Page 86 of Fractured Kiss

She had a long, hot shower, then looked at a few more rentals online. She made some inquiries and set up a couple of viewings for the next week.

After that, she sat down with her notebook and did some writing. But the flow of words quickly dried up. She sighed, then flicked back through the pages, looking at some of what she’d written during her time with Zac. She stopped at a poem she’d written a week before the tour had ended, after Zac had asked her to come to LA with him. A sad smile curved her lips at the hopefulness of the words.

The smile wobbled and fell. Zac had been gone for hours again. She debated calling Lexie, Summer, or Eden, but decided she was better off not letting herself get any closer to them. Leaving was going to be hard enough as it was.

She looked back at her notebook, then over at Zac’s spare guitar case. She brought it over to where she’d been sitting. Carefully unlatching it, she pulled the instrument out and held it in her lap.

After glancing at the words in her notebook, she let her fingers skim over the strings. A tune emerged as she softly sang what she’d written. She grimaced. It wasn’t great, but she kept going. Her eyelids drifted shut as the notes flowed from under her hands. Suddenly, her eyes popped open, and she repeated the chords she’d just played. She modified the arrangement slightly and played it again.

She smiled. It wasn’t bad. The tune suited the hopeful tone of what she’d written. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and she didn’t know how the other instruments might fit in with it just yet. But it felt… right.

She frowned down at her notebook. Why had Bryan always dismissed her poetry? She imagined how it could have been, her sitting with him, both of them with guitars in hand, making music together. She should have figured it out earlier that things weren’t right between them. There was too much imbalance. She’d loved him so much—or at least needed him so much—that she’d let her own hopes and dreams wither and die while she followed him on the path to fulfilling his.

But after watching Zac write his album over the last few months, seeing her own words come to life with his help, what she’d done on her own today—it felt like something she might like to do. Something she might just end up being good at.

The keypad beeped, the door opened, and Zac walked in. She half expected him to have invited the others back again to avoid being alone with her. But he hadn’t.

Cassie’s heart raced as he walked toward her. His gaze took in his guitar in her hands, and she suddenly wondered if she should have asked him if she could use it.

“I hope you don’t mind,” she said.

His brows pulled together. “Of course I don’t mind. You can use anything of mine.” He glanced at her notebook. “What have you been up to?”

“I tried putting one of my poems to music.”

His eyes lit up with interest. “How’d it go?”

She gave a little laugh. “It could use some work. But I don’t know. I guess I quite like it.”

“Can you play it for me?”

“I’m not sure I’m ready for anyone else to hear it.”

“Please, Cassie.” His voice was low.

He always seemed to push her outside her comfort zone so easily. And for the first time in days, tension didn’t tighten the air between them. She took a deep breath and picked up his guitar. She ran through the chords to refresh her memory, then sang.

When she finished, Zac’s gaze was unfocused. She waited breathlessly until he nodded. “It’s good.”

She couldn’t help but smile. Her man of few words.

“Can I have the guitar?” he said.

She handed it to him, and he sat on the couch, angling himself toward her, his knee touching hers.

He started with the same basic chord progression she had, then made some minor modifications. “Sing it for me,” he said, and she did.

Her voice wove through the music he played as if those two things had always belonged together. They made changes, tweaked some words, some of the notes. When they finished, Cassie couldn’t contain her smile.

His eyes held hers, an emotion she couldn’t name glittering in them. “This is good, Cassie. Really good.”

She smiled wide, feeling buoyant. Songwriting seemed like such a natural progression from her poetry. Why hadn’t she done anything with it before? Because she’d been too nervous to share her words with anyone? Or because she’d been too busy trailing after Bryan to spend any time thinking about whatshemight actually want to do?

Zac leaned back on the couch, watching her with so much warmth in his beautiful hazel eyes it made her breath catch in her chest.

Her smile wavered, and she swallowed. She needed to get this out. No matter how painful it might be. She needed some clarity. “Zac, I really need to know where we stand,” she said. “Things are so up in the air at the moment. I guess I’m nervous we’re not on the same page.”

He tensed at her words, his visage darkening. He stood and paced to the window. Then he twisted back toward her, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “What is it you want, Cassie?”

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