Editing this song is going to be a breeze.
Now I need to convince her to let me hand it off to Justin so he can put the song up to release right when we want it to. He can bypass the time-intensive quality control checks and things like that. He’s done it before. I don’t know who his contacts are at Apple and Spotify, but they’ve saved me in the past.
I don’t know how to explain all of this to her without also telling her I’ve been writing half of her songs for the last few years.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be a secret anymore, but if she tellsanyone, my cover’s blown, and I can kiss my sweetanonymity goodbye. Besides, I’m sure she’ll feel like it’s a betrayal. I know her.
“Time to wrap it up?” Olive asks from the long sofa behind me. “I think she’s good now.”
“That was definitely the best take yet. I think she has it.”
“Have you recorded all the instruments, Benny?” Olive asks.
I swivel on my chair to see her. “I took care of them when you guys went out to pick up dinner. We can cut and take this home now.”
“Fantastic.” Olive rises, stretching.
“What’s Dash doing while you’re here?” Colby asks, his computer on his lap as he pieces together the video. He’s been working on it the entire time I’ve been producing Bree’s song.
“Hanging out on a beach. He has an audition coming up he’s been working on.” She narrows her eyes at him. “Why do you care?”
Colby looks surprised by this. “Why do I care what your boyfriend, one of the most famous men in our country, is doing while you’re here away from him? I’m weirdly curious, I guess.”
Zoey chuckles, but she doesn’t take her eyes off her phone.
Olive scowls.
Bree pushes the door open and joins us. “Time to head out?”
“I need to close this out.”
“Should we take dinner to Nancy?” Bree asks.
Colby glances at her when she says this, then back to his computer. “She probably ate. It’s after nine.”
Bree swears. “Sorry, guys. You should have gone home.”
“This is nothing.” Olive stretches. “The night is young. What do you guys do for fun around here, anyway?”
“Bonfire on the beach,” Colby says. “Hike the dunes. Surf.”
“Anything not wet or cold?” she asks.
“We could finish the video and song production so Benny’s team has them in plenty of time. That’s always an option.”
“Wait…” Bree’s face wrinkles in confusion. “What team?”
My stomach drops. Colby flashes me anoopslook. I don’t know how to explain my way out of this one. “You remember Justin,” I finally say.
“Your agent?”
“Yeah. He, uh…we’ve kept in contact.”
That’s one way of putting it.
Bree’s not buying it. “He’s not ateam, though. What did Colby mean?” She turns her frown on my cousin. “What was that?”
He shuts his computer, then his hands go up in surrender. “I’m staying out of this.”