Instead, he got silence. It was only the day after. He imagined her working up to it, but he was itching to text her again. That way lay trouble. He had to reel himself in before he spilled his guts at her feet. It would be easy, too. One heavy-lidded look from Cherisse and he was putty in her hands. It was better for both of them that he kept those feelings to himself, for now at least.

“Yeah, we’re good.” Eager to move on from any discussion of Cherisse, especially with Mara and Sean around, he refocused on their task. “Let’s run that again.”

Sheila gave a thumbs up. She was easy to work with, pleasant, had talent oozing out of her pores. Her voice was phenomenal. She readjusted the headphones over her braids, ready to jump back in.

Sean scowled his way. “Yeah, let’s hope it doesn’t sound like shit this time.”

Dale patted Keiran’s leg before he could release a scathing comment. Keiran took several deep breaths. Lord, please grant me the patience to not strangle this man. He allowed Sheila’s vocals on the upbeat track to wash over him. The song, titled “Have Your Cake And Eat It Too,” was a cheeky rendition of a woman having fun with two guys who end up fighting over her, but in the end, the woman doesn’t choose either of them.

Keiran imagined Cherisse would get a kick out of the title. There he went again, dragging her into his thoughts without even trying. To be expected, since he hadn’t gotten to savor his morning after as much as he’d hoped. Sean had effectively soured that with his presence.

Dale eventually called a break because his co-producer was attuned with his moods and knew when he needed a breather. “Let’s take five, and we’ll get back to it,” Dale suggested. Sean didn’t look pleased, but he toned down the animosity a smidge. Great, because Keiran wasn’t going to stand for any more of the man’s shit in his studio.

“This is the worst idea,” Keiran muttered, swiveling in his chair, his back to the recording booth, eyes on Mara, whose head was down focused on her phone, but Keiran couldn’t be certain she wasn’t listening.

“Agreed.” Dale arranged his body on the couch, legs dangling over one of the arms. “I could really go for one of Cherisse’s goodies right now. I wonder if she’d deliver to us again.”

Keiran walked over to the couch and sat next to Dale. “Not with this asshole here,” he mumbled, eyes on Sean as he chatted with Sheila in the booth.

He didn’t want to think about Cherisse walking in and seeing Sean after last night’s events. Knowing they were going to use their fight and spin it like something they’d planned all along didn’t sit well with Keiran at all. Mara had said they were all supposed to remain mum about it, but it wouldn’t be so bad if he told Cherisse right before the teaser promo dropped, would it? That way, Cherisse wouldn’t be completely blindsided, and Mara wouldn’t murder him in his sleep for leaking information way ahead of time.