Page 36 of Dream (Fighting Fate)

“Nah, man. She doesn’t even give a shit. Just comes waltzing up to him to pass on a message like nothing ever happened between them. She’s a fucking cruel bitch.”

“Jesus.” I looked up at the ceiling. Poor bastard. I knew things had to have been pretty shit for him when he’d asked to stay here at the beach house for a while, but I had no idea things were that bad. “How’s he been, though?”

Aiden finished his turn and shook his head. “We’ve been trying to direct all his angst into music, but he’s been fucking anything with a skirt. Mia’s been keeping a real close eye on him—told us we needed to make sure we didn’t let him get out of control while we were here.”

Besides being Jace’s girlfriend, Mia was also Aiden’s twin sister. She’d joined them when they went on tour, and was still there with them a year later. She liked to make sure they were all taken care of.

“Well, he’s creating music right now, so you can tell Mia so far, so good.”

Jace grinned. “Already have.”

Yeah, I should’ve known. Mia was it for Jace. I knew he wouldn’t even look at another girl now. I was happy for him. They were great together. And it was the same for Aiden. He’d done a disappearing act as soon as their tour had ended earlier this year. We’d all been as worried as hell, until we found him shacked up with his current girlfriend on some ranch in Texas. As weird as it was to see my friends starting to settle down like that, I was happy for them.

Twenty minutes later, Jace was shooting for the eight ball when his phone pinged, alerting him to a new text. He sank the ball before whipping his phone out of his pocket. “Dean wants us to come up.”

I hung up my cue, not willing to admit I would’ve been going up anyway. The seven of us grabbed our drinks and trudged up the stairs to the living room.

Liv looked up at me when we walked in. She was perched on a bench at the keyboard beside Dean, her cheeks flushed a little with excitement. Her eyes flashed with a burning intensity that sent a thrill straight to my groin. She was so goddamn beautiful it made me fucking crazy.

Dean looked up and met my gaze. He looked excited too. I just hoped it was because of the music and not because of anything else.

“Get anywhere with it?” Jace asked, sinking down onto a couch.

Dean didn’t say anything, he just nodded, his eyes burning. Those two had always had a silent way of communicating.

When everyone was settled, Dean shifted on the bench. “All right. It’s critique time. When I wrote this, I always envisioned it as a duet, so tell me what you think.”

Most of us were more or less used to Dean’s way of business. He was a perfectionist. When he wrote things, he would hear it inside his head, then try to put it on paper. But sometimes it didn’t go as smoothly as he wanted it to. It wasn’t often, but there had been a couple of times when he hadn’t been able to get it out quite the way he wanted it. When that happened, he brought everyone in to listen and critique. I’d seen them work for days, even weeks trying different things to get that perfect sound.

The song he was writing now was for the movie I was about to shoot, and because of that, he wanted it to be better than perfect. It was for a pretty important part of the movie too, right when the main characters were ready to give up on each other. It had to invoke some pretty deep emotions.

Dean shifted again and brushed his fingers over the keys before starting on the slow, haunting piano melody. It was amazing. I instantly knew it would work.

The lyrics in the opening verse were deep. I felt myself being pulled in—by his words and his voice. Like the script, it spoke of a girl and his connection to her, and the desperate message that they were losing each other. It evoked the perfect amount of emotion, and knowing the script as well as I did, I knew the song would give that part of the story line more impact.

The chorus was haunting. It was hurt and betrayal, a wish that both might move on and find peace. It was very touching.

It was hard not to get lost in the story he was telling. It was perfect. When the chorus came to an end, Dean brought in some string instruments in the background and gave Liv a little nod, telling her to join him.

She was soft, hesitant at first, but as Dean’s voice grew in strength, trying to give it more emotion, she opened up and equaled his intensity.

My breath stuck. Holy fuck.

I glanced at the other guys, seeing the same shocked expression on all of their faces.

Dean started hitting the keys with more urgency, lifting the intensity of the song to another level, and Liv followed him, giving it everything she had.

The sound quickly softened again before launching into the last verse. It was subdued and sad, echoing his loss. They sang the last chorus like the pain was so overwhelming, they could hardly manage more than a whisper.

Dean hit the last note on the keyboard so gently, but the sound of the despair lingered long after it faded.

Silence filled the room. I think we were all more than a little shocked. They sounded amazing together. Like, perfect. Knowing how much of a perfectionist Dean was, I knew he was going to have trouble finding someone to match that.

Jace blew out a breath that seemed to say it all.

“What the fuck was that?” Matt said. He had a look of total confusion on his face.

I knew what he meant. Dean and I were the only ones who had heard Liv sing before. None of the guys were expecting her to be that good.

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