Cover Me: A Rock Star Romance by Carrie Elliott Read Free Book Online Page B

bottle of white wine open in the fridge. I poured a glass and grabbed a bunch of grapes out of a bowl on the counter that would be shriveled by the time they got back. The house was stale and stuffy, so I opened the back door to let air in through the screen door, and headed into the family room to relax in front of the T.V.
    Two sitcoms later, Karen called for an update. “He’s not here,” I said. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
    “Where else could he be? He has to be there. My guy told me his car was spotted exiting I-5 North onto 152 West. Isn’t that how you get to Santa Cruz?”
    “That’s how you get to anywhere north or west of L.A. I’m telling you, he’s not here.” I popped a grape in my mouth and flipped the channel. “Your guy was wrong and so was I.”
    “Damn. Alright, I’ll stay on it. Call me on your way back tomorrow.”
    We got off the phone, I finished a second glass of wine and watched T.V. until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I shut and locked the back door before heading to bed.
    In my room, I stripped to my underwear and cracked my window open before climbing in bed. Something hard and plastic jabbed my back. I dug around in the sheets and pulled out a strand of Marti Gras beads. My nieces must’ve been playing in my room again. I tossed them on my nightstand and closed my eyes.
    There was music.
    I rolled over and faced my window, listening. The Bast’s were playing music? It was almost midnight. It seemed unlikely, but that was definitely a guitar.
    My heart raced.
    It couldn’t be.
    I slid out of bed and darted to my window. Across our yards, the light in Derek’s room was on and he sat on the edge of his bed strumming a guitar.
    He was here.
    He wasn’t just someone I used to know a lifetime ago. I’d been right after all.
    I pushed my window up further and watched him work. His eyes were closed and every now and then he stopped playing, took a pencil out from behind his ear and jotted in a notebook beside him. This was how he always worked. The music first then the lyrics, but every now and then he’d sing a phrase and write it above the notes. He’d end up with a bunch of disjointed lines of words. Some would make the final cut and others wouldn’t, but he’d string them together to make a perfect song.
    I sat back on my bed and leaned against the headboard. With my eyes closed, I listened and try as I might to discourage it, a picture began to form in my mind. A Derek Bast original. I hadn’t let his music invade my heart and soul since I was eighteen, because I knew it came with a price. I wasn’t prepared to fall in love with Derek again.
    The melody was simple. It wasn’t upbeat, but not slow and desolate either. It sounded like hope, courage. It sounded like starting over. Or maybe that was my mind playing tricks on me, trying to get me to forget what stood between us.
    The picture melding together in my mind was he and I standing at sunrise on the beach. We stood facing each other. His brilliant green eyes shone bright and clear. The wind played in his dark, tousled hair. A hint of a smile touched his lips. I reached up and brushed his cheek with my fingertips, and a swell of emotion rushed over me.
    I opened my eyes and inhaled sharply. The swell of emotion wasn’t part of the picture in my mind. For the second night in a row, tears fell from my eyes over Derek Bast. I wiped them away with haste, trying to deny it was happening again.
    Stumbling out of bed, I pulled my window shut and closed the curtains. Now that I knew he was here, I’d leave in the morning and send Karen to ask for the interview. There was no way I could stay and become more and more vulnerable.
    Back in bed, I could still hear faint strains of his music. It lulled me into sleep on my tear dampened pillow where I found myself back on the beach touching his cheek.
    When I woke from the dream in the morning, it was with the empty, hollowed-out feeling of something missing. I wanted to go