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Heartbreak Guitar
Xoe Mackenzie is a rocking guitarist, but tragedy strikes again and she heads home. She learns that going home occasionally teaches her to laugh again. It helps her to get out of the black spiral of depression.
Casper is intrigued by the enigma that is Xoe, from the first time she collapses at his feet in grief. And as he gets to know her he vows to see that she smiles more.
Can Xoe let this mohawked, keyboardist into her life and heart?
Chapter 1
Tears dripping down her cheek, her heart aching. Xoe held
the picture to her chest. She couldn’t believe he was dead. Her first love, her
first friend, her first mentor. He had meant so much to her, yet he had been a
part of her life for so little.
She could ask why. Why Marcus? Why couldn’t it have been one
of the others. But she knew that was pointless. Life was cruel and vicious at
times.
And now it looked like she would be going back to where it
all began. At least she would be going back as more than she had been. She was
a guitarist and backup vocalist with a recording contract behind her. So maybe
she didn’t have a band at the moment and she was between engagements.
Maybe her life still fitted into one car. So what? She had
been on the road touring since she had left Kendra, her birthplace. She had
toured all over the world with her band. And in one drunken night nearly a year
ago; they were gone too.
Some days she was grateful that she’d had a stomach flu that
had kept her in bed, other days she asked herself why wasn’t she six feet
under.
People wondered why her songs were so tragic. They would
just need to take one look at her story and know why. But people don’t want to
know the truth do they? They would rather make up their own answers. Xoe just
had to look at the papers and gossip magazines to know this.
She looked back down at the picture she held in her arms,
then back at the death notice on her computer screen. Most days she loved
technology, been able to read her hometown newspaper online from anywhere in
the world.
Today wasn’t one of those days. She wanted to pretend that
she hadn’t seen the notice, but she wasn’t one to bury her head in the sand.
She sat there, the first rays of light coming in through the
uncurtained window to her right; for a few minutes tapping her fingernail
against her lips, the closest she came to biting her nails these days. Then
pushed a strand of hypnotic red hair; that’s what the bottle had called her
hair colour; behind her ear as she stared at the computer screen longer.
With a few taps of her fingers, she had a road map up on her
screen. Using the finger that she had been tapping against her lips, she
followed the line of the road. Then nodding she shut down the computer. If she
left now she would get to Kendra before nightfall.
She closed the lid on her laptop and then simply put her
head on top of the lid and gave in one last time to the tears and the
heartbreak. Letting all the bottled up emotions out in a final burst of tears
and anguish. Once she was done crying she sat there for a moment and then
slowly lifting her head and wiped her tears away on one of her striped arm
warmers.
Getting up she went about gathering the few items that were
scattered about clothes, books, sheet music, and a couple of guitars. She
looked at her watch and then did some calculating she decided it was too early
to ring Norm, her manager. She would do it in a few hours.
Shoving the gathered items into her carry bag, she’d brought
in from the car. There wasn’t all that much to gather up, as she never unpacked
her bags.
Once she was certain she had everything, she did a final
check of the room and bathroom, inside the draws and the closet. Finally, she
zipped up her bag and headed for the door; the guitars slung over her
shoulders.
After checking out of the hotel, she headed to her car,
protecting her eyes from the bright sun with some wrap around blackout
sunglasses. Unlocking and opening the car door she put her key in the ignition.
She hit the button that opened the top on her sporty red convertible. Once the
top was down, she buckled her guitars onto the back seat using the seat belts.
She would hate for something to happen to them. Then she placed her big carry
bag on to the seat between the two guitars.
Climbing in she tossed her mobile phone onto the seat beside
her along with her backpack that was the shape of a coffin. Turning on the car
stereo, she selected one of her favourite rock bands, this one an all male
band. She didn’t blast the music rather had it on just loud enough so that she
could hear it over the road sounds.
Even though her heart was heavy, she sang along to the
lyrics. She would always sing along to music she liked. In its own way, it was
part of who she was. Generally, her music of choice was a reflection of how she
felt at that moment.
While she was singing she started to let herself think about
Marcus; how for six months of her life he had been her everything. This was
going back ten years though.
The fact that it had been ten years made her wonder if it
was a good idea going back for his funeral. After a moment of thought she
decided that she would decide once she was in Kendra whether she would go to
the funeral or not. Whether she could handle going to the funeral.
The sad thing was she had nowhere else she desperately
needed to be. No auditions, no photo shoots, no gigs lined up. She wondered if
Norm did that on purpose some times. So that she and... Well; so that she
didn’t work herself to death.
She frowned at the red traffic light when she thought about
this. Grabbing her phone, she made herself a quick note, ‘get Norm a thank you
present’. She entered the note just in time, the traffic light turned green as
she hit ‘save note’. Tossing the phone back onto the seat, she gives her
attention back to her driving.
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