A Song For Us (Fallen Tuesday Book Two) (A Brothers of Rock Novel) (10 page)

Gray looked at the clock twice.
Once when they got back in the studio and once when they took a break. When
Gray realized that it was inching close to midnight, he couldn’t believe how
fast time had gone by.

“I think we should call it a
night,” Luke said.

“I second that,” Mack said.

“Call it,” Jake said.

They all took their instruments
off. Gray stood around and watched the band pack up some of their gear. He put
his guitar down and just left it leaning against the amp setup. He liked it
that way. It was easier to grab his guitar when he came back to the studio.

As everyone started to exit the
studio, Gray suddenly realized he had nowhere to go. Everything that had
happened with his brother really didn’t give him the time to find a place in
town. He could grab a hotel for the night, but he was tired of hotels. Gray’s
life was lived in a hotel.

Outside, Mack put an arm around
Gray. “Don’t think I forgot about you, brother. You’re crashing at my place.”

Gray looked at Mack and smiled. It
wasn’t always just about music with the band. It was about being together,
being close. They called each other
brother
because that’s how they
treated each other.

“Are you sure?” Gray asked. “I
don’t want to invade.”

“It’s good,” Mack said. “I’ve got a
nice townhouse. Finished basement is all yours. Your own bathroom, bedroom,
living room. The whole thing. Like a hotel room, but it’s an actual house.”

“That’s a change for me,” Gray said.

“I’m sure it is.”

“No partying though,” Gray said.
“At least for me.”

“Like I said, the basement is
yours. I won’t bother you unless you want me to. Just know that I’m available
to talk. If anything’s eating at you.”

“Thanks, Mack.” Gray turned and
hugged Mack.

Thirty minutes later, Gray followed
Mack into the townhouse. Mack gave the quick tour and then opened a door for
the basement.

“All yours,” Mack said. “I’m going
to hang up here and have a night cap. I’ll put out a second glass and wait, if
you don’t mind.”

“I have to make a phone call or
two. I’m not sure if I’ll be back up or not.”

“Go to it then.”

Gray went down the stairs. It could
hardly be called a finished basement. It was a fully furnished home down there.
The smell was so new, Gray was afraid to touch anything.

He dropped his bags at the couch
and then sat, taking out his phone.

First, he needed to check on Peter.
Then, he needed to check on his mother. And finally, there would be a third
phone call. That was the phone call Gray looked forward to the most.

*

Carina was more than sure she had
blown the chance of a lifetime. When she closed her eyes she could still see Gray
standing there. His hands on her. His lips touching hers. The taste of his
tongue, the way it moved. How he kissed her stomach. How he was ready to taste more
of her body…

And it was all gone.

Now she sat at a small bistro set
in Angie’s apartment, nursing a glass of wine. Carina spun the glass slowly by
its skinny neck. Angie had left the room to take a phone call from one of her
band members.

In that moment with Gray, Carina
thought she knew what she was doing. She thought by waiting, it would make the
moment hotter. It would make it better. She didn’t want to just become a one
night stand with Gray. She didn’t want to just have a story to tell. She wanted
more from Gray.

It was the music that sparked that
passion between them. Playing the keyboard for Gray, knowing he was standing
right there, made Carina feel empowered. She wanted to be scared but she
couldn’t. She wanted to mess up but her fingers wouldn’t allow it. It was the
first time ever that she felt like a real musician.

“Freaking drummers,” Angie said as
she walked back to the small kitchen.

“More sexual tension?”

“Hardly,” Angie said. “He doesn’t
want to play tomorrow night’s gig because it doesn't pay enough. Like, come on,
who are we?”

“Drummers,” Carina said
sarcastically.

“That’s why I’m telling you… you
and me. I play guitar. You play piano. We both sing.”

“If I said I’ll consider it, would
you leave it be?”

Angie thought about it. “For
tonight, yes.”

“Good.”

“So, what’s got your mind
spinning?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar. You’ve taken two sips of
that wine. You’ve barely eaten. When you look at me, you’re listening, but your
mind is elsewhere. What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing,” Carina said.

