Keys to Love Read Online Free Page B

growing to fill out her large paws. Julian bent down, smiling and roughing up the thick fur of both dogs.
    Jesse glanced at him. “Damn, Jules, you look like hell.” A smirk lifted his lips. “I hope he was worth it.”
    “I’m afraid there was no he .” Julian made his way to the couch and sat heavily beside Brad.
    “Now that’s just sad,” Jesse said. “If a man looks as exhausted 22 S.J. Frost
    as you do, there should at least be a he involved. I really think you need a he, Jules.”
    “As you’ve told me before.” Julian opted for a subject change as the current one brought Morgan to his mind again. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”
    “We’re going to do more jamming than we did yesterday,”
    Jesse said. “I’ve already got the moves down that I’ll need for the dance routines, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time on those.
    But before we get started, Ev’s got something he wants to talk to everyone about.”
    Evan gave Jesse a warm smile, then looked to the others.
    “You guys know I’m getting ready to retire from recording and performing, and I’ve given a lot of thought to what I’d like to do besides managing you guys. One thing kept coming into my head.
    I want to do something good for the world. I know my music has done a lot, but I want to do something more solid, something that will really affect people, so I’m going to get involved with some charities.”
    “That’s wonderful, Evan,” Julian said. “What better thing than to become a philanthropist.”
    Evan nodded. “Yeah, I think so. But for the first thing I want to do, I need help from you guys. I want to hold an auction where all the proceeds go to a cancer research foundation.”
    Julian saw Jesse take Evan’s hand. Since joining Conquest, he’d gotten to know Evan very well, and during that time he learned when Evan was eighteen years old, his father passed away from cancer. It made perfect sense the first cause Evan would seek to throw his support behind would be to aid in treating the disease.
    His voice soft, Julian said, “Whatever help you need, you have my full support.”
    Evan smiled at him. “Thank you. I was hoping I could get everyone to donate something, a personal item of high value, to be auctioned off. I’m going to put up my grand piano that I’ve written most of my music on and autograph it, then Jess and I are going to auction off a private dinner with the both of us.”
    Keys to Love 23
    “And I’m putting up my original sheet music from Conquest and No Fear ,” Jesse added.
    Kenny gasped. “You can’t auction your music for the albums!”
    Jesse looked at him. “Why not?”
    “They have all your original handwritten notes, your adjustments, everything!”
    “Exactly. You can’t get more personal than that, and people will go nuts over them.”
    Evan cleared his throat to call attention to himself. “I said the same thing, Kenny, which is why I made copies of the originals so he would always have his notes.”
    “Still,” Kenny said, “to lose the originals—”
    “Won’t matter if they go to something more important,”
    Jesse interrupted.
    Julian gazed at Jesse, how dedicated he was in supporting Evan. He felt the familiar ache in his heart to have someone feel the same toward him. He took a breath, attempting to shake the feeling away. “It’ll be hard to find something I own of equal value to what you’re both laying out. It’s strange, for all the possessions I have, they all seem rather trivial compared to this cause.”
    “I’ll be grateful for anything you offer,” Evan said.
    Julian sat quiet, pondering on what he could donate. The room filled with silence as Kenny and Brad did the same. After a few long moments, the silence broke with Kenny snapping his fingers.
    “I know what I can give! I’ll donate my lucky guitar pick!”
    Jesse gave him an unenthused expression and spoke in a monotone voice. “Your guitar pick?”
    Kenny nodded excitedly. “Not