Hero Worship (Music City Moguls Book 6)

by Cheryl Douglas

  “It made all the difference. I wouldn’t be where I am if I hadn’t learned to solve problems, think logically, and handle stress.”

  “I never thought about it like that.”

  Natasha knocked on the door before poking her head in. “It sounded like you guys were taking a break, so I thought I’d bring these in.” She set a tray with a platter of brownies, a glass of milk, and a mug of coffee just the way Clint liked it on Austin’s small desk.

  “Thanks,” Clint said, winking at her. “I was wondering when I was going to get one of those.”

  “They’re the best,” Austin said, taking a brownie.

  Natasha rolled her eyes before passing Clint the plate of brownies and a paper napkin. “It’s polite to serve your guest first, Austin.”

  “Oh yeah, sorry.” He grinned, revealing traces of chocolate icing on his front teeth.

  “It’s okay. I get it.” Clint smiled before biting into one of the squares. “Mmm, how come I didn’t know you could bake like this, lady?”

  She leaned against the door frame since there wasn’t enough room for all three of them in the small room. “I bring baked goods into work sometimes. I guess you never make it in before the goodies are gone.”

  “You’ll have to text me next time.” He polished off the brownie in two bites before reaching for his coffee.

  She gave him a coy look. “Play your cards right, and I just might make you your own private stash.”

  “I like the sound of that.” It had been a long time since he’d dated a woman like Natasha, someone mature and responsible, a caretaker who believed in making her own way in the world and hadn’t forgotten the importance of surrounding herself with loving and supportive people.

  “It’s that time,” Natasha said, glancing at her watch. “Austin, you need to brush your teeth and read at least three chapters of your book before bed. You have that book report due next week, remember?”

  Austin grumbled before he tossed his napkin into the wastebasket by his desk. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Okay, do your thing,” Natasha said, giving Austin a lopsided grin. “PJ’s on, teeth brushed, in bed with that book. I’ll come in and turn the lights out in about half an hour, okay?”

  “Yeah.” He looked at Clint and shyly extended his hand. “Thanks a lot for the lesson. It was great.”

  “My pleasure.” Clint gave Natasha a hesitant look while he shook her son’s hand. When she responded with a subtle nod, he was satisfied she was happy with their arrangement. “Maybe I could come back next week? You keep working on those chords, and we’ll try something new next time. Sound good?”

  “That’d be awesome!”

  “Now that we’ve got that settled, into the bathroom.” Natasha pointed at the closed door across the hall from Austin’s room. When he went into the bathroom and closed the door, Natasha said, “Come on, grab your coffee. You can finish it in the living room.”

  Clint didn’t want to intrude on her private time, but he was anxious to spend more time with her. “Sure.” Once they were settled on the small sofa facing each other, Clint said, “So your mama lives upstairs, right? She helps you out with Austin?”

  “Yeah.” Natasha reached for her tea on the coffee table and wrapped her hands around the bright red mug. “We’ve been in this building since before Austin was born. I stayed with Mama the first year ‘cause I was young and needed the help. I tried going to college for a few months after Austin was born, but I quickly realized I needed to focus all of my attention on being a mom.”

  “I admire you for going back to school now that he’s older. It takes a lot of courage to delve into something new instead of just maintaining the status quo.” Clint took a sip of his coffee, though he was in no hurry to finish. It gave him an excuse to stretch out his time with her. “I had a chat with Austin about how much my degree has helped me. I think it made an impression on him.”

  Natasha touched his knee. “Thank you for that. He looks up to you so much. I know your opinion matters to him, and frankly, I can use all the help I can get.” She smiled. “He’s at that age where a parent’s word doesn’t hold as much weight as it once did.”

  “I can understand that. It’s the same with my nephew. They’re trying to be independent, find their own way even though they’re too young to use good judgment sometimes.”

  She shuddered. “When I think of some of the crazy stunts I pulled as a teen, I am definitely not looking forward to those years.”

