Page 9 of Places I've Never Been

LT grinned. “You ain’t gonna like it, man. We should probably stop now.”

Lucas held up a hand. “Hey, don’t start dissing it before he even hears it.”

Adam frowned. “What makes you say that?”

LT shrugged. “Just a feelin’ I got. No reason.”

“Hm.” Adam grunted and closed his eyes. LT was enjoyingthis a little too much, which meant he knew something. “I can’t reject until I hear it, that’s the rule.”

“Uh-huh,” LT said, amusement providing a million layers of subtext to the simple expression.

“Okay, gentlemen,” Lucas said. “Keep in mind this is just an audition piece. If you like the style, I’ll get Rachel in here to work on the real thing with you. She’s available this week and next.”

“Rachel?” Adam’s chest tightened, and his eyes flew open. “Are you talking about Rachel Saunders? The blonde with big, er, assets?”

LT chuckled. “Told ya.”

Lucas nodded. “She said she’d worked with you before, so I figured you’d at least listen to the whole song before you shot holes in it.”

Adam groaned. “We should move on. Now.”

Brandon snorted. “Dude, they didn’t work together. They banged each other nonstop for three weeks and then ditched each other like yesterday’s fish.”

“Yeah,” Cooper said. He wrinkled his nose as if the fish were in the trash next to him. “She’s not our style.”

Lucas gave them an incredulous look. “She worked with Carrie Underwood.”

“She’s better with women,” Adam said. He had a brief flashback to their last encounter. It involved a mattress on the floor, a jar of honey, and a box of macaroni and cheese. It had taken three hot showers to get all the honey off his body. He shuddered. “Trust me. Let’s move on.”

“We can’t,” Lucas said. “There’s nobody left to move on to.”

“What do you mean there’s nobody left? What about Rodriguez?” Cooper asked.

Lucas shook his head. “He was the second one Adam rejected.”

“Oh yeah.” Cooper nodded. “Right, he was the one who screwed Miranda while she was supposedly googly eyed for Adam.”

“Is he still going out with her?” Brandon asked.

“No,” Adam said. “He’s with some model from Paris. Not that it matters. His stuff’s too angry. We need someone more in line with where we are.”

“Which is where, exactly?” LT poked him on the shoulder. “Besides still pissed off at Johnny J.”

Adam swatted back at him but missed. “I’m not pissed off. He’s doing the right thing. If my daughter had leukemia, I’d drop all of you in a hot second.” His throat tightened. He, Johnny J, and Cooper had always been tight. The loss, even though it was totally understandable, still stung.

“Admit it, you were rip-roaring angry,” Flynn said. “You stuck one of my sticks through the bass drum.”

Adam winced. It hadn’t been his proudest moment. “I wasn’t pissed off. I was worried about Trisha, and disappointed. You know, for us.”

“Your disappointment cost fifteen hundred dollars,” Cooper muttered.

Adam flashed him a dirty look. “Johnny J’s as much a brother to me as the rest of you. We’ve been writing songs together since we were ten years old, so of course I miss him. But his wife and daughter need him right now. He made the right call.”

“Gentlemen, please, can we focus on the task at hand?” Lucas gestured at Cooper. “Let’s hear the song before we start burning it in effigy, shall we?”

“Gotcha.” Cooper spun around, pushed a button, then a few levers.

Adam knew from the first seven notes that he would hate the song, because he’d used those same notes for the first song he ever wrote. They belonged originally “Beat It” by Michael Jackson. He’d spoofed the song for a joke back in high school and told Rachel about it during one of their love-making sessions.

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