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Morgan rolled her eyes and smacked his leg. “Yes. This is part of her onboarding with clients. We talked about it. She has to go over your social media presence and your goals. All that stuff that I don’t understand. Which is why we hired her and actually brought her on the tour. You don’t need to be hesitant. I think she’s going to be fabulous. Especially if you’re wanting to make this significant of a change. Get over yourself or whatever you have against her. Give her a chance to help you.”
Sterling couldn’t quite explain all the reasons he didn’t want to meet with Reese alone. Maybe it was the way in that first meeting she had reminded him of all the things he hated about his career. People making assumptions about who he was, assuming more familiarity with him because they had studied his song lyrics or had a framed picture.
And then there was the way he had reacted just being close to her. Not to mention the spike of jealousy and protectiveness he felt when Moby asked about her. She had challenged him about going to Subway unnoticed, teased, and made a bet. He liked that she didn’t back down.
No, being alone with Reese was not a great idea.
“That’s fine. I can meet in a few minutes,” he said.
Morgan jumped up. “Great! I’ll tell her. Your private lounge? Twenty minutes?”
Sterling took a breath. “Sure.” His fingers twitched and he resisted the urge to pull the pick out of his pocket, but he left it there. “Maybe you can stop in for some of the meeting. Just to help things along.”
Morgan grinned at him. “Aw, you want my help. That’s sweet. Sure. I’ll let you guys get started and then I’ll casually drop in. That way she won’t feel like I’m babysitting her. Though I’m really babysitting you,” she said.
Sterling gave a little laugh, but he felt like what he needed around Reese wasn’t so much of a babysitter as a chaperone.
* * *
Reese tapped her pen on the small table until Sterling gave it a pointed stare and cleared his throat. She hadn’t realized she was even doing it and put the pen down. The doors were open to his bedroom as though he was nervous being alone in a room with her. She could just barely hear the other guys in the band laughing about something up front as the bus rolled toward Atlanta. Reese wished for just a tiny bit of their humor to lighten the mood, but Sterling’s darkness seemed to suck all the air from the room.
“Sorry. So, um, have you thought of a few words that you would like to describe your public persona?”
Across the table, Sterling slouched on the leather love seat, twirling a gray pick between his fingers. The movement caught and held her eye. For a guy with such broad shoulders and thick arms, his fingers were surprisingly dexterous. That was dumb—of course they were. He played guitar really well. She had admired his hands before in videos, watching as they moved up and down the neck of a guitar. Now she felt sucked into the small movement of the pick flipping over his knuckles.
Sterling sighed as though she had asked the most annoying question in the world. “Let’s keep it simple: I’d like to not be known as a guy with a dual personality.”
“That’s a good start,” Reese said, biting back her impatience.
His answers continued to be so shallow and basic that they weren’t helpful. Reese was leading Sterling through the branding questionnaire she had developed. Or, she was trying to lead him through it. He had been completely resistant to answering even the simplest questions that helped her create personalized plans for her clients.
She had tried rewording questions and gently pressuring him, but knew she was holding back. His eyes kept flicking to the front of the bus, like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Reese wanted him to know she was good at her job. But she was trying too hard, making her actually worse at her job. There was also the matter of the way she reacted to simply being around him. Watching his fingers as he flipped the pick, wondering what they might feel like against her cheek or tangled in her hair. The thought made her cheeks heat and she looked back at her list of questions. This was bad.
Normally she could get people to open up and go deeper. Sterling had not just a wall up, but an electric fence and a moat. Instead of busting it down with humor or kindness or vulnerability the way she normally could, Reese stood outside all his barriers, poking at them with a twig.
It simply wasn’t working.
“Let’s go a little deeper,” Reese said. “What I mean really is how would you like people to describe you? For example, you might choose words like kind or serious or playful or sarcastic. I don’t know that those words would be true for you, but it’s just to give you an idea.”
Sterling’s only response was a kind of grunt. Reese sighed.
Morgan walked into the lounge. Reese gave her a small smile that was more like a plea for help. Morgan slid into the seat next to Sterling, their shoulders touching. He sighed, leaning slightly into her. The pink ends of her hair brushed over his shoulder. Reese’s stomach contracted with a surprising jealousy at the simple touches. They were so easy together. Whereas her interactions with Sterling resembled a trip to the dentist.
“How’s it going back here?” Morgan said. Her eyes went from Sterling to Reese and back again. “Making some good progress?”
“I think we’re almost done,” Sterling said.
Reese tried to mask her snort as a cough. “Actually, we’re on question three. And I’m not sure I have much I can use yet.”
Morgan narrowed her eyes at Sterling, but spoke in a teasing way. “Are you being difficult?”
“No,” he said, sounding defensive.
“Reese? Is he being difficult?”
Sterling eyeballed her and Reese looked down at her computer screen where she had typed almost nothing. “Uh, I wouldn’t say difficult, but we aren’t making much forward progress. Maybe you could help, Morgan? You know Sterling well.”
“I do,” Morgan said, poking him in the ribs. “Very well.”
