Melodies and Mistletoe (Christmas in the City Book 3) Read online

  “Don’t diss my sound equipment. It’s useful stuff. What we really should discuss is why you can’t give up half of your room to get another roommate in here.” Hailey lifted her eyebrows.

  Nikki rose. “Moving on…” She went down the hallway and came back with Hailey’s guitar case, dropping it in her lap. “I have an idea.”

  “What?” Hailey shifted the case and clicked it open, her fingers moving on impulse to pull the guitar from its velvet bed.

  “Let’s record that song and put it on YouTube.”

  “Uh, no.” Hailey laughed. “I doubt it’s in the public domain, and I really don’t feel like getting sued.”

  “Okay, scratch that song. We can find another one.” She sat down again and pulled out her phone, the screen glowing over her face.

  She was crazy. There was no way Hailey was filming herself and loading the video to YouTube. Nothing screamed pathetic like wannabes trying to get noticed among millions of other people on the internet.

  Nikki’s eyes lit up. “Ah! What about Deck the Halls?”

  That one would be kind of cool. Plucking a few strings on the guitar, Hailey picked out a tune and moved it down to a minor key. Adding the words was the easy part, and by the time she finished singing the first verse Nikki was actually bouncing in her seat and clapping, a wide smile spread over her freckled face.

  “We’re going to be famous!”

  “We?” Hailey asked.

  But Nikki was already up and going into Hailey’s room.

  She followed. “Woah, hey, don’t touch anything!”

  “I’m just moving the chair,” Nikki said. She grabbed a stool from the kitchen and put it in front of Hailey’s computer. “This is way more indie. Come on, sit.”

  Hailey obeyed. “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”

  “Eh,” Nikki said, shrugging and powering up Hailey’s computer. “What harm can it do?” She got everything in order, then turned on the camera app while Hailey fidgeted with her sound equipment. “Ready?”

  Hailey probably looked like a deer caught in headlights, because that was exactly how she felt. But Nikki had a point. No one was ever going to see this video. It would sit on YouTube for a hot minute, get zero traction, and she could delete it in the morning when Nikki was at work. Hailey sat back on the stool, lifting her guitar and strumming a few times. “Ready—”

  “Wait!” Nikki ran out of the room and returned with a Santa hat, plopping it on Hailey’s head and arranging her dark hair over her shoulders. “I’m glad you curled it today. You’ve got a perfect wave going.”

  She’d curled it because she thought she’d be on a stage tonight, but that was beside the point.

  Stepping back, Nikki rested against the wall and gave her a thumbs up.

  Then she pressed start.

  The Santa hat drooped to the side a little, but she focused on the chords and the song, allowing her voice and intuition to lead, shoving away all insecurity and doubt. Music had always had a way of wrapping her in a protective hold, pushing negativity and hardship away and letting her breathe. It was therapy for her. It was life.

  When it was over, her body tingled, her fingers itching to begin again. Nikki swirled into action, nudging Hailey out of the way, unhooking her computer from the many cords on the desk and taking it to her bed. Hailey watched with growing dread, knots forming in her churning stomach. She pulled down the Santa hat and flung it at her friend. It was so tacky.

  Still. It wasn’t a problem. She could take the video down in the morning. It was fine. No one would see it.

  Nikki finally glanced up, a broad grin on her mouth. “It’s live.”

  Chapter Two

  New York City was way too cold in December. Ryan pulled his coat tighter around his neck, stepping from his sister’s apartment building and walking down Fifth Avenue. California had spoiled him with its good weather year-round and chill vibe. He needed to acclimate his habits back to New York—and fast. He’d been a fairly busy guy before moving across the country, but nothing like this. There was no time to sit idle here, not with the company to run and half the employees absent for the next few weeks.

  Christmas was really a horrible time at the office. Way too many people with family obligations and extra time off. The office was going to become a dead zone—not a good thing when they had the fiftieth anniversary of Sound Magazine and a special New Year’s edition coming up that had to be ready to go to press by Christmas Eve.

