Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
J ust after sunrise five days later, Mattie walked the short distance to Villa 10 and crossed through the open living room, down the hall, and pounded on Adam’s bedroom door. “Adam! I know you’re in there. It’s time to get to work. You can’t avoid this forever.”
There was no response.
She tried again. “Award-winning songs don’t write themselves you know.”
Nothing.
She tried the knob. It turned easily.
The room was empty. He’d gone out before she got there.
The wretched man.
Today would be the fourth work session Adam had missed or sidetracked since they’d arrived on the island.
They had songs to write, and they couldn’t do that if he refused to work. One way or another she had to get him focused on the task at hand. But first, she had to find him.
She used Adam’s house phone to call Abayomi.
“Yes, Miss Mattie? What can I bring you? ”
“Do you know where Adam is?”
“One moment, Miss Mattie. I will check for you.” After a muffled exchange, Abayomi cleared his throat and continued. “It appears Mr. Adam is scheduled for deep sea fishing at ten a.m. Would you like to join him?”
She blinked. “He’s leaving for the whole day?”
“Yes, Miss Mattie. The boat will return at sunset.”
Adam was playing some kind of game, but she didn’t know the rules. When they spoke about the songs he sounded sincere, but when she tried to actually work on them, he dodged or changed the subject. And there was always something in the way of getting the job done: a meal, a guided tour, a game of volleyball…something.
Every time he distracted her from the project, he had that manic, I’m-winning twinkle in his eyes.
The first couple of days had been amusing. She’d played along since she’d desperately needed to unwind, and she’d enjoyed getting to know the entire band better. But this was getting ridiculous.
“Yes,” she said. “I would like to join him.”
“I will bring the buggy to you right away.”
“Thanks, Abayomi.” She double-checked her bag to make sure she’d included the notebooks with her latest lyrics, several colored pens, and sticky notes. Perfect. She had everything she’d need for a day of battle with the uninspired and reluctant.
She climbed into the golf cart with a determined smile. “Thanks for the ride, Abayomi. Has Adam left yet?”
He pulled onto the path toward the docks. “No, Miss Mattie. The captain will not depart until you arrive.”
“Good. I think.”
A debate about whether she should be doing this or not raged in her head. On the one hand, at least Adam wouldn’t be able to run off or distract her with anything while they were trapped on a boat. On the other, she’d be trapped on a boat. With Adam.
The more time she spent with him, the more comfortable she felt around him. She wanted to find out even more about him, like how his hands would feel if they massaged her shoulders, or how soft his lips would be if they touched hers.
She shouldn’t be thinking things like that.
“You like fishing, Miss Mattie?” Abayomi asked.
“I won’t be fishing.” She patted her bag. “I’ll be working.”
“Work. Who needs that?” He waved a dismissive hand at her. “Be where you are. Enjoy the moments. The days spent here are not like any others.”
There was something about his words that triggered a spark in her thoughts.
Be where you are. Enjoy the moment. These days are not like any others.
She fished a notebook out of her bag and wrote them down before she forgot them. “I could enjoy it more if Adam would focus on the project we came here to do.”
“Oh, I think he is focused, Miss Mattie.” He nodded and grinned. “He is focused like the sea at high tide.”
“What do you mean?”
“The sea, it pushes, it pulls, but always it reaches to the same place.” He winked at her. “This man you hunt, he does the same, yes?”
“The only thing I’ve seen him reach for is procrastination.” She shook her head. “If we moved any slower on this project, we’d be going backwards. He just doesn’t seem to understand how important this is.”
Abayomi stopped next to the dock.
“Sometimes we have to go slow to go fast, Miss Mattie.” He pointed to the largest boat at the dock and smiled. “The Imagination is waiting for you. Enjoy the day. ”
She’d come to really like the unassuming, happy man who brought her smiles and coffee every morning. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for the ride. And the advice.”
“My pleasure, Miss Mattie. Always.” He bobbed his head and took off down the path.
She walked up the dock to a white boat with rich wood accents and the name Imagination written in black on the side. It looked more like a yacht than a fishing boat. There was a main cabin with windows so tinted she couldn’t see inside, and a deck big enough for twenty people at the rear of the boat. Steps provided access to the water for would-be swimmers or divers. Padded seats lined the edges of the deck, and fishing poles had been arranged neatly at the end of each bench.
