Nashville by Heart: A Novel

by Tina Ann Forkner

  “Your wish is my command.”

  While they waited for it to be delivered, he gave her a tour of the rest of the house. She was quick to notice that all the rooms downstairs were stark and undecorated, while the rooms upstairs were all gorgeously furnished and homey.

  “Wow,” she said. “These bedrooms are so pretty.” To herself she said, they only need to be filled up with family.

  “I don’t spend any time in these rooms,” he said. “But I let my mom go wild decorating them.” He flipped on a light. “This one has its own bathroom, and it’s the biggest bedroom in the house.”

  It was decorated in cool blues and greens with a plush king-sized bed, a mahogany Chippendale dresser, and sheer white curtains on a large bay window overlooking the barn and the corral.

  “I think I like your mom already. We love the same colors.”

  “Good,” he said. “Because I’d like for you to meet her.”

  She snapped her head up. Did he mean what she thought he meant? There was only one reason a man introduced a woman to his mother, and that was if he was planning to be with her for a long time.

  Gillian grinned. “I would love to meet her. I take it she didn’t decorate the downstairs.”

  “No,” he said, guiding her down the hallway. “Not yet. Here’s my room.”

  She peeked into a manly-looking but surprisingly clean room, everything in dark woods, black and very cowboy. The bathroom looked small, but she supposed a man wouldn’t care about that. The window also overlooked the barn, and she could easily imagine Will falling asleep there after a long hard day. Sad he didn’t have a woman to cuddle up to in that big ol’ bed.

  She’d like to be that woman, she thought, but not as a girlfriend. She wanted forever, and as much as he flirted, he was probably just teasing her. He wasn’t a forever kind of guy—he’d made that clear in his dealings with women in the past, right? He said so himself.

  “I see.”

  “But that’s not what I want to show you,” he said, grabbing her hand. She followed him back downstairs and to the back of the house. He flipped on the lights of a large open room, revealing a studio.

  “Oh wow!” She could barely take it all in. It was a gleaming room, obviously built with musical acoustics in mind, and was furnished with a host of sound and recording equipment. She touched a shining fifties-style microphone with one finger as she passed.

  “This is spectacular. Did you design it?”

  He nodded, looking proud as a new daddy, but when she moved to study some pictures on the wall, he reached in front of her and snatched one off.

  “That one’s a terrible picture. I don’t even know why it’s there.” He walked over to a slim desk near the door and put it in a drawer.

  “Will Adams, what is that?”

  She gently shoved him out of the way and grabbed the picture from the drawer. Holding it up, she wasn’t surprised to see a picture of a young Will accepting a Grammy award for songwriting with her dad, Cooper Heart.

  He rubbed the stubble on his cheek, his muscular arms working in agitation. “I forgot that was up there.”

  She put the picture back and adjusted it on its nail. Stepping back, she gazed at it, wondering for a moment about her dad. What would he think of her and Will? She wondered if she’d hear from him, now that Aunt Cher had called him.

  She felt Will’s hands on her shoulders. “He’s an idiot, Gillian.”

  “I wonder if I’ll ever see him again.”

  “Do you want to?”

  She shrugged. “If so, he’d better have a good excuse for what he did to me and my mom.” She reached up and grasped his hands, pulled them down around her so that he was now hugging her from behind.

  “But yeah,” she said, after some thought. “I guess I might want to see him, someday.” Admitting it out loud made her feel better than hiding it. She was mad at him, but after all that had happened, she’d been thinking about him more. In her heart of hearts, she guessed she’d always wanted a second chance.

  “You don’t have to hang that back up,” Will told her.

  “It’s your Grammy. This picture should be on the wall. Besides, this picture has to be a sign. It’s as if we’ve been connected for a long time. We just didn’t know it.”

  He spun her around to face him. “Thank you for letting me into your life, Gillian.”

  Her breath caught. Was this going to be it?

  “Of course,” she said. “Thank you for going to Gold Creek Gap to get me. It meant a lot to me,

  and it meant a lot to Momma. She didn’t want me to give up on my dream. It’s her dream too, you know.”

  “I hope she knows I’ll take good care of you.”

  “You are so sweet, Will Adams. How did I ever get lucky enough to find you?”

  “It’s not you who’s lucky. It’s me. Heck, I used to be like your dad, but you’re changing me, woman.” He planted a soft kiss behind her ear.

  “Into what?”

  “Into a man who loves a woman so much that he brought her out here.”

  Her heart somersaulted. “I have a hard time believing you wouldn’t have ever brought a woman home, Will.”

  He laughed. “I’m not talking about that kind of taking home, darlin’. I’m talking about bringing a woman here, to my home.”

  “What about Audrey?”

  “I told you, she has someone, but I wouldn’t have brought her here anyway.”

  “The woman you were practically engaged to?”

  “I was never going to marry her, and I already told you we had an apartment in town.”

  “So nobody?” she asked.

  “I promise you, I’ve never brought any woman here before except my mother, and of course Dorothy, who insists on bringing me her husband’s leftover dinner in little containers. Sometimes I forget to eat.”

  “Hence the stinky fridge.”

