“Yes,” I answered with a nod. “I always give the same answer. Yes, I know him, and Comfort is proud of him.”
“Good. Good. Then the next step is to figure out what you and Anson want to say.”
I buried my face in my hands and let out what could only be described as a half-groan and half-laugh.
“Bristol.”
His voice instantly put me at ease. I dropped my hands and saw Anson standing there. A feeling of happiness stole through me, and my stomach fluttered at the sight of him. Cowboy boots, jeans, a T-shirt, and that dirty old black cowboy hat that made his eyes stand out in the most deliciously blinding way.
The look of worry on his face made me smile in a sad attempt to erase his fears.
“Hey,” I said, trying to keep my voice light and carefree.
Anson looked at Lanny. “I got your message as well as Robert’s.”
He moved so quickly toward me that I didn’t even have time to react when he cupped my face in his hands and looked directly into my eyes.
“Baby, I am so sorry. I swear it’s going to be okay. This wasn’t how I wanted to tell everyone about us. I’m so damn sorry.”
I placed my hands on his arms. “It’s okay. Anson, it’s really okay.”
He closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to mine. “Please don’t leave me again,” he whispered.
My breath hitched in my throat, and I pulled back to look at him. The fear in his eyes nearly made my knees buckle out from underneath me.
Anson
HER BREATH CAUGHT in her throat, and I watched as her eyes filled with wetness.
“I will never leave you. Ever. I swear to you.”
I smiled, but her words didn’t ease the fear and utter rage that raced through my body.
Bristol reached up on her toes and kissed my lips gently then whispered, “You and me, right?”
My heart felt like it wanted to burst in my chest. That was what we had always said to one another. I hadn’t heard those words in so damn long. “Always, Bri.”
With a deep breath in and then out, I turned to face Lanny. “I need to make a statement.”
Lanny nodded. “Brad thinks Bristol should as well.”
Emmie cleared her throat and asked, “Should we warn Ida and Irwin? Your folks, Anson?”
I sighed. “I already told Mom and Dad what was going on. I just left the ranch.”
When I met Bristol’s eyes, they were filled with concern. “Everything’s okay, we talked some.”
She smiled and said, “I’m glad.”
Even now, when her world was about to turn upside down, she was worried about me.
God damn it, I don’t deserve her love. Or her forgiveness.
I faced Brad. “I know this is asking a lot of you, but I really think Bristol should have her own attorney, separate from mine, at least with this.”
“An attorney!” Bristol nearly shouted.
“It’s not what you think. It’s more for protection. He can help you with a statement, and anything else that comes out of this.”
“But I have an attorney, here in town.”
Brad grinned. “No offense toward him at all, Bristol, but I’m more familiar with this type of thing than they are, I’m sure.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist and nodded. “Okay.”
Mindy came walking out of the kitchen. She stopped when she saw me and Emmie.
“What did I miss when I was making tea and getting some pastries?”
She set a tray down with two cups of tea and a plate of pastries that instantly made my mouth water.
Both Brad and I went for the pastries, while Lanny took the tea.
“Milk for your tea?” Mindy asked Lanny, who promptly shook her head.
“I think the quicker you get a response out, the better,” Lanny stated.
Bristol sat down at the table. “Do you think we should respond directly about the photos or have Anson and I do a post together? Maybe a video of us. Like the first place we ever kissed or something like that? I could post it on my Instagram, and Anson could share it.”
Lanny and I looked at each other and smiled. Then Lanny lifted a brow and said, “How did you ever let this one go? She’s beautiful…and smart.”
“I’ve been asking myself that for the last six years.”
When I glanced over to Bristol, I winked. She flashed me a brilliant smile.
Lanny stood and started to walk around the tea room.
“Oh, Lord, she’s thinking,” Brad said.
“No, I actually like Bristol’s idea. That way it doesn’t seem like the photos drove you to respond, even though they did. How quickly can you do this?”
“We could go now,” Bristol said. “It’s down on Cypress Creek.”
“Against a tree, if I remember correctly.”
“And poorly executed if I remember Bristol’s side of it,” Mindy stated.
Everyone laughed.
“I don’t think we should have anyone else recording us,” Bristol said. “It should be more organic, just the two of us. Almost as if we’re walking down memory lane together and decided to share it.”
The fact that she’d just dropped the name of my upcoming single had me smiling like a damn fool.
“This is perfect,” I said. “Remember the single I sang at my last concert? The title’s ‘Memory Lane.’”
Lanny snapped her fingers and then called out, “Yes! Bristol this is a great idea!”
I nodded and held out my hand to Bristol. “Let’s go.”
She looked scared to death suddenly. “Well, wait. I’ve been working all day. I don’t even have any makeup on!”
Lanny scoffed then said, “Girl, I can do your makeup. I used to work for a pretty popular pop singer who used to sing country.”
Mindy hit Lanny on the shoulder. Hard enough that it took her off balance.
“Taylor Swift?” Bristol and Mindy both asked at once.
