Steady Beat by Lexxie Couper Read Free Book Online Page B

“what’s going on? You’ve seen worse than that since we’ve been sharing an apartment. Why are you so skittish?”
    Pressing her face into the silk of her duvet, Pepper ground her teeth. “I hate being me.”
    “Oh, this sounds serious.” Frank swatted her butt once again. She’d shared an apartment with him for five years, and next to her father, he was the only person she never felt shy around. It may have had something to do with how outrageously flamboyant he was, how infectious his exuberance for life, how little he cared about public opinion. He was gay, an English literature high school teacher and an animal-rights activist. When Pepper was with him, she didn’t have any chance to be shy. He wouldn’t let her.
    “It is serious,” she mumbled into the bed covering. “I suck.”
    “Honey, how could you hate yourself? You’re kind, intelligent, brilliant at being organized, stunning to look at and oh baby, your voice. What’s got you so down on yourself?”
    Pepper threw herself onto her back and glared up at the ceiling of her bedroom. “I just blew a major opportunity because I’m so freaking shy .”
    “Ahh, this again.” Frank gave her a sympathetic smile. “Peps, it’s okay to be shy. Not everyone can be like me.”
    She didn’t laugh at his attempt to soothe her with humour. Instead, she blew at her bangs and glared harder at the ceiling. “I fail at everything because I’m shy, Frank. How is that okay?”
    “What did you fail at tonight? Serving drinks at Rupert’s? Not possible to fail at that. Rupert tells me you’re the best waitress he has. No one’s ever complained about you, you make buckets in tips and you’re happy to work overtime.”
    Pepper shook her head. “It wasn’t serving drinks. Although Rupert told me tonight I wasn’t his best waitress.”
    Frank tuttered. “He’s not going to tell you that to your face, honey. But enough of trying to dodge the issue here. What did you fail at tonight?”
    Hitching herself up onto her elbows, Pepper gave Frank a frazzled sigh. “Nick Blackthorne’s band was in the bar.”
    Frank’s eyes widened. He let out a long whistle. “God, wish I was there. Those men are serious eye candy. What did you do? Spill a drink on one of them?”
    “No, I convinced the drummer to let me audition as their new lead singer.”
    Frank’s mouth fell open.
    “And we kissed.”
    Frank’s eyebrows shot up his seamless forehead. “And this is a failure because?”
    Pepper slumped back on the bed and resumed glaring at her ceiling. “Because when we walked out of the bar the paparazzi were there. They started taking photos of us, yelling at us, and I bolted back into the bar like a goddamn chicken.”
    Silenced stretched in the room for so long Pepper shucked herself up onto her elbows again to frown at her roommate.
    He shook his head at her. “I don’t know what to comment on first.”
    Pepper snorted, dropping back to the mattress. “I so wanted this, Frank. You know how much. The closest I ever got to living my dream was when I managed Black Toad Dare, and I failed at that as well.”
    “They hit the indie charts because of you, honey. Your skills launched them above all the other generic grunge-rock garage bands. And then they dropped you like a hot potato for some Ferrari-driving prick,” Frank pointed out, his fingers plucking at the laces of her boots, “after which they were never heard from again. You didn’t fail with them, Pepper. They failed you, by not listening to your brilliance. Why you didn’t sing with them still confuses me. You could have kept them on the right track at the same time as wowing the world with your voice. But this is not important right now and has nothing to do with Nick Blackthorne’s band. Nor kissing its drummer. Who kissed who?”
    Pepper rolled her eyes and pulled herself upright to hug her knees to her chest. “Can you be serious for a moment, Frank. I blew my chance at auditioning for Nick