The Hardest Set (Willow Son #4/Brothers of Rock #19) Read Free

shuffle. Sometimes life just required time to forget it all. Her phone
had battery power, the ability to connect to a network. Her glass had wine, her
mind had the urge to draw something.
    So that ’ s exactly what Natalie did.
    Sketching was always fun. Just
starting with a line on a blank sheet of paper and letting her mind run with
it. Tonight, for some reason, she wanted to draw a park. A horizon full of
trees. A path, narrow, with twists and turns. A couple park benches. Better yet
- an autumn scene. Growing up in Virginia, Natalie had seen plenty of the four
seasons, but autumn was always her favorite. It was such a morbid concept -
everything dying. Yet it produced such beautiful colors. Raking up leaf piles
and jumping into them. The change of the air going from warm to crisp. Of
course, trick or treating as the prequel to Thanksgiving and the all important holiday,
Christmas.
    Natalie sketched the outline of
everything and then began to color it in. Using the edges of her colored
pencils, she shaded the colors in a masterful way.
    When her wine glass was finally
empty, for good, she caught herself nodding to the music. It was an acoustic
song, deep and passionate. It was definitely a new song, but it had a familiar
sound to it. Natalie leaned over and looked at her phone.
    It was Willow Son.
    “ Nice, ” she whispered.
    The song played out and when
another band came on, Natalie bit her bottom lip. She put her pencil down,
grabbed her phone, and did a search for Willow Son. Soon she was lost in a
world of great rock music. She started with their first album, which had a
gritty, street like feel to it. Halfway through she went to the new acoustic
album. It was a short album and definitely didn ’ t
fit with anything the band had done before.
    From the first strum of a chord,
Natalie was hooked. So much that she slid the paper and pencils away, giving
all her attention to Willow Son. Never one to really fall in love with bands,
Natalie really started to enjoy the music. She used to get picked on for being
an artist and never into music, but that was because one of her first art
teachers told her she needed to focus on the art and nothing else. Natalie then
started listening to classical music for noise while she worked on art. And
eventually she started listening to music. But one thing seemed true - the
music reflected her art. If she was drawing something happy but had a
melancholy song on, she would then catch herself wanting to add something sad
to the picture.
    That worked sometimes.
    One of her biggest paychecks - when
she was drawing pictures in a garage - was of a happy scene at a park. Ice
cream. Dogs playing frisbee toss. Families together. Then there was a stray
little girl in a blue dress. Just out of reach was a red balloon. The little girl
standing on her toes, unable to reach the balloon, and nobody paying attention
to her to help.
    It was almost like a self
reflection of Natalie ’ s
life. She had wanted to keep that drawing, but a friend of a friend saw and
demanded it. He was some rich guy and paid a lot of money for it.
    That was a long time ago though.
Yet, ironically, Natalie felt like she was right back at the beginning of
everything. In a small apartment, worried about money, listening to music and
drawing.
    After she went through the acoustic
album, she felt like a weight had been placed on her chest. The music was that
good. She was officially a Willow Son fan and she wanted to catch them live.
Music was good, but hearing it live was an entirely different thing.
    Before she could start searching on
her phone, there was a knock at the door. Natalie hurried to the door, fearing
the worst. Was it Mr. Frehnen coming to give her the boot once and for all now?
    “ Who
is it? ” she asked.
    “ Police, ” a deep voice said. “ Open right away. ”
    Natalie felt her heart racing. She
opened the door, wondering what was going on.
    It wasn ’ t the police.
    It was Andrea. She stood with a