Looking for Trouble

by Becky McGraw

  “Thanks for coming to get me,” he told Cole who was pushing him to the elevator. Sabrina had stayed in the car with Will, he said.

  “You’re welcome, man…glad we can help. I’ll get someone to come get your truck tomorrow,” he told him.

  “Yeah, there’s no rush, since the doctor said I can’t drive for six weeks…that’s gonna be fun.”

  Cole sighed then told him, “When we went to town earlier, before we came, I saw Jess at the Blue Bird with some Latino guy…just thought I’d warn you.”

  Wade gritted his teeth, and stifled the wild roar that wanted to explode from his throat, “Yeah? Who was he?”

  “I have no idea, all I know is they were at the bar loading up a truck, then they went to the Blue Bird for lunch…they looked awfully cozy.”

  “Cozy how?” Wade asked loudly, knowing he was torturing himself, but he couldn’t help himself. Even though he told her to move on in no uncertain terms, he couldn’t fucking believe that Jess had done that so soon, when she said she fucking loved him.

  “Sat on the same side of the booth, and the guy had his arm around her, cozy.”

  Wade growled, and mumbled, “I hope they’re fucking out of town by the time we get there.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Cole said sympathetically then added, “What the hell happened with you two anyway?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it…suffice it to say I was a fucking idiot.”

  Cole chuckled then said, “Okay then—subject changed.”

  Will sat in the back of the truck by him, on the drive to Bowie, cooing and laughing while he played with his toys, a vivid reminder that Angel wasn’t in his life anymore, and he just barely kept his shit together. Misery tore through him like a chainsaw through a pine tree, and Wade didn’t know how he was going to get through this seeing Will on a daily basis. He leaned his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes, praying that sleep would make him forget, for a little while at least.

  When they hit the city limits, Will tossed a toy at his head and he woke up, then picked it up and handed it back to him. His happy little eyes tugged at Wade’s heart and he pinched the baby’s nose between his fingers and said, “Gotcha nose!” and Will giggled.

  It was a game he played with him…and one he’d played sometimes with Angel. Wade felt a wet drop land on his hand and looked down, then wiped his eyes with his fist, but it was useless, the drops kept coming. When Cole looked at him in the rearview mirror, he quickly averted his eyes, and Wade felt like a damned crybaby. He hadn’t cried since he was in diapers, but he was now.

  Sabrina didn’t look back there, but she twisted her arm around the seat and had a small pack of Kleenex in her hand. He grabbed the pack and ripped it open, then pulled out a few and wiped his eyes, then blew his nose. When they passed through town, he was glad he still had them in his hand, because his gaze snagged on a leggy blond hugging a muscle bound Spanish guy standing in front of a moving van in front of the bar. He looked back after they passed by and saw it was Jess hugging that guy, and his heart shattered like a light bulb on a tile floor, when the guy kissed her on the lips.

  A roar worked itself up from his toes and he yelled, “Turn around!”

  “Not doing it, man…you’re not in any shape for a confrontation…get better then I’ll personally drive you back to Dallas to tell her off.”

  “I don’t want to wait that long, it might be too late…and I don’t want to tell her off, I need to apologize!”

  “You can call her, because I’m not going back, Wade.”

  “Fuck!” Wade shouted, then felt Will jerk beside him and looked down into his wide eyes, and tears welled up in his again, then he said, “I’m sorry little guy…Uncle Wade is a crazy man right now.”

  “Crazy or not, Uncle Wade better watch his potty mouth,” Sabrina admonished him.

  “Sorry, Bri…” he said then leaned his sorry ass head back against the seat trying to get himself under control.

  ***

  “That’s the last of it, Carlos…where’s Jazzie?” Jess asked with a smile she didn’t really feel. It had been ten days, since she’d seen Wade, and she missed him something awful. After she found out he made it out of surgery okay, and his prognosis was good, she stopped calling the hospital. She had to, because every call made her want to run over there and hug him with relief.

  She was sad too, because all of his effort to get her out of his life, because he was going to be paralyzed, was for nothing. But it had given her an insight into his mindset. In his eyes, love was only pertinent to the good times in life…when there wasn’t any trouble, and his opinion of her was that she was a useless, immature girl, incapable of making smart decisions for herself.

  Well her first smart decision, he’d helped her make. To cut him out of her life, and try to move on alone…to take charge and get things done. The last week had been incredible, and the following week would be even more so. She had teamed up with Doug and Travis, and they’d found all kinds of evidence against Ray Turner that showed he’d embezzled nearly half a million dollars from her, not the hundred thousand she though he had.

