Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
A dam took the steps to Mattie’s villa two at a time. He’d changed into island wear consisting of khaki shorts, a white untucked linen shirt, and docksiders. If Mattie hadn’t been there, he probably wouldn’t have bothered with the shirt or the shoes, but he was trying to impress her with how adult he was compared to Devon.
The glass walls were wide open, allowing him easy access to her living room. “Mattie? Ready for dinner?”
She appeared from the back of the villa wearing a dress that made him trip over the last step. The halter-style top revealed her shoulders and, when she turned to pick up something, her bare back all the way down to her waist. A slit up the side of the long skirt revealed a tantalizing amount of thigh.
He recovered his footing in time to lean against the couch in what he hoped was a cool, suave pose.
She crossed to the control panel. “I can’t believe there’s no wall. People live like this?”
“I think they like to leave it open to give you the feel of being one with nature. I’m sure we’ll get used to it. ”
Mattie looked unsure, as if the idea of leaving all the doors and windows open was too much exposure, but she didn’t push the button to slide the walls shut.
He hurried to reassure her. “There’s a safe in the bedroom closet, and the bedroom door locks. You don’t have to worry about thieves, or anything else here. You saw how hard it was to even get on this island. It’s not open to the public.”
She frowned. “What if it rains?”
He shrugged. “The butlers take care of all that. You’re supposed to leave all cares and worries behind. Wasn’t that in the brochure?”
She huffed a laugh. “I haven’t lived somewhere with no locks since I was about eight. After mom died we moved from a little po-dunk town outside Nashville into an apartment in the city. With four girls you can imagine how paranoid my dad was about locks. This open-air thing feels a little strange. What if someone…I mean, that guy with the camera might…”
“He won’t bother you again. I promise. Would you like a ride to dinner?” He gestured to the golf cart outside.
“I guess I can give it a try.” She dropped her hand away from the control panel and crossed the living room to the sofa to pick up her bag. “Sure. Let’s go.”
He took the drive to dinner as slow as he could without looking obvious. It wasn’t hard. The cart appeared to have only two speeds: slow and stop.
“There’s something different about you.”
She watched the ocean as they drove, seemingly entranced by the waves. “Oh?”
“It took me a few minutes to figure it out, but I got it now.” He grinned. “No phone.”
She gave him a rueful smile. “My butler told me I should leave the things that were causing me stress in the drawer. So I did. Just for tonight. ”
Adam nodded. “He sounds like a wise man.”
“Did you bring yours?” She tilted her head. The blazing orange of the sunset brought out the gold in her hair.
“Guilty. But I have it on vibrate, and mine doesn’t stress me out like yours seems to.”
“That’s because you don’t have sisters.” She returned her attention to the waves.
Even without the phone in her hands she didn’t seem completely on the island. Not yet.
He’d planned for this moment all day, but now that he had alone time with her, he was coming up blank on what to say.
By the time they reached Sunset Beach, everyone else was already there. Flynn and Brandon were kicked back on a couch near the firepit with a bucket of beers between them. Cooper and his girlfriend, Tina, a stunning brunette model he’d picked up at the end of their last tour, occupied a love seat next to Flynn, and both held half-drunk cocktails. LT stood nearby chatting up a very attractive server. Judging by the way the girl giggled, he might not be sleeping alone tonight.
A fire blazed in the pit, and the setting sun played with the waves in the background. He couldn’t have created a more romantic setting. It was perfect. He and Mattie crossed to an open love seat next to Brandon and sat down.
“This place is ten out of ten for style,” Cooper raised his glass. “To tropical islands and making music.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Flynn said.
“The French Polynesians have more amenities and less mosquitoes.” Tina tossed her hair.
“Shame you didn’t go there, then.” Brandon smiled politely at her.
Adam shot his brother a hard look. The last thing he wanted their first night on the island was a fight with Tina. She’d been upset about something the entire way here, and he could tell Cooper was embarrassed by her behavior already.
