by Terri Osburn
She finally met his gaze, her expression unreadable. “Not tonight. I’ll see you during the taping tomorrow.”
“What about the studio?”
“I’m taking tomorrow off to rest my voice for the show.”
Was that the problem? They’d been working hard for weeks so he understood her voice needing a rest. But this didn’t feel that simple.
Ash watched the last of the choir disappear down the hall. “I have to go. Are you sure you can’t wait?”
Jaw tight, she crossed her arms. “I’m sure. We can talk this weekend.”
This weekend? Today was only Wednesday. What the hell?
Confusion mounted. “There’s something you aren’t telling me.”
“Come on, Mr. Ash,” called Zoe. “We have to go on, and the risers aren’t long enough.”
Pulled in two directions, he squeezed Jesse’s shoulders. “Wait for me. Please.”
“I can’t.” She stepped out of his reach. “I have to go.”
Without another word, she hurried down the hall toward the back door where Silas waited.
“Figure what out?” Ash muttered.
“Mr. Shepherd, we need you on stage,” said a voice behind him.
As Jesse left the building, Ash fought the urge to go after her. What could have possibly happened in the twenty minutes since he’d kissed her behind that curtain? The question still ringing in his head, he followed the kid in the headset toward the stage, passing a dark-haired man in a suit on the way.
“Good luck,” the guy said.
Ash glanced over to find one heavy brow arched high, and a smug smile on the man’s thin lips.
“Who are you?” he asked, taking an immediate dislike to the stranger.
“Dennis Kohlman, at your service.”
Ignoring the extended hand, Ash said, “Should I know you?”
“No,” the reply came as the hand fell away. “And I doubt we’ll meet again. Farewell, Mr. Shepherd.”
Ash watched the Kohlman guy saunter away before he was hurried onto the stage to find half of his choir standing about in confusion. Zoe was right. The risers provided were never going to fit the entire group.
In the melee that followed, the stranger was completely forgotten.
What was she going to do?
Jesse had examined every option she could think of, but no solution came. Defeat weighed heavily on her chest as she lay in bed staring at the dingy popcorn ceiling.
There was no way she could avoid giving Dennis exactly what he wanted. She might survive the fallout. Clay might not drop her from the label. And another producer might be found to finish the album.
That was a lot of mights, and the truth was, the odds of any of that happening were not in her favor.
The more likely scenarios were that she’d lose her deal, her album would never be finished, and not only would Ash take a hit professionally, but their relationship would implode in the process. In fact, no matter what Jesse decided to do, there was no way to save her newfound happiness.
If she let Dennis do his worst, Ash would be dragged through a public flogging. Jesse wasn’t famous enough to garner the kind of headlines that Miranda or Carrie might, but Flesh and Blood had a significant following that was highly active on social media.
Even a hint that she’d wronged their beloved lead singer would result in a Twitter storm that would leave Jesse in tatters and take Ash down in flames right along with her. He was a private person who didn’t deserve that kind of embarrassment.
In a week, some other kerfuffle would steal the spotlight, but the damage would be done. Ash would forever be the guy who’d cheated with that no-name singer whether he deserved the title or not.
The alternative would be more painful for Jesse, but it would save Ash from the media spotlight. In fact, if she made sure to come through as the villain, her producer might get the benefit of the doubt. Ash would be the guy who’d given the difficult artist his best shot, but in the end, she’d been exactly as the rumors had claimed.
Impetuous. Impossible. Incapable of being professional.
Rolling onto her stomach, Jesse screamed into her pillow. A slew of expletives later, she curled into a ball on her side, desperately racking her brain for a third option. Her cell rang, and she closed her eyes. Ash had been calling for the last two hours. She’d sent every call to voice mail, but if she didn’t answer soon, he’d show up at her door, and Jesse couldn’t face him until she’d found some way out of this.
“Hello?” she said, pressing the phone to her ear.
“Why haven’t you answered my calls? Are you all right?”