Lanny shrugged. “I’m not allowed to say. Legal stuff and all.”
Mindy turned to Bristol. “I bet it was Taylor Swift.”
“Girls, I think you should probably get a move on,” Brad said.
“My house is right next door. Let me close up, and we can move over there,” Bristol said.
Thirty minutes later, Bristol walked out in a jumper with one of my tour hats on and a ponytail sticking out. Zeus bounced along next to her. My damn dog had fallen head over heels in love with Bristol too.
“Where did you get the hat from?” I asked.
Mindy tilted her head as she placed her hand on her hip. “That’s what I asked her too.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Bristol said as she unplugged her phone that had been charging.
“You look beautiful in it,” I said as I leaned down and kissed her.
Mindy sighed. “Oh, to be in love.”
Lanny and Brad both looked at her then down at her little pregnancy bump.
Mindy clearly noticed because she laughed. “I’m getting divorced. My husband cheated on me, and I actually think I’m in love with another man, so my life is perfect.”
“Oh my gawd, what?!” Bristol said.
Lanny clearly saw the conversation taking a turn toward more delays.
“Okay, ladies, let’s save that bombshell for after the video.”
Bristol and I leaned against the tree where I’d first kissed her. Those brown eyes of hers looked up at me, and she smiled.
“How can you smile right now?” I asked. “Are you not upset?”
“How can I not smile when you’re looking at me like that, Anson?”
I lifted my hand and brushed a piece of her hair that had fallen from the baseball cap behind her ear.
Then I sang part of a song I had written a year or so ago.
“She’s my only home.
The only home I’ve known.
She blankets me from inside out…”
Her eyes filled with tears, and I kissed her cheeks and kept singing
.
“With a love I call my own.
I keep it hidden,
So deep inside…to make sure her love stays mine.”
I raised my hand, rubbed my thumb across her lips, and whispered, “She’s only ever mine.”
She lifted up, and when her hat hit mine as she tried to kiss me, we both laughed.
I removed our hats and dropped them to the ground. Cupping her face in my hands, I smiled.
“Do you have any idea how happy you make me?”
She shook her head. “I think you should show me.”
“Are we done with the video?”
“I think so,” she replied, a dreamy look in her eyes.
“Good, because I plan to take you back to my truck, and then we’re fooling around in the backseat.”
“I think Lanny is going to want me to edit and upload this.”
I sighed. “Fine, let’s get it done so I can make you come.”
She hit me on the chest. “Anson Meyer! Anyone could hear you if they walked by.”
I winked and smacked her on the ass. We sat down against the tree and Bristol moved around on her phone like a pro as she edited the video and then uploaded it to Instagram.
“I’m going to do an intro video first, and since we’re sitting here at the tree, I think we should go live. People already know you’re in town. Are you okay with that?”
“Sure,” I said as I handed her back the baseball cap. She slipped it on and pulled her ponytail through the back.
With a deep breath in, she pulled up her Instagram stories and bit into her lip as she stared at the button to hit LIVE.
“Hey, Bri. Look at me.”
She turned and looked at me.
“We don’t have to do this. We can simply ignore it.”
“No, I want to do this. It’s just…we’ve only been back together for a little over a week, and I feel like the world is going to come crashing in on us. I’m not afraid to share you, please know that. And I’m not afraid of what people are going to say.”
“What are you afraid of then?”
Her eyes filled with tears, and I could tell she was fighting to hold them back. “Of losing you again. Of not fitting into your life in Nashville.”
I pulled her onto my lap and kissed her. She placed her hand on the side of my face as I deepened the kiss.
When I pulled my mouth from hers, she looked into my eyes. “We’re not going to lose each other, Bristol. And if you ever feel like something is more than you can deal with, tell me. Promise me you’ll tell me.”
She nodded. “I promise. But, Anson, I need you to know I don’t ever want to come between you and your career.”
I frowned. “You won’t.”
Bristol swallowed hard. “I know you think it’s going to be easy, but we need to be realistic about this. You’re going to be gone. A lot. I’m okay with that. I mean, I think I am,” she said with a laugh. “But if I’m feeling weird or unsure about something, I promise I’ll tell you.”
“I promise you the same thing.”
She drew in a deep breath and exhaled. “Then we should do this.”
“I’m sorry that you’re having to deal with this.”
“Don’t be. I’m so proud of you, Anson. And I swear, from this point on, I’ll listen to every single song you sing.”
“And write? ’Cause I write songs for other artists too, but you’ve been the inspiration for a lot of them.”
Bristol laughed. “All of them. I’ll even pay close attention to the ones you sing in the shower.”
“I don’t think I’ll be singing ‘Let It Burn’ for a while. A long while.”
She smiled and then shook her head and opened up her phone again.
“Put your hat back on, and we’re ready to go.”
I reached for my hat and slipped it back onto my head, while Bristol pulled out a tube of lipstick from somewhere and put a little bit on her lips.
“Here we go!” she said as she hit LIVE on her Instagram story. It was only showing her and not me.