  “Exactly.”

  She laid her cheek against his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist.

  “I’d love nothing more than if you lived here with me,” he said.

  Even though his words should have made her happy, her heart fell. He only wanted her to be his girlfriend and live with him. He wasn’t the marrying type.

  “I’m not a gold digger, Will. I don’t need to live here to date you.”

  “Well, that’s good. Because I’m not offering you an allowance, darlin’. If anything, you’re going to be giving me one if your career takes off like I think it will, Miss Record Deal.”

  “Stop tempting me to live with you!” She threw her arms out to her side, laughing to cover up her hurt. “It’s all just so much. It’s a fairytale, Will. It is so cliché! If I move in with you, my whole life has become a cliché.”

  And all my dreams of having the fairytale husband, home and family will be over.

  “What’s so bad about that? It can be your fairytale.”

  “I like fairytales,” she said. “But I think our ideas of fairytales are different.”

  “I dare you to find out,” he said. “I want you here with me, every day.”

  She walked from the room, twirling back into the kitchen. “This is a castle compared to the house I grew up in. I don’t even know what I’d do here.”

  I would decorate it and make it homey is what I’d do.

  He waggled his eyebrows. “I can think of a few things we could do.”

  Most of her friends would think she was crazy not to move into a place like Will’s. If she did, maybe it would turn into marriage, eventually. She’d heard of plenty of people who’d done it that way, and it worked for them.

  “You know what, Will Adams? You’re crazy.”

  “But you said I’m your kind of crazy.” He smiled broadly, flashing those gleaming white teeth in that amazingly handsome face, and her heart fluttered in her chest. It almost felt like a fairytale.

  Almost. At least she’d have Prince Charming.

  “Has anyone ever told you how much you look like
Keith Urban?”

  “What? That scrub?”

  “Well, you’re better,” she said. “But that’s what all my girlfriends say about you.”

  “That’s funny,” he chuckled. “Come here.”

  She walked across the kitchen where he stood at the counter. He lifted her up on the surface until they were eye level.

  “Listen, darlin’. I don’t know what’s wrong with me since we met, but I’ve been thinking crazy things.”

  “About what?”

  “This house. My life. Even the stupid manly decorations in my room. It looks like a bull rider lives in there.”

  “It is pretty macho,” she agreed, wondering what he was getting at. His mixed signals were driving her mad. All the talk about her being there, but no proposal. No hint at a ring or anything.

  “And I don’t want to be out here by myself forever,” he said. “I’ve been thinking—”

  The doorbell reverberated throughout the house.

  “Saved by the bell.” She hopped down from the counter, grabbed her purse and jogged to the door. “Hold that thought. I’m starving.”

  She was digging in her purse for change to hand the pizza guy when Will reached over her with a couple of bills. The guy took them and left.

  “I could’ve paid for it.”

  “I know, but you’re my guest.” He carried the pizza box over to the counter and flipped it open. He took out the biggest piece and took a huge bite, stringing cheese all over the place.

  “Save some for me! It smells so good.”

  He handed her a slice, and they both sat on the counter top, the pizza between them, talking and eating until there were only two slices left. She teased him about putting it in the fridge. “Don’t let that go bad.”

  “I can’t promise that.” He reached for a small rack on the counter. “You like merlot, right?”

  “I’m really a chardonnay girl, but I’ll drink whatever you have.” She watched him pull a bottle from a small wine fridge, pop the cork, and pour two glasses a third of the way full. He handed her one.

  “To finding somebody to love.” He held up his glass.

  “Isn’t that a song?” She clinked her glass with his.

  “Probably. Almost anything can be a song, right?”

  “So, let’s go write one.”

  “Right now?”

  “Right now, in that big studio of yours.”

  “Talk about cliché.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Will had started out as a songwriter. Later he’d become a manager because he was a good businessman, but his heart was always on the music side. He’d built the studio in hopes of going back to songwriting someday, and now he couldn’t believe he was sitting in his own studio writing a song, let alone with the beautiful woman he was in love with.

  How could life get any better?

  Of course, he knew how it could, but he couldn’t get Gillian to stay on topic long enough to tell her his plans, to see if she wanted to be part of them.

  “Nope, nope,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “Wrong chord. It’s like this, see?”

  She strummed a chord and sang a few lines. It was pretty, like her, but something bugged him about it. He picked a few additional notes on his own guitar.

  “What about that?”

  “OK. Let’s try it from the top.”

  They played in perfect tune with each other, Gillian sounding and looking beautiful as she sang the lyrics of a song about a couple so crazy about each other they got married in a Las Vegas chapel.

  “You know this song has been written before.”

  “Yeah, but not like this,” he said, adding a new line that nearly made her laugh out of her chair.

  She set her guitar on a nearby stand and picked up her mostly empty glass. “This is so fun, Will. This is the best date ever.”

  “Is this a date?” He sat his own guitar down and drained his glass. He wanted it to be a hell of a lot more than a date.

  “What else would it be?” Her gorgeous smile made him want to kiss her, again. Thoughts of the night in the back of his truck, and how ready she’d been to give herself to him, made him restless. Not that making love to her was the main thing he wanted, though. He wanted it all.