Mattie gave Tina an appraising look, then turned to Adam with a business-like expression. “Let’s talk about the album. It feels like the theme you’re going for is change. Changes in love, and life, that kind of thing. So the last three songs should carry that forward. What topic do you feel like you haven’t covered yet?”
“We had a theme?” Brandon asked, his face wrinkled in confusion.
“Yeah, the same one we always have,” LT said. He’d lost the server’s attention and meandered closer to the firepit. “Make songs that don’t suck.”
“That’s not a theme, that’s a motto,” Cooper said.
“The theme wasn’t exactly change,” Adam said. From the look on Tina’s face, there was about to be an implosion if he didn’t provide distraction. “This one was mostly playing around with minor keys. So, that slightly off-kilter feel. We’ll want to keep that going.”
“I noticed that, but that’s not the theme,” Mattie said. “That’s the voice. The tone. If we’re going to write a new song, I need to know what message you want to focus on.”
Adam turned away from the group so he could focus entirely on Mattie. “Why limit ourselves? First we play with the melody, then we’ll see what words pop out. Let them flow from the music.”
“We can’t just let them flow.” Mattie drew the word out with a note of derision. “We won’t end up with the story we need to tell if we do that. First we have to tell the story, then we craft the melody to match.”
Adam blinked at her. “I always start with the melody. It’s the foundation of the song. ”
“No, it isn’t.” Mattie’s chin lifted a little. “Words are the foundation of every story.”
“See,” Flynn said, “this is the kind of thing people usually sort out before they partner with someone on a project.”
“Yeah,” Brandon said. “This is like watching a first date happen, without the fun sex stuff.”
LT muttered something Adam couldn’t quite hear, and Cooper’s attention was focused on Tina.
“Without the melody, the words are useless.” Adam shifted, a little uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.
She frowned up at him. “Words don’t need a melody to tell a story.”
“A melody doesn’t need words to tell a story.” He started humming a random melody. He let it dip, then soar, and finally he sang out the last few bars. “Ba-ba-bum-bum-da-dum.”
The guys cheered, and several servers clapped in polite appreciation.
Mattie rolled her eyes. “And what story was that little snippet trying to tell?”
“It’s the story of a man who’s hungry and needs a drink.” Adam smiled victoriously at her. “The last bit was announcing that food is here at last.”
“That’s not the story I heard.” Her expression turned crafty. “I heard the story of a man so filled with ego that he lives his entire life alone until finally he throws himself on the mercy of the ocean. The last bit was the ocean, telling him there is no mercy for a man who does not know love.”
He stared at her, dumbfounded. “That wasn’t what I had in mind when I sang it.”
“But it’s what came to my mind when I heard it. Without words, the listener will always make up their own meaning.” She took a smug sip of her cocktail .
Her insistence on doing it backwards was going to cause problems. His mind didn’t work that way. “The melody has to exist first, otherwise there’s no vessel to hold the words. They’d just be poetry sitting on a page that nobody gets to hear. With the melody worked out first, we can be sure of having a catchy hook that people will hum to themselves in the shower or on the subway.”
“Without the lyrics, there’s no direction. The music has no point. It’s just background noise. The lyrics are what they’ll quote to their friends. Lyrics are what make the song truly memorable.”
“We’ve done just fine making memorable songs so far.” He couldn’t believe how utterly and completely stubborn she was being.
Her smile challenged him. “If you want to work with me, we’ll need to work on the lyrics first. Then the melody.”
“You’re not serious.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve always done the melody first.”
“Well this will be a nice change for you, then.” Mattie shrugged. “You hired me for words, so that’s what you’ll get. Words.”
Brandon looked delighted. “This should be fun.”
Adam shot his brother a dirty look. “Don’t laugh. If we do the words first that means you’ll have to figure out the melody that fits them instead of running off into the forest to frolic with whatever mood strikes.”
Brandon shrugged. “Challenge accepted.”
