Half Empty

by Catherine Bybee

“Oh my God, I love your music . . . we, we love your music.”

  “Cassie and I were at your last concert in Dallas, so amazing!”

  Three teenage girls, all talking at once, was enough to make anyone’s head spin.

  Wade squeezed Trina’s hand.

  Around them, people started to stare.

  “I knew you lived here, but never thought I’d ever see you on the street.”

  “Girls . . .” He looked around, lowered his voice. “We’re kinda in a hurry. How about we do a quick picture and you help block this door so we can mosey on out of here?”

  The girl he assumed was Cassie pulled out her phone faster than a sheriff could draw a gun. Within two seconds he was sandwiched between three giggly girls in the center of a selfie. Before they could check the picture, Wade reached for Trina’s hand and pulled her out the doors.

  He didn’t look back, he just kept walking. “Sorry ’bout that,” he said as he zigzagged through the crowd and toward the parking lot.

  “You look like you’ve done that before.”

  He managed to sneak a peek at Trina over the rim of his glasses as he crossed the parking lot in a slow run.

  Lucky for him, Trina kept up.

  “A few times.” He scanned the lot, pulled Trina to the left.

  “Do you know where you’re going?”

  “Yup.” Damn . . . where was his truck? He didn’t dare look over his shoulder to see if they were being followed. His ten-gallon truck was in a lot filled with ten-gallon trucks. Maybe if he got a little—there it is! He moved faster.

  Trina’s suitcase was in his hands and tossed into the back of the truck at nearly the same time he was opening the door for her to get in.

  “What’s this?”

  Wade brushed the flowers he’d bought her aside and hoisted her inside the cab.

  “For you.” He managed a smile before closing the door and running to the driver’s side and jumping in.

  The rearview mirror didn’t show a mob, so he took that as a good sign to draw in a breath.

  Trina had picked up the simple summer bouquet and leaned down to sniff. That was when he saw movement out of her side mirror.

  “Buckle up, little lady.”

  Trina shifted her eyes to the side. “Seriously?”

  “I’m afraid so. Teenagers are harder to shake than anyone our age.”

  He turned over the engine and pulled out of the space before anyone could block his way.

  One of the girls from the selfie was running toward a car.

  He heard the click of Trina’s belt and used that as his cue to push down on the gas.

  For a big truck, it sure maneuvered through the lot with ease.

  There was a line leading out of the parking lot where he needed to pay the toll, and that was where anyone following would catch up.

  Sure enough, a four-door, light blue sedan found him in line and cut off a car to inch closer.

  He rolled down his window as he approached the booth.

  A middle-aged woman stepped out of the little door to collect his ticket.

  “How are you doing today?” he asked with as much southern charm as he possibly could. He removed his sunglasses, hoping the lady recognized him.

  “I’m doing fine. Glad the heat isn’t killing us.”

  Nothing.

  Wade took off the baseball cap, ran a hand through his hair.

  She disappeared inside the booth and rang him up. “That will be five dollars.”

  Wade pulled out a fifty. “Ma’am, would you do me a tiny favor?” He handed her the money.

  “Excuse me?”

  He glanced over his shoulder at the carload of kids waving cell phones out of their window. “You see that carload of trouble back there?”

  She looked and shook her head. “Kids today.”

  “Well, you see, they have in their mind to follow us, and I’d just as soon get a head start.”

  She peered closer. “Why would they wanna do that?”

  From the passenger seat, Trina spoke up. “He’s Wade Thomas. I’m not sure if you listen to country music—”

  The light bulb went on. “Oh, dear, yes . . . you do look like Wade Thomas.”

  “Is Wade Thomas,” Trina announced.

  “Yes, ma’am. Those girls are having a hard time understanding personal boundaries. So can you maybe take a little longer to process their ticket? Maybe give me a few extra minutes to get on the highway?”

  She stood a little taller and ran a hand over her stomach. “I’d be happy to help you out, Mr. Thomas. Let me get your . . . your . . .” She waved the fifty in the air, looked at it. “Change.”

  “No, no, that’s for your trouble. Thank you, Miss . . . ?”

  “Lou Lou . . . everyone here calls me Lou Lou.”

  “Thank you, Miss Lou Lou.”

  “Goodness, Wade Thomas.” She stared, her cheeks flushed.

  The person in the car between him and the teenagers honked.

  Wade pointed at the gate.

  “Oh, of course,” Lou Lou said, ducking back inside to let them out.

  Wade waved out the window once he saw the barrier arm go back down and the next car pull up.

  “That was crazy.”

  “Welcome to my life.”

  “Whoa.” Trina was staring out the back window.

  “Is she holding them back?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Trina started to laugh. “No wonder you were shocked I didn’t know who you were.”

  “It’s not often I go unnoticed.” He pulled out on the frontage road before speeding onto the freeway. Only then did he look in the mirror to see if they were being followed. He blew out a breath.

  He glanced over to find Trina staring, the flowers he brought her sitting in her lap. “You really are famous.”

  He smiled. “Are you just figuring that out?”

  “Apparently. Is it hard? Or do you love the attention?”