  He shrugged. “Seems familiar. Like we’ve been doing this forever, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah. I guess it does. I like it.”

  He walked over to the sound system and flipped on a track. “But the only bad thing about it is, I can’t dance with you when we’re both holding guitars.” He held his hand out, hoping to make her fairytale complete.

  She stepped into his arms, and he realized he was turning into a total sap since he’d met Gillian. He wanted them to be like this forever. He wanted to give her the freedom to build her confidence as a singer, to be whoever she wanted to be, but he wanted to protect her heart too.

  “I want to take care of you, Gillian.” They were swaying to a slow song, wrapped in each other’s arms. She didn’t say anything at first, and he started to sweat.

  Damn it, he thought. Why did he say that?

  “I think I do a pretty good job taking care of myself.”

  “You do,” he said. “But I want to care of you, and you to take care of me. Together.”

  “Now who’s the old-fashioned one?” she asked.

  And that was his cue. Throwing every ounce of pride he’d carried his whole life off to the side, he dropped to one knee.

  ~~~~

  Gillian gasped. Was he doing what she thought? She nearly stuffed her fist in her mouth to keep from crying.

  “This is crazy, Will. It’s too soon.” But a part of her didn’t care how long they’d been together; the biggest part of her didn’t care at all.

  He pulled a ring, not a box, but a ring out of his pocket. It made her laugh to think he’d been carrying that around.

  “This was my mom’s,” he explained. “My dad got her a new one, and so she gave this to me, hoping I might need it someday. I never believed I would.”

  “Oh, my gosh, Will.” Tears gathered in her eyes.

  “I know we only met a few months ago, and that I’m absolutely crazy to be asking you this, but I’m crazy in love with you. Marry me, Gillian Heart.”

  The trembling started, and he must have remembered it from the record deal contract, because he quickly shoved a stool underneath her. She couldn’t help it though. Even if she’d been hoping for it all day, he’d caught her completely by surprise. She knew he wanted her to move in, and he’d teased about forever, but holy cow. Get married?

  It was all she could do to keep from crying out, yes, a million times yes. She finally found her voice.

  “My momma would kill me.”

  He shook his head. “I expected that would be your first response, but she pulled me aside and gave me a talk when I was at your house. I think it will be OK with her.”

  ~~~~

  He trembled slightly at the memory of the conversation in which Louise had told him he better not mess with her daughter’s heart. She told him Gillian was a forever kind of girl who deserved to be treated like a lady, and if he hurt her in any way, he’d be sorry. Then she’d gone on to tell him how crazy her daughter was about him. It’d blown him away. He’d been sweating bullets too, since only a few hours earlier he’d been about to make love to her for the first time in the bed of his pickup truck. Not that it wouldn’t be a sexy thing to do another time, he mused, but first, she deserved a little romance.

  ~~~~

  Gillian couldn’t imagine her momma saying such a thing. She was protective, and she had experience to back up why she was.

  “Yep,” Will said. “I promise you, she did.”

  “Momma knows?”

  “Yes,” he said. “She did tell me I’m too reckless. But she said you were a little bit wild too, even though you hide it behind your shyness, and that maybe the two of us together might be crazy enough to make it work.”

  She smiled, her heart a
bout to explode with happiness.

  “Oh. And she also said she’d kick my ass into next year if I ever hurt you.”

  “Momma doesn’t even curse.”

  “I guess she does if she has a reason.”

  She laughed at that. “Oh my, oh, Will.” She grasped his shoulders. “Really?”

  “You’re killing me again. So what is it? Yes or no?”

  “Yes!” she exclaimed. “Of course!” She held out her hand and almost fainted as he slipped on a diamond so shiny she needed sunglasses. She held her hand out to stare at it, gasping for breath.

  “This was your mother’s?”

  He nodded. “Does that mean you like it?”

  “It’s gorgeous.” And it was. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

  “Not as gorgeous as you.” He pulled her close, kissing her long and passionately, lifting her off her feet and carrying her over to the swanky studio couch.

  He smoothed her hair from her forehead. “Are you OK? You’re a little pale.”

  She smiled, wanting him to know she was perfectly fine and the happiest she’d ever been in her life.

  “Come here.” She pulled him against her on the couch, sliding her fingers into his hair. She loved to do that. “Now kiss me like you did a minute ago.”

  The touch of his lips set her on fire, and she kissed him back with a desire that had been growing inside her all day long.

  With some effort, she pulled away. “So you want to be with me forever?”

  “I told you back in Gold Creek Gap I’d give you forever, and I meant it.”

  “That’s good, because if I let you do what I want you to, it’s going to have to be forever.”

  She saw the hunger in his eyes, and he eagerly bent to kiss her mouth, her neck, his hands caressing her until she was ready to give him anything. Finally, she knew he would never leave her. He was the one. Her forever.

  She was tugging at his shirt, wanting to touch him too, when all of a sudden he sat up.

  “What is it? Is something wrong?”

  He sighed in exasperation.

  “Yes. No. I don’t know.”

  “What?”

  He smiled. “It’s a reckless idea, but it just might work.”