Mattie glanced around at the group. “Look, I’m not saying that melody isn’t important. Of course it is. Inspiration comes from all kinds of places, including the little bits of chords you play on the piano or the guitar. I’m just saying that to make a cohesive whole, I—we—need to really focus on the words and how they join with the melody. ”
Adam wanted to keep the argument going. It was both fun and frustrating to get a real glimpse at how her mind worked.
Then he realized what she’d just said.
We .
He pictured the two of them, sitting side by side on one of the love seat like they were now. He could feel the warmth of her body next to his. Her hair might fall across his arm. His hand might accidentally-on-purpose brush against hers. The fantasy killed most of his frustration.
They could debate how they’d approach the songwriting later. For now, he’d heard the magic word, and that’s all he really needed. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Together, we’ll make magic.”
Flynn groaned.
Brandon rolled his eyes.
Mattie’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “Do you always give up an argument so easy?”
“No,” Cooper said dryly. “Not normally.”
Adam glared at Cooper. “I’m starving, let’s eat.”
After dinner, they sat around the fire drinking something green that was sour and sweet and burned all the way down. It was nice to unwind from the trip and sink into a little jet lag.
Eventually, LT pulled his acoustic guitar out of its case and began plucking random chords, tuning the strings, while Brandon hummed bits of songs.
Cooper stirred from where he sat with his arm around his girlfriend to lean forward with his drink held high in the air. “Gentlemen, let’s show our respect to the classics.”
Tina shifted away from his arm and settled back in her seat looking petulant. For a woman who appeared desperate to date a musician, she didn’t seem to like music very much. He had no idea what Cooper saw in her. Great sex, probably.
Flynn grinned and beat his chest, then started a beat on the table next to him. They all bobbed their heads in time to it, and the energy started to build.
Mattie smiled in obvious delight. “What song is this?”
“Wait for it,” Cooper said. He handed his drink to Tina and stood up.
Adam held up a hand and closed his eyes.
Flynn stopped the beat.
After a couple of seconds of relative silence, Adam took in a long breath and sang the first line of “Seven Bridges Road” by the Eagles. It was just his voice extending through the night, punctuated by the distant wash of the ocean.
He sang a cappella through the first four lines, then opened his eyes and smiled at Mattie.
Her answering smile made the stars seem dim.
LT started up with the guitar, then he, Adam, Brandon, and Cooper sang the next verse in harmony while Flynn picked up the beat. When it came to the bridge, Cooper’s high tenor rang out strong and true and built to a crescendo. Then the beat stopped, the guitar drifted away, and it was Adam standing alone to finish the last notes of the song.
When he let the last note go, Adam bowed with flourish.
Mattie clapped. “That was wonderful! I love the Eagles.”
The guys slapped palms and congratulated each other on a job well done. Several servers applauded and cheered.
“Hey, let’s run through ‘Big Dreams,’” Adam suggested. It was the eighth song on the new album, had a simple arrangement, and was well suited to just a guitar.
LT started up the song. Flynn joined in with the rhythm, and the rest of them fell into step, with Cooper providing air guitar support .
By the time they reached the chorus, Mattie had drifted off to a chair a short distance from the rest of the group with a notebook and pen, leaving her enormous bag behind. She faced the ocean but didn’t watch the waves. She wrote something, scratched it out, then wrote something else.
Adam watched her while they ran through two more tracks. The longer she sat there, the more concerned he became. If she was already working on the new song, she’d be finished with it way too fast.
Mattie was a swirling mass of confusion and free-falling energy, and she didn’t mesh with her headlines. If she was a man-killer, leaving lovesick men swooning in her wake, he couldn’t see it. She seemed kind, fun, and carefree when she wasn’t focused on the drama delivered by her phone. At times tonight, she’d been every bit the girl he’d imagined her to be.
Beneath that, she’d also seemed a little withdrawn, or maybe restrained was a better description. Getting to know her was like trying to catch a cloud. Every time he managed to start a conversation she somehow drifted through his fingers.
He needed more time with her.
He had to slow down the song.