She covered her lips like she was in shock. “I… I never knew, Eddie.”
“Now you do.” He placed his hands in his pockets.
The truth was out there now. She knew. And it was time to start Operation Romance.
She trembled. “I—”
His phone rang, ending whatever she’d been about to say. He brought it from his back pocket to turn it off, but saw the name and said, “My manager would only call if he'd fulfilled my request. One minute.”
Her phone also dinged. She took a few deep breaths and color came back to her cheeks. “Okay. My friends are texting me.”
His lips curled in a smile.
Operation Romance meant he would see her often. They needed to reconnect as artists, and hopefully as romantic partners.
His manager had taken care of the performance part for two nights, the rest was up to him.
Eddie turned the phone off and placed it on the table. “It’s all set. Your band is my opening act, tomorrow night, in Memphis.”
She put her own phone in her back pocket and met his gaze as she stepped away. “Eddie-”
He held her hand between them as he said, “And you and your band are my dates tonight to the awards show. I need you standing beside me, and your band will be performing… with me.”
“I should ask my band if they want to go with you first.” She let him go, reaching for the balcony door.
He followed her into the living room. “Can we have lunch?”
“I’ll be in rehearsal.” She didn't look back as she walked past the couches and stepped into the hallway.
He never wanted to scare her away, but he couldn’t lose her. “I’ll have catering.”
She turned on her boot heels and met his gaze as she shook her head, “You don’t take no for an answer, do you?”
“Not anymore.” Though that was a lie. His mother once said: “fake it until you make it” and that was why he’d told Taylor everything.
She let out a long breath and nodded. “Okay. See you this afternoon then… if you can find me.”
“Oh, challenge accepted.” With her permission, he’d do anything to find her.
Perhaps this hadn't been his smoothest performance in the world. In fact, he was still a boy with her and not the man he’d grown to be. But he’d show her that he meant what he said. It was time to risk his heart and hopefully win the girl.
3
Taylor’s shoulders were tight as she walked back and forth in front of the Orpheum Theatre, Memphis, Tennessee. Outside the theater, in the lobby, were photos of classic artists who’d played here and the woodwork in the lobby she kept pacing seemed… well fancy.
Maybe too fancy for her.
For a while now, she’d spent her nights in dive bars, drinking beer, and trying to make it as a country singer in Nashville, while singing in her church choir every Sunday.
Life had taught her to be real.
And Eddie Williams had been singing about her… that was unreal. Seriously. How had she not realized? Eddie was the sweetest… If she actually fell in love with him, or let that happen… would she lose herself for good this time? And how would that even work? She was in a country band and he was… one of the highest paid musicians in the world.
Why was she pacing and worrying?
Taylor never, ever, ever freaked like this. She got herself together as best she could and opened the door. Her bandmates, and friends, were already jamming to her ”Came to Nashville” song.
Katie Lyn, their lead singer, had gorgeous dark roots under her blonde waves, which shone brightly under the stage lights. Cinnamon had auburn red hair and was a gifted banjo and fiddle player. Mac had dark brown hair with blonde streaks and played a mean bass. Rissa, lead guitar, was a proud brunette and C.C. brought some needed culture with her Filipino roots, and was never without her drum sticks.
Taylor wiped the tears from her eyes that shouldn’t be shed and headed in.
The girls all stopped playing to look at her. She strode to her piano so she might join them as Rissa said, “So your boyfriend booked us for the week.”
Her fingers hadn't touched the keys yet as she sat on her piano bench. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Mac put her bass guitar down and said, “Seriously, Eddie’s flying us to Vegas on a private jet. Do we need to tell Val to cancel what he's set up?”
The Country Music Awards would be a way for the world to see them.
Eddie was trying to help.
He always helped her, because he was sweet. Her face heated as she stared at the piano rather than her friends. “No. No. No. We’ll go. I’m sure we’ll need to talk to Val about what dresses we’ll be wearing on stage.”
