by Emma Lea
There had always been that chance that she had built the moment up to such proportions that it could never really live up to the hype, but with a single touch of his lips on hers, whatever she had imagined had been reduced to ashes. Nate had kissed her like no one had ever kissed her before. Not even Carson had lit her up like Nate had last night. Up until that kiss, Carson had been the only person to stir her girly parts, but it paled into insignificance in the face of Nate’s kiss.
The only problem now was that she didn’t know where they stood. That was not just a friendly good night kiss, but he had pulled away just when things were starting to get interesting. She had been well aware of the erection straining his pants. Had he just been testing the waters? Satisfying his curiosity? And what did it mean when they saw each other today at the studio?
Darla, Tom and her two beautiful babies burst into Stevie’s life with all the subtly of a freight train, and she loved every minute of it. They’d stayed close friends through the years, despite living two states away; email, phone and Skype had become the conduit for their relationship lately. Stevie had missed Darla and her big personality and was so happy to be face to face with her that she didn’t even care that she knew an interrogation was coming… well, she told herself she didn’t care. The fact was that she couldn’t lie to Darla, and not just because it was wrong to lie to your best friend. No, she actually couldn’t lie to her and get away with it. Darla could read her like a book.
When the babies were settled with their nanny (yes, Darla had a nanny and Stevie really couldn’t blame her; she had a business to run and Tom worked long hours too), the three of them sat down with a drink and they caught up. Stevie really liked Tom. His calm and steady personality was a counterpoint to Darla and, as crazy as it seemed, they complimented each other.
“So, we’re thinking of moving,” Darla blurted out and Stevie sat back stunned.
“What?”
Tom sighed and nodded. “I need a change,” he said, his deep voice soothing.
“You’re leaving ‘The Company?’” Stevie asked, flabbergasted.
‘The Company’ was what she and Darla had called the firm where Tom had interned and then become an associate. All the cool kids worked there, AKA ‘The Glam Tramps’ husbands, and that Tom was choosing to leave was completely out of left field. She looked at Darla. “What about your salon?”
“I’ve had an offer to buy it,” she said with a shrug and then a sip of her wine. “And to be honest, I was getting a bit sick of perming all the old biddies and listening to their gossip.”
Stevie snorted. “You would never get tired of listening to gossip.”
“True,” she said with a sigh, “but it’s always the same gossip, and even that gets boring the fiftieth time you hear it.”
Stevie smirked at her. “Does that mean you’re finally ready to take me up on my offer?”
Darla and Tom shared a glance.
“Maybe,” Darla said, “if Tom can find work out here too.”
Stevie jumped to her feet and squealed, running around to hug her best friend. She had been asking Darla to come to Nashville and work as her and the band’s stylist for the upcoming tour. Stevie knew that if she could get Darla’s name out there, she would get more than enough work to start a business.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Darla said laughing. “It’s not set in stone yet.”
Stevie went back to her seat and pouted making Darla laugh. “We still need to hook Tom up.”
“Right,” Stevie said, looking at her other friend. “Ever thought of entertainment law?”
Tom raised his eyebrows at her and she saw a tell-tale gleam. If he hadn’t thought about it before, he was thinking about it now.
“I’ve done a bit of intellectual property law and contracts and torts…it might not be too much of a stretch.”
“That’d be perfect,” Darla said and Stevie knew her brain had gone into planning mode. She could almost see the wheels spinning in her brain.
“What’s up?”
Stevie looked up at Vanessa and Nadine as they walked in.
“Hey guys, these are my friends that I told you about. Darla and Tom.”
They shook hands and exchanged greetings before flopping down on the couch opposite.
“Where’s Jace?”
Nadine rolled her eyes. “Where do you think he is?”
“He’s still at the studio?” Stevie raised her eyebrows. “What happened now?”
“He and Nate got into it again,” Vanessa said with a dismissive shake of her head. “Those two are either best friends or mortal enemies, there is no in between.”
“Sounds like Nate,” Darla mumbled under her breath.
“They’re both just protective of their music,” Stevie said, trying to be the peacemaker but Darla just snorted. “Fine,” Stevie said, exasperated, “they’re both being egotistical jerks.”
Darla jumped to her feet. “We should go out. Is there a karaoke bar in this town?”
“Santa’s!” Stevie, Vanessa and Nadine answered together and then laughed.
“Santa’s?” Tom asked.
“This I gotta see,” Darla said.
“Did you bring your kit?” Stevie asked hopefully.
Darla gave her ‘the eye.’ “You think I’d come all this way without it?”
Stevie laughed, so glad to have her best friend here. She slung an arm around her shoulder and gave her a weird, one armed hug. “I wanna be a pageant princess,” Stevie said. “The big hair, the gloss, the glitter, the works.”
Darla rubbed her hands together. “You’ll let me go all the way? No whining or complaining about the backcombing and the hairspray?”
“I put myself completely in your capable hands.”
“What about you girls?” Darla asked looking at the stunned sisters.
