Hannah appreciated the way Shell had taken a step back in her life. The two of them had learned a few things about each other in the last year and a half, as they’d taken time off the road. They’d learned they could still be best friends and not be completely in each other’s business. “I think I’ll be good, but I’d like you to come in next week. He wants to talk about a marketing plan, and you’re much better at that. I’m just good at keeping the fans updated.”
Shell nodded, putting the information into her phone. Hannah took the moment to observe her and Jared. They’d been married for a few months, and they were still in the newlywed stage. Both of them were glowing with love, and she was so happy for them.
“What did you do today?” Garrett asked as he put an arm around her and pulled her as close as the chairs would allow them.
They were interrupted by the waiter, but this was one of their favorite spots, so they ordered their regulars and she turned to him. “Basically we went through the binder of songs I’ve been accumulating since I took time off. We found a couple we both really liked, and we’ll be working on those this week. He wants this whole album to be me, and I agree with him as long as we can find the correct songs.”
“Are you excited?” He leaned in, kissing her on the neck.
“I’m so excited. The record company gave me carte blanche, because they didn’t expect me to come back this early,” she explained as she took a sip of her glass of wine. “There’s a couple different ways we could go, but I’m looking forward to any of them.”
“How was your day?” she asked, reaching over to hand EJ a piece of bread from the basket sitting on the table.
“We had a good day.” He took a drink of his beer, putting his arm behind her chair and rubbing her neck. “EJ and I went with Jared to Crossfit. Pretty sure I puked up everything I’ve eaten for three days,” he joked as he rubbed his side. “That shit is no joke. Give me the park and a running trail any day.”
She laughed and Shell snickered.
“I can’t believe you got suckered.” Shell pointed at him. “I went once.”
“She’s a quitter.” Jared put his hand over her mouth, covering up the words.
She reached and grabbed his hand so her words could be heard. “He said, ‘baby, it’s not that bad. It’s hot, but you’re in good shape, you’ll be fine.’” She shot him a side-eye. “He fucking lied. Lied his ass off. I thought I was having a heart attack; you’re lucky you just puked.”
Since Jared had begun to take his drug recovery seriously, he’d become just as serious about his health. The rest of them were trying to keep up.
“Poor thing.” Hannah glanced over at EJ. “What did he do while the two of you were Crossfitting?”
Their appetizer came and Garrett growled. “I’m so fucking hungry; I think I can eat this whole thing on my own.” He grabbed a plate and got his portion. “They have one of those foam pits. He had the best time ever jumping in it. They have a kid’s class. I think we should see about enrolling him. He’s a little young yet, but the guy who owns the place said because of his height, he’d be okay.”
EJ was taking after Garrett in the looks and height department. The only thing of hers their son had was her eyes. “It might help him get some of his energy out too.” She quirked her brow.
“God, he has so much energy.” Shell sighed. “I watched him while they went to lunch, after Crossfit. How did he still have that much energy?”
Hearing everyone talk about what kind of a day they’d had with her son made Hannah feel bad. She hadn’t been a part of it. The past year and a half she’d been his whole day, and he’d been hers. “I’m sorry I missed all of it.” Her voice was quiet.
“You were working, babe. You didn’t miss anything. He was being a regular kid, and all of us were trying to keep up with him.” He tipped her head up with a finger under her chin. “You’re missing the fact it took three of us to take care of him, compared to just you. He was definitely pushing his boundaries, and he didn’t take a nap. I’m warning you now in case he loses his shit here in a little bit.”
“Garrett,” she sighed, “he has to take his nap.”
“You know he doesn’t lay down as well for me as he does for you. It’s something we’re going to have to figure out. You’re gonna have to teach me your ways.”
Already she was starting to feel the pressure of being a working mom. Grabbing her wine glass, she took a liberal drink, trying to tell herself there were a million women in the world who were working moms. She’d figure this out. Looking around, she realized with the help of her friends and family she’d make this work. She just hoped in the end there wouldn’t be a cost. It would kill her if her son’s life or her marriage suffered because of her desire to work.
* * *
“I’ll see you at home.” Garrett gave her a kiss as he shut the door to her SUV.
They’d had a great dinner with friends, and they were now headed home. Because they’d driven separately, they’d be going home the same way.
“See you there. Love you.” She rubbed his cheek as he leaned his forehead against hers.
“Love you too, babe. We’ll see ya in a few.”
She watched as he got into his Range Rover, started it, and left the parking lot. Hannah put her SUV in gear and followed him onto I-65. Traffic this time of night wasn’t horrible, but it sometimes still gave her a little bit of anxiety. Reaching over, she turned the radio on for the first time in a while and listened to a local station.
“News out of downtown today: word has it Harmony Stewart was seen at a local recording studio. Does this mean she’s recording a new album? We’re not sure, but we hope so. Country radio seriously needs her back.”
