Can't Get Over You (Fortune's Island, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

spend the rest of his life playing in bars and at Bar Mitzvahs. He’d spent every waking moment either practicing music, writing music or performing it. The Outsiders had had a modicum of success—modicum meaning they split a couple thousand dollars a week between the four of them—performing in local venues and selling their own music on iTunes, but it had never reached the kind of stratospheric levels that would bring them fame and fortune. A future.
    That was what Jillian didn’t get. That going after his dream required time, sacrifice. He couldn’t just drop everything to be with her, or blow off a booking to go to a wedding for her third cousin twice removed or whatever. As for getting married—
    He had procrastinated on that because he didn’t want to be some loser playing in crappy, crowded bars, trying to support a wife and someday, kids. Jillian had grown tired of waiting, and left that ring on his amp one night three months ago.
    Zach had been lost ever since.
    His music suffered, his sleep had damned near disappeared, and his motivation to be anything other than miserable was at a zero. But Duff was right—they had this gig before one of the producers from an indie label he’d sent a demo tape to, and if Zach didn’t get his shit together, he was going to blow it. For himself, and for the band that was counting on him.
    “Let’s run through ‘You’re the Everything’ one more time,” Zach said. “From the top.”
    The other guys exchanged a glance, then AJ, the drummer, gave a little nod, and started tapping out the opening beat. Ian fingered the melody on the keyboard, Duff joined in on bass, followed by Zach on the electric guitar. Zach took a step forward, brought his mouth to the mic, and began to sing.
    But as he belted out the words to the ballad he’d written a year ago, something in his heart hurt. He remembered scrawling the lyrics in the spiral bound notebook he took everywhere he went, jotting the beginnings of the music in the margins. A week later, he pulled it all together, then ran over to Jillian’s in the middle of the night to wake her up and let her hear it. The words had been from his heart—words he wanted to say to her but never could. It was as if his tongue got all tied up when they were together, like a stutterer who could only speak smoothly in song.
    “Everything,” he crooned now, “you’re the everything.”
    For three months, he’d avoided singing this song at The Love Shack. But come next Sunday night, he was going to have to sing it, fully aware Jillian was in the same room. Maybe by then, singing the song wouldn’t feel like ripping his chest in two.
    This audition was his last chance, he knew, to either make this a real career or face the music—no pun intended—and go back home to Manomet and get a real job. Which would mean living near his family again.
    All these years, Zach had been hoping he wouldn’t have to go back there. Sure, he visited his family, but he never stayed long. An hour, two tops. Just enough to put in an appearance, ease the guilt on his shoulders, then get back out the door and over to his life on the island.
    He wants to see you, his mother had said on the phone earlier. He’ll be home next week.
    His brother. The one person who used to be Zach’s best friend, the one person he had trusted more than anyone or anything.
    And the one person who had destroyed that trust so irrevocably, Zach had vowed never to speak Keith’s name again.
    They finished the song, with one last strum on the guitar, then Zach lifted the Fender off his shoulders and set it on the stand. “Let’s take five.”
    He really wanted to take five million minutes—or as many as it took to get his life back on track—but this would have to do.
    The band milled around Duff’s garage, ignoring the tools on the peg board, the shelves of paint and oil, the old recliner stuffed in the corner. Duff had gotten married six months ago and his now-pregnant wife was