  Those songs he’d sold, had brought in astronomical sums, and were still bringing in royalties. Doug had the account numbers for the accounts he’d transferred the money to, and was working with the feds to get all of them frozen. Travis found all kind of deleted emails about the sale of the songs on the old computer, and printed all of them, as well as some ledger files that had other funds he’d transferred from her personal account.

  In a couple days, they’d have all they needed for the feds to prosecute him for wire fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and other related charges. He was going down for a very long time, the agent they were working with told them.

  Jess and Jazzie had done some internet research on Gold Bee Records, the label she was under contract with and found out that they were a legitimate company, and had a couple of big name artists with them. She’d called Mr. Zucker who’d been with Ray that night at the bar and talked to him for two hours. Once they got past the niceties and contract issues, she eased her way into a discussion about Ray Turner.

  Not surprisingly, the man wasn’t overly impressed with him, and she dropped pieces of information about their past association. He hadn’t been shocked with the information she’d given him, but he was very interested, and before they hung up, she wound up giving him the full rundown, and he’d asked her to send him demos of the three new songs she’d written.

  He wanted to play them for a couple big name clients, one of which was looking for a new opening act when they went on tour soon. Travis had scheduled the studio time for tomorrow, and she’d have the demos to him by the weekend, so she was pretty excited about it. Things were coming together for the band and for her. Too bad when her star hit the stratosphere, and she had a feeling that was about to happen, she’d be alone.

  Jess put the last mike stand in the back of the truck, then Carlos pulled down the rolling door and latched it then wiped his hands. “Ready to head back to Dallas?” he asked her with a grin.

  “Yeah, just give me a minute…I need to go talk to somebody at the police station real quick, and I’ll be right back,” she said then leaned up to kiss his cheek. “You round up Jazzie and the crew, so we can take Den to pick up the rental rod.”

  Jess walked across the street to the station, then went inside. There was an older woman behind the desk and she asked her, “Is Cole in?”

  “No, he took off today to go to Dallas and pick up Wade,” she told Jess, then looked her over from head to toe. “Who are you?”

  “Jess Sparks…is Gabe in then?” she asked hopefully. She wanted to get a report on Wade, and tell them bye.

  “He’s out on a call right now, he’ll probably be back in thirty minutes or so, if you want to wait…”

  “Nah, we need to head out, I just wanted to stop in and say goodbye…would you give them that message for me? Jess asked her hopefully, then she fi
shed a little, “So Wade got out of the hospital today?”

  “Yeah, he’s gonna be staying with Cole and Sabrina til he’s back on his feet,” she volunteered.

  Jess huffed out a relieved breath that he’d have someone to take care of him, while he recovered. “Okay, thanks, um….”

  “Julie Beth, I’m the dispatcher,” she said proudly then smiled.

  “Thanks Julie Beth,” Jess told her then turned around and walked back outside into the bright sunshine. With one more look around the town that had almost stolen her heart, as surely as Wade Roberts had, Jess walked back across the street to her future.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Three weeks after she bid Bowie goodbye for the final time, and recorded the demos in Dallas, Jess was sitting in another studio, this one in Nashville with musicians for hire, cutting Take My Breath Away, as a single for a yet to be named album she had to finish writing songs for.

  Mr. Zucker was chomping at the bit to release it to several radio stations who’d agreed to play it, one of them was national. Ray didn’t know it yet, but him signing her with this label was the best thing he’d ever done for her. She knew that hadn’t been his intention, but it worked out that way in spite of him.

  They were also going to be the opening act for a popular female country artist who was relatively new, but had two singles at the top of the billboard charts right now. The artist was going from being an opening act herself, to a headliner. The tour started in two weeks, and Mr. Zucker anticipated the tickets for the concerts to be sell outs at all of their venues…and they weren’t tiny auditoriums or bars either. That meant she and the band were going to get some hefty paydays very soon.

  Travis was too, she was going to make sure she paid him back for taking care of her, while she was down, and that she paid him for being her manager. He’d lost a lot of money supporting her and trying to help her reclaim her career. He was back in San Antonio now, and she was glad he’d reclaimed his life too. She’d hired a new manager, a woman who was sharp as a tack and just as brassy. Lizzie Thomas didn’t take crap from anyone, when she walked in a room people paid attention, and that was just the kind of person she needed representing her and the band.

  Jess had also hired a nanny who was going to travel with them to help with Angel. That would give her the time to write, and practice with the band, but still allow her to keep Angel close and spend time with her. Tamara was with Angel right at the hotel, while she was here in the studio.

  Last week, Jess had seen a doctor in Dallas and he cut the cast off and x-rayed her ankle, then told her he wasn’t going to put another back on, because it was pretty much healed. He just gave her an air splint he told her to wear when she wasn’t on stage for another week or so. She was almost back to her old self now, and it felt damned good. Her ‘Wade breakdowns’ only happened about every other day now, so that was getting better too.