  “I’d be lying if I said I hated every minute of it. The first time someone recognized me in public had me high for a month.”

  “So what keeps you grounded?”

  He thought about that. “Not a lot. My mama makes sure to tell me to take out the trash and reminds me to muck the stalls when I’m home. Sounds crazy, but doing things I have to hire people to do for me when I’m not around brings me back to earth.”

  Trina was silent for a moment. “Your mom sounds like she’s a big part of your life.”

  “She is. I respect the hell out of the woman. Raised me all on her own with only a high school education. Sacrificed her needs over mine, time and time again. A lot of parents don’t do that.”

  “Does your mom live with you?”

  “I built a guest house at the ranch. She insisted, even though I thought it wasn’t necessary. She didn’t want my girlfriends thinking I’m a mama’s boy, even though I’m comfortable enough to tell the world I am.”

  Trina was silent.

  That’s when he remembered her conversation about her late husband . . . and his devotion to his mother being so deep the man couldn’t deal with her death. “I’m not him,” Wade said. The smile from his face fell slightly. “I love my mother, and the day she passes will be excruciating, I’m sure. But I will live without her when it comes.”

  Trina studied her lap. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, I am. I should have realized that might be a hard thing for you to hear.”

  “I’m okay.”

  He reached over and placed his hand over hers. “Let me tell you about my home.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Trina had inherited Alice’s ranch. The sprawling home was a little over six thousand square feet, complete with a stable for the four horses, a corral, and a barn large enough for the tools and equipment someone needed to maintain the land. She’d been in Texas long enough to see a couple of impressive spreads that people called home.

  Then she pulled through the gates of Wade’s home.

  The frontage of
the ranch closest to the road was home to a six-foot, tree-lined cinder block wall, perfectly manicured and maintained, before it opened into a set of double iron gates. Wade pressed a remote and let them in.

  On one side of the drive was a split rail fence with grass and trees that seemed to go forever. Horses almost looked like yard art sprinkled onto the landscape. “How many horses do you have?”

  “Ten,” he said. “No, wait . . . twelve.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “It was ten before the tour, but I seem to remember taking on two of the neighbors’, who were having a hard time keeping them fed.”

  Trina scanned the fence line. “You have neighbors?”

  Wade laughed and drove right by the modest house.

  “Isn’t that . . . ?”

  “No, that’s my caretaker’s.”

  They drove around a corner. “That’s my mother’s home.”

  This one was a little less modest, more like a three-thousand-square-foot custom home that could be found on many tracts in Texas, only this one had a wraparound porch and a separate garage.

  Trina swiveled around just in time to take in what had to be the grand finale.

  “Wow.”

  It was sprawling, it was ranch, it was two stories . . . and it was huge!

  “Being cooped up in hotels all the time makes me want to spread out when I’m home.”

  “This is monstrous, Wade.”

  Instead of pulling into a garage, he parked close to the steps leading to the front door and jumped out of the truck.

  She was already halfway out the door when he reached for her hand. “Let me show you around the outside before we go in.”

  A deep breath of country air felt energizing. “Did you have it built?”

  “Rebuilt. The bones of the original house were here, along with the small barn and grazing land. The land is what sold me, that and the lake and creek that feeds it.”

  “You have a lake?” Most of the places she’d been to had ponds or a man-made lake, not the real thing.

  They walked around the east end of the home to take in the back of the property. Trina gasped. The home actually sat on a small knoll, and the land behind the house went on for miles. There were stables that looked like something belonging to prize Thoroughbreds that won big purses at the races. The corral could play home to a rodeo, except that the viewing area was a covered brick and wood structure instead of metal stands. Before the land sloped into acres, Wade had a swimming pool with waterfalls and hot tubs, as in two. Why one needed two hot tubs in a pool was beyond her. A massive covered freestanding patio for entertaining hosted an outdoor kitchen. And people. The place was brimming with workers setting up for the party the following day.

  “You might not believe it, but this is a working cattle ranch.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Just under a hundred head of cattle beyond the lake.” He pointed in the distance.

  Trina couldn’t see the lake.

  “I’ll show you later.”

  “Why cattle?” she asked.

  He put his arm over her shoulders and winked. “Because this is Texas.”

  “Ohhhkay,” she laughed.

  “Well, hello, and who do we have here?”

  A man close to Wade’s height and weight and swagger made his way to their side.

  “Ike, this is Trina, the woman I told you about.”

  “You mean the woman you said you were picking up from the airport but otherwise I know nothing about?”

  Wade looked pleased with himself. “Yup, this would be her.”

  Ike put out his hand and Trina took it. “If it makes you feel any better, he hasn’t told me a thing about you either.”

  Ike laughed. “I do feel better.”

  Another man approached from the other side.

  Big guy, half a head taller than Wade, and eyes that looked through you even when he had a half smile on his face. “You must be a bodyguard.”

  That half a smile fell.

  Ike slapped the man’s arm. “She has your number already, Jeb.”

  “What do you know about bodyguards?” Wade asked.

  “I’ve had my share,” she said, glossing over his question. “I’m Trina.” She stuck out her hand for Mr. Muscle to shake.

  “Jeb. Wade’s personal bodyguard.”