That was the truth. Nothing had
gotten into her. That’s what bothered her. She had the chance to have Gray get
into her. Even if would have been a one night stand…

Carina looked away.

She was thankful it didn’t happen
that way, especially with the way he looked at her. If that’s what Gray would
have wanted, it would have been one night of pleasure and long time of loneliness.

“Did you hear from the rockstar
again?” Angie asked.

“We went out once,” Carina said.
“But I think he went back to record with his band.”

“Did you sleep with him?”

“No,” Carina said. “I don’t want to
talk about it either.”

“Okay. Can we go mess around with
some music then?”

“I thought you were going to bother
me about this?”

“I’m not bothering you,” Angie
said. “I want to play a new song for you.”

“You play for me?”

Angie nodded. “Come on. And bring
your wine. Maybe I’ll inspire you to take a freaking drink.”

Angie sat on her couch with a
guitar. She strummed a few chords and tuned the guitar. Carina sat in a comfortable
chair, her wine glass on the table next to her. She had no interest in wine
tonight. In fact, she had no interest in anything that didn’t involve Gray.

When Angie started playing, Carina
couldn’t help but notice how nervous Angie looked. She licked her lips at least
five times. Her face looked a little white too. She started to sing and it was
beautiful. Angie’s voice was crisp and clear, a natural voice, but after only
playing for a minute or so, Angie stopped.

“That’s amazing,” Carina said.

“It’s okay. I need some work with
it though. Will you sing it to me? So I can hear the lyrics?”

Before Carina could say a word,
Angie handed Carina a notebook with the lyrics written down.

“Are you trying to trick me?”

“No, I’m asking for your help,”
Angie said.

Carina sighed. She looked at the
words on the paper. She looked at Angie. Finally, she nodded.

“You know when to come in, right?”

Carina did. She loved music. She
could hear a song once and know all the parts. It was a gift, and also may be a
curse.

Angie began to play the song again.
She looked a little more relaxed this time, bobbing her head. Her eyes were
intent on Carina though.

When it came time to sing, Carina
figured she had nothing to lose. She opened her mouth and tried to copy what
Angie had sang. The words were powerful yet smooth to read and sing. Angie
certainly had a gift when it came to lyrics. Soon Carina felt herself getting
lost in the song. She couldn’t look up from the notebook because she would lose
the words, so she kept singing. And singing. And singing. She sang until Angie
came in on the bridge of the song, smiling as she did so.

At the end of the bridge, Angie
called out, “Chorus twice!”

Together, Carina and Angie sang the
chorus two more times. Carina hated to admit it but they sounded really good
together. Their voices blended so well and Carina wished the song would keep
going.

The song ended and Angie bit her
lip. “I tricked you, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Carina said. “But that
sounded good.”

“That sounded beautiful,” Angie
said. “Do you… do you want to do that again? You and I trading verses and
sharing the chorus?”

Carina felt like hesitating, but
she couldn’t. The singing kept her mind focused somewhere other than Gray.

“Okay,” Carina said. “Let’s do it
then. Whatever.”

“I love you,” Angie said and
smiled.

As Angie got ready to play the song
again, Carina’s cell phone began to ring. She looked over her shoulder and then
at the clock.

Who would be calling this late?

“I should check that,” Carina said.

She went to her phone and couldn’t
believe her eyes when she saw the screen.

It was Gray calling her.

This late?

Carina’s heart raced but quickly
sank when she thought of Gray’s brother in the hospital. Something must have
happened to him.

“I have to take this,” Carina
rushed through the kitchen to the bedroom.

Carina slammed the door and took
the call.

“Gray, is your bother okay?” she
asked.

“Hello to you too,” Gray’s sexy
voice said. “My brother is fine. Well, he’s not fine, he’s just… the same. Is
that the right answer?”

Carina touched her chest, feeling
her heart racing. “That’s good, I guess. You scared me half to death. I wasn’t
expecting you to call. And this late.”

“You don’t sound tired,” Gray said.
“You don’t sound like you’re in bed.”

“Well, neither do you,” Carina
teased.

“I just came home from the studio.
I was working all day and night.”

