Outmatched in October (Spring River Valley Book 10) Read Online Free PDF Page A

There’s still a chance they won’t hire me. It isn’t just Jacob’s decision, so if his partners don’t like me—”
    “They will. You’re amazing, and you know it.”
    “If they don’t, then the decision is made.”
    “Should I keep my fingers crossed that you don’t get it?” Lily met her gaze, a challenge in her voice. “Don’t sabotage yourself. The decision to go or not go should be yours, and it should be because it’s what you want more than anything. Don’t say no just because you’re afraid to say yes.”
    “I’m not afraid to say yes. Someone just has to ask me the right question.”
     
    * * * *
     
    “I know why I look like hell,” Taylor said when he arrived at Love Notes Tuesday evening balancing a pizza box in one hand and a six-pack of cola in the other. “I spent my afternoon pulling dental floss out of a cat’s butt. What’s your excuse?”
    Owen made room on the store’s side counter for the pizza box then walked over to lock the door and turn the Open sign to Closed. He hadn’t bothered cancelling tonight’s rehearsal even though Claudia wasn’t going to be here. Maybe he should have, since he didn’t feel much like singing, but he also wasn’t in the mood to be alone either. “Long day . Thanks for the pizza.”
    “It was my turn. Did you hear from Claudia yet? How did her audition go?”
    “Dunno. I guess okay. She’s probably going to be leaving the band.”
    Taylor froze with his hand inside the half-open pizza box. “What?”
    Owen slid his phone across the counter. “Well, this job is singing weeknights at a club. She can’t be here if she’s there, so she texted me that if she has to miss any more rehearsals she’ll understand if we don’t want her in the band anymore.”
    Taylor looked at the phone message and shook his head. “That’s girl speak for ‘please ask me not to leave.’ You know that, right?”
    “No. She’s not—she…it’s obvious she wants out. She’s got this Armani guy sniffing around. He probably offered her tons of money and who knows what else. Why would she want to sit in the back room of a music store and sing with an amateur cover band when she could be in New York City?”
    Taylor pulled up a stool and set back to work liberating a piece of pizza from the box. “I don’t know . I thought it was because she actually liked us.”
    “Maybe she likes you . Have you noticed that all I do is seem to make her mad? I can’t even tell her how great a singer she is. If I try to compliment her, she looks at me like I have six heads.”
    “It’s not your delivery or anything,” Taylor said between bites of pizza.
    “What do you mean my delivery?”
    “You have a way of making a compliment seem like a complaint. And she notices that. And the thing she doesn’t notice is that you’re hot for her. You do hide it pretty well.”
    Owen crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall behind the counter. “Come on, you think I really have a chance with someone like her? She’s…”
    “What? Right in front of you half the time?”
    “She’s up here.” Owen placed his hand about eye level, then moved it down a couple of feet. “And I’m down here. She sings like an angel, she looks like…a model, and I’m just the guy who runs the music store. I’m no match for that Armani guy—”
    “Is his name actually Armani? Because in that case, no, you can’t compete.”
    “No, it’s Clarkson or Lawson or Larsen or something. And he owns this richy-rich club in the city, and he drives a Mercedes and—”
    “You know what kind of car he drives?”
    “I happened to notice the other night when he left Colette’s.”
    “Stalker much?”
    “I was concerned. He comes in there gawking at Claudia, buys her a drink, offers her a job, then he wants her to ‘audition.’” He paused to make air quotes with his figures. “That sounds a little fishy to me.”
    “Auditioning for a singing job is fishy