Provoke_ A Seaside Pictures Novella (Seaside Pictures #3.7) - Rachel Van Dyken Page 0,11

years?”

He sighed heavily. “I don’t know, hopefully still doing what I love.”

“All right, open your eyes.”

He did as instructed. This time his eyes darted down to stare at his bare feet before locking onto mine. “That just proves that music is my life.”

“Music can’t be your life, Braden.” I said it softly, hoping to lessen the blow, but I saw his body flinch as if I’d just shoved him toward a cliff. I grabbed a blank piece of paper and held it out to him. “You can say that music is your life, that you want to do nothing but make music for an eternity. But a human needs more than just something they’re passionate about. Wanna know why?”

He sighed and took the empty sheet of paper from my outstretched hand. “Fine, I’ll bite. Why?”

“Because you lose who you are when you lose the only thing that gives you purpose. If I took music away from you right now, what exactly would you have, Braden?”

He paled significantly, his bravado almost gone as he shook his head. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

I reached out to comfort him. I touched his shoulder, realized how massive it felt beneath my hand, how warm, how right, and shuddered. “I’m not going to let that happen either. That’s why I’m here. To help you find your focus, your identity, your purpose so that music isn’t just your passion, but also trickles into every area of your life. You aren’t just Braden Connor—rock god. You’re so much more. And until you see that, see your worth, make a plan…” I grabbed a bottle of the green glitter. “Create a vision where you’re not standing still, panicked, in a vicious cycle of fear—”

“I’m not afraid,” he snapped.

I tilted my head. “I’m not the one who said it, Braden.”

He tensed beneath my hand. And then he reached out and grabbed another glitter container from the table, gave me an annoyed look, and grumbled, “I wanna use the blue.” He eyed me up and down. “You know, to match my balls.”

I squeezed his shoulder and laughed. “That’s the spirit—ish.” I didn’t ask him why he had blue balls. I didn’t even want to go there, even though my curiosity made me want to comment. I put the professional boundary back in place and waited for him to get started.

He exhaled, and then his grin slowly lit up the room. “If I’m playing with glitter, we’re going to need alcohol. Take a picture of this and post it to social media, and I’ll drive your rental into the ocean. Got it?”

“Got it.” I laughed. I didn’t have a rental. He was my ride. He was my everything for the coming days, he just didn’t know it yet. “Let’s get started on that vision board!”

I almost cheered when he pulled out a chair and started organizing all the different pictures and arts and crafts around him, and then his eyes fell to the polaroid camera.

Braden’s head lifted. “You up for an adventure, Coach?”

Chapter Six

Piper

I was used to clients just doing what they were told, then finding a breakthrough and moving on. But with Braden, it was like he wanted me to be a part of it, in a big way. So when he said he had an idea, I thought, oh cool, he’s gonna take some pictures of his guitar or something.

I didn’t expect that I’d be gallivanting all over his beachfront property while he took pictures of things he wanted to put on his board.

“It’s serene.” Braden snapped a picture of the ocean. “No matter what happens in my life, I want the ocean to be something I come back to, something that represents my music and the way I want to inspire the world around me.”

I gulped. “That’s beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful.” He winked.

I just rolled my eyes. “Flirting with your coach gets you an F.”

He cackled out a dark laugh. “Are you saying you want to F me?”

“Ah, middle-school humor, how refreshing,” I countered, even though my entire body broke out in chills with the way he was looking at me.

Bad, it was so bad. And totally against the rules of client and coach. But damn, he was impossible not to like. Not helpful at the moment when I was starving for more and more of his smiles.

“Admit it, you just won’t laugh because you don’t want to encourage my very obvious advances.”

I frowned. “Obvious advances, huh? You’re a flirt. Trust me, I work with guys like you