The Girl He Used to Love

by Amy Vastine

  Faith took her foot off the wood and watched Sawyer out in the far field where they usually dumped the dirty horse bedding. They had talked last night. He wasn’t going to leave. But the knot in her stomach told her that whatever deal Sawyer and Dean had made, it wasn’t good. She’d had enough bad news for today; confronting Sawyer would have to wait.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “HOW MANY HITS?” Dean asked.

  Landon had texted several times while Dean was working at Helping Hooves Friday morning. The last one warranted a return phone call.

  “Over 15,000. In one day. How did you do that?”

  Dean had shared Sawyer’s video on his own accounts and nudged a couple Nashville radio stations to share it, as well. He was hoping for a positive result. Fifteen thousand hits was exactly the response he was looking for.

  “He’s singing tonight. I’ll shoot some of the show and we’ll upload those before night’s end. How many of the views turned into subscribers?”

  “A couple hundred,” Landon said. “He’s good. He’s got the right look. But I’m not convinced you don’t have a lot of work to put into him before he’s going to sell a million records for this company, Dean.”

  “I’m willing to put the work into the ones I think are going to pay off. We found Piper when she was nobody. She had less than a hundred subscribers, most of whom were girls she went to school with. The right artist just needs a little help. Trust me, Landon.”

  “There have to be more sure things out there. People who have been putting their time in. I’m not sure I want to risk it all on a complete unknown.”

  This was the battle they had been fighting since even before Dean had found Sawyer. What Landon didn’t understand was that there were no guarantees in the music business. How many winners of those television singing competitions garnered millions of votes every week but only sold a handful of records? More than those who became chart-toppers.

  To make it, you had to have something that no one could label. Something that drew people in and didn’t let go. Sawyer had it. Even when he wasn’t singing, he had it. People wanted to be around him.

  “When I get him to come to Nashville, we’ll set some shows up,” Dean said, checking over his shoulder to make sure Faith was nowhere to be seen. He didn’t want to answer any more questions about what they were up to. “You’ll see. You just better hope that no other record companies take an interest while he’s trying to prove himself to you. I don’t want to lose this one because you were afraid to take a risk.”

  “I don’t want to sink a lot of money we don’t have into another lost cause,” Landon shot back.

  Boone was an obvious thorn in Landon’s side. Sawyer wasn’t going to cause the same trouble. Not if Dean had anything to say about it.

  Hanging up, he headed back into the arena where Sawyer was putting the finishing touches on the mounting ramp. They had been working nonstop all morning to get things in tip-top shape. Faith had a checklist and they were knocking the items off one by one.

  Sawyer’s head popped up from the other side of the ramp. “Everything good?”

  “Things are real good.” Dean did a quick check for Faith. Satisfied they were alone, he continued. “I need you to sing a cover tonight of something big right now. Something close to your style but popular across the board. We’ll post that and see what happens.”

  “I’m not sure I like having to overthink things when I play. I want it to come off natural, not like I’m trying to perform a certain way.”

  “That’s the key to show business—making it look like it’s easy and effortless. You got to learn to fake it so you can play what you want someday.”

  Sawyer was quiet while they finished their work. There seemed to be a lot going on in his head today. Dean wasn’t sure if it was losing Duchess, the secret he was keeping from Faith or the choice he had made. Maybe it was something completely different, but Sawyer was definitely distracted.

  Dean decided the kid might need someone to confide in. “Did you and Faith have a conversation last night about what you’re doing?”

  “No, she didn’t ask me anything, which sort of surprises me. I thought for sure she’d be all over me about what you were getting out of this arrangement.” He set down his hammer. “But she went to bed pretty early. That’s also not like her. Can’t tell if it was because of Duchess or something else.”

  “Maybe it was because she’s got that new backbone. She decided to take care of herself and get some sleep,” Dean suggested.

  Sawyer found that comment funny, at least. Some of the tension seemed to ease.

  A moment later Faith and her clipboard came flying in to give the mounting ramp a good once-over. She consulted her clipboard. “Did you double-check the measurements?”

  “Check,” Sawyer replied. This was the way they had communicated all day. She asked if something was done and he replied with either a “check” or a “not yet.”

  “When will you be ready to do a run-through?”

  “After we clean up here.”

  Faith gave a stiff nod and was back on the move. She was a ball of nerves and Dean felt it was best to be quiet and stay out of her way. He did as he was told and tried to get everything done.

  “She’s intense today.”

  Sawyer’s eyes widened as if to say, “I know.”

  “I hope you guys pass the test.”

  “Me, too,” Sawyer said. “She needs this more than she needs me.”