“Seriously? You’re in the studio
that late?”

“Of course,” Gray said. “If
inspiration hits… we don’t have set hours to work. We’re rock stars. We do
whatever we want, when we want to do it.”

“And after a day in the studio you
decide to call me?”

“That’s right.”

“Before you go out to a party?”

“If you mean party as in sleeping…
that’s where I’m going.”

“Are you in a hotel?” Carina
cringed.
That’s not my business… why would I ask that?

Gray laughed. “Worried about me?”

“I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry.
Just dying to make conversation.”

“We’re talking,” Gray said. “And
no, I’m not in a hotel. I’m in Mack’s basement.”

Carina gushed.
Mack.
Fallen
Tuesday’s drummer. Gray could talk about him so casually though. It was
amazing.

“Comfortable?”

“It’s actually really nice,” Gray
said. “It’s like my own house down here. Then again, without you, it’s not
completely comfortable.”

“I still can’t believe you’re
talking to me,” Carina said.

“Why? Because of who I am?”

“Well, yeah,” Carina said.
And
because you are freaking sexy and could have any woman in the world… yet you
leave the studio and call me?

“Listen, I didn’t call just to
flirt and tease you a little,” Gray said.

“No? I wish you did. But you are
interrupting a music session here.”

“Wait, music? Are you playing your
keyboard?”

“I’m at a friend’s house. She’s
playing guitar and I’m singing.”

“Let me hear,” Gray said.

“No way. We’re done now. It’s
getting late.”

“I want to hear you sing,” Gray
said.

“Maybe someday that will happen,
Gray.”

“Maybe someday soon. Real soon.
Look, Carina, I’m calling on a whim here, and I don’t want you to take this the
wrong way… but I want you here with me. Right now.”

Carina giggled. “You haven’t been
gone that long at all, Gray. How long are you staying there?”

“I don’t know,” Gray said. “Today
we wrote a song that’s going to be a hit. We started piecing together other
pieces of the album. But that has nothing to do with you. I want you here.”

“Why?”

Carina hated to sound defensive.
Angie would slap her for talking to a rockstar like this.

“Because music is in your heart and
soul,” Gray said. “Yet I don’t know why you don’t let it out freely. I want to
know. I want to get it out of you.”

“You can’t do that here?” Carina
asked.

“You’re afraid to be there,” Gray
said. “I’m sorry to be blunt. You’re afraid to open up there, to be vulnerable.
Here, with me, you can be anything you want.”

“How far away are you?” Carina
asked.

“If you were driving, five hours,
give or take.”

“If I were driving? What does that
mean?”

“Get some sleep, Carina,” Gray
said. “Your flight is leaving in the morning.”

“My… flight?”

“I’m flying you out here. I have to
see you. I have to touch you. You’re lingering on me and it’s driving me crazy.”

Carina’s face was three shades of
red. Her legs felt weak so she sat on Angie’s bed. She looked at herself in the
mirror, her cell phone to her ear.

What did Gray see? What did he
want?

“Gray, I don’t know what to say.”

“There’s nothing to say. I didn’t
ask you. I’m telling you. I hope you don’t mind.”

“A plane? What airport? What time?
I’ll have to go through security…”

Gray chuckled. “Oh, Carina, you
don’t get it. You’re coming to me. I’ll take care of all that.”

“What does that mean?”

“A private jet will be waiting for
you.”

“A what?” Carina shrieked. She jumped
off the bed. A second later, the bedroom door opened and Angie stood there,
eyebrows raised.

“A private jet,” Gray said. “I hope
you don’t think less of me. The record company and my manager keep telling me
to take advantage of these amenities, so I am. You’re flying in a private jet
to me. That is, if you want to come see me.”

“Of course I want to see you,” Carina
said. She looked at Angie and added, “Gray…”

Angie’s jaw dropped. Carina waved
at her, wanting her to go away.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow,” Gray
said. “Have a good night.”

Gray hung up and Carina slowly let
her cell phone fall from her hand to floor.

“What’s wrong?” Angie asked.

“Nothing,” Carina said. “Nothing. I
have to go… I have to… I need a ride to the airport.”