She spotted Adam lounging in the captain’s chair in the center of the deck. He held a drink in one hand and a book in the other. She stopped with one hand on the rail.
He wore white cargo shorts and a white linen shirt that lay open to expose his bare chest and the Delusions of Glory tattoo. The spiral artwork played with her eyes and confused her thoughts. How could such a simple design look so… inviting ? Her gaze traced the lines of it around and down to where it ended in a flourish just above his belly button, then continued the remaining distance to where his shorts interrupted the view.
The pang of regret she felt at not being able to see more of him didn’t make sense. Neither did the sudden itch she had to trace that tattoo with her finger.
This was her writing partner, not her date.
A deckhand cleared his throat. “Welcome aboard, Miss Mattie. Can I bring you anything?”
Mattie jumped. She hadn’t even seen him approach. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. “Um, just some water, thanks. ”
The young man gestured to the right. “Please have a seat. We will be underway in a moment.”
Mattie nodded her acknowledgment but didn’t move. She had to get a grip on herself before she talked to Adam.
She was here to write a song. If she let herself get carried away, she could end up with even worse headlines than she had already. She’d barely kissed Devon and it had turned into a fake Twitter breakup of epic proportions.
What would happen if she let herself be swept away by Adam and tropical island lust? It wasn’t like they had any kind of future together. He was a rock star. She was a pop princess. In what real world would they mesh?
She didn’t think Adam was remotely like Devon, but there were still a million ways things could go horribly wrong if she followed her sex drive instead of her head.
The boat shifted, reminding her they were trying to get the fishing expedition underway. She gave herself a mental shake, gathered her resolve, and stalked toward her prey with determination to get the project back on track and her thoughts under control. “You’re avoiding me.”
Adam peered at her over the top of the book. “No I’m not. I’ve been waiting for you for two hours.”
“You are aware you didn’t actually invite me, right?” She stared the way she used to do when she wanted her sisters to stop teasing.
“Are you sure? I could swear I mentioned going fishing.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Yes, I’m sure you did. You went over a list of every activity available on the island. You didn’t actually say you were going today , or that I should come along with you.”
He shrugged and didn’t look the least bit bothered by her frustration. “I woke up this morning thinking about how much easier it is to work while being rocked by ocean waves. I knew you’d find me sooner or later.”
Her inner Southern girl politeness collided with the exasperation she increasingly felt around Adam. She wanted to tell him to stop being a jackass, but instead she summoned her syrupy sweet voice, the one she used with people being intentionally dense, in the hopes he’d get the message. “You could have knocked on my door or left a note.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” He tossed the book he’d been reading onto the nearest bench.
The boat shifted as they pulled away from the dock. She sat down so she wouldn’t trip and fall into his lap. “We came here to get some work done.”
“We have all day to ourselves.” A hint of a twinkle lit his eyes. “We’ll have to figure out some way to fill the time.”
The teasing innuendo in his tone made her lose her train of thought for a second. For one brief, wild flash, she imagined a very different day than the one she had planned. Then she shook herself and clung to her need to be professional like a security blanket.
“Would you focus, please?” She opened her bag and pulled out the most recent notebook and a pen. “I’ve been working on the chorus. Do you want to hear what I have so far?”
Adam stretched and yawned. “Sure. But give me a minute?”
He ducked into the cabin before she could answer.
She followed him with the notebook, but he disappeared behind a door just inside the cabin.
“Adam!” She wiggled the knob, but it was locked. “Open this door.”
Someone cleared their throat behind her. “Water, miss?”
Mattie glanced over her shoulder at the deckhand who held out a small silver tray with a frosted bottle of water .
She shook her head. “Do you have the key to this door?”
“It’s the facilities, miss.”
“Oh.” Heat rose in her cheeks, until she remembered he was doing this on purpose. She pounded on the door again “You have to stop this.”
Adam’s response was too muffled to make out, but she thought she heard laughter.
“If we don’t finish this song, it can’t be submitted for the awards, which means there’s no point to me even being here.” She hit the door once more to vent her frustration. “It might not mean much to you, but it matters to me. If don’t want me here, just say so and I’ll get out of your life.”
Adam said something else she couldn’t understand but didn’t open the door.
