Campaign: Hart & the Hurricanes – Phase 2
Concept: Connection reborn.
Objective: Make the world believe Jami Hart believes in love.
Her fingers hovered above the keys.
Only one problem, she realized as she started typing.
She needed to keep this professional.
ChapterFive
Morning came in a wash of pale light across the farmhouse ceiling.Jami lay awake listening to the quiet.The water below the bluff whispered against the rocks.Somewhere in the grove, a bird called, sharp and insistent.He could have rolled over and willed himself back to sleep, but his head was too full.
He pulled on jeans and a T-shirt and padded to the kitchen.Coffee, black.He drank it standing at the back door, watching sunlight lift over the palms and lay itself across the grass.The barn sat a short walk away, red and proud, the big sliding doors no longer slid.They'd been fixed to keep critters out.Inside the sliders was a neatly cut door allowing them entry and exit.He'd always liked being the first one inside.You could hear the room breathe before the day got loud.
He took his guitar and a notebook and crossed the yard.The barn smelled like wood oil and history, with a hint of salt air that drifted through whenever they left the doors open.He flipped on a few lights, no more than he needed, and sat on the low platform they used for small rehearsals.
The first chord echoed too brightly in the empty space.He tried again, softer, letting the sound settle.Music always told the truth.Lately, it had been telling him things he did not want to hear.
He picked at a simple progression, something he and Sean had messed with on the road but never finished.The melody wanted to lift and then fall, like breath.He hummed along, rough and low.Words came in scraps.He wrote them down and crossed them out.Try again.Write.Cross out.The pencil smudged the edge of his hand.
He heard her voice in his head.Not the business voice from yesterday.The softer one from last night.Fans need to believe that you believe.He had smiled for years and meant every one of them.Somewhere along the line, he had started smiling on cue.It was not the same.
He set the guitar aside and stood to shake out his hands.The empty space answered with a faint metallic ring from somewhere in the rafters.He looked toward the doorway, half expecting to see Carlene walk through, and snorted at himself.She had probably been up since dawn, writing a plan, while he sat here arguing with a blank page.
Footsteps sounded on the stones outside.He turned and saw Sean’s silhouette, backlit by the bright square of morning.
“You're up early,” Sean said, coming inside.“I brought muffins from Mae’s.Livia texted and said we would need carbs for whatever Carlene is about to put us through.”
Jami laughed.“Smart woman.”
Sean set the paper bag on the platform and crouched beside the notebook.“What are you working on?”
“Trying to find words that do not lie.”
Sean studied the chords he had sketched and hummed a few bars.“Feels like a sunrise.”
“Or like trying to remember how to breathe.”
“That too.”Sean’s mouth curved.“You want help?”
“Always.”
They played through the progression together, letting the second guitar slip under the first like a shadow.The melody steadied.The shape of a verse formed, slow and simple.After a while, the back door opened again, and Axel wandered in, hair damp, sticks in one hand, and a to-go cup in the other.
“You two started without me,” he said, but there was no heat in it.He tapped the sticks against his thigh, testing the room.
Jami grinned.“This needs a heartbeat.Not heavy.Just there.We're trying to work out a new song.”
Axel gave them a pulse, the kind you felt before you heard it, and the song settled into itself.Jami tried a lyric.It landed close, then fell short.He tried again.
“No,” Maddyn said from the doorway, soft but sure.“That one tasted like you were saying it for the crowd.”
He looked up as she stepped inside with Livia and Tony behind her.Maddyn had a second bag from Mae’s and handed it to Axel the way she handed him everything he needed before he asked.She set her coffee on the platform and leaned one hip against a speaker.
“What if the first line is a question?”she said, eyes on Jami.“You have been giving answers for a long time.Maybe you start by not knowing.”
