But she was, and it was the best thing to happen to him in a long time. Maybe even forever.
Despite Andie and Heath insisting they not bring anything to lunch, they drove into town to buy more Dalton’s cider and some locally brewed pale ale before heading over to the McGregors’ place near Riverbend Park.
Eva let out an audible gasp as they came around the corner in the drive and she got her first look at their house.
“Good Lord.”
“Pretty impressive, huh?” Casey said, admiring the jutting roofline of the wood and stone house. Built to take advantage of views over the town, it featured huge windows and sprawled luxuriously across the hillside.
“I’m suddenly really glad I didn’t wear my cut-off jeans,” Eva said.
“No one would have minded. The McGregors aren’t like that,” Casey said.
Heath had been a few years ahead of him at school, but he’d played football with him and Andie’s brother, Beau Bennett, back in the day. Back then, Heath had been one of the poorest kids in school, living in a one-bedroom apartment with his father.
Clearly, times had changed.
There were several other cars parked in front of the house and they were just getting out of the car when Lily Bennett appeared around the side of the house.
“Andie said to come straight around the back, since we’re all set up out here,” she said.
“Who is that?” Eva whispered to him as they collected the drinks from the bed of the truck. “She’s goddamned stunning.”
“That’s Lily, Andie’s sister-in-law. She’s married to Beau, Andie’s brother.”
“Was she a Victoria’s Secret model in a former life?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Casey said, amused.
With her unusual purple-brown eyes and long brown hair, Lily was attractive, there was no denying that, but she didn’t do half as much for him as the blond force of nature by his side.
“Lily, this is Eva. Eva, Lily,” he said as they joined the other woman.
“Great to meet you, Eva. Andie has been raving about your work for weeks,” Lily said.
“Dear God, how tedious for you. Please don’t hate me on sight,” Eva joked.
Lily laughed as she led them around the side of the house. “Deal. Hope you guys like trout, because the boys went fishing first thing and came back with a cooler full.”
“You know I’m from LA, right?” Eva said. “The only fresh thing I’m used to is pollution.”
Andie stood from where she was sitting at a long, rough-hewn dining table when she saw them, coming forward to kiss them hello. A wooden pergola soared over the table, the deep green leaves of a grape vine wrapping its beams to create a lush green frame. Large flagstones were underfoot, while Heath and Beau stood at an impressive-looking grill that had been built into the side of the house.
“Great to see you both,” Andie said, frowning slightly when Eva offered her the cider. “You guys. I said not to bring anything.”
“No one ever means that,” Lily scoffed.
“Well, I did,” Andie said. She waved a hand at the long benches either side of the table. “Make yourselves at home. The boys are just heating up the grill. Food shouldn’t be long.”
Eva slipped into conversation with Lily, and Casey drifted over to the grill to hang with Beau and Heath, quickly getting sucked into a discussion about football. Pretty soon there was fish and steak on the grill and Andie was ferrying various salads to the table. Casey went to help and it wasn’t long before they were all sitting down around the big table.
“Eva, I have a confession to make,” Andie said as she passed the bowl of potato salad off to her left. “I really, really wanted you to win the commission after your first presentation and I had to recuse myself from the final vote.”
“Really?” Eva said, surprise on her face.
“You were so good, and I could see how much you wanted it. I may have been a little annoying about advocating for you.” Andie slid a sideways look at Heath, who just laughed and shook his head. “But it didn’t matter anyway, because the decision was a no-brainer after we saw your full proposal.”
“Well, that’s very nice to hear, thank you. I’ll take this memory out and polish it next time I’m having a bad day,” Eva said.
Beau was busy opening a bottle of wine, pouring glasses for everyone, but when he came to Andie she smiled and shook her head.
“Wine always makes me sleepy in the middle of the day,” she said.
Casey was aware of Heath shooting his wife a quick look from the end of the table but didn’t think much of it until Lily piped up.
“You have to have some—this is that Australian pinot gris I was telling you about that we discovered,” Lily said, grabbing Andie’s glass and passing it to Beau to fill. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve been doing wine all wrong since we found this.”
She gave the glass back to Andie, an expectant look on her face, and there was a short pause as everyone waited for Andie to take a sip. But Andie just looked at the wine, a bemused look on her face, before turning to Heath.
“Told you it would be too hard to keep this a secret,” she said.
He shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
Lily was wide-eyed by now, her gaze shooting between the two of them. “You are not. Tell me you are not,” she said excitedly.
“I’m pregnant,” Andie said. “We only found out this week, and it’s very early days, only seven weeks, so we weren’t going to tell people for a little bit yet.”
“Oh, guys, that’s so great,” Lily said, wrapping her arms around the other woman.
Casey watched Eva offer Heath and Andie her congratulations and it hit him that if things went right between them, this could be them in a few years’ time.
He waited to feel freaked out by the idea—it hadn’t even been a month, after all—but it never happened. It might still be early days for him and Eva, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind where he wanted their relationship to go: all the way.
