by Raine Thomas
How was he going to overcome this?
They were in the middle of a heated discussion about it when Lily entered the studio’s outer seating area with Sydney, joining Christopher, the producer, and the sound engineer on the outside of the recording booth. Archer’s tension immediately eased.
Without bothering to excuse himself, he removed the headphones that were encircling his neck like a yoke and opened the door to leave the booth. He walked over to greet Lily. She smiled at him and stepped forward to give him a hug. That smile was enough to dissolve the last of his stress.
“Boy, am I happy to see you,” he said, pulling her close and kissing her soundly. “How was lunch?”
She shrugged. “You know how it goes with my family.”
“The food was great,” Sydney offered as she took a seat. “Thanks for treating us, Archer.”
“My pleasure,” he said. “Glad you enjoyed it.”
He smoothed a tendril of hair away from Lily’s face. He didn’t like how pale and strained she looked. Her gaze drifted briefly towards Duff as he also entered the studio with his camera in-hand. Archer deduced she didn’t want to discuss whatever had happened at lunch in front of the cameras.
What had her sisters said or done this time?
Anger gripped him. It took him a moment to register that the simmering feeling had been sitting there all morning long. Up until that moment, he hadn’t acknowledged just how worried he’d been about Lily...how guilty he felt for not being with her during the dreaded meeting with her sisters. The anger he felt now was directed entirely at himself. He knew he had effectively chosen his music over supporting Lily.
Maybe that was oversimplifying things, but that didn’t make him feel any better about it.
“How’s the recording going?” she asked.
“Not all that well,” Sage said as he also stepped out of the booth.
“It’s been rough,” Archer admitted. “We’re struggling with ‘Not Mine.’”
“You’re kidding. I thought you’d have that one long done by now. Why don’t you guys do a run-through of it for me and Sydney? Maybe we can help.”
He smiled. “It sure couldn’t hurt.”
“That’s a great idea,” Christopher said. He waved at the couch next to Sydney as he sat on its arm. “Get comfortable.”
Archer glanced at Sage, who nodded and moved over to resume his position beside the producer sitting at the controls. Sage flipped the switch that would open the speakers to the seating area. Lily sank down on the couch beside Sydney as Archer headed back into the booth. The rest of his bandmates looked at him when he entered.
“Okay,” he told them. “We’re going to do one more take of ‘Not Mine’ so Lily and Sydney can hear it. Hopefully they can offer us some input on why it’s not clicking.”
“I’ll take all the help we can get,” Xander muttered.
More guilt plagued Archer over the discontent he read in everyone’s body language. He was the front man. He was supposed to lead them through these kinds of problems and he’d been failing them because he hadn’t been able to correct the hitch in his own stride. Adding to that, he had written the damn song. If anyone should have been able to guide them through it, it should be him.
He grabbed his guitar off its stand and once again pulled the strap over his shoulders. The headphones went on next, silencing his bandmates as they settled into their positions. He turned enough that he could see Lily beyond the microphone and small window.
The sound of his heartbeat and his breath filled his ears as he met her beautiful gaze. For an instant, no one else existed.
It occurred to him then that this moment captured the very essence of Lily. She was his heart and his breath. She was his courage and his strength. She was his inspiration and his rock. She was everything he had been searching for his entire life.
From the moment they met, it had been Lily.
As the opening notes of the song began this time, he remembered how he had felt when he discovered she was engaged to Johnathan. He imagined how devastated he would have been if she hadn’t chosen him...if he’d had to watch her marry another man and share her incredible love with someone else. He drew on that desolation, infusing it into the lyrics.
And the song absolutely shined.
By the time the last note played, Archer knew they had it. He stood in the ensuing silence, waiting for Sage and the producer to give the all-clear. Through the window, Lily and Sydney watched with tears in their eyes.
The all-clear came. Archer turned and looked at everyone. They were all smiling, even Keith. They knew they had just laid down their next number one hit.
“Finally!” Noelle cheered, leaping up from her seat and throwing her arms around Xander, who was standing next to her. “Finally, finally, finally!”
Archer yanked off his headphones and set his guitar on its stand. “You guys slayed it,” he said, walking over to each of them and giving them fist taps.
“It wasn’t us, Arch,” Keith said.
Xander nodded his agreement. “I think you just needed your Muse, my man.”
Archer grinned. He spun around and hurried out of the booth, heading right to Lily. She gasped as he reached down and scooped her off the couch.
“Dane!” she shrieked, breaking out in bright laughter when he pretended to drop her.
She grabbed him around the neck like he’d been aiming for. He used the hand pressed between her shoulder blades to guide her to his lips. She leaned forward enough to meet him, kissing him tenderly and then pressing her forehead to his. Once again, it felt like it was just the two of them.
“Thanks, Lily Momilly,” he murmured.
“All I did was sit on a couch,” she said with her loving smile.
His heart ached with the need to convince her how very wrong she was. The sound of everyone shuffling out of the booth told him it wasn’t the time, though.