They played one of her older songs as they finished speaking. She’d thought nobody would notice, nobody would care that she’d gone into the studio today, but it looked as if she was dead wrong. In her car, on her own, she wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about people contemplating her next career moves. It meant expectations she’d thought she’d moved away from. But she’d sorely underestimated people’s interest in her.
It wasn’t enough to make her want to stop, wasn’t enough to make her scared, but it was enough to make her pause. She would definitely need to talk to Garrett when she got home. She wanted to make sure he was okay with the way it looked like things were going to go.
Either way, it felt as if this was the beginning of something new and exciting. It felt like she was recording her first album again, and while that was enough to give her a little bit of anxiety, it was also enough to make her excited for it. Getting out of the house today, doing her hair and makeup, seeing other people besides her husband and toddler. It’d done her good, but she’d have to wait and see what it meant in the long run.
And right now, she realized as she pulled into her driveway, all she wanted to do was lay in bed with her husband.
Chapter Four
* * *
“Babe, I don’t know how you watch him every day by yourself. I’m fucking exhausted.” Garrett groaned as he plopped back into their bed.
Hannah laughed as the weight of him made her move slightly towards the middle. He captured her in his arms, and she rested her head on his chest. “I normally don’t do Crossfit, maybe that’s the difference.”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “I was exhausted before I ever tried that.”
“How was he today? Any meltdowns?”
Garrett scooted up so he lay back against the headboard, taking her with him. “Only one when he realized you were leaving and not taking him with you.”
She’d worried about that most of the day. EJ wasn’t used to her being gone all the time. He was used to her being the one putting him down for naps and generally being the person he saw most all day.
“There’s going to be some growing pains,” Garrett was saying as he turned so they could face each other. “On both of our parts. I didn’t know if it was okay for me to text you today or an
ything like that. I didn’t want to interrupt your process.”
“I wondered why I didn’t hear from you today, but I figured it was because you were busy with him. I’m never too busy to answer a text from you. I know this is something we’re going to have to get used to, me being out of the house. But honestly, I don’t want to go the whole day and not hear from you.”
It was weird, she realized. They were going to have to figure out how her work fit into their personal lives again. She’d grown accustomed to basically doing what she wanted when she wanted. The luxury wouldn’t be there for the foreseeable future.
“We’ll figure this out,” his deep voice spoke into her ear.
“I hope I haven’t ruined the good thing we had.”
“Hannah.” His tone was sharp, and he turned so that she rested underneath him, against the mattress. “Stop worrying. This is going to be fine. You’re scared because you haven’t done the recording and performing thing in a long time, but trust me when I say this is going to be fine.”
She worried that it wouldn’t be, that something would happen and it would ruin the groundwork they’d laid in their marriage.
“Stop thinking,” he told her. “Stop thinking about all the things that can go wrong. Enjoy the moment.”
“I can’t,” she admitted. “I had fun today, and it was nice to be in the studio, but as soon as I saw y’all tonight, I started to get scared and anxious.”
Hannah wished she were different, but this is who she was; this was how she handled things. Frustrated when tears came to her eyes, she closed them and willed her heart to slow down. This was only day one. How was she going to feel on day nineteen? Would she back out? What had gone so wrong?
* * *
Garrett knew if he didn’t get Hannah out of her own head fast, she’d derail everything she’d been excited about when she’d told him about wanting to go back into the studio. Having her underneath him was all the motivation he needed to begin that distraction.
“Do you think I’ve made the wrong decision?” she asked, her eyes bright with worry and what looked like tears.
“What?” He shook his head. “Fuck no, Han.”
She cut him off. “You know I hate that word.”
A wicked grin came to his face. She may hate that word, but she damn sure loved the act. Grasping her around the wrists with his strong hands, he pushed her arms up over her head.
“What are you doing?” she asked, although as he situated himself on top of her, he noticed her legs parted pretty quickly.
“I think you know, babe.”
The way her lips parted and her heartbeat increased against his chest told him she did know, and maybe she wanted it too. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought sometimes she protested so much because she wanted him to take the decision away from her—and that was fine with him. He lived to dominate her in ways designed to make her body sing.
“We’re having a conversation,” she gave a half-hearted protest.
Moving his head down her torso as he held her hands firmly, he used his other hand to push her tank top up and over her chest. For long minutes he gazed at her bare skin, watching as her nipples tightened and her breasts lifted against his gaze.
“Are we?” he questioned.
Before she could answer, he captured a hard nub in his mouth, hollowing his cheeks as he gave her what he knew she wanted. He loved the way her fingers gripped his, the way her fingernails dug into his wrists, the way her lower body thrust against his. What was even better was knowing no other man would ever get to experience the vault of passion he’d opened when he’d been gifted with her. People made fun of how goody-goody she was all the time. Lots of his friends in the industry questioned why a guy like him would want to be with a woman like her. More times than he cared to count, they’d hit him in the side and make a joke about him probably having to do it with the lights off every night. He grinned, indulged in their joke, but he knew what he was living with, knew what he had in his arms every night, and goddamn did he love to make her want it.