Hating herself for it, Jesse used the age-old excuse. “I don’t feel good. It’s that time of the month.”
“Oh,” Ash said, voice slightly less frantic. “Do you need me to bring you something? Pain pills? Chocolate?”
Jesse squeezed her eyes tight as a tear slid down her temple. “No, I just need to sleep. I’m sure I’ll be better tomorrow.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”
“I know. Thanks for the offer, but I’m already in bed.”
A heavy sigh came down the line. “Okay, then.”
She did her best to smother the whimper. “Okay, then,” Jesse replied, chest aching. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Call if you need me to pick you up.”
Voice shaking, she nodded before remembering he couldn’t see her. “I’ll be well enough to drive myself.”
Silence loomed for several seconds before Ash said, “Then I guess I’ll see you there.”
“Good night,” she said as another tear fell.
“Night, baby.”
Before he hung up, there was one more thing Jesse had to say. “I love you, Ash. Please don’t forget that.”
“Never, hon. I hope you feel better.”
“Me, too.”
She ended the call and dropped the phone on the bed before rising to sit against the headboard. There had to be another way. Dragging a pillow onto her lap, she hugged it tight against her chest, willing her brain to think.
The only way to avoid losing everything was to take away Dennis’s power. But how? Start rumors of her own? Jesse wouldn’t even have to lie. She could simply out him for the predator that he was, but there was no guarantee she’d be believed. He’d already smeared her name enough to stack the game in his favor.
If Jesse played this card and no one believed her, she’d go from being merely difficult to a liar who spread vicious rumors about her main rival’s manager. If they did believe her, the one hurt the most would be Taylor. Despite how things had gone down, Jesse didn’t hate her former partner enough to throw her under a bus in order to save herself.
Which led her right back to where she’d started.
Tossing the pillow aside, Jesse snagged her phone and fired off an email to Silas asking him to set up a meeting with Clay for Friday morning. Once the damage was done, she would be the one to tell Ash. She only hoped he’d find a way to forgive her.
Unable to sleep, Ash strolled into his studio to find something productive to do. For once, he didn’t feel like writing a song, and he was too worried about Jesse to focus on anything else. Settling in front of the computer, he checked his email first, but there were no messages that needed his immediate attention.
Clicking over to YouTube, he typed a few familiar names into the search bar and found a new video by one of his co-writers. The performance was from the Songbird Cafe and featured a newly written tune meant to be a duet. The female artist performing with him, a woman Ash didn’t know, had a nice voice, but she wasn’t as strong of a singer as Jesse was.
They hadn’t talked about adding a duet to the record, but it wasn’t a bad idea. If they could convince Chance to join the effort, Jesse could have a ready-made hit on her hands that was sure to garner major attention.
Ash clicked back over to email to message the writer. With any luck, the song was still available.
Go
ing back to the videos, he did a few more searches but found nothing he hadn’t already heard. Failing to find a distraction, the events of the evening played back through his mind, and Ash couldn’t shake the feeling that Jesse was hiding something.
Something happened between the time he left her behind the curtain and when she’d decided to leave without him. Maybe Dimitri had messaged her. Or she’d had another run-in with Taylor Roper. Had she been part of the show? Ash didn’t remember seeing her, but there were a ton of performers involved, and he’d been too busy with the kids to check out the rest of the lineup.
Finding the info for the Christmas special online, he scanned the list, but Taylor’s name wasn’t on it. Curious, he typed her name into a search engine and scanned the info. Halfway down the page, a name caught Ash’s eye.
Dennis Kohlman. That was the guy who’d been lurking backstage at rehearsal.
A few clicks more and Ash learned that Kohlman was Taylor’s manager. He didn’t have many other clients, but one name did match with an artist on the Christmas show list. There had to be a connection between Kohlman and Jesse’s sudden change. Had he given her a message from Taylor? And if so, why wouldn’t Jesse tell Ash about it?
