Los Angeles-based stylist Nico Takahashi loves his job—or at least, he used to. Feeling fed up and exhausted from the cutthroat, gossip-fueled business of Hollywood, Nico daydreams about packing it all in and leaving for good. So when Grady Dawson—sexy country music star and rumored playboy—asks Nico to style him, Nico is reluctant. But after styling a career-changing photo-shoot, Nico follows Grady to Nashville where he finds it increasingly difficult to resist Grady’s charms. Can Nico make peace with show business and all its trappings, or will Grady’s public persona get in the way of their private attraction to each other?
~*~
Grady presses his lips flat, looks up at the ceiling again to gather himself, sniffs and nods, then tugs Nico’s foot closer by his ankle. “Do you think... If we’d met at a bar. Or through a friend of a friend. Or the gym.” Grady’s thumb strokes the tender skin of Nico’s calf beneath the hem of his pants. “If we had just been two regular guys? We really could have been something.”
There’s a question in his voice, a hesitancy that maybe Nico would have rejected him eventually anyway. Nico scoots across the cramped bunk, crowds against Grady, shoulder to shoulder. “Well, we never would have met at the gym because I would have taken one look at you and gone home to mourn the body I’ll never have by consuming gallons of ice cream.”
Grady bumps his shoulder. “Shut up, you’re gorgeous.” He tips his head against the wall and grins. “If I’d first seen you at a bar I probably would have humiliated myself by trying to win you over with bad karaoke and shameless flirting.”
Nico’s eyebrows raise. “You mean to tell me you’ve been holding back on me? You have a level of flirting that’s even more shameless?”
“Oh yeah. You ain’t seen nothin’, sweetheart.”
“That is truly terrifying.”
Grady laughs, bright and uninhibited. Nico is so relieved to hear it, a moment of light in the darkness. Grady’s hand rests on Nico’s knee, Nico watches his own hand brush his fingers there, but he doesn’t linger.
“We aren’t, though. Just two random guys.”
Grady’s fingers flex, curving over his kneecap. “No.”
Nico exhales harshly. “I have never wanted to be a groupie so badly.”
Grady shoves at his leg. “Come on, you didn’t really think that I would do that to you—”
“In my weaker, more insecure moments?” Nico scrunches his face, embarrassed. “Yeah, I did.”
“You think that little of me, huh?” He says it with a teasing grin, but Nico’s heart sinks.
“No, Grady. I think you’re…” A million adjectives flash through his head: beautiful, amazing, stunning, compassionate, kind, generous. A supernova. He settles on, “Really special.”
Grady gives a skeptical lift of his eyebrows. “Uh oh. I’m really special, huh?”
“I’m so, so into you and it’s…” He cringes at the words but it’s true, “It’s not you, it’s me.”
“Oh lord.” Grady laments with a laugh. “Not that, please.”
“I’m the guy on the sidelines. I’m the one who makes everyone else shine. I don’t belong there, in the spotlight. I like that at the end of the day I can go home and just walk away from the cameras and the red carpets and the scrutiny. And you—you’re a star. And you can have anyone.”
Grady turns, the cramped space of the bunk making his limbs bump and nudge and curl around Nico’s body. During Grady’s shows, in the moment just before he starts singing the opening line of “Broken Records,” there’s this pause, this moment suspended in the air when the audience is silent and waiting and doesn’t even dare to inhale because in that moment, Grady’s soul is laid bare. He looks at Nico just like that and Nico can’t breathe around it.“I don’t want anyone,” he says, voice low and serious. “I want you. How do you not get that?”
~*~
Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Lilah Suzanne author of Broken Records. Hi Lilah, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.
Was there a basis for you story? A previous experience or something else?
I started with the idea of wanting to set a story in the South, with a Southern character, and a love story that felt a little more hard-won than my last books. Everything else fell into place after that, with a little trial and error. But no, I don’t really have much experience with being a country music singer or a stylist. Though of course my past experiences always find a way of sneaking in there, whether I want them to or not!
What skills do you think a writer needs? Stubborn defiance?
It feels like the main thing keeping me going some days... I really think the most important thing is perseverance. Any other skill can be learned and practiced, but the drive to keep going no matter what? I believe that’s what separates successful writers from unsuccessful ones. Keep going! That’s my mantra.
What for you is the perfect book hero?
I tend to like heroes who make the choice to do good and be good, rather than tortured souls who do the right thing out of regret or obligation or being chosen. A kind heart is essential for me.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
For me, writing a story feel so urgent, it’s like this clawing need to get it out on to paper as quickly as possible. So I really struggle with slowing down, giving the story a chance to settle and breathe and take my time with the moments that need to simmer slowly.
Tell us about your favorite childhood book.
I can’t possibly pick one favorite! I was a book junkie as a kid, reading at least three at a time, riding my bike to the library to load up my backpack with books. Let’s see, I recently reread Charlotte’s Web, which was one of my very favorites and I have to say it really holds up. The writing is lush and it’s the perfect little story about those last magical moments of childhood.
3 comments:
Thank you for the interview and giveaway!
It was our pleasure, Lilah xx
I love Rascal Flatts - Melt CD.
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