  * * *

  IT HAD BEEN A long day and it wasn’t over yet. Sawyer made Faith promise she wasn’t going to spend the whole night fretting about the NETA visit tomorrow. He expected to see her at the Sundown, and if she had a drink to relax, he’d be really impressed. She wasn’t allowed to use her new superpower. She couldn’t tell him no.

  “The Sundown?” Kylie asked. “I didn’t know we were going to have dinner at the Sundown.”

  Faith had decided she was holding an intervention. It was about time Lily and Kylie cleared the air once and for all. She might have had to trick Kylie to make it happen, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

  “I need to drop off cookies for Ms. Josie. Can you help me carry them in?”

  Kylie reluctantly got out of the car and walked to the back to pick up some of the containers Faith had in the trunk. Faith made sure Kylie’s pile was tall enough that she wouldn’t be able to bolt when she saw Lily inside the bar and grill.

  Josie greeted them on their way in. She was in charge of getting Lily there. She had better have done her part.

  “Yay! Cookies are here. What’s on the menu tonight?”

  “Margarita cookies. They’ve got that salty-sweet tequila glaze on them.” Faith handed her two of the containers. She mouthed, Is she here?

  Josie pointed to the booth in the far corner. The back of Lily’s blond head could be seen over the seat.

  “Let’s bring the rest of them over here, Kylie.” Faith guided the teenager to the table where Lily was unknowingly waiting for them. She had Kylie set the cookies on the table beside the booth.

  “Faith?” Lily said, setting down her phone.

  “Hey, look who’s here! Can we join you? We’re here for dinner. Awesome,” she said without waiting for an answer. She gave Kylie a gentle but firm nudge and made her sit down across from Lily. Faith sat next to her so she couldn’t run away.

  Lily frowned. “You guys were going out to dinner without me?”

  Faith folded her hands on the table. “No, we planned to meet you.”

  “We did?” Kylie asked.

  “Well, I did. I decided it’s time you two sit down and figure out what’s wrong and make it right. So, I tricked you into coming here by telling you I wanted to talk to you about volunteering more and I had your mom tell you she
needed you to help out here tonight.”

  “My mom didn’t say she needed help.” Lily scowled at her mother as Josie came by to pick up the cookies. “She told me I was grounded because I missed one night of volunteering this week. She is the meanest mom in the world.”

  “Don’t forget it,” Josie said with a smile. “I plan to put that as a tagline on my business cards. And you’re not grounded unless you refuse to talk this out with Kylie.”

  Faith thanked her for helping out then turned her attention to the girls. “Okay, let me start by telling you guys something. I had a best friend my whole life. We were as different as different could be, but we both loved Johnny Depp movies and chocolate-covered raisins.”

  “Ew,” both girls said at the same time.

  Faith tried not to be offended by the fact that they were grossed out by something she found absolutely delicious. At least they were finding common ground. That was good.

  “We liked the same music and no one made me laugh harder than Addison. But we let stupid things get between us. Things we chose not to talk about. Things that I’ll never get to talk with her about because she died.”

  Lily played with the napkin on the table in front of her, tearing it into little pieces. Kylie bit her lip.

  “What is going on with you two? When you started helping out at the farm, you two were the best of friends. In fact, you reminded me of me and Addison. You supported one another and I think you still care about each other. What happened?”

  “Nothing,” Kylie said, folding her arms across her chest. “She stopped being my friend.”

  “I stopped being your friend? You’re the one who stopped liking my statuses and wouldn’t like any of my photos even when I tagged you.”

  “I stopped because why did it matter if I liked your stuff, you didn’t act like I existed when we were at school. The only person you care about is Jonah.”

  “Shh!” Lily glanced around to make sure her mom wasn’t in hearing distance. “Please don’t say his name when we’re around my mom.”

  “I told you that it hurt my feelings that you seemed to choose him over me. You said you wouldn’t do that anymore, but you did,” Kylie accused her.

  Faith let the two of them hash things out. The hurt feelings, the lies, the secrets. They told each other how much they meant to one another. In the end, the two girls were crying and holding hands and promising to do better, to be better friends to each other.

  “There’s one more thing you two need to talk about. If I could go back in time, I never would have let a secret ruin everything. I would have told Addison that I could love her as my best friend and love—” Dean’s name almost popped out, but since they had both met him, she thought better of it “—the boy, too. Had I been honest and open about my feelings from the start, things could have been so different.”

  Lily turned all the way around this time to make sure her mom wasn’t close. Kylie sighed loudly. “This is what really bugs me. I hate lying to your mom and keeping secrets. Just tell her so we can all hang out together.”

