Always in my Heart (The Subzero Series, #2) (4 page)

“As far as I know everything is here, set up, tuned and ready to go.” Noah says.

“Alright, let’s get to writing shall we? Please let me know as soon as anything is completed.”

I jump up from my seat, grab a notebook and a pencil and head outside. I walk over to a gigantic oak tree and sit down on the ground in front of it with my back leaning up against the trunk. I pull my iPod out of my pocket, stick the buds in my ears and turn it on. Scrolling to a playlist marked
inspiration
I hit
shuffle all
and lean back as the sounds of The Ramones fill my ears.

I need an idea...something to inspire me so I can write something halfway decent. I open the notebook and start sketching the one person that inspires me the most. It isn’t hard to do. I have every inch of her, from the gentle curves of her body to her full, pouty lips, burnt into my mind.

I have the majority of her face sketched out when a shadow falls over me. I glance up to see Cath standing over me, staring down at my drawing. She is saying something to me but I can’t hear whatever it is over the music.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” I ask, pulling the buds out of my ears.

Cath smiles and gives a short laugh. “I said who are you drawing?”

“Oh. It’s my girlfriend, Abby. I’m trying to get inspired to write something brilliantly amazing.”

Cath stares at the notebook in my hands with an unreadable expression on her face. “Hmm...she’s pretty.”

“Pretty? She’s gorgeous!” I exclaim.

Cath shrugs. “Maybe but...a drawing of some girl isn’t going automatically translate into a song.”

I try to ignore the fact that she just referred to Abby as “some girl” as she grabs my notebook and turns it to a fresh page, but I can’t.

“She’s not just
some
girl. She’s
the
girl.” I tell her.

“C’mon,” She says, clearly ignoring what I have just said. “Write a song with me.”

Before I have a chance to say anything at all, Cath settles herself down on the ground next to me.

“Now, what sort of a tone do we want our song to have? How about something that’s dark and seductive?”

I laugh, though I’m not actually sure why. Maybe it’s because I feel slightly awkward around her. It’s almost like I shouldn’t be here with her or something.

“Okay...we could do something like that,” I say. “Have you got any ideas to get us started?”

She bites her lower lip and looks up at the sky with a deep in thought expression on her face. Then she sticks the pencil up in the air and moves it to the paper as she starts writing furiously. I try to glance over her shoulder but can’t really make out what the words say. A few moments later she hands me my notebook so I can see what she has written.

Drowning

By C. Healy and T. McDermott

I see you with her

And I finally realized how much I

Need you with me

By my side

I just can’t stop

I’m drowning

I need your love

To save me now

I just can’t stop

I’m drowning in you

“So what exactly is this song about?” I ask her.

She doesn’t look at me. Instead she focuses her eyes on the words she has just written.

“It’s about wanting to be with someone that is already taken.” She murmurs.

I raise one eyebrow and give her an odd look. Not really a strange topic for a song but something in the way she talks suggests that she has someone in mind. It isn’t my business though so I don’t question her. I take the pencil out of her hand and start where she left off.

I never thought

That I could want

Someone like this

I never knew

That I could crave

Your touch, your kiss

I just can’t stop

I’m drowning

I need your love to save me now.

I just can’t stop

I’m drowning in you.

“That’s really good,” She says with a frown. “I think it needs something in between your kiss and I just can’t stop. What about this?”

She takes the note book back from me and in between
your touch, your kiss
and
I just can’t stop
she writes.

If only she would disappear

You’d see my love

For you is here

And you’d be forever

In my arms.

“Great job,” I say. “I can’t believe we wrote that so quickly. Let’s take this in to Collin.”

I stand up and hold my hand out to Cath. She grabs ahold of it tightly and I pull her up to her feet. She stands there staring down at her hand inside mine.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Uh, yeah fine. Just thinking.” She quickly removes her hand from mine and wipes it on her pants.

“We make you good team. We should write more songs together.” She says, smiling at me.

“Yeah, definitely. Anytime.”

“I’ll remember you said that.”

We walk up to Collin’s office together and show him the lyrics we wrote. He nods his head as he is reading them.

