Page 38 of Places I've Never Been

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 rightfor 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.

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