Mattie spun on her heels and stalked back to the deck. Maybe she should write the song by herself.
She double-checked the chorus she’d come up with last night during dinner.
Changing is hard
Changing is rough
But what if it changes minds, what if it helps us find
Something we once lost, somewhere along the way?
Isn’t that worth the time?
The lyrics didn’t feel right for Delusions of Glory, or for Adam. They were too…something. Girly? Earnest?
She glanced behind her. Adam still hadn’t emerged from the bathroom. The man was either avoiding her or he was having serious bowel trouble .
The island slipped by while she rearranged words. No matter what she did, they didn’t fit together the way they needed to. Her gut told her to scrap the entire attempt and start over, but she really wanted some feedback before she did that.
Something about being around Adam scrambled her ability to put thoughts together, and it was getting more than a little aggravating. He wanted to play when she wanted to work. He pushed her to try new things when all she really wanted to do was curl up with her notes and make a beautiful song.
The last few days had been completely unproductive, even if they had more fun than she’d had in a long, long time. If she’d known tropical resorts could be like this, she would have visited one years ago.
The boat shifted course toward a jetty that emerged from a secluded cove. The beach was small and pristine. Something inside her yearned to let go and enjoy the sand, a book, and the ocean breezes.
What was she thinking? She didn’t have time to read. She needed to make these songs better than anything she’d ever written. The more Adam distracted her, the further away from her goal she was.
Damn the man for bringing her somewhere so enticing.
She spotted a table for two nestled under an overhang on the right. It was perfectly romantic and entirely wrong for what they were supposed to be doing.
She looked back at the cabin.
Adam had finally emerged from the bathroom and now leaned against the doorway, watching her with that crooked smile of his. She’d learned over the past five days that this particular smile meant he was about to suggest they play hooky. Again .
“Welcome to Du Nord Beach,” Adam said. “The only way to get here is by boat.”
Mattie pushed herself out of the chair. She was so full of conflicting emotions she didn’t know what to do with them. She wanted to demand he stop goofing around, but she longed to enjoy the day on that beach, so the words she should say came out all garbled. “Why…Is this…I thought we were going fishing.”
“We can do that too.” Adam gestured at the beach. “I just thought we might have lunch and do a little snorkeling first. But no pressure. We can spend hours embracing smelly fish instead. Your call.”
She blinked at him. Everything about this day said romantic ambush, but his tone was casually considerate. The two things didn’t go together. “We’re not supposed to be doing either of those things. We’re supposed to be working, remember?”
Adam shrugged. “So who’s stopping you?”
“You. You’re stopping me.” She waved her notebook at him, and irritation pushed politeness aside enough for her to say what she was really thinking. “You’ve been doing everything you can to avoid work since we stepped foot on this island.”
“I have not.” His eyebrows rose as if he was offended, but his voice betrayed amusement.
She held up her index finger. “First, you called off a session so the guys could surf.”
“The waves wait for no one. And it was the first day. We all needed to relax a bit to get in the groove.” He pointed at her. “You had a good time body surfing, admit it.”
She’d had a fantastic time body surfing, but she wasn’t going to tell him that, not when he looked so smug.
“That’s not the point.” She held up two fingers. “You completely forgot about the second session, and when I tracked you down you insisted we have lunch first.”
“I was starving.” He patted his abs. “You can’t work on an empty stomach.”
“Lunch turned into dinner and a two-hour horse ride along the beach.”
“But you were relaxed at the end of it, right? All the better for writing.”
“No. I wasn’t relaxed. That’s not what I was.” She’d found the experience so exhilarating that she’d been completely transported back to childhood, which turned her around so completely she actually left her bag behind on the beach. She found it waiting for her on the couch when she woke up the next morning. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone so long without opening one of her notebooks.
She gave herself a mental shake. The fact that she’d enjoyed herself didn’t change the fact that it was another day of song writing lost.
Adam raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that it? You seemed like you were on a roll.”
“No that’s not it.” She held up three fingers. “Yesterday you said you had a headache because the sun was too bright, and then insisted on an all-day spa treatment to recover.”
“I thought all girls loved facials and massages.” He looked genuinely perplexed.