  Clint heard the bathroom door open and Austin’s bedroom door close. Lowering his voice, he said, “We talked a bit about what’s going on with him at school.”

  Natasha looked surprised as she set her cup on the table. “He opened up to you about that?”

  “I think there may be a bit more than he’s letting on about, but he seemed comfortable talking to me.” Clint didn’t want to betray Austin’s trust, but he knew Natasha needed to know what was going on with her son. “If you’re okay with it, I’d like to keep the lines of communication open with him. Invite him to call me if he needs someone to talk to.” He smirked. “I know y’all are close, but there are some things a kid can’t talk to his mama about, Tash.”

  “Does this have something to do with girls?” she asked, looked panicked. “‘Cause I don’t think I’m ready to deal with that yet.”

  Clint chuckled. “No, nothing like that.”

  “Thank God.” She looked down, fixating on the faded knee of her blue jeans. “I think it would be nice if you and Austin became friends. He’s never had a male role model, and he already respects you, so…”

  Clint became concerned when her voice trailed off. “What’s wrong?”

  “I just know how busy you are.”

  “And you’re afraid I’ll go out on tour and forget all about Austin?” When she didn’t respond, he set his finger under her chin and raised her head. “Believe me, that’s not gonna happen. Austin and his mama could well be the only thing on my mind when I hit the road in a few months.”

  “What do you mean?” Her breath caught when he traced the curve of her cheek with his fingertip.

  “I think you’re amazing, Tash,” he said softly. “I’ve made no secret of that.”

  “Yeah, but we’re…” She swallowed, reaching for his wrist to still his wandering hand. “Friends.”

  “Why couldn’t we be more?”

  She inched back on the couch, putting some distance between them. “Please try to understand, Clint. It’s not that I’m not attracted to you—I am. Maybe if I didn’t have a child, I’d feel differently, but Austin needs stability in his life.”

  “And my lifestyle doesn’t promote stability?” He knew she wasn’t trying to offend him, but that she didn’t think they were a good fit still hurt.

  “You’re on the road a lot.” When he didn’t answer, she sighed. “My daddy was on the road a lot too. He was a long-haul truck driver. Sometimes we wouldn’t see him for weeks on end.”

  He reached for her hand. “That must have been rough, but things are different now, Tash. Cell phones and video chats make it a lot easier to stay in touch when you’re on the road.”

  “I know that.” She bit her lip, looking hesitant. “But I swore I’d never get involved with someone who traveled a lot. Relationships are hard enough without one partner spending half the year on the road.”

  He couldn’t deny she was right, but he didn’t want to throw in the towel without a fight.

  “I don’t intend to get married unless I know for sure it’s for keeps.” She blushed. “I know that sounds presumptuous. You’re just thinking about the possibility of dating, and I’m talking about a serious commitment, but I can’t afford to do casual. Not with Austin.”

  “I understand that.”

  “We’re doing okay on our own.” She wrapped her arms around her mid-section. “That’s not to say I wouldn’t like for him to have a father figure in his life. I know he would like that too, but we don’t need a man to take ca
re of us. I can take care of us all by myself. I’ve been doing it since the day he was born, and I can go on doing it as long as I need to.”

  Clint wanted to express himself without overstepping, so he weighed his words carefully. “Life isn’t supposed to be so hard. The right partner could make your life a hell of a lot easier.”

  “I’m not looking for the easy way out,” she said emphatically. “I’m looking for the kind of love I can’t live without. If I wanted easy, I would have stayed at that strip joint Ryan found me—”

  “You were working at a strip joint when you met Ryan Spencer?” That was a part of her story Clint hadn’t heard before, and he could tell she hadn’t intended to share it.

  “I was doing what I had to do to support myself and my son. I wasn’t stripping; I was waitressing. The money was good, and it meant I could be with Austin during the day. My mama was still working full-time back then, and I couldn’t afford a babysitter—”

  “You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” Clint whispered, reaching for her hand. “You were a single mom doing what you had to do to support yourself and your son. There’s no shame in that. No matter what you felt you had to do, I’m not here to judge you.”