Speculation was getting him nowhere, and there were no internet searches that would reveal what Jesse was thinking. Tomorrow he’d ask about Kohlman. If the man was responsible for whatever was bothering her, Ash would know from her reaction. And then he’d track down the snake and make sure he never bothered her again.
In fact, maybe he should call and make sure she was okay. Glancing to the corner of the screen, he decided that after midnight was too late to bother her. If Kohlman was the problem, Ash could take care of that easily enough. If it was something else, they’d deal with it together.
Turning off the screen, he crossed to the door and flipped off the light on his way out.
Thirty-One
The blare of a horn snapped Jesse out of her thoughts. The black Tahoe stopped mere feet from turning her into roadkill, and she hurried the rest of the way to reach the sidewalk. Keeping her head down, she hustled around to the back of the auditorium.
Jesse hadn’t slept much, nodding off shortly before dawn, only to have a disturbing dream that involved a furious Ash damning her to hell before storming into the ether where she couldn’t reach him. Dream Jesse had tried running after him but couldn’t seem to move, as if her legs had been buried in thick mud.
She’d awoken calling his name and found herself alone on top of the penguin comforter. Two weeks was all she would get. Two weeks of being happier than she could have hoped, and by the weekend Jesse would be alone again.
There was a special place in hell for people like Dennis Kohlman, but his eternal damnation did little to ease the agony of letting Ash go.
Halfway up the historic curving staircase that led to the backstage entrance, Jesse heard a familiar voice call her name.
“Jesse, wait!” Of course he’d send her as his messenger. Turning, she waited for Taylor without giving a single step. When the blonde ducked under the alcove, she said, “I need to talk to you.”
“Dennis couldn’t be bothered to come do this himself?” Jesse snarled.
“That’s why I’m here. To let you know that Dennis won’t be hurting you anymore.”
The words didn’t penetrate. “What did you say?”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I had no idea what he was really like.”
Knees failing, Jesse took a seat on the step behind her and spread the garment bag across her lap. “Don’t mess with me, Taylor.”
Her former duet partner sat down as well. “I’m not, I swear. A reporter called me this morning wanting me to corroborate a story that Dennis gave him. He said that you’d bullied me while we were together and had been abusive to everyone we worked with.”
“I never bullied anyone!” Jesse defended.
“I know, and that’s what I told him.” Crossing her arms over her legs, Taylor stared at her boots. “I screwed up, Jesse. Bad. But I’m doing my best to make it up to you. That call made me suspicious, so I did some digging and found out that Dennis was the source of those horrible rumors about you.”
“I could have told you that,” she said, still annoyed with the former beauty queen. “I assumed it was the two of you together, and then Dennis admitted as much when he cornered me yesterday.”
“He said I was in on it?”
Jesse thought back to the confession. “Not in so many words, but what else was I supposed to think? You ditched me over a text message and within days the rumors started.”
Her Kentucky accent was thick as Taylor held a hand over her heart. “Jesse, I swear on my Jessamine County crown that I had nothing to do with any of this.”
Reluctant to trust, she stared straight ahead. “None of this changes what he’s done. Or what he plans to do next.”
“That’s not true. When I learned the truth, I confronted him and insisted that he take it all back.”
Oh, to be as naive as this poor woman. “This isn’t name-calling on the playground, Taylor. He can’t take it back. Dennis has destroyed my reputation, and he’s going to destroy Ash’s if I don’t do what he wants, which is basically kill my own career.”
Another artist entered the alcove, and Jesse fell silent. The two women rose and parted to let the new arrivals pass. “Sorry,” Taylor said. “We didn’t mean to be in the way.”
“Aren’t you the Honkytonk Daisies?” the brunette asked. “Are y’all getting back together?”
“We were,” Jesse replied. “And no, we aren’t.”
The woman and her companion looked to Taylor.
“We’re just having a chat,” she said with an innocent smile.