He slowly lowered Lily to her feet, keeping his arms around her. When he looked up, he saw that everyone was watching them.
“What kind of time do we have left, Christopher?” he asked. “Can we try for one more?”
“Not today,” their manager said.
Archer was actually glad to hear that. He wanted to be alone with Lily for a while.
“Do we have time to do a Lily’s Little Nothings before we leave?” she asked him, holding up the bag she had brought into the studio with her. “I thought the studio would be a cool place to record one.”
Archer smiled. “Of course. Let’s go into the booth so you can get some of the equipment in the shot.”
They said goodbye to everyone but Sydney, who offered to record the clip for Lily. The three of them walked over to the booth. Duff followed with the House of Archer camera.
“How about in front of Bubbles’ drums?” Archer suggested.
“Perfect,” Lily said.
Sydney poised the camera and raised her thumb when she was recording. Lily and Archer both smiled.
“All right, friends...it’s time for another Lily’s Little Nothings,” Lily said. “This time I managed to rope Archer into helping me out. He and the band just finished recording ‘Not Mine,’ and oh my God.” She spaced out the last three words for emphasis and placed a hand over her heart. “You’re just not going to believe it when you hear it. Now let’s get to one of your pressing questions.”
Archer obligingly reached into the bag when she held it up and took a few seconds to choose one. “What will it be this time?” he said as he unfolded it. “Let’s see. Julia from Des Moines sent this one in. Hey, Lily...when did you first know you loved Archer?”
He paused and crossed his arms over his chest, turning to Lily as though her answer was of the utmost interest to him. Lily gave him a suspicious look.
“Let me see that,” she said, holding out her hand.
He grinned and gave her the slip of paper. Her expression eased into resignation when she saw that he had read the actual question.
&nbs
p; “Luck of the draw,” she said under her breath, looking again at the camera. Her smile in place, she continued at a normal volume, “By now everyone knows that Archer has been my best friend for years. I’ve loved him for a long time.
“I think I first fully understood how much I valued his friendship when I was seventeen. I had gone to a party with some friends and everyone ended up drinking. I know...stupid, right? Anyway, I called Archer while I was at the party because my classmates didn’t believe that he and I were friends. When he realized that I was intoxicated, he drove to the party to pick me up.
“I was more angry with him than grateful when he made me leave. My friends were all making fun of me. I was convinced I’d be shunned for the rest of the year. That didn’t stop him from hauling me away.
“The next day I heard that two of my classmates had gotten into a bad accident while attempting to drive home from the party. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have a friend who cared about my safety enough to risk ticking me off. I’ve loved him ever since.”
Archer realized he was just standing there staring at her. Something about her response had his chest feeling uncomfortably tight. He’d never known that particular incident had affected her that way.
Lily looked at him and smiled, jarring him from his thoughts.
He cleared his throat and made himself smile before looking again at the camera. “Here’s a bonus for you, folks,” he said, putting his arm around Lily’s shoulders. “I knew I loved Lily when she told me how brutally I had blown one of the first takes I made of the song ‘Discovery.’ It was the first time someone had given me such unfiltered feedback. More than that, I knew she was being so honest with me because she believed I could do better. She’s always had more confidence in me than I’ve even had in myself. Since that moment, hers is the approval I strive for on every song.”
“Well aren’t we a couple of saps?” Lily said with a grin.
“Guess we are.”
Looking again at the camera, Lily issued her thanks to Julia and encouraged other fans to reach out with their questions and tune in to her other Lily’s Little Nothings posts to learn more. She ended it by giving out the e-mail address like she did after every video. Sydney lifted her thumb again when she had ended the recording.
They didn’t have time to dawdle. The next group of musicians was already filtering into the seating area and some members of The Void’s equipment crew were waiting to collect all of the band’s instruments. Even Duff had packed up.
Trey escorted Archer, Lily, and Sydney out to the vehicle where Barney awaited them. Archer gave Duff a nod of farewell when the cameraman climbed into a van driven by someone Archer didn’t recognize. He seemed to be done for the day.
The conversation on the drive home largely centered on the session and the meal at Meilleur in terms of the food and service. They didn’t touch on anything involving Lily’s sisters. It was clear Lily didn’t want to discuss that on the SUV’s camera.
“Do you want to stay for dinner, Syd?” Lily asked when they had pulled into one of Archer’s garages.
Sydney stretched as she climbed out. “Don’t you think we should get on the road to avoid some of the worst traffic?”
Archer looked at her in confusion. “We?”
“Well, yeah,” Lily replied. “I figured I’d get out of your hair and head to my apartment since Sydney can drive me.”
“I’d really rather you stayed here,” he said, reaching over and brushing the backs of his fingers along her soft cheek. “Please?”
She sighed, but he saw her suppressing a smile. “Fine. Will you be okay driving back on your own, Syd?”
Sydney grinned at them. “Of course. I’ve got my audiobook ready to keep me company.”
