Muses and Melodies

A band manager has one assignment standing between her and the job she wants: keep Nixon Winters, lead guitarist of Hush Note, sober and out of trouble for six months. If she manages it, she gets a band of her own to run. Nixon is egotistical and irritating, and he has just come out of rehab.

His troubles come home with him, and she is now sleeping down the hall. She has seen him fall apart every summer before, and this time album deadlines and tour dates are close, so another collapse would cost her the career she has built. Her future depends on him.

Beneath the tattoos and the easy charm that everyone else responds to, she starts to see the damage he carries. Her feelings shift from irritation to something closer to love, and she knows the risk. If he will not let her in, he will not break the pattern, and she may be the one hurt when the six months end.

This is a contemporary rock star romance told in the first person by the manager. It is built on forced proximity and a ticking clock, with a bad-tempered, banter-driven start that gives way to a more emotional core about addiction and recovery.