Page 24 of Indescribable Love
“Besides, I’m on a roll here with this next song, so…”
Looking up, she simply stared at him.
And stared.
And stared.
He hated when she did that.
“Okay, fine! I finished some preliminary work on a fifth song and I’m starving! There, are you happy?”
She shrugged.
“Nik, come on. Juliette is the first person I’ve ever argued with, and now I feel like such a jerk,” he admitted quietly.
“Then the best thing you can do is go upstairs, shower, and join us for dinner. You can apologize, compliment the meal, and everything will go back to normal.”
He knew she was right, however…
“You don’t think she needs to apologize to me too?”
Her head lolled back as she whined his name.
“What? I just think we both said some stuff we shouldn’t have, so we both should apologize!”
This time when she looked at him, she had a serene smile on her face, and he wasn’t quite sure he could trust it.
“How about this—you go and shower, then join us in the kitchen and no one talks about what happened yesterday? It seems like you’re fine, and for some odd reason, it helped your writer’s block. And as for Juliette, I already know she feels awkward about everything, so perhaps it would be best if we all just had a nice, friendly dinner and stuck to safe topics. What do you say?”
“I say that sounds like the coward’s way out. If we don’t address it, it’s bound to happen again.”
“And sometimes that’s okay,” she told him. “Not everyone who disagrees is bad, Simon. And not every argument has to turn ugly.” She paused. “Now please go and shower because dinner will be ready in like…a half an hour. And the sauce smells even better today. I don’t even know how that’s possible.”
“Believe me, I can smell it, and I know.” With a lopsided grin, he walked over and hugged her. “Thanks, Nik.”
“This is gonna be a good night,” she said as she hugged him back. “And Celia made you a chocolate cake.”
Pulling back, he knew he was smiling from ear to ear. “And now I’m officially motivated!” Jogging up the stairs, Simon went right to his bedroom and shut the door. He could hear Juliette, Celia, and Alex talking in the kitchen, and he had to admit, he kind of liked this. It reminded him of the times he vacationed with his brothers and his mom. There were laughs, good food, a few arguments—which never involved him—but ultimately, everyone got along and had a great time.
Stripping down, he turned on the hot water in the shower and gave it a minute to heat up. When he stepped under the spray, it felt amazing. Normally he showered every morning after his jog, but he didn’t go out this morning. Hell, he had barely slept last night because he was completely in the zone with the music. So sometime around five a.m., when he’d only slept for about three hours, he got up and decided to stop fighting it and simply embrace the fact that the muse was there.
It was who the potential muse was that was tripping him up.
Juliette.
Yeah, he didn’t feel awkward about seeing her because of the fight; he felt awkward because it was the fight that made a real difference in the music he was able to create. He’d been singing since he was a child, and he’d been writing songs since he was sixteen. But the songs he wrote were on the sweet side. He loved a good power ballad or a happy pop song. So many critics compared him to Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, and Harry Styles.
That wasn’t what he was currently writing.
No, this new bit of music was a little sultrier and grittier, and it was both exciting and terrifying for him at the same time.
I see you, and I want more…hold me tight, take me to the floor…
Closing his eyes, he could clearly envision Juliette doing just that—right there on the lower level, surrounded by his guitars, and just tearing each other’s clothes off. It was so real, so vivid, and it made him want to do something right now to take the edge off…
But he didn’t.
Everyone was in the next room and even though he had total privacy, it just felt wrong.