He’d never felt this way about another woman before, never felt so sure about his own feelings and what he wanted.
It was a warm, breezy day, and it was no hardship to sit under the McGregors’ pergola and eat good food with nice people, the radio playing in the background. They collectively decided to pause before tackling dessert, and Eva turned on the bench seat so she could rest her back against his chest, explaining she needed to concentrate on digesting so she could fit more food in. He savored the warmth and weight of her body against his as he opened another bottle of cider and decided he’d definitely had worse days.
Then Eva jerked upright in his arms, twisting to face him.
“Casey. It’s your song. Oh my God, they’re playing your song.”
She leapt off the seat then, racing across to crank up the volume on the radio. Sure enough, he recognized the sexy, grinding beat of “Song for Eva.”
“Is this The Whiskey Shots?” Heath asked, eyebrows raised. “I didn’t realize you guys had an album out.”
“We don’t. KUPR have got a competition on, so we entered,” Casey explained distractedly.
“Shh, I’m listening,” Andie said, flapping her hands to indicate they should all pipe down.
Eva glanced at him, clearly thrilled. “How cool is this?”
Casey took a long swallow of his cider and tried not to let his sudden nervousness show. It had been one thing to agree with Eva that the song could go public, but he hadn’t given much thought to their song getting radio play. Rory had told him it would only happen if they were selected as one of the finalists, and that they’d be notified beforehand. As far as he knew, that hadn’t happened, so it wasn’t as though he’d had a chance to prepare himself for this moment.
He jiggled his knee beneath the table, trying to not be too obvious as he watched people’s reactions to the song. When he was up on stage performing, the audience response was immediate and obvious, but this was a completely new experience for h
im and he wasn’t sure if he was into it or not.
Heath was smiling and nodding along with the beat, and Beau’s head was tilted slightly as he listened to the lyrics. Lily was grinning, and Andie kept lifting her eyebrows in response to the lyrics, her fingers tapping the table.
Finally the song faded out and was replaced by the announcer.
“That was The Whiskey Shots, favorite sons of Marietta, singing ‘Song For Eva.’ The Shots are finalists in KUPR’s Undiscovered competition and I’m sure none of you are going to forget that song in a hurry. You’ll be hearing from the rest of our finalists over the next hour, so stay tuned for more.”
Lily and Andie exchanged a look when they heard the title of the song, then Lily pretended to fan herself and they both laughed.
Beau eyed his wife with an amused expression on his face.
“Don’t go getting any ideas, babe. I don’t have a musical bone in my body, so there will not be a ‘Song for Lily’ anytime soon,” he said.
Everyone laughed, and Casey felt Eva’s hand slide onto his thigh, the subtle pressure signaling he should stop jiggling his leg. He looked at her and she leaned close so only he could hear.
“Relax. That was amazing. I’m so proud of you,” she said.
He smiled faintly, warmed by her support, and made an effort to chill.
“Awesome song, Casey,” Heath said. “I think you boys are going to have a hit on your hands.”
“Might be hard to do that when we haven’t released it as a single,” Casey said.
“You should get it out there, then,” Andie encouraged. “I would download it for sure.”
Lily nodded agreement, and Eva nudged him with her elbow.
“You guys should get onto it right away, make the most of the promo from the radio station to raise your profile.”
“I guess we should,” Casey said.
The Shots had talked casually about recording some songs so they could sell them online, but they’d never gotten further than talking. Their focus had always been on the music, on writing songs. and playing live. But maybe they were being stupid, not making their songs available for download. None of the other Shots were raking it in through their day jobs, so any money they might generate from sales would certainly be welcomed by all of them. It would certainly come in handy for Casey—he could throw it into the pot to help improve the ranch’s financial position.
“So, did you know you guys were finalists?” Lily asked.
Casey shook his head. “They were supposed to let us know, but I guess something must have gotten lost in the translation.”
“So that was the first you knew of it?” Lily asked, eyebrows raised.
“That’s right.”
She laughed. “You have an amazing poker face. You must have been freaking out just now.”
“A little bit,” he admitted.
They all laughed, and Heath went inside to bring out a decadent-looking red velvet cake for dessert. By the time they’d moved on to coffee, it was heading toward late afternoon and Casey figured they were close to wearing out their welcome.
They said goodbye to Lily and Beau then collected their jackets and sunglasses before following Heath and Andie through their house, walking through an impressive kitchen and an even more impressive living room before they reached the front door.
“Let’s do this again,” Andie said, kissing them both goodbye on the doorstep. “I had a great time.”
“Me, too,” Eva said. “Thanks so much for inviting us.”
“Let us know when that single of yours goes live, Casey,” Heath said, shaking hands.
“Will do,” he said.
The pickup’s seats were warm from the sun and he wound the windows down as they started down the drive.
“Oh my God, Casey,” Eva said, twisting in her seat to face him. “I have been trying to keep a lid on this ever since your song came on, but I have to do it now.”
Dropping her head back, she gave an excited, joyful squeal and he couldn’t help but laugh.
