Unedited.
Chapter Fourteen
Before:
Grady
"The riff's not right." Fuck, who was he kidding? "The whole goddamn intro isn't right." Grady tossed the pen down and ran his hands over his face. Why was his brain so scattered? So fucking unfocused— "Shit."
Emory hit the stop button and swiveled in his chair to look at him with a sigh. They combed through the song more times than he could count and still came up with nothing. It didn't work. Not the way it should. Hush and Carrington went out for a break while he and Emory stayed to .
The man gave him a once over, knowing by now how to read him. "HOw?" What the hell is wrong with you?
Grady gave him the stink eye and sank back in his chair. "I don't know. It's doesn't fit." Frustration wasn't a good feeling for him. Neither was annoyance, agitation, or having a constant short temper. "For this song to work, every note has to count for something. It's soaked in meaning and I just can't find the right damn notes or sequence or intensity or whatever."
"That's—not helpful."
"Well—" he bit his tongue instead of biting off Emory's head. "I don't know how else to explain it."
"I can't read your mind, Gray. Help me out here."
When he wrote it, figuring out the lyrics felt like pulling teeth and now trying to find the right set of cords—
"Where are you right now? Something's got you antsy."
"It's a lot of things," Grady admitted. "Not just one."
"You that wrapped? Can't function without her?" Emory joked.
Grady shook it off. "No just—"
"Feels weird, doesn't it?" Grady looked up at him and Emory did his best not to smirk. "Being away from home, I mean."
He frowned. "Home?"
"Yes, Gray, home. You have a home. Somewhere other than my house amazingly."
That didn't fit right. "What do you—"
"You're settled," Emory said slowly, spelling it out. "You've never felt it so I'm not surprised you don't understand. Being away from that peace—it's setting you on edge. It's normal. Happened to both me and Carrington. You remember."
Emory went back to fiddling, leaving Grady to ponder that over.
Settled.
Peace.
Home.
When did that happen?
And why did a small bit of anxiety begin eating at him?
He settled down.
He found a home.
He discovered peace of mind.
It crept up on him, amongst the chaos Page and the kids created.
He found a place with them.
Huh.
"What?"
Grady blinked. "What what?"
"You just—never mind. About this song—"
"It's not—angry enough."
Emory's eyebrows went up. "Angry enough."
"It's a building anger. Sort of like a storm." Grady nodded to himself and wrote some notes down. "The beginning rumbles right before the rain rolls in."