“Ah…”
“It’s okay,” Stevie said. “Darla’s the best.”
“I wanna be vamp,” Vanessa said and then looked at her sister.
“I wanna be a pin up girl,” Nadine said, her eyes alight with mischief.
“One Elvira and one Dita Von Tease coming up.”
Stevie glanced at Tom expecting to see frustration or exasperation at his wife’s antics, but the look on his face was nothing but adoration and love. He may come across as the straight laced one, but he had never tried to temper Darla’s more outrageous personality. Stevie wanted someone like that, someone who could rejoice in her triumphs and get enjoyment out of seeing her happy instead of trying to box her into something she wasn’t.
She’d thought she’d found that with Carson. He’d been so supportive of her career, right up until his became more important. But she wasn’t going to think about that tonight, not with her best friend here and the promise of alcohol and karaoke in her future.
Nate slid into the seat of the dive bar beside Tom.
“Hey man,” he said, trying to shake off the annoyance from the argument he had with Jace in the studio. The dude was driving him crazy with his perfectionism. They weren’t freaking Celine Dion. Nate was worried that Jace would produce them into the very thing he was trying to get away from. He wanted the raw, harsh sound of his roots, not some slick over-engineered piece of fluff. He’d been there, done that and had the scars to prove it.
“Nate,” Tom said with a grin, sticking out his hand to shake.
They had been friends before Nate was picked up by Rocksteady and then with the fallout with Stevie, Nate had pulled away, not wanting their friends to have to take sides. There had been a hundred times that he’d wanted to pick up the phone and call Tom, just to say hello, sometimes to talk through something that was on his mind, but he’d held back in deference to Stevie. But fuck, he’d been lonely. He wasn’t one for having an entourage follow him around and had found himself more isolated than he’d ever expected. Banging the odd groupie didn’t alleviate that all pervading aloneness that he’d felt suffocating him, no matter how hard he tried to make it so.
Tom pointed to the stage where Stevie, Vanessa and Nadine were pouring over a songbook. “Darla went to the ladies’ room.”
Nate nodded and raised this hand to get the waitress’s attention. He ordered a beer and then sat back, mentally shuttering the bad day away as he watched the three women take the stage. Seeing them made up to the hilt wasn’t a surprise. Having Darla in attendance almost guaranteed it, and he had to smile at the woman who had taken up residence in his mind. Thoughts of Stevie plagued him day and night, more so now that he had kissed her. The feel of her lips against his was tattooed on his brain and late at night when he couldn’t sleep, he could almost feel them.
Darla slipped into her seat as the low, slumberous guitar started and Stevie, Vanessa and Nadine took their places in front of the microphones. The ‘Pistol Annies’ song ‘Hell on Heels’ filled the packed bar to whoops and hollers from the crowd. The women owned the stage, all playing up the country twang in their voices as they sang about their sugar daddies. Nate couldn’t help the grin that split his face. These three women could go out on the road all by themselves and kill it. He and Jace were practically superfluous.
The waitress bought his beer and he ordered another round for the table. The applause and stomping feet was thunderous as the trio finished their song, bowing and blowing kisses to the crowd. Stevie had changed in the years since they’d been estranged. She never used to play up to the crowd, but now, it was like seeing a completely different side of her. They were all smiles as they headed to their table and he watched as Stevie ducked her head when she noticed him. Was that a blush? Had she been thinking about the kiss as much as he had?
“Whoo-hoo!” Darla cried, jumping up to hug Stevie. “You girls rock!”
“Where’s Jace?” Nadine asked when she saw Nate.
Nate rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. “He’s still at the studio.”
She shook her head and picked up his beer, taking a long drink.
“Is he always this—”
“This much of a pain in the ass?” Vanessa asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I was going to say focussed, but pain in the ass works.” He snatched his beer back from Nadine and finished it as the waitress handed out the next round.
Nadine blew out a breath causing her heavy bangs to billow, surprising considering the amount of hairspray he could image was in them. “No, he’s not,” she admitted, picking at the label on her beer bottle. “I think it’s working with you.”
“Me?” Nate asked, surprised. “What did I do?”
Darla snorted and shook her head.
“You got something to say Darla?”
She turned back to him and opened her mouth, but closed it without speaking and took a drink, turning away from him once again.
“No, it’s not that,” Vanessa said. “Although you two do fight like an old married couple.” Nate snorted. “What I mean is, this is a crucial song for not just you but us as well and he just wants it to be—”
“Perfect.” Stevie looked at him as she said the word, her eyes full of something that he couldn’t identify. Pity maybe. God, he hoped it wasn’t pity.
“Yeah well I think he is strangling it. He’s tweaking the magic right out of it.”
“Maybe you need to do it live,” Darla said and they all turned to look at her, mouths agape. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “It used to work with Stevie and Nate when they were just starting out. When a song wasn’t gelling the way they wanted, they’d gather a group of us together and play it…something about having an audience to feed off.” She shrugged. “I’m not a musician, but I expect working in a studio all the time can make it feel kind of stale.”
