Diving Into Him by Elizabeth Barone

on his face, but his greyish blue eyes glinted.
    “I just didn’t expect you to get here so soon.” Giddiness replaced the pit of depression in her stomach. With her old friend standing in front of her, she felt more complete, more centered.
    He shrugged. “I told you I was taking the next flight.”
    “I didn’t think you meant it literally.” She grinned up at him.
    His dimples appeared. “I was done with LA, anyway. That place is always a pain in the ass.”
    “Tell me about it.” Her arms twitched. She wanted to wrap him in a bear hug. Things were probably still awkward between them, though. She hugged herself, instead.
    Griff jerked a thumb toward the kitchen. “There’s coffee. I grabbed your favorite.”
    Whistling, she plucked her bathrobe from a folding chair and followed him, tying it around her as she padded after him. "You’re spoiling me."
    Koty sat at the island on a stool, fingers gliding over the screen of his iPad. He swiped through whatever he was looking at quickly, eyes scanning the screen. Griff looked over his shoulder at Jett. He raised a questioning eyebrow, glancing back over at Koty pointedly and then jerking his chin toward her.
    She knew exactly what he meant. Shaking her head, she reached for the gigantic coffee in its cardboard container. Inhaling the scent of the roast, she took a tiny sip, testing it. The liquid didn’t scorch her tongue, so she took a swig. Even though it couldn’t possibly work that quickly, she already felt more herself. Coffee always helped bring her back to center—especially since she stopped drinking.
    “So how did it go last night?” Griff asked, grabbing his own coffee.
    Hopping up onto a stool, she shook her head. “It sucked.” She filled him in, leaving nothing out—even the parts about the men arguing, and how she felt more like a hall monitor than a musician. “I don’t know what to do.” She took another sip of coffee. All of the caffeine in the world wouldn’t make her a better band leader. Phillip had instantly won everyone’s respect when they started Perpetual Smile. Griff and the other members of the band had listened to him, and to her by extension. The men in Perpetual Smile had never argued—until she started drinking and making a mess of things, anyway.
    Maybe the common denominator, she surmised, was her.
    Griff leaned against the island. His fingers moved to stroke his beard, then his arm fell to his side. “I just had them shave it yesterday.” He ducked his head, sighing dramatically. “I feel naked.”
    Koty looked up from his iPad. He touched the light beard on his face.
    Without having to get close, Jett could feel the gentle sandpaper scrape against her skin. Even with the cup of coffee shielding her, she could still smell the scent of the cool soap he used over the warm timber scent of his flesh. She pressed her knees together, hard enough to bruise.
    The men exchanged beard brotherhood nods. Jett rolled her eyes. If she had any money to her name, she would have bet that Griff would start regrowing his immediately. She would probably never understand the revered awe that men held toward their facial hair. Women, on the other hand, plucked and waxed every single stray that appeared. Some even removed their eyebrows completely, preferring to draw them on. Jett shuddered. Her eyebrows weren’t perfect, but she would never be able to pull off drawing them by hand. That was one thing that she wasn’t cocky enough to try.
    She took another swig of coffee. “So what do you think?” she asked Griff. “Have I dug myself into another hole, or what?”
    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Koty shake his head. “You’re doing the best you can,” he said.
    She snorted. “It’s obviously not good enough. You heard them. Perry even brought up the whole ESX thing.”
    Koty winced. He still didn’t like to talk about the brief period that he had spent as the face of the world’s hottest boy band. Even without him, ESX