  “Really?” Her face crumpled before she breathed a sigh of relief. “I was so afraid Ryan would tell you where we’d met and you’d think less of me.”

  “Why would I think less of you?”

  “When a man finds out you worked in a ‘gentlemen’s club,’” she said, making air quotes around the words, “he has all kinds of preconceived ideas about what that means. Your respect means a lot to me, and I don’t want to lose that just because I made some choices that I’m not necessarily proud of.”

  “You have nothing to be embarrassed about, honey. You were a young mother without a lot of options. You had to keep food on the table and a roof over your heads. You did. That’s all that matters.”

  She hugged him. “Thank you for saying that. You have no idea what a relief it is to tell you and know that you don’t think less of me.”

  “If anything,” he whispered, “I think more of you, sweetheart. A hell of a lot more.”

  Chapter Five

  Clint was in his stables the next day, brushing down his horse after a long ride, when his nephew wandered in. “Hey, Uncle Clint, you wanna go for a ride?”

  “Just got back.” He gestured to his horse, Archer. “This one wore me out. What are you doing down here? I thought your dad said you had to finish your homework before you could ride?”

  “No homework tonight,” Ryland said. “We had a substitute teacher. She was pretty easy.”

  Clint smiled. He wasn’t so old that he’d forgotten “substitute teacher” was synonymous with “free-for-all.” “Your dad still workin’? I haven’t seen him around since I got home.”

  “He left a note, said he’s out mending fences. He’ll be back before dinner.”

  “Oh.” Clint reached for a comb to brush out his horse’s mane and tail after setting the soft brush back on the shelf. “Speaking of school, how are things going? You makin’ friends?”

  “I guess.” He shrugged, kicking an empty bucket.

  Since Clint knew when to pull back, he decided to change the subject. “You like living here?”

  “I love it, but Dad’s talkin’ about getting an apartment in the city. He said you need your privacy.”

  Clint rolled his eyes. “Please, the house is huge. We hardly ever see each other.”

  “I know, right?”

  “Maybe I’ll talk to your dad again about building a small place for y’all here on my property. Would you like that?”

  “It’d be awesome, but you know Dad.” Ryland stuck his hands in the pockets of his baggy jeans. “He’s too proud to take charity.”

  “It wouldn’t be charity.” But Ryland was right about his Dad. Den was proud to the point of being bullheaded and infuriating. “I’ve been meaning to build a guest house ever since I built this place. If it would make your old man feel better, I’d even let him pay for the building with the money he got from selling your old house.” Ryland flinched, and Clint could tell he’d hit a sore spot mentioning the house they’d shared as a family. “You thinkin’ about your mama?”

  Ryland walked over to the horse he usually rode, Lilbit, and stroked the animal. “That’s nothin’ new. I think about her all the time.”

  “I know you miss her,” Clint said, thinking he would give anything to take away his nephew’s pain. “We all do. She was an incredible woman.”

  Ryland gave him a lopsided smile, but his expressive green eyes were still sad and lifeless. “You’re just sayin’ that ‘cause she was your biggest fan.”

  “It went both ways,” Clint said. “I was one of her biggest fans too.”

  The silence stretched on as they both got lost in their thoughts of Julie and what she meant to their family.

  Finally, Clint said, “I met a kid just about your age yesterday. He’s a friend’s son. I’m teaching him how to play the guitar.”

  “That’s cool.”

  “Yeah, he mentioned he’d like to learn how to ride.” He gestured to Lilbit with the comb. “You think you might be up for giving him a lesson sometime?”

  “Maybe.”

  It wasn’t a commitment, and Ryland didn’t seem thrilled with the prospect, but Clint believed both boys had something to offer the other. They seemed like kindred spirits. Both had suffered a loss and were trying to deal with it while trying to fit into a world they didn’t understand. “I was thinking about inviting him and his mama out on Sunday. You gonna be here?”

