Page 56 of Falling for the Guy Next Door

“Yeah, just something about an email from a record company.”

Layla finally emerged from her blanket shell. “Maybe it’s about the new song.”

I nodded. “Could be.”

She wrapped her arm around mine and cuddled closer. “You don’t sound excited about that.”

“I don’t know. The band seems finished. Bosco and I are never going to make good bandmates again. I only hope we’ll be able to salvage our friendship once Moonstone is in the past.”

“I can sense it’s over for you whenever you talk about the band. Are you going to call her? Wait, why is she still up?”

“Ronnie is one of those people who can survive on four hours sleep. She stays up late and gets up early, and she’s always energetic and ready to go.”

“Lucky her.” Layla stretched and made a cute little sound effect to go with it. “Isla always says she wishes she had twenty-six hours in a day.” Layla looked over at me with a questioning brow.

“Right, guess I’ll give Ronnie a call.”

“I need a drink of water. I’ll give you some privacy, and after the call you can walk me home—if that’s all right.”

“Of course.”

Layla walked to the kitchen, and I called Ronnie.

“You’re up. I wasn’t expecting you to call this late,” Ronnie said. She sounded wired as if she’d been drinking espresso.

“What’s up?”

“Concord Records wants to buy the rights to ‘Couldn’t Love you More.’ They just signed Sugar Ivy, and they’re in need of song material. Their agent thought your song could take them to the top of the charts. They offered three million, and we’d still retain the rights for three months. So, we could add the song to our site and earn off it until then. What do you think? Seems like a good deal.”

“Yeah, it’s a really good deal.”

Layla politely stood in the kitchen and sipped her water. I waved for her to come back to the couch. I wanted her near me again. She tiptoed back in her sweet attempt to not disturb the conversation. She pulled her copper hair back, tied it in a loose knot and sat down next to me. It reminded me that the song was for her. How would she feel about me selling it off to another band? How would I feel about it?

“Let me sleep on it, Ronnie. I’ll call you in the morning. Have you mentioned anything to Bos and Seth?”

“Not yet. I figured this was really all on you. It’s your song.”

“Thanks. I’ll get back to you in the morning.” I hung up and put the phone down.

Layla brought her feet up and beneath her on the couch. She tugged the blanket around her once more. “Was it good news? I’m trying to read you right now. It looks like someone knocked the wind out of you, but I can’t tell if that’s good or bad.”

“A record company offered to buy the rights to the song for three million dollars.”

Her lips turned down in a frown.

“Right. It’s the song I wrote for you, so I won’t sell it.”

“It’s not that. I assume it means Moonstone will go on to be a major band with round the world tours and round the world groupies, and you’ll forget about your dog walker in Whisper Cove.”

“No, that’s not what buying the rights means.”

There was nothing cuter than Layla looking puzzled. “So, you won’t be big rock stars?”

“Nope, thank goodness. Don’t get me wrong, twenty-year-old me wanted nothing more, but even being just a well-known local band is draining. The company wants the song for this new up-and-coming band called Sugar Ivy. We’ll get to keep the song up on our site for three months and then it’ll come down, and the new band will get to record it for their first album.”

I turned to face her on the couch and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “But I wrote that song for you, so if you don’t want us to sell it, that’s fine.”

Layla’s brows bunched together, perturbed. “Just what kind of a selfish princess do you think I am?” She tilted her head side to side. “Okay, admittedly, I am occasionally a princess. But you need that money for your mom and sister. You’ve got to sell it, Nash. It’ll solve so many problems and give your mom her life back.”

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