This was why Jesse couldn’t hate her former partner. Taylor was like a newborn babe dropped into a pit of vipers when it came to this business. Which was why Dennis had so easily manipulated her. If Jesse had been honest with her former partner about that first meeting with sleazeball Dennis, this all might have been avoided. Which meant Jesse was at least partially to blame.
Still. Their friendship should have been strong enough to keep Taylor from wandering off, damn it.
The new arrivals continued into the building, and Jesse dragged Taylor out of the alcove and away from the entrance. “As I was saying, your manager is going to tell the tabloids that Ash and I were fooling around behind Ryan’s back.”
“Were you?” she asked, eyes wide.
“No,” Jesse answered, stomping her foot. “But I can’t risk Ash’s name being dragged through the mud like that.”
Taylor patted her arm with little concern. “I didn’t think you were. And like I said, you don’t have to worry about Dennis anymore. He’s out of our hair for good.”
“Our hair?” she repeated. “What does that mean?”
With a twinkle in her eye, the dumb-like-a-fox beauty queen revealed a wicked streak. “Let’s just say, I have photographic evidence of a certain deficiency that Dennis Kohlman wouldn’t want shared.”
She had what?
“You know what I mean, right?” she said.
Jesse didn’t at first, and then hope blossomed as the meaning became clear. “Are you saying he’s . . .” Jesse wiggled her little finger.
“Could fit through a keyhole,” Taylor confirmed. “I checked with his other three clients, and he sent them the same pictures.”
“All of his clients are women?”
“Nope.”
Jesse was a love-is-love person, but country music in general hadn’t quite reached total enlightenment on that subject. “Did you threaten to share the pictures?”
Taylor snorted. “You best believe it. What he did to you was over the line, Jesse.”
“What he did to us,” she corrected. “Does this mean you’re looking for a new manager?”
“I am. Do you think Silas might take me back?”
Spotting the sweet old man coming their way, Je
sse nodded in his direction. “I don’t know, but here’s your chance to find out.”
“Are my eyes deceiving me, or are my girls back together?” Silas asked, the thin wisps atop his head dancing in the breeze.
“Not in an official capacity,” Jesse replied, “but Taylor has something she’d like to ask you.”
The tall blonde looked ready to run, but she stood her ground. “I’m so sorry, Silas. I never should have left you like I did. Neither of you. Can ever forgive me?”
His round face grew serious as ice-blue eyes darted from Taylor to Jesse and back. “Do you have any idea what you put this poor girl through? What we had to do to make up the ground you yanked out from under her?”
Jesse hadn’t expected Silas’s response to be quite so harsh.
“I know,” Taylor replied, standing up to her mistakes. “I was stupid and reckless, and I don’t blame you one bit if you never want to speak to me again. But I really am sorry for the hurt I caused.”
Softening, the old man relented. “All right, then. Come to my office on Monday and we’ll talk.” To Jesse, he said, “I got you that meeting with Clay for eleven tomorrow morning, but we need to make it quick because he can only give us fifteen minutes. What is this about anyway?”
Realizing that her life wasn’t about to crash and burn, Jesse nearly whooped with joy. “Holy crap. This means I don’t need that meeting after all.”
“What meeting?” Taylor asked.
In response, Jesse threw her arms around her former partner, nearly dropping her garment bag in the process. “You’re completely forgiven.”
Taylor blushed, a bright smile revealing perfect pearly-whites. “Does this mean we can be friends again?”
“It sure does.”
“What’s going?” Ash asked as he joined them. “Someone said they saw the Honkytonk Daisies out here, and I assumed they were hallucinating.”
Without offering a reply, Jesse bolted into his arms, not caring when the cargo she’d worked so hard to keep off her ground landed at his feet. The bag would protect the dress. Hopefully. She kissed him with all the relief running through her before pulling back to breathlessly say, “I love you, Ashland Shepherd. I love you more than anything in this world, and you’re never getting rid of me.”