Read One Night with Sole Regret 05 Tie Me for Free Online Page A

blockbuster. I’ve been working on it for months and no matter how hard I try, I can’t get it right.”
    “Maybe that’s your problem,” he said, trying to remember his manners and not talk with his mouth full, but the French toast was so delicious that he couldn’t stop shoveling it in.
    “My problem ?”
    Oh, another button? Poke. Poke. Poke.
    “One of many, I’m sure,” he said.
    She leveled him with a heated glare, and he warmed from the inside out. He hadn’t even realized he’d been cold.
    “Maybe you’re just trying too hard,” he said. “Sometimes the best inspiration hits when you aren’t paying attention. Let your subconscious write the music. It’s purer that way.”
    “And what would you know about writing music?” she said, flipping her piece of French toast to an empty plate. She turned off the burner and reached for the tub of butter. He couldn’t resist moving it out of her reach.
    She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Why did he get the impression that she was counting backward from a hundred so she didn’t slap the shit out of him with her spatula?
    “I’ve written a few songs,” he said. “The band’s lead guitarist, Adam, is our main composer, but he allows the rest of us to come up with a note or two.”
    “What do you know about writing piano music?”
    “Absolutely nothing,” he admitted.
    She collected her plate and moved around the counter to sit beside him.
    “I’m sorry I’m so testy tonight,” she said. “I’m under a lot of pressure. I just… I don’t want to fail at my own dream.”
    “You’re not failing,” he said. “You’re just a little stuck. It happens to everyone.”
    She shook her head as she slathered butter on her French toast. “It doesn’t happen to me. I can’t permit it to happen to me.”
    “Reality check, Dawn. It already has.”
    “I can still finish the composition tonight,” she said.
    “And if you can’t?”
    Her lower lip trembled and she refused to meet his eyes, even though he was staring her down like a panther watching a tender young deer wander unknowingly beneath his tree.
    “I’m not allowed to fail,” she said. “Absolutely not allowed.”
    Allowed? Why would she say it that way? He placed a comforting hand at the base of her spine and she jerked so hard, she nearly launched herself straight off the stool.
    “I can’t promise you anything, but I will help, if I can,” he said. “Relax, okay?”
    “Easy for you to say,” she mumbled under her breath.
    He removed his hand from her back, cursing himself for touching her as he could still feel the tension in her muscles against his palm. She picked at her French toast and after a moment of appearing defeated, straightened her shoulders and turned slightly to look at him.
    “So you and your friend Owen became guitarists to seduce naive young women. What about the rest of your band? Did they also suffer from an inability to pick up girls based on their looks and personality alone?”
    He sighed at her obvious subject change. “Owen didn’t really like guitar, so he switched to bass, which is the rock-band position least likely to get you laid.” Owen, however, had stopped having that problem soon after they graduated high school. “We’re not as shallow as I make us out to be.”
    “Why didn’t Owen like guitar?”
    “I’m not sure he was being completely truthful. I think he claimed that he didn’t like the guitar so he wouldn’t steal my thunder. He’s actually a good guitarist, but he has this way of putting everyone before himself. Especially me.”
    “So he didn’t want to beat you at your own game.”
    “Something like that.”
    “How many are in your band?”
    “Five. Jacob is the lead singer, and Adam plays lead guitar. They’ve been friends since they were young. They’re a couple years older than Owen and me. They’d started up a band with a drummer named Quint and were looking for a bassist to make up the fourth member of the