by Sonya Clark
“I think I can do that,” Daisy said.
She held it together for the rest of the time her mother was there, which wasn’t long. It was as if Alice, too, knew this tiny bit of peace was far too fragile to risk. She left after only a few more minutes. Daisy sat stunned for a long time, too shocked to cry at first. She sat there longer and longer and finally realized the tears weren’t coming. She’d cried so much over her mother, and over her own daughter, that she was finally out of tears. All the emotion was still there and she didn’t kid herself into thinking everything would be perfect now. If Alice would at least try, and Daisy made herself try as well, then they wouldn’t need perfect.
Sometimes good enough really was okay.
Daisy spent the rest of the day on homework and housework, letting the conversation with her mother process in the background.
Rocky Top was crowded that night, despite the sign saying Wade had the night off. Daisy did her best to focus on her new job, though she was still waiting tables and would be until a new waitress was hired. The Saturday night crowd was starting to get restless without the live music they’d all gotten used to. If folks got rowdy, she would try to find some sports on TV but for now she kept the jukebox cranking.
At a quick trip to the bar Ronisha said, “Hey, you heard from your cowboy?”
“He’s not my cowboy. I need a pitcher of strawberry margarita and a single pina colada.”
Ronisha went to work on the order. “Don’t be like that. He is yours, you just don’t want to admit it.” Ronisha waved past Daisy’s shoulder. “Tell her, Megan. That cowboy is hers.”
Daisy turned to see Megan striding up the bar, smiling. “Hey,” Daisy said. “Where’s your dad?”
Megan jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “At the big corner table with Chris and his parents. And yes, he is your cowboy.” To Ronisha she said, “Though now that he’s ditched the hat, maybe we shouldn’t call him cowboy anymore.”
Ronisha said, “Well, me personally, I’ve started to think of him as the boss’s boyfriend.” She stuck out her tongue at Daisy.
Megan squealed and threw her arms around Daisy. “Whoo hoo, big boss lady! Congratulations.”
Daisy untangled herself and reached for the tray of drinks. “Thank you. Know anyone looking for a waitressing job, send them here. I need a replacement.” She hurried away before the conversation could veer back to Wade.
But there was no escaping mention of him tonight. Nearly every customer asked about him, hoping he’d be performing at some point in the evening. Daisy pasted on her best fake smile and said he was in Nashville for the weekend. Several people took that as proof he intended to revive his career and wanted to talk about it. She nodded along, tried to say the right things, and moved to the next table as fast as she could. They weren’t in her section but she felt obligated to speak to Wade’s family. When she had a chance, she approached their table and spoke to Megan and Mr. Hollister first.
“It’s nice to see y’all here tonight,” Daisy said, so nervous she could have cheerfully barfed.
Chris said, “I hear you’re the manager now. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. Is there anything I can get y’all?”
Mrs. Sheppard said, “We have a waitress, dear. Have you heard from Wade?”
Daisy shrank into herself and wanted to disappear. “No, ma’am.” She mumbled an excuse to leave and rushed away. She sped by the bar and ran through the door to the back, telling Ronisha, “I’m going on break.”
A busboy was in the break room so Daisy chose the storage room. She shut the door and sagged against it. All alone with no one to see, she let the fake smile drop. She loved him. He was going to get a record deal and leave town and she loved him. They wanted different things, different lives, but she loved him. She loved him, and it already felt like she’d lost him.
She stayed hidden well past her ten minute break period, not caring if it angered anyone. Tonight, they could cut her some slack. She’d make it up to them later. Once she was calm and satisfied that she could deal with people again, she opened the door.
Wade stood there with his hand raised and a look of alarm on his face. “Are you okay? Ronisha said you’ve been back here a while.”
The sight of him nearly undid her. She wanted to climb into his arms and stay there. “I’m fine. How did it go?” She tried to push past him.
He blocked her and maneuvered them both into the storage room, closing the door behind him. “Tell me what’s wrong.” He folded his arms around her.
“I can’t do this. Not here, not tonight.”
“Daisy.”
“We can have the talk tomorrow. You can tell me how your meetings went and we can, we can.” Break up. Walk away.
For a moment - just one quick flash of a moment - Daisy could see a version of the future. She owned her own successful restaurant, had a nice home and all of the security and stability she’d craved. But she was alone, because she’d clung to the first and only dream she’d ever had. Was holding on to that dream worth losing him? She wanted to be independent, stand on her own feet and make her own way in life. But if she let the best man she’d ever known slip through her fingers, would that mean a loveless life? If that moment had stretched out much longer, she could have talked herself into walking away from her dreams to follow him any and everywhere.
But he ended that moment by speaking. “I love you, Daisy.”
Her breath caught and hope squeezed her heart tight. “I love you, too.”
