The Drummer's Heart

A rock drummer on tour keeps one rule among his bandmates: nobody says the name of his ex-wife, Nicole. Three years after their divorce, he is still working to forget her by losing himself in the music scene, and the rule only half works.

Then Nicole calls. Her grandmother, Mimi, is unwell, and her last wish is to spend time with the two of them together. Mimi's caretaker is on vacation, so the couple would move into her tiny house in a small town for a couple of weeks. The drummer, who still counts Mimi as family, cannot say no.

There is a catch. Nicole never told her grandmother about the divorce, because she doubted the old woman could take the news, and Mimi adores him. He now has to play the loving husband for two weeks, in close quarters with the woman who broke his heart, or perhaps the one whose heart he broke. Even he is not sure which.

This is a contemporary second-chance romance told in the drummer's own first-person voice. The setup is a fake-marriage arrangement between people who were once really married, with a shared bed in the guest room adding to the strain. Expect the focus to sit on old feelings and unresolved blame in a confined setting.