26
With the help of my mom's music, we finally finished our song.
Noah had the brilliant idea of using parts of my mom's song to complete ours. The result had been amazing. The personal, emotional parts of Noah Hart that I'd managed to drag out of him, kicking and screaming at times, melded perfectly with the work my mom and I had done years ago. It was as if the two songs were made to compliment each other. All those missing pieces I hadn't been able to put together suddenly meshed.
Of course, our song still needed to be properly arranged into a real rock song with guitars and drums and bass, but for now we at least had the actual melody composed. The rest could come later.
"I'm proud of you," I told Noah as I finished making a few last notes on the music sheet. We were at Etude Entertainment headquarters, practicing one last time before our meeting with Naomi.
"Proud of me for what?"
"For opening up. For letting your guard down. Your fans will love it. I think it will really speak to them. It's meaningful. Between the two of us, we've written a song that feels more like a Noah Hart song and less like a Darkest Days song."
"No." He shook his head. "It feels like a Jennifer YoungandNoah Hart song." He wrapped his arms around me. "I couldn't have done it without you," he murmured in my ear.
"Are you getting sappy on me?"
"I'm Noah Fucking Hart. I don't do sappy."
I just smiled to myself. "You want to practice a few more times?"
"I think I need some more inspiration." His hand slid down my back to cup my ass.
I batted his hand away. "Stop it. We're at work. In public."
"Never stopped us before."
"I think you've had enough inspiration to last you a lifetime."
He tugged me to his chest. "You're wrong. I can never get enough of you."
"There you go, being all sweet again." I rested my head on his shoulder. "We really do need to practice, though. Naomi's going to expect something magical, considering how long this took us. We need to be ready."
"We are ready." His voice was full of confidence. "And it's all because of your hard work." He pulled back and looked me in the eye. "You may doubt yourself, but once this album drops and sells millions of copies, you're going to realized how talented you are."
"Millions of copies? That's some ego you've got."
"Soon your ego will be just a big as mine."
"No one's going to know it was me who wrote the song, remember? I'm going to get rich, not famous."
"Oh. Right." Noah ran his hand up and down my spine, stroking me in a sensual motion. "Maybe I can get you producer credits or something."
"That would be great if I wanted to be a producer, but I want to work on the composing and songwriting side." I looked him in the eyes. "It's fine. The royalties will be way more than enough to pay off my student loans. Can't get much better than that."
"I'm sorry. I just don't want anyone knowing…" he trailed off, avoiding my eyes.
Noah still didn't want to admit to anyone he needed help composing. He didn't want to admit he needed help at all, from anyone, ever. Noah didn't want the world knowing he couldn't do it alone.
I put my hands on his cheeks. "If you really want me to get fame as well as fortune, maybe I can help the band write a song on your next album?"
"That won't be for another few years."
"I'm okay waiting that long if you are." I realized what I'd said and held my breath, waiting for his response.
Noah looked at me intently. He nodded. "Sure. I'll bring you in to work on a song for the next album."
Noah was thinking of us in the long term. And he seemed okay with it. He wasn't shutting me out. A little thrill of glee thumped through my chest. Maybe I was finally getting somewhere with Noah. Maybe His Royal Highness was finally letting his guard down.