“Drums, guitar and bass?” He asks.

I nod. “Might sound good with a little piano too.”

Collin hands me back the lyrics. “Take this to Domino and Bash. They are in the control room for studio B. You can work everything out with them. Good job you two.”

I nod to Collin as I turn towards the door. I glance over at Cath once we are in the hallway. “I think this song is going to sound amazing with Noah and Ann’s vocals.”

“Yeah, they’ll be great,” Cath sounds distant and I can’t help but wonder why. “What’s your girlfriend like?”

She catches me off guard. “Abby? She’s amazing. She’s beautiful and sexy and incredibly supportive. She lets me be me. It doesn’t matter what nonsense I get myself into. She’s always by my side. What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No, no boyfriend. I’m completely, totally single...what does your girlfriend do?” Cath asks as we reach studio B.

“She’s a baker. She’s about to open her own bakery.”

I grab onto the door handle and open up the door, allowing her to walk through first. Domino and Bash are sitting in the control room watching something on the telly.

“Collin told me to bring this down to you guys.” I say handing Domino the lyrics.

He nods his head as he reads the lyrics. “This is good. Why don’t you guys go in there and lets work on this some more. I’d like to hear it with the instruments added in if you don’t mind.”

“Not a problem.” I say.

Cath and I walk into the sound booth. She picks up one of Dean’s guitars as I settle myself down on the stool in front of my drums.

“Go ahead.” Bash tells us.

“Okay, here’s what I was thinking.” Cath says.

She starts strumming on the guitar in her hands. I let her play a couple of notes before I start drumming to match her beat and tone.

“Keep playing.” Bash says through the intercom.

The door to the sound booth opens and Jack, Noah and Ann walk in. Jack grabs his bass and starts playing along with us. Noah and Ann sit down together on the piano bench. Noah has the lyrics in his hand and Ann is reading them over his shoulder as she starts singing the first verse. Noah joins in singing with her as she reaches the chorus.

By the time they finish the chorus, we seem to have a pretty good rhythm going together. The song finishes and we glance around at each other, huge smiles forming on our faces.

“You wrote that?” Noah asks looking at me.

“It was mostly Cath actually.” I admit.

Noah nods his head. “That is pretty good. It looks as though we have our first collaborative song.”

“Cath’s good,” Ann says. “She writes the majority of our stuff.”

“That’s because she’s got the darkest mind.” Marie says as she and Dean walk into the sound booth.

“I’m just a deep thinker.” Cath says as an odd frown clouds her face.

“Noah and I are working on something but we got stuck,” Ann says to me. “You should take a look at it. See what you think.”

“Absolutely, as soon as we are done here, I can take a look at what you have,” I throw my arm around Noah’s shoulder and shake him up a bit. “Though I’m shocked to hear this one got stuck. He usually has songs pouring out from his mind and onto his notepad.”

“What can I say? Sometimes even the greatest minds have to stop and have a think for a bit.”

Bash’s voice interrupts our banter as it comes booming through the intercom. “Okay guys, let’s take a few minutes and get the notes down on sheet paper and then we want to run through the song a couple of times.”

––––––––

B
arnaby’s is jam packed, but then it usually is on a Friday night. Chloe and I push our way through the crowd as we try to walk over to the bar. Just as we reach it, I catch a flash of blue out of the corner of my eye and turn to see Tyler sitting at the bar drinking a beer. Just the sight of him has my lips curling into a smile.

Tyler laughs and scoots back on the barstool. That’s when I see the person that just made him laugh. She’s tall - nearly as tall as he is. Her long, wavy brown hair is dyed bubblegum pink from her shoulders down. She has perfectly pouty pink lips, a tiny trim waist and she is sitting far too close to Tyler for my liking.

Who the hell is she?

I make my way over to them, bumping past people as I go. Walking up directly behind Tyler, I place my hands on his hips and slide them forward onto his stomach and up his chest. Leaning into him, I gently suck on the side of his neck. Tyler turns towards me, staring at me with half lidded eyes and flashing me a lustful grin.

“You are one saucy little dish.”