No one said a word.
She didn’t bother looking at anyone, but then their instruments were placed on stage and Rissa said, “Taylor, let’s talk.”
Okay, so she needed to explain better than what she'd done. She glanced up, feeling unsettled. She followed her friend to the backstage area that had a small kitchen as she said, “Rissa…”
Taylor crossed her arms, looking the white wall above the sink instead of her friend, but Rissa placed her hand on her shoulder and said, “You’re obviously upset.”
How in the world could she explain this? Her racing heart. Her mind that couldn’t focus on anything, except Eddie as he'd said I want my chance to prove myself. I’d make a proper boyfriend for you.
Eddie had always been the sweetheart who’d calmed her down from whatever’d set her off that day.
And since she hadn’t seen his actions as romantic, she’d clearly been blind as a bat.
She turned and met the serious gaze of her friend. “I… I’m confused, to be honest.”
“Why?” Rissa kept her voice low, but the hall projected it slightly more than either expected. “Eddie Williams is hot, successful, and just arranged an amazing gig for us.” Rissa came closer so their voices were whispers as she asked, “Does he have a weird tic or something? Or is it just strange for you that he showed up to seduce you?”
Seduce? Wait. Kiss Eddie? Okay, sure, she’d thought about it before but never acted on it in fear it might ruin their friendship. Maybe once or twice the impulse hit her, but she’d let it go. I mean, who kisses a man who does what he says? Wow, that was a stupid question. She met Rissa’s gaze, her pulse racing. “I don’t understand why. He knows what my breath smells like before I brush, and it’s not pretty.”
Rissa's nose curled like she hadn’t expected that answer. She crossed her arms as she said, “Umm… but you didn’t date him?”
This was all too much. Why did no one believe her? Her heart strummed faster as she lifted her chin. “No, we only ever held hands, but I unofficially moved into his single dorm room for a few months when my roommate Bridget was inviting people into our room at all hours, not letting me sleep.”
Rissa widened her stance. “So, you crashed in his dorm room.”
He'd had an extra bed. Nothing happened. She’d worn her pajamas and only fallen asleep in his arms a few times watching some horror movie. So, her breath shouldn’t catch in her throat now and her voice shouldn’t be so squeaky. “Because we were friends and I trusted him.”
Rissa tapped the counter that held the coffee pot. “Did you trust Keith?”
She shook her head. “I knew he was trouble, but he made me feel… alive.”
Rissa nodded but continued to tap as she asked, “And Lance?”
He’d bought her a beer and a cowboy hat and taken her for her first ride in a pickup truck. Taylor sighed and said, “A mistake.”
Rissa’s eyes widened. “And Bob?”
Bob had jammed with her a few times and he sort of reminded her of Eddie though he had the cheating tendency of being another Keith. Taylor wrung her hands. “I have a long list of bad choices.”
Rissa came away from the counter. “And Eddie, what does he have?”
A different girl every night, on every continent. Maybe two. Probabl
y. He was a pop star who toured the world.
No, that wasn’t Eddie. Or it hadn't been before he'd become a super star. While she never believed it, maybe the grocery store articles were all true. Single. “Wasn’t the child star, Amanda something, in love with him?”
Rissa pressed her lips together. “But he filed for a restraining order, didn’t he?”
Well, maybe she should have read more but she’d seen the pictures in line to pay for her groceries and hadn’t wanted to see Eddie with anyone, ever.
She swallowed and said, “I… don’t know what happened. I haven’t seen him since I moved to Nashville. He’s been around the world and I’m sure with plenty of other women.”
Rissa’s shoulders went up and down. “But every night he sings about you.”
She closed her eyes. Seriously, everyone would think she was stupid for not realizing his songs were that personal—starting right now, with Rissa. “He told me earlier that I was the girl in all his songs.”
Rissa reached for her shoulder and patted her like her grandmother had as a child. “So, if you don’t want to see him ever again, we can tell Val to cancel.”