“The meetings went well. Becky and I are going to be able to do what we want, which is start up my publishing company again.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It’s how I keep control of my songs. I’ll write songs, we’ll pitch them to other artists. She’s talking to a guy now, a real talented young guy, and I think he’ll wind up recording Good Time Bad Boy. I’ll have to go to Nashville once in a while, but it’ll be about like this trip. Just gone for a day or two. Maybe not even that long, depending on what I have to do.”
“What happened to a new record deal? Reviving your career and all that?”
“I was a star once. I don’t need to do it again.”
“But-”
“I’d rather be home every night with you.” He threaded his fingers in her hair and cradled her head. “Daisy, I love you. I know it was only two nights but I hated being away from you. This is what I want. Being home, here, with you.” He licked his lips and a shadow darkened his eyes. “We haven’t talked about a future together. A future with you is the only one I can see.”
Wild, reckless joy filled her at those simple words that carried so much meaning. She kissed him. “I love you so much, Wade. I want that, too, a future with you.”
He held her gaze for a long moment then gathered her even closer. Somebody beat on the door. Wade picked her up and carried her to lean against the storage shelf. He rained kisses across her cheeks, down the column of her neck and to the hollow of her throat. Daisy clasped him to her tight with her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist, arching into him like a cat. All those crappy apartments and trailers she’d grown up in, crashing with relatives who wanted them gone, friends of her mother’s she didn’t feel safe with. Daisy’s need for a home - a place she could call her own, where she felt safe and loved and free to be herself - had driven her dreams from the time she was a young child. She’d clipped pictures out of magazines for inspiration as she planned and imagined what her home would look like. Driven around Brittain and nearby towns just to look at houses, hoping one day to own her own. This moment in Wade’s arms told her a greater truth. This was her home, right here, in his arms and the cocoon of his love.
Ronisha’s voice broke through the haze. “You okay, Daisy? People are asking for you and Wade both.”
Wade’s lips left her skin and Daisy groaned her displeasure at the loss. He said, “We need to get back out there. I said I would play and you got a bar to manage.�
� He kissed her forehead and released her.
Emotional whiplash threatened Daisy’s equilibrium. She gripped the shelf with one hand to steady herself, keeping one hand on Wade’s chest above his heart. “You really mean it? You’re staying here?”
“I want a life with you. I want it here. I thought about all these things on the drive back. I could see it so clearly. You doing your homework at the kitchen table while I’m working on songs in the living room. Being there when you graduate. Playing weekends here so we can have more time together, and so I can keep performing. I want to be right there with you when you open up your own place. And if Becky can take that singer I found for her as far as I think she can, I want you by my side in Nashville when Good Time Bad Boy is up for a CMA.” Wade took her face in his hands. “I want my life to be with you. I love you, Daisy.” He kissed her, his mouth making a fierce, possessive claim on hers. “I love you. I love you.”
Ronisha beat on the door again. “Just tell me you’re okay, Daisy.”
Daisy pulled away from Wade reluctantly and laughed. “I’m fine,” she yelled. “We’ll be right out.”
“Okay,” Ronisha said. “Just don’t do anything in there that violates the health code.”
Wade grinned. “We’ll save that for later. Come on.” He took Daisy’s hand in his. “The bar is packed and those people are getting rowdy. You need to see to your tables and I need to go play some music to settle everybody down.”
They had so much to talk about but Daisy wasn’t worried about any of it. She gave him one last quick kiss as he opened the door. “Will you sing me something by my favorite country singer?”
He gave her a sidelong look, his eyes twinkling. “And who would that be?”
“You, of course.” Okay, this would be the last kiss until they got home. Maybe. “But, you know, George Strait’s always good, too.”
Wade swung her in front of him in the narrow hall and smacked her rear. “That’s gonna cost you, darlin’.”
He sang several of his songs for her that night, including a few he hadn’t played in public before. She did her job as best she could but it was impossible to tear her eyes away from him for long. When he launched into the George Strait song that he’d played his first night on stage at Rocky Top, the one that froze her in place and had her staring at him in wonder, she gave up all pretense of paying attention to anything else. At the end of the song, she climbed on to the stage as he placed his guitar in its stand and kissed him soundly in front of the whole bar.
The crowd might have broken out in cheers, but she was too busy to notice.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading Good Time Bad Boy! This book was a real labor of love for me. Normally I write speculative fiction, but I wanted to try my hand at contemporary romance. It was a challenge at first, but music gave me a way into the story I wanted to tell. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please consider leaving a review at your favorite book site. It helps other readers find books, and I appreciate all reviews whether positive or negative.
You can find out more about my other titles at my website, http://sonyaclark.net/. If you’d like to keep up with future releases, you can subscribe to my announcements list at http://eepurl.com/bT3NL.
Copyright Information
Copyright © 2015 by Sonya Clark.
Cover design by Lucas Clevenger.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.