Tyler leans his head back and runs his tongue along my bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth. He snakes his arm around my waist, planting his hand on my hip and sliding me in front of him so that I am standing in between his legs. His arms wrap tightly around my waist and he rests his chin on my shoulder.

Tyler nods towards the girl sitting next to him. “Abby this Cath. She’s in the band Stardust. Cath, this is my girlfriend Abby.”

“Hi.” I say.

Cath looks me up and down once before flashing me an icy stare “Hi.”

I get the feeling that Cath is bothered by my presence and I look over at Tyler, hoping to gain some insight as to why. He gives me a goofy grin and I can tell I’m not going to get much information from him.

I lean in close to him. “How drunk are you?”

Tyler holds his hand out, his thumb and forefinger extended to say just a little bit. Tyler opens his mouth to say something but he is interrupted as Dean appears next to us and gives him a smack on his shoulder.

“Five minutes.” Dean says.

Tyler nods. He gives me a sexy, smoldering look that has me tempted to pull him into the first dark corner we find and make good use of that five minutes. I look around for a spot as he nuzzles his nose into my neck and runs his hands up and down my bottom. Before I can find a spot though, he leans back, leaving a trail of heat in all of the places he was just touching me.

“I’ve got to go be the sexy drummer,” He presses a couple of quick kisses on my lips before nodding towards Cath, who I had forgotten was still sitting next to us. “Could you hang out with her a bit? She doesn’t know anyone.”

“Of course.” I say, offering him a somewhat genuine smile.

He kisses me once more and then leans in to say something to Cath. Whatever he says must have been funny because she starts laughing as she twirls her pink hair around her finger. Tyler gives my hand one more squeeze before walking off with Dean. I glance over at Cath and she stares warily at me.

“You’re from New York right?” I ask, attempting to make small talk. “Do you live in the city?”

“Yes.” She replies without emotion.

“I’m from Westchester.”

“Oh.”

“How long are you staying in London?”

She shrugs. “About a month or so.”

Cath’s eyes start roaming the room and I can’t help but wonder if she is trying to find someone better to talk to. She lets out a deep sigh and turns me to me, flashing a fake smile.

“How long have you been with Tyler?” She asks.

“A year and a half.” I say happily.

She narrows her eyes as she studies my face. “You’re a caterer or something right?”

“A baker actually.”

She gives me a whole body onceover. “You’re a baker? Hmm...have you ever even eaten a cupcake before?”

I shake my head and give her an odd look, feeling taken aback by her question. “Of course I have. I eat them all the time.”

“Hmmm...you’re awfully thin for someone that claims to eat a lot of cake.”

“You’re thin.” I observe.

She lets out a tight, bemused laugh. “Yeah but playing a show is a workout in itself. It’s a lot different from sitting on a stool and squirting icing on cupcakes or mixing cookie batter with a gigantic mixer. Pushing buttons isn’t going to keep you in shape. I mean, all these cupcakes you eat are going to catch up with your thighs at some point.”

Cath leans forward and peeks around my backside. “Looks like they may have already hit your ass...you may want to do some squats or something.”

“I’m sorry...have I done something to offend you?”

“No, you haven’t done anything to offend me.”

“Then what exactly is your problem?”

Cath shoots another icy glare in my direction and jabs one long, slender finger in my face. “You...you are my problem.”

I am about to question her again when the band takes the stage. Cath’s eyes go moony as she bites her bottom lip and waves. I turn around to see who she is waving at and notice Tyler wave back to her.

Wait a minute here...does she? She does, doesn’t she?

I turn back towards Cath who is smiling from ear to ear, her eyes locked in on every move Tyler makes.

I lean in close to her. “Don’t even think about it.”

She glances at me with an innocent look on her face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“As long as we have an understanding that Tyler is
taken
and by
taken
I mean
unavailable
to the opposite sex then we are good.”

Cath rolls her eyes. “Not everybody wants your boyfriend you know. Does Tyler know how possessive you are? I mean surely he wouldn’t want to be with someone that harbors such an ugly quality. Maybe he needs a
good friend
to fill him in.”