But then Taylor would never know if he was telling the truth. Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “Don’t do that. I promised I’d go to lunch with him… if he finds me.”
Rissa’s weight went to one side of her body as she crossed her arms and asked, “So we’re doing the show? This is your call.”
The show was great for the band, yes. But her heart whispered this was her chance, maybe, for real love. Eddie was… she couldn’t finish the thought, but she took a deep breath and said, “Yes. It’s good exposure and the CMAs will be super fun. We’ll wear designer gowns.”
Rissa tugged her arm toward the stage. “Okay, let’s get to practicing.”
Good. Soon Eddie would be here and then she’d… what did she do next? She wasn’t sure but for the first time in hours she could breathe because she’d decided she was open to giving Eddie a chance. Maybe. She stepped on the stage and her phone in the back pocket of her jeans vibrated. She grabbed it and let go of Rissa as she said, “Be right in. My mom is calling.”
The rest of them all cheered that they would be performing one song at the country music awards, then picked up their instruments.
Time was short but she quickly told her mother, “Hey, we’re about to practice.”
“All right, honey. We'll see you in Denver next week,” her mother said.
The country weekend festival at Red Rocks. As a girl she’d never been allowed to go but now she would be performing. She swallowed as she imagined herself in that stadium with amazing natural acoustics from the formation of the rocks and mountainside. “Yes, my band has a performance.”
“We’re looking forward to seeing you," her mom said. "We invited Patrick to our family dinner.”
Ugh. Why? Their next-door neighbor’s son wasn’t someone she dreamed of seeing again. “Patrick’s not family.”
“He could be if you show the right interest--he's a doctor now.”
And then she’d be… her mother, without her music. No. She shook her head and said, “I don’t want a doctor. Don’t do this, Mom.”
Her mother made that hmm noise that meant she would do what she wanted anyway as she asked, “Are you dating someone then?”
Eddie. Now that might stop her mother and her sister cold. She lifted her chin as she imagined the looks on their faces as she brought him to dinner—they could forget about Patrick. “Yes. I’ll bring him to dinner.”
Her mother’s voice changed as she asked, “Well, who is he?”
Eddie probably had a gig in another part of the world, but she refused to give her mother an inch. “You’ll meet him.”
Her mother's hummph that followed hmm meant she didn’t believe her, and they were back to doing whatever Mother wanted. Her parents were always the same, stuck in a time warp where her mother hosted parties for her father to get ahead at the hospital. “You’re not serious if you’re afraid to tell us about him. We’ll keep Patrick on standby.”
She hung up the phone, returned to her piano, and closed her eyes.
The energy changed as she went on stage for practice.
Taylor plopped onto her bench without looking at anyone. As her hands brushed the ivory keys, she began to breathe without the sucking fear that her parents might somehow force her to be like… her mother.
Katie Lyn held the microphone. “Did something happen, Taylor?”
Her heart stopped. If Eddie was in the building, he’d have heard Katie Lyn’s question and know she was on stage.
She swallowed and shook her head. “I’m fine. My family doesn’t take country music seriously.”
C.C. sat opposite her, dark hair down, sunglasses on, and her drumsticks in hand. “So, they’re not coming to the show at Red Rocks?”
She lifted her fingers off the keys, sighed and said, “The opposite. Every Jones I’m related to, and all their friends, will be there.”
Mac gave a sympathetic smile as she said, “We’ll win them over.”
Cinnamon added fast, “'Came to Nashville' is a great song.”
Her parents. Right. Thomas and Tanya and all their ya-ya friends would have their martinis while everyone around them drank beer and they’d think how superior they were. The show in Denver was going to be hard.
However, the image of Eddie appeared in her head, shielding her like he was some knight she’d call to her rescue and a melody started playing in her mind. Her fingers ached to play the keys and get the song on paper.