  With a strong handshake. “I knew it.”

  “Incoming,” Ike said under his breath.

  Wade turned, his gaze falling on a blonde bombshell in blue jeans. The ex-girlfriend? She looked a little older than Wade, but who knew. Trina braced herself for confrontation and felt some relief when Wade placed his arm over her shoulders again.

  Jeb and Ike stood aside, and Wade led her forward.

  “Don’t be nervous,” he whispered in her ear.

  “Too late,” she whispered back.

  The blonde eyed her with a cautious grin.

  “Mama, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine.”

  Mama? This is Wade’s mother?

  Trina was certain she showed the shock on her face.

  “Trina, this is Vicki, my mother.”

  “This is certainly a surprise,” Vicki said. Her eyes kept shifting between Trina’s and Wade’s.

  “It’s a pleasure.” Trina extended her hand.

  Vicki moved forward a little too quickly. “Trina, did you say?”

  “Yup. Trina and I met in Florida at the end of the tour.”

  “You’re the reason Wade took his time coming home.” There was a bit of ice lacing Vicki’s words.

  “I am.”

  “Let me guess, you met Wade after one of his concerts?”

  “No, actually. I’ve never heard your son sing. Except for on the radio, but that would be hard to miss.”

  Vicki offered an unbelieving laugh.

  Trina glanced at Wade, whose face sat stoic.

  Vicki slowly stopped laughing. “You’re not kidding.”

  “No, Mama, she’s not.”

  Awkward silence filled the space around them.

  Trina attempted to fill it. “This looks like quite the party you have planned.”

  “Yes, it is. I should get back to it. Will you be staying with us?” Vicki asked.

  Trina almost said no.

  Wade cut her off. “Yes.”

  Vicki lifted her chin, smiled. “I see. Welcome, then. If you need anything . . .”

  “Thank you.”

  Vicki turned and walked away, leaving them alone.

  “That was . . .”

  “Uncomfortable,” Wade finished.

  “Yeah, a little bit.”

  They both watched the woman walk away in silence.

  Trina cocked her head to the side when she saw one of the men unloading straw bales check out Vicki’s ass.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way . . . but did your mom have you when she was twelve?”

  Her question cut the tension. Wade pulled her close. “She wasn’t quite that young.”

  “I thought she was your ex at first.”

  Wade shook his head as if her words stung. “Lord, no.”

  Trina turned her gaze away from Vicki and up at him. “If the chill from Mom was that cold, what will it be from the ex?”

  Wade looked over her shoulder, offered another smile. “I have a bodyguard standing by.”

  Trina dropped her forehead on his chest. “Oh, great.”

  Wade showed Trina the room he wanted her in, the one closest to his, and encouraged her to make herself at home. Their weekend date wouldn’t be intimate by any stretch, but he did want to find a couple of hours for just the two of them. But first he needed a word with his mother.

  He admitted that he didn’t often bring women around his mother, but she’d never been cold in the past. Why Trina was different was something he was going to get to the bottom of before the party.

  Vicki stood by an outdoor stage, a semipermanent structure Wade had sung on many times since he’d had the home re
built to his needs. He half expected to see Jordyn by his mother’s side but was told by Ike that she wouldn’t be arriving until the next morning for a sound check.

  “Hey.” He placed a hand on his mother’s shoulder to grab her attention. “Can we talk for a minute?”

  “Sure.” She pointed to the side of the stage and spoke to one of the stagehands that worked on Wade’s crew. “Be sure and secure those stairs. I don’t need anyone falling down.”

  “I’m on it, Ms. Vicki.”

  “Thanks, doll.” She turned to Wade and glanced behind him. “Where is your friend?”

  No mistaking that snark. “Inside, unpacking.”

  “Who is she?” The smile was gone.

  Wade pulled her away from the stage and out of earshot.

  “She’s a friend, and why are you being so cold?”

  “I’m not—”

  “Mama!”

  Vicki clenched her jaw. “Jordyn’s band is playing tomorrow.”

  “Yes, Ike told me. Why would you ask her to be here when you know we broke up?”

  “Now that you’re home from the tour, I thought you’d be getting back together. She said you two were on hold, that when you returned—”

  “It doesn’t matter what Jordyn told you. I wasn’t on a break, we were broken.”

  “She’s such a sweet girl, honey. Exactly the kind of girl you need. She understands your business, your life here in Texas.”

  Wade placed both hands on his mother’s arms. “Broken, Mama. I will spare you the details since you don’t need to know, but trust me, it was never going to work. Now, I appreciate the fact that you care enough to meddle, but stop. I can manage my own love life.”

  “With Trina?”

  “With whomever I choose. You didn’t pick my dates in high school, so please don’t try and pick them now.”

  “What am I going to say to Jordyn?”

  Wade narrowed his eyes. “Is that what this is about? You’re embarrassed?”

  Vicki answered by keeping her mouth closed.

  “Tell her what you have to, or don’t tell her at all and I will. Again. But please, keep the chill factor to a minimum with Trina.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Fine!”

  He kissed her cheek and walked away.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Trina thought Wade was taking her on a predinner walk, but apparently, he had other plans.