“Okay. Tell Aria I said hi.”
“I will.”
Archer and Lily waved her off and headed inside. Since they were in for the night, Barney and Trey conducted their inspection of the premises and made sure Archer’s top-of-the-line security system was activated before heading out themselves.
The moment they were alone, Archer pulled Lily into the bedroom. It was the one area of the house he was certain had no cameras. Trey had overseen all of the installations.
“In a hurry?” Lily teased as he closed the door behind them.
“I wanted to give you the chance to tell me what’s really weighing on you after that lunch.”
He tugged her after him as he walked over to one of the two wingback chairs in the room’s seating area. She didn’t fight him, falling onto his lap when he urged her to do so. Her head settled on his chest.
“It wasn’t anything, really,” she said.
He knew otherwise.
“They had plenty of unreasonable requests,” she went on when he didn’t respond. “Wanting to watch the show from backstage, asking if we were going to charter them transportation, insisting that they needed Void apparel to wear to each concert, trying again to get additional tickets for friends. It was pretty much what I expected.”
Lily wasn’t fooling him with her dismissive shrug. He knew she was upset by how ungrateful and self-centered her sisters were. How could she not be?
“They had to make comments about me too, of course,” she said.
Ah. Now they were to the heart of it. He felt it in how her slender body tensed against him.
“They indicated that now that I’m dating you, I need to think more about my appearance.”
“That’s ridiculous. You’re perfect the way you are.”
“I wish that was true,” she said wearily. “But we’ve both seen and heard the press saying the same things as Caroline and Bridgette. I’m constantly being judged now. I need to take steps to keep all of those judgments from being so negative since they reflect on you and the band. I figured I could start with my wardrobe choices.”
His initial instinct was to continue to deny that she should change. That was truly how he felt. It aggravated him that she had been pushed to the point where she was even thinking about it.
As she spoke, however, he got the sense she thought changing her appearance would make her life easier...that it would keep the press and people like her sisters off her back.
Touchy ground, he thought.
“Do you feel strongly about this?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well...didn’t you say that Aria wanted to take you shopping before we head on the next leg of the tour?”
She made a buzzing sound with her lips. “Sure, but with Aria that means Rodeo Drive not Marshall’s.”
“Rodeo Drive is a helluva lot closer.”
She lifted her head and gave him a pointed look. “You know I can’t afford that. And don’t even suggest paying for it.”
He battled his frustration over her instant refusal of his help. They both knew she needed money to make this kind of change. He was the obvious solution.
He briefly considered offering her a loan, then just as quickly dismissed the idea. She was his girlfriend, for God’s sake.
Another idea occurred to him. “What if I talk to Christopher about a wardrobe stipend for you?”
Her eyebrows drew together. “That isn’t something the social media manager typically gets, is it?”
“No, but we’ve never had a social media manager as in the spotlight and as critical to the band’s PR as you are right now. If the press is commenting on your appearance, it only makes sense that we take that into account and do something to address it.”
She tilted her head in consideration. “It’s not a bad idea. But I’ll be the one who brings it up with Christopher. I don’t want you using your charm to convince him.”
Even though she smiled to soften the statement, it rubbed him the wrong way. Once again, she was refusing to let him help her. The stark impotence he felt negated the high he’d been feeling over nailing “Not Mine.”
How was he ever going to convince her how much he loved and valued her if she never let him try?
Archer’s hold on her waist tightened briefly over the reminder that her role with the band was temporary. It left him feeling hollow.
The past couple of weeks had been the best of his life. He didn’t want to think ahead to a time where he and Lily had to try and balance his career with hers. Their relationship was too important to him and he was seriously worried it wouldn’t survive such a significant change.
The deepest, most insecure part of him couldn’t help but wonder if part of the reason Lily wouldn’t accept his money was because she didn’t want to get used to it...because she was worried about the same thing.
Chapter Twelve
Keith brought Nikki to meet Lex the next day. He still wasn’t entirely sure why.
The invitation had been extended in a moment of weakness after the band’s successful recording of “Not Mine.” He had been talking on the phone with Nikki and she had again mentioned wanting to give Lex the T-shirt she had bought her. It had seemed incredibly dickish to refuse to let her give Lex the gift she had gone to so much trouble to find and purchase for her.
Added to that, he knew he had done nothing but disappoint Nikki since they returned to L.A. First, he had refused to invite her to his apartment when they arrived into town. She had made some noise about that, but since they were both tired and she had plans the following day, she didn’t push it.
They had argued again when she called him and asked to attend the studio session and he told her no. The band didn’t typically allow anyone but Christopher and the recording specialists to sit in on their sessions.
“Lily’s going to be there,” Nikki had said. “You can’t tell me that only Archer’s girlfriend is allowed to sit in.”
Lily was practically part of the band. Nikki knew that. Her disgruntlement made him think there was more she wasn’t saying. He wished she’d just spit it out.