Sweet Melody (Rock & Rodeo Romance #1) (26 page)

W
e finish listening
to the latest version of the newly recorded demo of “Fast Love.” Mac talks to the sound engineer while EJ, Hart, and Levi move their chairs closer to the couch I sit on.

“Thought we hated those simple songs with only four or five chord changes,” EJ jokes.

Levi laughs. “Yeah, I hate that song.”

My eyes dart between them. “Do you really?”

Hart beats his sticks in rhythm against his thigh. “Naw, man. Told you that when we did the rough recording for you to use to win her back. It’s a solid song.”

“But is it a Tailgate Down song?” My knee bounces as adrenaline pumps nervous energy through me.

“I don’t know. We should ask the person it belongs to.” EJ sits backwards in his chair. I can still read the words on his T-shirt. After he saw Mel wearing that shirt she made me wear back to her place that night, he went and bought himself the same shirt, but in his size.

“What belongs to whom?” Mel asks as she walks in, carrying two grey cartons with eight coffees. She distributes them around the room. When she brings mine to me, she kisses me first and sits down in my lap, holding both of our drinks. My arms encircle her, and I kiss her neck, inhaling her incredible scent, all soapy clean and sexy. I’d love to lay her down on the couch and make her smell like me.

“Yo, Romeo. Quit feeling up your girl.” EJ takes a drink from his coffee. “Remember, not during business hours. You guys can be all touchy when you’re in your own room. Unless you’d like us to watch. Or participate.”

Mel flips him off. “Drink your coffee, EJ. I dare you.”

He takes off the lid and examines the contents. Looking at his coffee and back to Mel, he narrows his eyes at her. “You wouldn’t.”

Her face breaks into a large, innocent smile. She bats her doe eyes at him.

EJ laughs, shrugs, and raises the cup to his lips, taking a drink. The rest of us crack up at both of them.

“Okay, now tell me what you were talking about as I walked in. Someone needs to make a decision?”

Mac turns around in his chair and takes his coffee from the table next to Hart. “Yep. Do we keep the song for our own album, or do we shop it around to other artists?”

Levi nods his head at Mel and me. “Seems to me it belongs to them. So they should have the say.” EJ and Hart agree.

All eyes turn on us. Mel squirms in my lap under their scrutiny. Her body moving against mine awakens my cock. Feeling it press against her ass, she smacks my arm and moves, sitting next to me on the couch.

She takes a cautious sip of her hot coffee first. “Well, you know I love that song for obvious reasons. And it’s a great song. My guess is that it will be a huge hit, especially if it drops during the summer. Or at least in the fall. Early enough to be considered for a Grammy or CMA award.”

Everyone in the room agrees. We can all see the potential for it to be popular enough to win “Single of the Year.” Although I wrote the words for Mel, they speak to a general audience. And even though we mocked the first songs we were forced to record for their simplicity, in this case, the simple tune allows the words to shine. Plus, they came from the heart, and that changes the whole game.

Mel shifts forward as she continues. “The question is, do you guys want to be up on the stage accepting the award all together, or watching another band up there for the same song?”

Mac shakes his head as he smiles. EJ and Hart fist bump. Levi stays quiet, but winks at me when he catches me looking.

“Sounds to me like we’ve got ourselves a hit,” I say, squeezing her hand in mine. “Now to get final approval from Stacia’s team. Guess we can do that after your big meeting with her and Price.

Mel’s eyes shine back at me as a big goofy grin spreads on her face. My mind races through the different closets I can drag her into since I know we’re not going to be able to wait the whole day without having each other.

She wiggles her eyebrows at me. “Already found a place, but you’ll have to wait. We still have to record the ‘nah-nah’ section.”

The rest of the guys except Hart put down their coffees and head into the booth. I stand up and hold out my hand to help her up.

“Okay, we’ll record the ‘nah-nahs’, but after that you better take me to this magical place where they’re not going to hear you screaming out my name.” I pull on her hard so she stands fast and stumbles into me.

With a glint in her eye and a quick kiss, she winks. “Game on, Cowboy.”

I walk out the glass door in a daze. Price escorts me down the hall, still talking to me about terms. Stacia doesn’t follow us because she has another meeting upstairs. The quickness of the elevator increases my dizziness as I grapple with reality.

Hunter rushes over to me and puts his arm around me. He says words, but my mind can’t decipher them. He talks over my head at Price, and the two of them agree on something because they shake hands, all while Hunter holds on to me. He pinches my arm, and the world comes into focus.

“What?”

“Say goodbye to Price. He has to go to Stacia’s meeting upstairs.”

I stretch out my arm and shake my new manager’s hand. “Guess I’ll be seeing you soon.”

He winks at me. “Welcome to Long Road Records.”

Hunter picks me up and swings me around. “You got the contract?”

I giggle, holding on to him for all I’m worth. When he puts me down, the world spins for an extra second. “I got a spec contract. Meaning she gets to try me out and see where things go. Nothing like what you guys got. But she loves my voice, and assures me that just because I’m a rocker chick, that doesn’t mean I can’t fit into country.”

He kisses my cheek. “I already told you that. The entire band told you that.”

I close my eyes and breathe in deep. Blowing out the breath to help calm my jumping nerves, I nod. “I know. Everything’s moving so fast.”

He takes my hand and kisses the back of it. “Fast and slow, baby. So what does all this mean?”

I look around the enormous lobby of Lyric Ridge Records, and at the huge banners of its stars. One of them with the beautiful red hair just hugged me and welcomed me as part of her family.

When my eyes return from looking skyward, they fall on the man who’s helped bring love into my life and made me believe in dreams I never knew existed. Ignoring the people walking around us, I cup his face in my hands and pull him into my lips. I kiss him slow and soft, trying to push everything I’m feeling into the intimate touch. I open my eyes and see him smiling down at me, waiting for an answer to his question.

With a smile, I take his hand. “Guess it means that Trey has to start looking for a new bartender at the R&R. Come on. Let’s go celebrate with the boys.”

We walk out of the building and into our futures.

T
HE END

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