Page 115 of Rock Out Together
about k.l. shanwick
K.L. Shandwick is an Amazon top 100 and international bestselling author. She mainly writes Rock Star, New Adult, Contemporary Romance, and Romantic Suspense stories. Her writing is inspired by imperfect people, each striving to carve out their own piece of happiness from life. Her emotional novels have gained a loyal following for her 'real to life' characters who sometimes face challenges in their quest for love. Many readers have fallen for her book boyfriends, and when K.L. isn't writing, she lives in the English countryside with her husband and enjoys reading, live music events, has a guilty pleasure in all things Yungblud and socializing with friends.
You can find K.L. Shandwick’s other works here… https://linktr.ee/klshandwick
chords unwritten
Julie Thorpe
Copyright © 2025 by Julie Thorpe
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
blurb
Luke’s band are going back to their roots, back to the hometown that made them. Back to Kate, who was left behind.
For reasons unknown to the band, Kate left them high and dry and they haven’t heard from her since. Bumping into her at their original venue, Luke finds a reason to keep going back to see her. Eventually, he invites her to a practice session where sparks fly and their chemistry is reignited for all to see. When it’s over, Kate disappears and Luke is hurt, but his bandmates encourage him to go after her.
When Luke finds Kate, he gives her a chance to explain herself and rejoin the band but what will she decide? Will she keep letting her life hold her back, or will she take a chance on the band and her heart?
— Your #1 Fan
one
. . .
Luke
“What doyou reckon they’ll say when they see us now?”
“Get lost, most likely,” I retorted with a chuckle. Joel punched me in the arm for that, causing me to laugh at his feeble attempt.
“Nah, they love us. Now,” Benny interjected, hastily adding the end bit when we gave him ‘the look.’ They’d all hated us and our music when we first started out. I grinned at the antics of my band mates as they continued to discuss what our homecoming might be like, whether the town still wanted us gone or if they had been converted by our fame over the years. I thought back to when it had all started, Almost every door had been slammed shut in our faces, plus a few choice words sometimes. Nobody wanted to take a chance on an up and coming rock band. They said it had been done too much, we weren’t any good (not that they’d listened to us), and that we would never amount to anything.
That was until Kate appeared in our lives. We’d popped into a busy restaurant that had a stage as they held live entertainments nights at weekends, and thereshewas. Serving behind the bar, pouring drinks. Instead of saying no to us outright, she spoke to her manager and asked them to give us a chance. That was what had made us. Kate, we found out after a few rehearsal sessions, could sing and play piano so we asked her to join us.
It was the best year of my life. We played regular gigs at the restaurant, Kate singing alongside me and adding the best harmonies I’d ever heard. She worked at the restaurant in between and even though I’d fallen for her, I never said a word, afraid to lose her if she didn’t feel the same way. It hadn’t mattered in the end though. She took off, leaving us high and dry. My mind dredged up the memory of that last rehearsal with her. We had all been practicing, wondering where she was when she turned up half an hour late, anxiety pouring off of her in waves. Pulling at the hem of her top, she hadn’t been able to look us in the eyes.
“I’m sorry to do this but I’m leaving. I wish you all the luck in the world, not that you need it,” she’d said and with that, had darted out of the door. I’d rushed out after her, wanting to know what was going on, but she’d already disappeared. I had searched everywhere for her, eventually turning to the restaurant to see if they could tell me where she was. The owner had looked me square in the eyes and told me that Kate had gone, left the town completely and no, he didn’t know where she was going. I remembered stumbling back tothe others, telling them what I knew and the shock on their faces. It gave me some comfort to know I wasn’t the only one who’d been completely blindsided by this.
I pulled myself back from my reverie to the here and now. That had been three years ago and I needed to put it from my mind. Kate had left and that was that. Benny and Joel were now arguing over which songs we should play for the gig we had lined up. Rolling my eyes, I shook my head and turned to look out of the window of our tour bus. The sun was shining, the countryside a luscious green colour. I breathed in deeply, feeling a sense of peace sweep through me at the sight of the passing scenery. We were getting close. I felt for the first time in years like I was going somewhere I belonged.
An hour and a bit later, we pulled up outside the house that was rented for us for the summer. After constantly touring since we had been snapped up, we were going to finally get a bit of a rest. Not completely of course, we still had to play at local venues but everything within a two hour driving limit from this place.
I’d complained to our manager that we needed time to write the new songs he kept harping on at us to get done and after much back and forth, he’d finally agreed to let us come back to our hometown for the summer to work on a new album, as long as we still played local gigs. I’d agreedinstantly, knowing the others would agree. Being burnt out wasn’t conducive to creativity and plus, I knew the guys wanted to see their families. My dad was here too, but we barely spoke. He’d wanted me to follow in his footsteps at the law firm and it just hadn’t been for me so we just did the obligatory phone calls for birthdays and Christmas these days. The only other person I wanted to see was Kate, but that was a pipe dream. She wasn’t in Mills Town any more.
Hopping off the bus, we grabbed our bags and headed inside to see what the place was like. It was fancier than anything we’d had in this area before and we let out low whistles when we saw it. The walls were cream, a winding staircase led upstairs from the hallway we walked in to, and as we made our way further inside, a large kitchen lay off to our right whilst a spacious living room opened up to our left. Inside, was a grand piano, guitars, drums and every other musical instrument that we would ever use on the far side of the room.
I smirked at Benny and Joel.
“Doug thought of everything didn’t he?” I stated, dropping my bags to the ground as I headed over to the guitars in their stands. My band mates followed me.
“Jeez! How much stuff does he think we need?” Bennyexclaimed, running his fingers gently over the piano. Joel shrugged.
“I know we came to write new songs but he knows we’re probably just going to use our own instruments right?” he asked, glancing over at me with his eyebrow raised.