  The whole Christmas Eve deadline was massively unfair when half of Sound’s employees were going to be absent for the week leading up to Christmas. But what could he do about it? He hadn’t made their schedule for the year. He’d just stepped into it.

  Ryan predicted many late nights at the office ahead of him.

  By the time he got to the right subway car and found his way to his new building, he was running up the stairs just to warm his body again. Okay, so he could admit it wasn’t exactly frigid or anything, but compared to SoCal winters, this place was cold.

  Sergeant started barking before Ryan had fully gotten his door open. He dropped his messenger bag on the floor, leaning down to rub Sergeant between the ears. “You been bugging the neighbors, boy?”

  The mixed-breed mutt tilted his head sideways in feigned innocence. The new apartment was way smaller than they were used to, and it certainly lacked the backyard Sergeant had ruled in SoCal. Ryan chuckled, reaching into the treat jar on the counter, and tossed one to his dog. “Come on, Sarge. Let’s have dinner.”

  Ryan poured dog food into the dish and nudged it over with his foot before pulling out some leftover pizza to reheat and turning on his phone. A mass of texts and missed calls littered the screen, and he leaned back against the counter, scanning them for pertinent information. Nearly every notification was from the same person, so he dialed Carter’s number and clicked speakerphone. Setting the phone on the counter, he slid his pizza into the microwave.

  “Hello?”

  “What’s going on?” Ryan asked.

  Carter’s laugh boomed from the speaker. “You didn’t even watch it yet, did you?”

  “Watch what?” Ryan lifted a slice of meat lover’s pizza and took a gargantuan bite.

  “Man, you’ve gotta watch the video before you call me back.”

  Whoops. Ryan swiped on the screen, finding the message thread with a link to YouTube. He clicked it, and a preview thumbnail showed up of a woman sitting on a stool, acoustic guitar nestled on her lap and a Santa hat over rich, brown waves. She was pretty, he’d give her that. And something about her seemed oddly familiar. Maybe he’d watched a demo of her before? Scanning the screen, he found her name—Hailey Grant. Nope. Didn’t ring any bells.

  Which meant one thing: he’d given her a pass last time.

  Scrubbing a hand over his face, he suppressed an irritated sigh. He didn’t have time for this. “Dude, I’ve been at my sister’s house all night, and I’m dead. Can we talk about this tomorrow? You’re still coming into the office, right?”

  He could almost see Carter shaking his blond head. “This can’t wait for tomorrow. Just watch it now. I’ll hold.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I’m not kidding, man,” Carter said, faintly awed. “You need to see this.”

  Ryan grabbed his laptop from his messenger bag and set it on the table, shoving another bite of pizza in his mouth while he waited for it to power up.

  “Is this girl the next big thing?” Ryan asked, super aware of the skepticism dripping from his voice.

  Another garbled laugh sounded through the phone’s speaker. “Just watch it.”

  Ryan found the girl’s video, his eyebrows rising as high as the number of views she’d received so far. “When was this posted?”

  “Tonight, man. Tonight.”

  Ryan blew out a low whistle. He checked the time stamp and Carter was right. The video had only been live for three hours and she’d already gotten thousands of views.

  “Thi
s, my friend,” Carter said, smug, “is what we call going viral.”

  “Okay, I’m watching it now.” Ryan hit play and picked up his pizza, folding it to hold in the sausage.

  The girl smiled into the camera, and his chest tugged. She seemed different somehow. Self-conscious, maybe? It was refreshing after all the self-absorbed teeny boppers throwing videos up, thinking they were the hottest thing ever. This woman was neither a teenager nor full of herself. He could see that from her smile.

  But the hat. What kind of woman put up a video in a Santa hat unless she was trying to appear all Christmassy and cutesy? Hard pass.

  She looked down as her fingers formed a chord then she began strumming her guitar. It was a slow, simple beat. Nothing special, he thought, shoving another bite into his mouth. But when Hailey Grant opened her mouth and began to sing, Ryan leaned in. Was she singing Deck the Halls? Yep, she totally was. It was different, though. She’d dropped it to a minor key, and he’d never heard it done that way before. He’d give her solid points for originality, but the choice of song was a bit weird.

