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He shook his head. “No. You’re made for bigger things. Let’s go to Nashville. We’ll write more songs. We’ll sing them together. We could be the next great duo.”

She shook her head and stepped back. “If that’s your dream, go for it. I wish you lots of success. While I love playing in Nashville when I go, this is home.”

He stood and took a step toward her. “Why are you being like this?”

“Like what?”

He leaned in. “Difficult.”

She held her ground. More than annoyed, she let her anger fly. “Why can’t you accept that I did you a favor and now we’re done?”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Why do you insist on telling me what I want and what I mean? Do you think I’m stupid and unable to make decisions for myself?”

“No. You’re just wasting your talent.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “It seems to me you benefited from my talent. Take the song I practically wrote myself, and get out.”

He raked a hand through his hair, frustration in the lines on his forehead. “You are so dismissive.”

“You get what you give,” she shot back. “From the moment you got here, you have insinuated yourself into my life with little consideration for me. I was just supposed to go along withyourplans, despite the fact I have my own life here.”

He stared at her wide-eyed. “I thought you wanted to help me.”

“Based on what, exactly? Did I invite you here? No.”

“You said we’d write together.”

“Because you wouldn’t stop asking. Instead of working with me to set up a convenient time, you just showed up and demanded my time. And now I’ve given it to you. I wrote you a song. Now we’re done.”

“I need more than that.” His desperate look didn’t sway her.

“Then, write more songs. Work with other songwriters if you have to. It doesn’t have to be me.”

He reached out to touch her face, but she immediately stepped out of his reach. His gaze turned hard, then softened. “You’re what makes it special.”

“You have no idea if that song will be the one that breaks out. It’s definitely worth a shot if you work hard and get it out there. But that’s on you. Not me. I do what I do because I love it. I do it the way I do it because of the way I want to live my life. I have family, friends, commitments that are important to me. All you see is my talent and how you can use it for yourself. Well, I’m not your puppet. You don’t get to pull the strings and make me do what you want.”

He looked around the bar. “Can’t you see that you could be so much more?”

She was what she wanted to be, where she wanted to be. “You may think I live my life small, but I’m happy. Can you say the same?” She didn’t think so.

“You’re wasting yourself here. We could be so good together.”

She put her foot down. Again. “There is nowe. You came here for a song. You got it.”

“I came here foryou. Don’t tell me you’re not interested, because you’ve been flirting with me the whole time we wrote the song. All those smiles when wegot a line just right. The way you looked at me when we created the story of two lovers finally coming together. And the title. ‘Love Is You.’ You looked me right in the eye when you came up with that.”

She’d been thinking about M. “Rick, it’s a song. A story. It’s real to those who relate to it. I gave you the words, the lines, the title. But I don’t feel that way about you. If I smiled, it’s because I enjoy writing and finding the perfect rhythm and rhyme in a song. I feel the most special kind of joy when a song comes together and conveys emotions and meaning that others will feel. But that has nothing to do with how I feel aboutyou. I don’t know how else to say it, but I don’t have any romantic feelings for you. I don’t even know you.” That was one sentence too far. She should have stopped when she dropped the hammer that she didn’t have feelings for him.

But that last sentiment put a light of hope in his eyes.

Fuck my life.

“We had fun today. I saw it in you. You loved working with me.”

She liked playing music and working on the song. “Rick, you’ve seen how busy my life is. I don’t have time to work with other people even part-time. And truthfully, I don’t want to, because I have my own stuff I’m working on, plus the writing I do with my partner. While I occasionally write with other people, I’m loyal to Faith.”