“Hey, y’all. Well, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks here on the home-front. Let me give you the four-one-one. An old boyfriend showed back up in town.”
People started posting on her video, and she said hello to a few and then kept talking.
“I think I’ve mentioned a time or two about my first love, and I’ve always been pretty silent on the matter of who he was. We’ve talked about first loves on this platform and all of that. Well, fate has a funny way of making things work out. I haven’t talked much about the man I first kissed. We were best friends before we became a couple. Dated all through high school and college. Then we broke up and, well, things changed. But that first love, the man I never truly stopped loving, I’m happy to say we’re back together.” She looked at me and smiled but kept me off the screen.
“I thought I would introduce you to the love of my life and then show y’all a little video we made together about the first time we kissed. As a matter of fact, this tree I’m leaning against is the tree he kissed me under. I’ve got to be honest with y’all, his kisses have improved drastically since that first one.” She fanned herself while talking to her followers, and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have pried the smile off of my face with a crowbar in that moment.
Instead, I poked her in the side, and she laughed.
“Without further delay, I’d like y’all to meet Anson.”
She turned the camera so we were framed together. I waved and smiled. “Hey, y’all.”
A few people said hi or hey. Some made comments about my looks. Then realization hit, and a few freaked out.
Bristol started to tell them a bit more about the upcoming video, and I wanted to laugh at one comment from a dude.
Holy freaking shit. You’re dating Anson Meyer! There goes my chance to marry you!
“Enjoy the video and be sure to check out the post I’m going to be putting up here in a bit. I finally made Eccles cakes, and Mindy practically ate them all! Later, y’all!”
She hit End and then uploaded the video of us.
“So, it’s out,” I said as I stood then reached down and helped her up.
“It’s out.”
“I’ll share it once we get back into the truck,” I said.
Bristol nodded, but I could see the worry in her eyes.
“You know what I think we need to do?” I asked.
“Drink and have sex?”
I tossed my head back and let out a roar of laughter. “Fuck yes, that sounds good. But first, I want some pizza.”
She lifted her brow. “Comfort Pizza?”
“Hell, yes. Come on, let me feed you, then have my wicked way with you.”
Bristol
TWO WEEKS HAD passed since the big announcement, and life really hadn’t changed all that much. Lanny had fielded a handful of requests from people who asked for interviews with Anson and me. Anson took a few more phone calls than normal from Robert, but all in all, life seemed to be normal. For now.
Anson had also moved out of the guest house of his grandparents’ place and was staying with me. It was heavenly to spend time with him every day. To go to sleep in his arms and wake up to him kissing me softly and then making love to me. Heaven. Truth be told, it had been the most amazing few weeks of my life. Blissful was the best word to use.
Anson hadn’t made an appearance at the tea room yet, at least not when we were open, and I was okay with that. If people came in to peek at me or him, I didn’t know. With the many tourists we already had coming in and out, strangers weren’t anything new.
I glanced around the tea room and smiled. Two tables were full. One with an afternoon tea for a local book club, the other a group of friends who met twice a month. All locals. And not one of them uttered a word about my post, much to my relief.
The post I shared two weeks ago was mostly received with positivity. Some negative Nelly comments, here and there, but for the most part, my followers were genuinely happy
for me. I even gained followers after Anson shared my post.
The bell rang on the entrance to the tea room, and I glanced over to see Anson walk in. He had been helping his father out on the ranch more and more as the weeks went on, and I could see how happy it made him to be spending time on the ranch. I hoped that happiness also came from spending more time with his father. They had started to talk, but Anson said they’d been interrupted when the photos leaked.
“Hey, to what do we owe this honor?” I asked as I walked up and gave him a quick kiss.
He smiled and quickly glanced around the room. A look of surprise crossed his face, mostly at my very public display of affection. I’d waited six years for this feeling again, and I was bound and determined not to waste another minute.
“Are you free to talk alone?”
“Sure, let’s go back to my office.”
Anson followed me as we made our way through the tea room and back toward my office.
“Afternoon, ladies,” I heard him say as we passed one of the tables. I glanced back over my shoulder. It was the book club. All of them had smiles on their faces, a few of them with pink cheeks.
Yes, Anson Meyer had that effect on women, no doubt about it.
“Terry, I’ll be in my office—let me know if you need anything,” I called out to her in the kitchen.
She gave me a grin and said, “Sure thing.”
After we walked into my office, I shut the door and was promptly pushed against it. Anson’s mouth landed on mine, and my body instantly came to life.
Lord, this man can kiss.
He pulled back and whispered, “I’ve been thinking about that mouth all day.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and replied, “Mmm, I’ve missed you too, Mr. Meyer. How were things at the ranch?”
He rubbed his nose softly against mine. “Good. Dad and I still haven’t really talked everything through, but it’s been nice working alongside him. I feel like it’s another piece of me that’s been missing for a while now.”
I smiled and dropped my hands as I leaned my head back against the door so I could look up at him.
“Why do you seem out of sorts then?”
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