She wasn’t fooled. Adam was a first-rate performer. He could fake confusion. “I like them fine, but they’re supposed to be a reward after I’ve written a song, not before.”
He snorted. “Life’s way too short to put off the things you enjoy like that. Eat dessert first, I say.”
“I do not put things off.”
Adam gestured at the notebook in her hand. “You live inside your notes instead of out here, with us mere mortals. That’s the ultimate putting things off, I’d say.”
She gave him her best be-reasonable glare. “You invited me here to work . And you can stop pretending that you don’t work just as hard as I do. I’ve read the blogs. You’re driven and insanely goal oriented, which is one of the reasons I took a chance on coming here. I shouldn’t have to chase you all over the island.”
Adam’s face contorted into a blend of thoughtful confusion and the beginnings of irritation. She’d finally struck a nerve. Which nerve she wasn’t sure, but at least she’d found one. “You’ve been reading blogs about me? Which ones?”
A burst of irritation surged through her. She would not throw her notebook at him. She liked her notebook, and it deserved better than being turned into a projectile weapon.
“Stop deflecting.” She wiggled four fingers at him. “You were supposed to meet me at the Big House this morning to go over the chorus, but instead you booked an all-day fishing expedition without me.”
His jaw tightened. “ With you. I waited until you showed up to leave, didn’t I?”
She set the notebook on the captain’s chair to remove the temptation to throw it at him. “If you’re not serious about this, just say so. I’ll quit right now.”
A look of alarm crossed his face. “You can’t quit. We have a contract.”
“These songs aren’t going to finish themselves, Mr. Rock Star. We can’t just half-ass our way through this.”
“I don’t half-ass anything.” His eyes flashed with irritation. “Really good songs come from a spontaneous, inspired place. You’re so determined to spit out words there’s no way they’d be any good. Admit it, if you had great lyrics in that notebook of yours, nothing would stop you from singing them at me. ”
He pushed past her toward the steps at the back of the boat. “Stop trying to force it. Come over here and look at this view. If this isn’t inspiration, I don’t know what is.”
What he’d said was so unfair and at the same time so undeniably true. She thought back to the horrible chorus she’d just read and tried not to cringe. She joined him at the steps, embarrassment rising as his words hit home. “If I don’t have great lyrics, it’s because you haven’t given me anything to work with.”
“Oh please. I’ve given you an entire island to work with.”
She clenched her fists. “I don’t need tropical scenery, Adam. I need feedback from you . I need to know what matters to you and the rest of the band. What themes you want to explore. What messages you want to send.” Her heart pounded and her voice rose as she went on. “I need to know what you want to sing about .”
“Well maybe if you unclench and spend more time with us you would figure all that out.” He stood at the top of the steps that led to the water with his shirt flapping in the breeze and his face lifted in smug satisfaction.
“Unclench?”
“Yes. Unclench. You know, the act of relaxation? Surely you’ve heard of it.” He turned away from her to gesture at the beach. “You know, live a little. Maybe if you relaxed, you’d feel a little more inspired.”
“You want me to feel inspired?” Something sweet and dangerous came into her voice as inspiration of pure evil struck.
“Yeah. I do.”
“Spontaneous?” She raised an eyebrow.
He turned back to face her and looked far too excited. “Definitely.”
“How’s this for inspiration?”
She put her hands on the smooth muscles of his chest and shoved. She had a brief impression of taught muscles and hot skin, and then he toppled off the back of the boat.
His startled yelp of surprise was swallowed by the splash as he hit the water.
A wave of satisfaction rolled through her, followed by a flicker of guilt, which amplified into mortification.
What had gotten into her?
She’d just shoved Adam Brooks, a world-famous rock star and, more importantly, her client , off a boat.
She never acted like this. Piper did. Della, sometimes. But her? No. Not ever. She was the nice one.
She looked over the edge of the boat.
The deckhand joined her with a life preserver in one hand. “Mr. Adam?”
Adam sputtered to the surface and wiped his face.
“It’s okay,” she told the deckhand. “He’s fine. I think he’s fine.”
The deckhand looked doubtfully at her.
Mattie stared down at the man bobbing in the water and cringed. “He’s probably fine.”
He sure had a way of pushing all her buttons. She usually hid her emotions well, but it was becoming painfully clear that she couldn’t hide anything around Adam.