  Ryan hit the space bar at the end of the song, pausing the video on her smile—now dazzling, like the music had unlocked that extra bit of radiance—before YouTube could begin the next video. He was arrested by the haunting melody still playing in his head. Her voice was so pure, her tone so clean. He was certain he’d never heard her before. Her face rang familiar, but he’d never heard that voice. He would remember it.

  He narrowed his eyes, staring at the brunette Santa on the stool. With the video paused, it felt like Hailey Grant could see through the screen, like she was smiling at him, and it made him drop his half-eaten slice on the plate.

  “Okay, lay it on me,” Carter said. “It’s great, right?”

  “Yeah, actually. It’s super original. The stool and the hat had me thinking it was going to be another dumb demo, but she surprised me. Her voice is really something else.”

  “I knew it. You love her.”

  Ryan leaned back, startled. Her voice, not her. Carter meant her voice. Obviously. Ryan didn’t even know this woman. But Carter must have some sort of plan or he wouldn’t be bugging Ryan after midnight. Not when they’d see each other the next morning at the office. “What exactly do you want to do about it?”

  “Two words, man: Ryan Says.”

  Ryan scoffed, shaking his head, despite the fact that his friend couldn’t actually see him. “No way.”

  “Come on!” Carter pleaded. “You haven’t done one in a while, and the fans will love it. Plus you’ll be doing this chick some major favors.”

  “She’s gotten thousands of views in a few short hours. Clearly she doesn’t need my help.”

  “When’s the last time you did a video? Before you moved out to California?”

  “Yes.” Ryan’s throat tightened. “At least five years ago. I doubt anyone even follows that lame account anymore.”

  Carter’s voice went higher. “You’d be surprised, actually. I just checked the stats, and it regularly has clicks and views. It could be great for the site. We’ll just throw it up, link to it in a newsletter, and boom—you’ve just made that girl’s dreams come true.”

  He had a point. It wouldn’t be hard, and he’d give her a boost. With a voice like that, she deserved a little leg up in the industry. But Ryan was exhausted, and his dry, sandy eyes just wanted sleep.

  “Maybe tomorrow—”

  “By tomorrow someone else will have found her. These internet sensations rise and fall so fast, if we don’t jump on it we might lose our chance. And it could do wonders for the ratings. It’ll make Bradshaw happy.”

  Bradshaw. Ugh. Why did Carter have to go and throw his name out there? But he had a point. Ryan needed to win the man over, and the way to do that was numbers. Cold, hard, excellent numbers.

  He looked at the smiling face of Hailey Grant in her corny hat. Her song was so short, Ryan could set up his camera, toss out some opinions, and throw together a video pretty quickly.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

  “Yes!” Carter probably fist-pumped the air. “How long do you need?”

  “Give me thirty minutes then check your inbox.”

  “So, since I’m working late, does that mean I can take the morning off, boss?”

  “Nope. See you at eight.”

  Carter laughed. “It was worth a shot. Later, man.”

  The line went silent, and Ryan clicked his phone off. Carrying his laptop into his office, he powered on his desktop and created a split-screen. It took less than ten minutes to set up the recording equipment and his webcam. Drawing in a deep breath, he considered the lovely face of Hailey Grant on his computer.

  “You’re gonna thank me in the morning,” he said, before looking into the camera and clicking start.

  Hailey woke up with an odd feeling humming in her chest. Something was definitely not right. Sitting up, she glanced around her brightly lit room, gaze dancing across her keyboard in the corner and the wide table full of expensive equipment, searching for something out of place. Her eyes fell on the stool still sitting in the center of the floor. Only now, her laptop rested on it, opened, with a sticky note stuck to the center of the dark screen.

  Padding to it in her fuzzy-socked feet, Hailey picked up the sticky note and recognized Nikki’s handwriting: Don’t be mad.