  Jess shook her head to clear it, then picked up her acoustic guitar and plugged it in, before she nodded to the guy in the sound booth that she was ready to go. They stopped and restarted several times, trying to get the vocals just right, and she knew the problem was all hers, so she took a bathroom break to get her head together.

  Singing that damned song always sent her spiraling into thoughts of Wade, and how much she missed him. She needed to focus, and the only way to do that was to remember. Jess splashed her face with cool water, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before she stiffened her spine and went back into the sound booth, and put on her headphones.

  “Let’s do this…” she said into the mike, then strummed her guitar and closed her eyes, picturing herself singing the song to Wade, as he stood at the base stage staring up at her lovingly with his sexy chocolate colored eyes, like he had in Bowie. The visualization helped, and her voice turned low and smoky, sexy, as she drawled out each verse, and the chorus perfectly.

  Nobody, stopped her this time, she sang the song all the way through and felt it deep down inside as she sang it. When she got to the last line, she got choked up, but it gave her voice a neat scratchy sound, and she felt tears burning behind her closed lids. After she finished, there was complete quiet in the studio, and then loud applause from everyone, even the musicians playing with her.

  “That one’s gonna be platinum, sugar…you watch and see. I’ve been doing this a long time, and that was magic,” the master sound tech told her over the microphone in the sound stage. Jess smiled really big, and sucked up the tears that wanted to escape.

  It sure was magic, she thought, then took a deep shuddering breath. “Thanks, ya’ll…I’m gonna head back to the hotel, unless you need me anymore?’

  “We’re gonna need you a lot real soon, but not on this song, it’s perfect…and thank you, Jess,” he told her with a smile.

  When she got back to the hotel, Tamara had all their stuff packed up, and they took a taxi to the airport. The flight home wasn’t that long, but she was dog-tired by the time they touched down and deplaned, because she hadn’t been sleeping well. She took Angel from Tamara and the girl got a cart for the suitcases. “Thanks for taking such good care of Angel while I worked,” she told the younger woman.

  “She’s a baby doll, I loved it…thanks for giving me the chance to be with ya’ll,” she told Jess with an odd look to go along with her words. Jess studied her for a second trying to figure out what it meant, but shook her head, and blew it off when Tamara walked to the baggage claim to get their bags.

  Jess had hired her, even though she didn’t have any experience as a professional nanny, and wasn’t with an agency, she had good references from babysitting, and that’s what this really was. A nanny job included home schooling and cleaning and that kind of thing in Jess’s mind. She just needed someone to give Angel their undivided attention, so she could focus on writing and singing, and Tamara fit that bill. But sometimes, there was just something about her, that bothered Jess. She’d only known her a week though, so she was going to give it time, but keep her eyes open too.

  “You sure you’re gonna like going on the road with us?” Jess asked her with a forced grin.

  “That’s gonna be phenomenal…Glory Shine is one of my favorite singers. It’s really cool that you’re gonna open for her. Maybe one day I’ll open for you!” Tamara had told Jess when she hired her, that she was an aspiring country singer too, and was working small gigs at night to try and get a break.

  “Now, that would be really cool,” Jess told her with a forced grin, trying to encourage her dream.

  Jess hailed a taxi for them, then got inside, and buckled in the car seat and put Angel in, while the driver and Tamara wrestled the suitcases into the trunk. The driver got back in and they told him where they wanted to go, then he turned on the radio to a country station, and Jess’s breath caught in her throat.

  “Holy, shit, I just cut that song…and it’s on the radio already!” she screamed and the driver looked at her in the rearview.

  “That you?” he asked with a huge grin.

  “Hell, yeah! I just cut that track in Nashville, that’s where I’m coming back from…I can’t believe they’re already playing it!”

  They got quiet to listen, then when it finished, the driver said, “That’s damn good, ma’am.”

  Jess felt blood rush to her face. “Thanks, it’s my first single…sorry for all the hollering.”

  “Don’t apologize, I’d be hollering too!”

  She sat back against the seat again and put her hand to her chest, trying to get her galloping heart under control again. “Wow…”

  Her cell phone rang in her pocket, and she answered it without looking, “Helloooo,” she said cheerfully, expecting Jazzie.

  “I heard our song on the radio….Congrats, Jess,” Wade’s deep voice vibrated in her ear, and wrapped around her throat so she couldn’t speak. “You there, darlin’?” he asked in a choked whisper. It almost sounded like he was crying, but that couldn’t be, tough as a boot cowboys didn’t cry, especiall
y over songs.