“She’s right,” Nate said.
“Ooh, say that again,” Darla smirked.
He shook his head and picked at the label on his beer. “It just feels so sterile now. It needs something, but I can’t put my finger on it. I do think we need to play it to an audience. Not a big one, just an intimate group that can give us feedback.”
“Like a focus group,” Tom added and Nate nodded.
“Exactly, a focus group.”
Stevie shared a look with Jace’s sisters and they shrugged. “Can’t hurt,” Vanessa said.
Nate finished his beer and stood, pulling out his keys. “I’ll go back to the studio and talk to Jace.”
“I’ll go with you,” Stevie said, standing. “What?” she said, looking around at the faces looking at her. “You think Nate and Jace can have a conversation without it degenerating into sniping without a voice of reason?”
“No,” Nadine said with a huff. “You’re right. He’ll listen to you.”
She bent down to kiss Darla’s cheek. “We won’t be long. Nate can drop me home or I’ll get a lift with Jace. Don’t wait up.”
He followed her out, his hand hovering over the small of her back wondering how he got lucky enough to have some alone time with her. Or unlucky as the case may be.
Chapter Thirteen
The flash of photographers blinded him as they walked out of the dive bar. He raised his arm in reflex. This was not an uncommon occurrence for him, but it had been a while since the paps had followed him to a bar in the middle of the week.
“Sorry,” he mumbled in Stevie’s ear, wishing he’d thought to find a back entrance, although he doubted that Santa’s had one.
“Stevie! Look over here Stevie!”
The photographers kept calling to her and for a moment he was a little stung. They weren’t here for him after all, they were here for her. Well, shit.
“Hey Stevie is it true that you’re doing a song with Nate Nash?”
“Is that why he’s here with you tonight?”
“Is it true Nash? Are you trying to resurrect your career by jumping on the coattails of Stevie Jacks and her band?”
What the fuck? Is that what the world thought? Is that what Stevie and her band thought? It seemed that he and his career were a big joke to these people, that he was washed up, finished. It was kind of true though, if he was perfectly honest with himself. His last album was a joke, even he refused to listen to it. And why the hell would Stevie even consider singing with him after what he’d done to her? God, it was all such a mess and if the paparazzi were good at anything it was exposing weaknesses.
“Come on! Get in!” It was Frankie with a car.
He hustled Stevie into the backseat and followed her in, slamming the door behind him. Frankie gassed it and photographers scrambled out of his way and then they were free. Nate leaned back against the seat and took a deep breath, holding it before letting it out slowly.
“What the hell was that?” Stevie asked, her eyes wide and her face pale under the thick stage makeup she wore.
“That was the paparazzi,” Nate said tiredly. “Is this your first run-in with them?”
She nodded, a look of stunned disbelieve on her face. “Why were they there?”
“Good question.” He leaned forward to talk to Frankie. “Why were they there and how did they know…moreover, how did you know?”
“Someone tipped them off,” Frankie said, “and Mabel called me. She thought you might need some help.”
“Fuck,” he said the word on a long breath.
“They were there for you, Stevie,” Frankie said, looking at Nate in the rear-vision mirror. “Someone inside the bar tweeted that you were going to be performing with part of your band.”
“Who?” she asked. “Who tweeted?”
“BeautyQueen9545,” he replied.
“Darla,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “Fucking Darla.”
“How did they know that we were doing a song together?” Nate asked.
“Apparently there has been some chatter,” Frankie said cautiously, “but nothing substantiated. They’ve seen the two of you coming out of the studio together.”
Well, shit. He hadn’t even thought to hide that they were working together, it had never cross
ed his mind. He turned to Stevie.
“What do you want to do? Do you want to release a statement?”
She bit her lip as she thought it through. “I should probably contact Marci and see what her take is on all of this.”
“Yeah,” he sighed, “and I should probably talk to Mabel.” He leaned forward again to talk to Frankie. “Take us to my apartment.”
“Your apartment?” Stevie asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I just thought it would be easier to talk there,” he said, winging it. “We can contact Marci and Mabel and have them meet us there to hammer out our next steps.”
“Shouldn’t the rest of my band be in attendance?”
He sat back at looked at her. She really had no idea what was about to happen in her life. He may have been naïve about a lot of stuff in the music industry and let other people deal with the nuts and bolts of his career, but the one thing he did have experience in was dealing with the press. He knew what it was like to become an ‘overnight sensation’ and the amount of media attention it would garner. Having her name linked to his would only fuel the fire, and not in a good way.
“I think we should talk to Marci and Mabel first,” he said, “and see what they have to say.”
She huffed out a breath and sat back, crossing her arms in front of her. “This is only the beginning, isn’t it?”
He nodded, his jaw tight.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better, right?”
He nodded again. She looked so… worried, lost, helpless, disappointed? He couldn’t pin down one emotion, they all seemed to be radiating off her.
“This is what you wanted,” he said, gently. “It’s what you have been working towards for years.”