  “I could be.”

  “Okay, good. I’ll see if I can arrange it then.”

  ***

  Natasha was having a cup of coffee at her mother’s kitchen table and nibbling on a sugar cookie when her mama wiped her hands on a dishcloth and said, “I heard about Austin’s guitar lesson the other night. When were you gonna tell me about that?”

  Natasha’s mother was also her best friend and expected to be kept apprised of everything that happened in her daughter and grandson’s lives. When she was kept out of the loop, she saw it as a personal affront, even when it was just an oversight.

  “I guess I just forgot to mention it.”

  “That’s some pretty famous company you’re keepin’, girl.” She fanned her face, making her silver-blond hair drift over her forehead. “Clint Davis. My, my.”

  “Come on, Mama,” Natasha said, rolling her eyes. “You know Clint and I are friends. We’ve known each other for years.”

  “You sure he’s just a friend?” she asked, claiming the wooden chair across from her daughter. “I’ve seen the way you light up when you talk about him.”

  Natasha considered downplaying her attraction to Clint, but she could really use her mother’s advice. “It seems the feeling’s mutual, but I think it would be emotional suicide to get involved with a guy like that.”

  “A guy like that?” She frowned. “From everything you’ve told me about him, he sounds wonderful. Kind, compassionate… not to mention rich, famous, and easy on the eyes.”

  “Come on, Mama. You know I don’t care about stuff like that.”

  “Still,” her mother said, winking, “it does help sweeten the pot.”

  “I explained to him about Daddy being gone all the time when I was growing up.” Natasha hadn’t planned to open up to Clint about her childhood, but she wanted him to understand that her reasons for not wanting to get involved weren’t a reflection of her feelings for him.

  “What did he say to that?”

  “He understood.” Natasha split the heart-shaped cookie in two before taking another bite. “But he said it’s a lot easier to stay in touch now than it was when Daddy was on the road.”

  “He has a point there. There were no cell phones back then. Hell, no home computers for that matter. Your daddy would call collect from the payphone at a truck stop whenever he could, but that got expensive, an
d he wanted to save every penny for us.”

  “I remember.” Natasha smiled. Her father had been a good, hardworking man, but she’d never gotten to know him as well as she would have liked. He’d had a stroke behind the wheel and died at a hospital in another state when she was only fifteen. “How’d you handle it, Mama? Being alone so much with three young kids to raise?”

  “Oh, I think in a lot of ways, I had it easier than you do. At least I knew I had someone to lean on when times got tough.” She covered Natasha’s hand with her own. “You’ve been trying to do it alone for so long. I worry about you.”

  Natasha smiled as she squeezed her mother’s hand. “I haven’t been alone. You’ve been with me every step of the way. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “Still, it would do my heart good to know you had a man like Clint Davis to take care of you.”

  Natasha shook her head at the gleam in her mother’s eye. “How many times have I told you I don’t need a man to take care of me?”

  “Everyone needs someone, sugar.” She reached for her tea. “Just imagine. You’d be livin’ like a queen. I saw a spread on him in one of those country music magazines a few years back. You should see his house.” She fanned her face again. “Mercy me, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a palace compared to the places we’ve lived.”

  “Would you believe Clint offered to let Austin have his birthday party at his ranch?” Natasha still cringed when she thought about how that offer had come about. It wasn’t like her son to be so bold. She couldn’t imagine what had gotten into him.

  “Oh, that would solve all of your problems!” her mother said, clasping her hands in front of her.

  “How do you figure?”

  “You said yourself it’ll be hard for you to give Austin a big birthday party this year, but you’d love to do something special for him. Hosting it at Clint’s place is like the answer to your prayers. Think of all the fun the kids would have there. I saw in that magazine article that he has this huge game room with a pool table, ping pong, video—”