The Hardest Set (Willow Son #4/Brothers of Rock #19) by Karolyn James Page A

through his mind hard and fast.
Every now and again he ’ d
see Natalie though. The way she sat next to him when he was drunk. He
remembered staring at her nice ass as she walked away to her car. Then she came
back. That was her first mistake. She shouldn ’ t
have come back. And she definitely shouldn ’ t
have text him.
    “ No
way, sweetie, ” Van
whispered.
    He grabbed his phone and scrolled
to the number that was Vanessa ’ s
new one. Engaged. That ’ s
where it all ended up. Didn ’ t
the ring mean anything to her? Didn ’ t
that promise mean anything?
    Van felt his fingers flirting with
the screen, like he was going to make a really bad decision. A text. A call.
Squeezing just a little bit more out of his heart for Vanessa to have and
crush.
    “ No, ” Van said.
    He tossed the phone to the table
and walked to his second bedroom. He had an array of guitars, basses, and
pieces of instruments, - a total musician junkie ’ s
paradise. The best part was Van paid dearly to have the entire place
soundproofed. That meant Van could do anything he wanted as loud as he wanted.
    Of all the instruments to go after,
he chose an old beat up acoustic guitar. The strings were old and twangy. The
action was killer on his fingers. But it was a memorable guitar. He paid fifty
bucks for it from a small music shop outside LA one night. Then he got drunk
and wrote a song that he could never remember. In his mind though it was the
best song ever.
    Back at the couch, Van took a page
from Colby ’ s book and had a
notebook with a pen. It had been a long time since he tried to do any kind of
songwriting. Then again, look what Ryker had done. He had the foundation of the
entire acoustic album that had now set Willow Son bigger than any of them could
have dreamed.
    Van strummed a handful of chords,
just trying to let the sound take over his mind. The beer helped too. A lot of
beer, actually.
    An hour of jamming left Van with
two pages of potential lyrics - most of them really just notes. He did come up
with a decent sounding song with basic chords. He had mastered the ability to
play with his fingers, plucking the individual strings and notes of the chords,
bringing a better and sadder sound to the song.
    A six pack of empty bottles was on
the table.
    Van ’ s
heart was on fire.
    He kept an idea running about a
girl … leaving work, alone,
in the dark, going home to nothing. Damn, he realized he was writing a song - a
story - about Natalie. The secrets of her heart, something hidden in her eyes.
    Does she know she ’ s not alone? Does she
know it ’ s
okay to cry?
    Van scribbled sentence after
sentence like a bestselling author finally bringing to life the plot of the
century. What started as an attempt at lyrics became more of a journal entry
spanning page after page.
    The woman went home, alone, feeling
desperate. Then a guy who was also alone but felt so crammed and busy. The
world so noisy on a quiet night.
    Van finally dropped the pen and
shut the notebook as he sat back with another beer. He shut his eyes and put
his head back. It felt good to write like that. To be honest on paper and
nobody ever had to know about it. Shit, it felt really good. Normally his
routine with the band was to see who brought what to the table and just run
with it. Ryker would fire up a guitar and jam a riff. Jett would offer
something. Then Van would just play the root notes of the riff on bass to give
a chunky sound. After that was when he ’ d
go into a bigger and better bass line, if the song needed it. Sometimes songs
were simple. Three chords, three notes, and a ton of heart. Those were the magical
songs.
    Magic.
    That was a good way to think about
music sometimes. Simply magic. That sudden rush of feeling when everything
starts to make sense.
    Kind of like looking at Natalie …
    Van grinned.
    That would never happen again
though. That train had come and gone twice now.
    Unless, of course, Van was going to
become a sucker who believed in