Keiran grinned as he got changed and joined Cherisse in the living room. That look in her eyes didn’t lie. Coupled with the surprise had been flat-out appreciation. Cherisse had definitely liked what she’d seen. Something darted in front of him, and Keiran paused. A white cat with orange and black spots stood at the bottom of the stairs staring at him, tail up and curled.

“You have a cat, and you can sing? Just full of surprises today.” He stared down at the feline, who didn’t look pleased to see him. But you just never knew with cats. Maybe that was just its resting cat face, and it wasn’t actually plotting to claw his eyes out.

“Yup. Jello. Don’t worry, he won’t attack or anything.”

“Jell-O? As in Jell-hyphen-O?” Keiran skirted around the cat as he entered the living room and sat on the couch opposite Cherisse. “You for real named your cat Jell-O?”

“No hyphen, but yes, I named him after the wobbly treat because who doesn’t like Jell-O?”

Keiran snorted. “That’s interesting.”

The cat strolled over to Cherisse, bumping his body against her legs before sauntering over to stare up at Keiran quizzically. It was pretty cute. He sported a little pink collar with donuts printed all over and a Pusheen pendant dangling from it. He hoped Jello was just curious about him and not about to go into attack mode. The cat was staring at him intensely.

“Dissing my cat’s name won’t win you any points.”

“I wasn’t,” he assured her. “Just thrown off by you having one, and like I said, your singing. Where the hell you been hiding that? You have an amazing voice.”

She looked down at Jello, but not before he caught the flush creeping into her cheeks. “Eh, it’s alright.”

Alright? Was she being serious? Her singing had been more than alright. “Cherisse, for real. Your voice would go so good on this one track we’re working on.”

Her head snapped up, eyes narrowed, skepticism clear as day.

“I’m not playing,” he insisted. As he thought on it, he could hear how her voice would fit in as background vocals, add something special to the track. It wasn’t quite where he and Dale wanted it to be, and damn if he didn’t think he’d found the missing link.

She laughed. “Yeah, right. I’m not a professional singer. Is this your way of getting back at me for being awful to you?”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t lie about this.”

“Trust isn’t something I give freely, but I do apologize when I’m wrong. I’m sorry about how I acted. It was so uncalled for. I know you don’t think so, but I’m not usually like that. You just make me...” She clamped her mouth shut. “I’m just sorry, okay?”

“Well, I was an asshole with that joke, so I guess we’re even. Listen, just come into the studio. We can record a bit. No pressure. See how it goes. I think you’d be a good fit. What do you want me to do to convince you?”