She met Rissa’s gaze as her friend seemed concerned again. Taylor sucked in her bottom lip, tapped the melody and then stopped as she said, “I’m thinking we should write a happy-to-be-in-love song.”
Katie Lyn spoke into the microphone as she asked, “Are you happy in love right now?”
Taylor froze.
Eddie had never been the one. That was silly. She’d be stupid if he had been and somehow, she’d missed it.
He was her friend. That was all.
But she couldn’t deny that her heart beat slightly differently as she thought about him.
Eddie was handsome and smart and sweet.
His dark red hair and green eyes in an oval face that contained the most amazing smile she’d ever seen on a man. Heat rose in her cheeks and she shook her head. “No, but I’d like to be… one day.”
Rissa and Cinnamon came over to the piano as Cinnamon asked, “So what are you thinking?”
These two understood when a song was in her heart. She played the melody again and said, “I’m stuck on the lyrics, “I can tell you know what pain is,” and this melody.”
Rissa added a guitar riff. “You want a love song?”
“Yeah.” Taylor bobbed her head.
Cinnamon’s sassy sound joined in with the melody too. “How about… 'I’ve been looking through your kind eyes'.”
Good. She liked the way it was coming together. Taylor continued the melody as she said, “Then we can sing, ‘I’ve seen what people don’t.’”
Rissa, leader of their band, snapped her fingers. “This is a good start.”
A new song might just be what she needed to take her mind off everything. She quickly jotted down the lyrics and melody in her trusty notebook. “It’s good to work on a song. Maybe by Denver next week we’ll have it down.”
Rissa nodded like the jam session was over as she stared out into the empty seats. “Maybe.”
All her friends grew quiet as she finished writing the words in the notebook.
Strange, as everyone usually laughed and talked after coming up with something new. Suddenly Eddie’s voice sounded, and she glanced into his emerald green eyes as he walked up the steps. “Taylor, I think it’s lunch time.”
“Eddie.” She closed her notebook and stood as her heart raced. “You found me.”
He nodded and brushed her back like he had a million times in school.
Goos
ebumps weren’t a normal reaction to his touch back then, but he played the melody on her piano she'd just started writing and asked, “Why don’t you add next, ‘but you can show it to the world…’”
Good line.
Yeah. She flipped open her dollar store loose leaf notebook with a tattered yellow cover, wrote the words, and wished that she had a nicer-looking work method. Music teachers showed her program after program, but she memorized and mentally recorded better with paper and pen. Taylor finished, her pulse zipping near him, and bounced on her feet. “Eddie let’s go to lunch. See everyone in an hour?”
“Sure,” Katie Lyn called out in the microphone.
Eddie took her hand, sending her skin into overdrive. She definitely shouldn’t feel this. Not with Eddie. They were only friends. But as they left the stage, she wanted nothing more than to be near him. And heaven help her because she didn’t want to mess this up, again.
4
Eddie turned off his cell phone as he led Taylor away from her piano.
Earlier his heart had nearly stopped when the lead singer had asked "are you happy in love?" when she’d been on stage with Taylor--he'd been inside his dressing room, getting it set up. He'd already cleared the order of songs for tonight’s concert with his team.
He would not lose his shot to tell Taylor that she’d always been his muse, and that he needed her too.
Taylor's blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes were window dressing. Beneath her good looks was something even more special, her heart.
She was the only woman in the world who’d ever just made Eddie laugh and feel at peace.
Without her, the world bloomed less bright and he would not lose her.
Not again.
The day she’d hopped into Keith's car, leaving New York to help Keith launch his career was the day Eddie Williams knew complete emptiness and despair. She’d kissed his cheek and told him that Keith needed her.
She hadn’t realized he'd needed her more, because he’d never told her.
She'd taken the color out of the world the day she'd driven off.
He'd used that pain to write his songs and launched the next month.
Taylor’s Legendary Heart: Sweethearts of Country Music, Book 2 Page 3