“Garrett,” she breathed, pushing her lower body against his.
“Thought we were talking,” he mumbled as he pulled away from her skin and released her wrists.
Once they were free, he pushed the tank top completely over her head and threw it on the floor. They worked together to take off her panties, and as he layered himself over her body again, he growled when her hands pushed down the back of his boxer briefs.
He pushed his mouth into her neck, focusing on the point that made her squirm every time he found it. The trick was to get Hannah out of her own head, but she was sneaky too. Her nails dug into the flesh of his ass as he flexed at her.
Garrett loved the way she showed him, even if she couldn’t always tell him, what she wanted. One hand left his ass cheek and curled around his neck, holding him tightly to her.
“I love you,” she whispered as she began thrusting up against him.
It was a special kind of torture. The fact she was completely naked and he still had underwear on. He could feel her heat, her wetness, against his cotton fabric, but he didn’t want to stop long enough to push them the rest of the way down. She was thrashing her head as he worked the column of her throat. He could feel the hard pebbles of her nipples against his chest and the bite of her nails in his neck.
His voice was guttural as the words were pulled from his throat. “Push ’em down, pull it out, and put me inside of you.”
He felt her mouth open as her jaw hit his forehead. He loved that sharp intake of breath when he surprised her with something he said. As he worked her skin, he waited to see if she would follow his lead. When she did, he thought he was going to come out of his skin. His ab muscles quivered as her small hands worked down his stomach, pushing the elastic band down, so she could reach inside and grasp his length.
He pushed himself up on his arms and grunted at the effort it took, because they were still like jelly from his earlier workout. Letting his head fall forward on his shoulders, he dipped his head and used his tongue to swipe against one of the nipples he loved so much. Groaning, he felt her hand push against him in an up and down motion and he thrust his hips towards her.
“Go, babe.” He leveraged himself up, capturing her lips with his.
She opened her mouth for him, just like she opened herself up to him, and guided him into her body. They both moaned, her hands clasping at him, his hands gripping the sheets as he worked himself into her heat.
Their tongues dueled as he started rocking into her, pulling his mouth from hers when her legs wrapped around his waist, holding him closer. “You’re so fucking hot,” he breathed into her ear, dropping one elbow to the mattress.
“You’re so hard.” She pushed her head back against the pillow, giving him free reign to her flesh. “Feels so good.”
He had to agree; everything he did with her always felt good. There was no faking with either one of them; they knew how to play each other’s bodies like well-loved instruments. Fast or slow, it didn’t matter.
As he felt her body tighten, he pushed a knee to the mattress to gain more leverage, and as he felt her let go, he whispered the one thing he knew she loved.
“I got you.”
Chapter Five
* * *
“Try it again, Hannah,” Kurt cut in when she didn’t quite hit the note like he wanted her to.
When she tried again, he stopped her one more time. “You’re not getting it, Han. I need you to put feeling into it. I need you to sing like the thing you love most in the world is right in front of you.”
She fought back the tears that pricked at her eyes. They’d been working on this section of the song for over two hours, and it was not coming. This was the hard part, trying to make something happen and force it when she just didn’t have it in her.
“Don’t get upset, Hannah,” he tried to talk her down from the booth.
She cleared her throat, hoping her frustration didn’t sho
w, but she knew it would. “It’s right there, I just can’t get to the emotion. I feel it…” She trailed off.
“Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you take thirty, come back, and we’ll try it again? Having a hard day in the studio isn’t the end of the world. We’ve had some very good ones. This is a bump in the road.”
He was right, and she knew it. Not everything came perfectly the first time around, the second, or even in her case the fifteenth tonight, but she was a professional, and this was frustrating. “Okay, give me thirty to forty-five minutes. I’ll come back with a better mindset.” She hoped.
Grabbing her purse and phone, she walked out to her SUV before getting in and placing a call to Garrett. He didn’t answer and that disappointed her more than she could say. Trying again, she hit the FaceTime button, but again, it went unanswered. It was then that everything hit her, and she leaned forward, resting her head against the steering wheel as she sobbed her frustration. He was the one person who would be able to get her through this, he was the one she wanted to talk to more than anyone else, and he wasn’t answering. Having been home with EJ by herself though, she knew it was difficult to take care of a toddler on your own, and more than likely he was paying attention to their son, but it didn’t stop the tears from coming. It felt good to release the frustration and tension, so she let them flow. Hannah was having a pity party—party of one—and she was really okay with that.
Finally, the shakes stopped, the tears stopped, and she glanced at the clock. She still had fifteen minutes, and with the splitting headache she now had, caffeine was a must. A Starbucks was right up the road, and she knew she could hit their drive-thru quickly.
Fifteen minutes later with drink in hand, she made her way back into the studio, still not sure if she could do what Kurt was asking her to. When she opened the door and walked in, she was greeted with the best present ever.
“Here she is. I figured she’d be back soon,” she heard Kurt say.
Reaper's Girl (Rockin' Country #5) Page 2