  Oh, great. Dread gathered heavy in her stomach. Hailey balled up the note and tossed it on the floor. She made no promises.

  Carrying her computer back to her bed, Hailey clicked a button and the screen sprang to life, showing the video she’d made last night and…oh goodness. The sheer amount of views made her heart leap to her throat, her pulse thrumming wildly in her ears. But…the number of likes did make up for it a little. She swallowed, scanning the screen until she landed on a suggested video to the side, and her body went cold.

  Ryan Says had posted for the first time in years, and Hailey’s face was up in the corner of his video. Oh, no. No, no, no. There was no way Ryan Says had done a critique of her tiny, thrown-together, podunk video.

  Finger hovering over the touchpad on her computer, Hailey stared at the little preview video box, nervous energy shaking her hands. She was not going to like this; she could sense it. So much for assuming no one would ever see this video. Once Ryan Says critiqued something, it usually went viral. Except, the guy had been silent on YouTube for the last few years. Why the sudden urge to tear her apart?

  To be fair, she didn’t actually know if he’d torn her video apart or not. She hadn’t watched it yet. And she was clearly stalling now because she was afraid to hear what he had to say.

  But putting it off forever wasn’t going to make it go away.

  Hailey steeled herself and hit play, immediately bringing her hands up to rest on her cheeks. She probably looked like the kid from Home Alone, but there was no one here to judge her.

  Ryan Says watched his video screen intently as Hailey’s voice came through the speakers. She cringed. It sounded fine but knowing a huge music exec was watching her was altogether exposing.

  His eyebrows lifted, and Hailey dropped her hands, gripping the blanket haphazardly strewn beside her. He was clearly surprised by something, but was it good surprised, or bad surprised?

  “This is interesting,” Ryan Says said. “You take the set-up of the girl with the guitar, the Santa hat, and the Christmas song, and you immediately assume she’s going to bust out a whiny, metallic song. But her voice is rich. It’s got depth. There’s an element here that makes it unique, but I need to listen more to put my finger on exactly what that is.”

  “Okay,” Hailey said to her computer screen, her heart pounding. “Then close your mouth and listen.”

  He seemed to hear her. His gaze flicked to the camera then back down before he paused Hailey’s video. “Now, if you’ll notice here we have a bit of raw emotion showing through. If she was properly trained, this would be much more controlled.”
<
br />   Hailey’s blood heated. What right did Ryan Says have to criticize her at all? She hadn’t asked him to do this. For all he knew, she was being intentionally raw. Whatever that meant.

  “But once again, let’s revisit that rich depth I referred to earlier. There is something about her tone that is”—he circled his hands as though fanning the air would find the words he was missing—“well, it’s unique. Different from anything I’ve ever heard before. If she had a unique song, too, then maybe this video would be worth watching—”

  Hailey slammed her computer closed. No washed-out music theory major (or at least she hoped he had some sort of music degree) had a right to tell her how intentional her rawness was.

  Nikki was going to pay for this.

  Chapter Three

  Hailey walked down the sidewalk, cinching her scarf tighter as the phone rang in her ear.

  Nikki answered the call almost right away. “How much do you hate me right now?”

  “I could never hate you—”

  “Oh good.” Nikki sounded relieved.

  “Just don’t blame me if you get home later to find your tiny tree bare and your twinkle lights missing.”

  Nikki gasped. “You wouldn’t. What did Christmas ever do to you?”

  Hailey ducked underneath the scaffolding over the sidewalk. “It’s not Christmas I’m trying to get revenge on.”

  “Yes! I’m getting the extra ramekins, Chef.” Nikki’s voice dropped. “I’ve got to get back to work. Just tell me you’re planning to call the guy.”

  “Call who?”

  “Hailey! You watched to the end of the Ryan Says video, right?”

  “Of course not. The guy was a jerk. I don’t need that negativity in my life.” She reached the Martinezes’ building and lifted her hand in a wave at Declan, moving to the elevator at the far end of the lobby.