Page 23 of I Need You Tonight
“Not at all.”
He headed to a keyboard and turned it on. Before I had a chance to ask him if he knew how to play the piano, he placed his fingers on the keys. The simple yet beautiful melody he played had me swallowing the question.
“Is that a Pushing Limits song?” I asked, then realized how that must have sounded. My face heated up even though he knew I didn’t listen to their music. If I did, I would have known that he wasn’t just Zack’s friend Mason when he first showed up at my house.
He shook his head and kept playing. Something about the ballad warmed me from the inside, which was crazy. I had no idea what the lyrics were. For all I knew, it was a sorrowful song about heartbreak.
The final notes drifted away and Mason glanced up at me. My breath paused in my lungs at the vulnerability in his eyes. But it wasn’t because I had heard him play and he was nervous about what I thought of the song. There was something else. Something deeper.
Without thinking what I was doing, I stroked my fingers against his cheek, and the vulnerability eased slightly. “I loved it. What is it?”
“It’s just a song I wrote.”
“Will it be on the band’s next album?”
He turned away and I let my fingers slide from his face. “Probably not.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not the one who writes the songs for our albums. I’m just the drummer. Which is fine with me.” He tried to shrug it off, but would have done a better job convincing me Santa really did exist…and spent his summers in Hawaii.
“So who writes them?”
“Nolan and Jared. Both are talented songwriters. I’ve just been messing around with stuff while we aren’t touring.”
I blinked. “Are you telling me they haven’t heard this song yet? You seriously need to play it for them.”
He laughed—and my girlie parts clenched at the deep, sexy sound. Every time he laughed, it sent a delicious shiver skipping across my skin.Every. Single. Time. “You only heard me play the music. You might not be so impressed if you heard the lyrics.”
“Why? Are they obscene?”
He shook his head, laughing again.
“Well, I can tell from what you’ve played that it’s a great song.”
He smiled, but the smile was nothing like the one Kylie had given him after his compliment about her playing. It came up short by several miles.
Disappointment at his reaction sat down hard in my gut. I had no idea why it should have bothered me, but it did. “So the band has never heard you play the song? Ever?” I asked.
Mason stood up from the bench and started toward the door. “They don’t even know I play piano.”
I hurried after him. “Why don’t they know you play? I would’ve thought it would come up at some point during your time together as a band.”
“You’ve obviously never heard Aaron play.”
“Is he in the band?”
Mason waved at Andrew, who had looked up from helping a customer. “Thanks, man.”
“My pleasure,” Andrew called out.
“So who’s Aaron?” I asked again as we stepped out of the store into the bright afternoon sun. I didn’t want to be a pain about the song, but I really didn’t understand why I got to hear it while none of his bandmates did.
“He’s the band’s keyboardist. He was Juilliard bound, but then changed his mind and joined the band instead. Next to him, I sound pretty lame.”
“But I still don’t get why you can’t play the song for them. I mean, it’s not like I’m suggesting they kick Aaron out of the band and you switch to playing the keyboards.”
“Because it’s nothing like what Jared and Nolan write,” Mason said as we walked toward my car in the parking lot. “Besides, like I said, I’m the band’s drummer. I love drumming and I’m good at it. That’s why I switched from piano to drums when I was a teenager.” He smirked. “Of course, it also didn’t hurt that it’s easier to get laid if you’re a drummer in a rock band than if you’re a pianist playing in some dinner club.”
