.”
“Courtney...” As he turned toward my apartment, passing headlights illuminated his stark features. “I hope you won’t think I’m a dick for mentioning this...”
“Now I’m worried.”
“It’s just a friendly warning.”
His somber tone was kind of freaking me out, so I fiddled with my seat belt, loosening it where it cut into my neck. “Go on.”
“I probably should have stated this up front, but...basically, we have a strict no-dating-within-the-band policy.”
A relieved laugh trickled out of me. “Is that all? No problem. That makes total sense. It would suck if everything imploded over a messy breakup... All that work down the toilet.”
“Exactly.”
“God, you made it sound like a huge deal.”
He rapped his knuckles a couple of times on the steering wheel in a clearly nervous gesture before responding. “It’s basically why Stella left the band. So yeah, it was a problem.”
“Oh, that sucks. What happened?”
“She was crushing hard on Ji Hoo, pressuring him to hook up on the DL. He has a girlfriend, but she thought persistence would win him over. So she started showing up at his dorm room. A few months back, he asked me to step in.”
I winced. “So that sounds awkward and horrifying.”
“Pretty much. We had a huge blowup, she called me a Nazi and quit the band.”
“I can see why you’d make sure I understand the group isn’t my personal dating service. But don’t worry, I’m here for music and friendship. I won’t stalk anyone or create drama.”
“If only I could believe you,” he said mournfully. “But I’ve been burned before.”
“Time will prove that I’m solid.” He was kidding, but I didn’t want Evan to worry that I’d hit on my bandmates. Right now, my emotional life was complicated enough, between the dead boyfriend who wouldn’t stop talking in my head and the best friend haunting my heart. “Full disclosure requires me to warn you, there’s been some gossip about me on campus.”
Quietly I filled him in on the Amy situation, then reassured him, “She apologized and the rumors have mostly died down. I don’t think it’ll impact our shows, but—”
“If it does, we’ve got your back. Your private life is nobody else’s business.”
“Thanks.”
We sang along with the radio the rest of the way; it was good practice harmonizing with him. By the time he pulled into my complex, I had a better handle on the constructive comments Dana and Ji Hoo had given me. Evan offered me a fist bump.
“Your voice isn’t bad.”
“Eh. I don’t have the power to front a group. My abdominal muscles might as well be made of silly string.”
“To say nothing of your diaphragm.”
“Isn’t that a Connie Willis novel?” I didn’t expect him to know who she was or to get the joke; it was a reference Eli would’ve gotten straight off. He chuckled inside my head.
Evan surprised me by laughing, too, then following with a serious question. “Have you read the Doomsday Book? It’s one of my favorites.”
“Me, too. Thanks for the ride.”
“Wait, I’ll walk you up. I can’t believe you’ve actually read it. I feel like it’s seriously underappreciated in genre fiction.” He raved about the novel all the way up the stairs and to my front door.
His enthusiasm made me smile. “We’ll put a pin in this convo and take it up later, yeah?”
“Definitely. We still need to talk about Bellwether.”
“Can’t wait. I love that one, too.” I beamed at him, delighted to have met somebody I could geek out with about books.
Evan stared at me, narrowing his eyes. “You have some pizza sauce on your face.”
“Oh, God.” Tipping my head back, I tried to swipe it off but he shook his head.
“No, to the left. My left. For shit’s sake, here.” Just as he reached to scrape the gunk off my face, the apartment door swung open.
Max stood there staring at us with murder in his eyes.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Evan took a step back as I scrubbed my palm across my face, hoping to remove the sauce. Afterward, I realized it probably looked like I was wiping off a kiss. Max sucked in a sharp breath, glancing between us. If he really thought he’d interrupted something, the polite thing to do would be to say “excuse me” and shut the door.