“How excited are you on a scale of one to ten?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Six? Seven?”
“Are you kidding me? I’m at eleven and it’s not even my song. How can you be so cool about it?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m still processing,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting anything, obviously, so it’s kind of a shock.”
“A great shock. I was dying to listen to the other finalists but I didn’t want to be rude. None of them will be as good as the Shots, though, I guarantee it.”
He glanced across at her. “Not sure you’re the most objective judge.”
“I don’t need to be objective to know you’re going to win,” she said.
He frowned, her words giving substance to the unacknowledged worry that had been sitting in his gut ever since he’d realized the Shots were finalists a couple of hours ago. He’d entered the radio competition because the other guys wanted to, and he’d done so expecting their entry to be lost in a sea of competition. Not because he underrated the Shots, but because he was realistic—life was not a feel-good movie or inspirational meme. Shit happened, and only rarely did dreams make it off the launching pad to fly high.
So he hadn’t anticipated the band being finalists, and he definitely hadn’t thought about them winning.
Eva caught his hand in hers and gave it a supportive squeeze. He glanced at her, noting how flushed and happy she was for him. He wondered what she’d say if he told her he didn’t want the Shots to win, that he dreaded it, in fact.
He was pretty sure she wouldn’t get it. She’d driven across four state lines to follow her dreams. She wouldn’t understand why it made him sweaty just to think about it.
Because even though the band had agreed they were only entering the competition for the chance at some recording time and the cash prize, Casey wasn’t stupid. If new opportunities came out of this, he knew the other guys would be hungry for it.
And he had no idea what he would do if and when that happened.
Chapter Fifteen
It took Eva a few days to clue in that something was going on with Casey. He was good at covering his feelings, good at presenting a calm face to the world, so it took her a while to realize he was struggling with something.
She kept catching him staring off into space, his face tight with some unexpressed anxiety, but when she tried to get him to talk, he just laughed it off and changed the subject.
She told herself to be patient. She liked to talk her problems out; obviously Casey didn’t. Everyone had their own way of dealing with life’s curve balls, and no one way was perfect or right. And it wasn’t as though he was walking around with a dark cloud hovering over his head—the change in his demeanor was subtle, barely noticeable. It was only because she was so closely, intensely attuned to him that she felt it.
In lieu of Casey’s input, she spun her mental wheels trying to second-guess what might be going on in his head. The long days working alone at the grain elevator lent themselves to introspection and she spent many hours considering and discarding options as she continued blocking in her design.
It was possible he was worried about money. She knew from a few references she’d picked up that the ranch’s finances were not in great shape. Casey was fiercely committed to the ranch and preserving his parents’ legacy, and if the financial situation had become more stressful, it made sense that it might be eating at him.
Her best guess, however, was that his preoccupation had something to do with The Whiskey Shots becoming finalists in the radio competition. She’d been so excited to hear his song played over the radio at Heath and Andie’s place that it wasn’t until afterward that she’d registered his oddly muted reaction. He’d been pleased, yes, and definitely flattered by everyone’s praise and feedback, but he hadn’t been excited, not in the way she would have been in his shoes. And yes, they were different people, with different ways of responding to different situations, but she’d s
een Casey buzzing with adrenaline after a sell-out show. She’d see him vibrating with intensity as he made love to her.
Something had held him back from fully celebrating the moment, and she kept circling back to the conversation they’d had in his bed one night during their first week together.
The Shots are about making music, not chasing fame and all that other bullshit.
That night, he’d claimed he didn’t crave success and fame, that he’d never dreamed of filling a stadium or topping the charts. She’d thought at the time that even if he genuinely felt that way—and she had her doubts—he was swimming against the tide, and she was even more convinced of it now. His talent and music were undeniable, and the world was not going to let him stay small and local and undiscovered for long.
Was that what was troubling him? Was he struggling to reconcile his humble ambitions for the band with the reality of their success?
She still had no confirmation of her theory when the night for band practice came around again. She was winding up a call with Andie when Casey stopped by the trailer to check in and let her know what time he’d be home.
“Not a problem, it would be my pleasure,” she told Andie, holding up a single finger to let Casey know she wouldn’t be long. “I’ll see you soon,” she said, ending the call and tucking her phone away.
“You didn’t need to hang up because of me. I just wanted to say goodbye before I headed off to band practice,” he said.
“All good. Andie wants to talk to me about something, so I’m going to head over to her place now,” Eva explained.
“Their place is just past Danny’s—I can drop you off if you don’t mind waiting till I’m done,” Casey said.
“It doesn’t make sense for you to drop me off then drive back—why don’t I drop you off, then I can come by your practice afterward and sneak in some more Whiskey Shot goodness?” she suggested. “Unless girls are not allowed at practice?”
“Girls are definitely allowed, especially when it’s you,” he said, pulling her close for a kiss.
“Then I’ll just grab my stuff and we can hit the road.”
The Rebel and the Cowboy (The Carmody Brothers Book 2) Page 20