  “I hate keeping secrets from your mom, too,” Faith added. “If the relationship has to be secret to be special, then the relationship isn’t special.”

  How she wished she could go back in time and tell her teenage self the same thing. She knew what it was like to be caught up in the excitement of having something that was forbidden. Unfortunately when the veil was lifted, it turned out to be nothing.

  “She hates him for some reason,” Lily complained. “I don’t even know why.”

  “Maybe she wouldn’t if you didn’t sneak around with him. Maybe she’d like him if he came to the door and said hello when she answered it. Invite him to dinner. Give your mom a chance,” Faith pleaded.

  “My mom is not cool like you. She doesn’t understand.”

  “Your mom is way cooler than me and she has been in love before, so she understands completely. Give her a break.”

  “Fine, but you have to be there when I tell her so she doesn’t kill me.”

  Faith would do anything for this to be over. She hoped Josie would be as cool as she’d hyped her to be. “Deal.”

  Dean showed up at the Sundown fifteen minutes before Sawyer was scheduled to sing. Faith and the girls had talked to Josie. Jonah and Lily were outed as a couple and Josie took it better than Lily thought she would and a little worse than Faith had hoped. With Josie’s blessing, the girls had called Jonah and told him to find a friend and meet them at the movie theater. Lily had admitted to being excited for their first date out in the open.

  Faith’s ex-secret boyfriend took the seat next to her at the bar. It was the same spot he had occupied one week ago when he had walked back into her life. Had it really only been one week? It seemed like a lot longer.

  “What’s the cookie and drink special?” he asked, resting his elbows on the old mahogany bar.

  “Margaritas.” Sawyer tossed a drink napkin down in front of him.

  “I’ll take the cookies but pass on the drink. Beer for me instead.”

  Josie slipped behind the bar and snatched some pretzels from the bowl near Faith. “So, Mr. Presley, how much would it cost to bribe you to go down to the movie theater and spy on my daughter and a boy she’s been lying about seeing for the last month?”

  “You are not sending him to spy on her,” Faith said, stealing a pretzel from her. “She came clean, now you have to trust her.”

  “I wouldn’t trust Dean anyway, Josie.” Sawyer placed an opened beer bottle in front of Dean. “He probably empathizes with the kids given his history of lying about the same thing.”

  Dean grimaced at Sawyer before taking a swig.

  “Don’t hate the liar, hate the lie,” Faith said.

  “Thank you.” Dean tipped his drink in her direction. His eyes were emerald in the dim light of the bar.

  The fluttering in Faith’s stomach was back. She grabbed some more pretzels to try to settle it.

  “You ready to play tonight?” Dean asked Sawyer. The two of them talked about his set and what he was going to sing first. Josie added her two cents. The four of them laughed and it felt so...normal.

  It was strange how easily Dean fit. He was the piece of the puzzle that had been missing for so long that people forgot about it until they found it and realized it made the whole picture complete.

  Faith had to remind herself that he wasn’t sticking around and to not get attached. He was the missing piece that didn’t want to be a part of this particular puzzle.

  Sawyer went to go set up and Dean excused himself to sit closer to the stage. His interest in Sawyer’s performance created more unease. The two of them had struck a deal. Faith still didn’t know what it was; she’d been too afraid to ask.

  “I think you should give me your blessing to play Sugar Mama to that man,” Josie said, staring in Dean’s direction.

  “You don’t want to be someone’s sugar mama.”

  “That’s true. I want to be the younger one in the relationship. Not to mention, he’s too pretty. I need to be the prettiest one in a relationship, too. But he’s so dreamy. I’ve been in love with him for a whole week.”

  Faith had been in love with him for practically her whole life. He had been her ideal for as long as she could remember. It wasn’t surprising that other people felt the same way.

  Dean had his phone pointed at Sawyer. When he started to sing, Dean recorded the whole thing. Faith watched him take video after video. The pit in her stomach grew bigger.

  Why did it seem like every time she fixed one problem, a new one would pop up?

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  SAWYER WANTED DEAN at the farm at the crack of dawn. On a Saturday. Dean didn’t do anything this early in the morning on the weekends. It was unnatural.

  “Pep up, look al
ive!” Sawyer snapped his fingers in front of Dean’s face. He hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night. Not because of wild dreams or not enough blankets but because he had spent the late-night hours uploading videos and photos to Sawyer’s social media accounts.

  They had a couple hours before the NETA evaluator might arrive. Faith had called and clarified after the disaster with the first woman. Like the cable company, they were given a window of time to expect someone to show up on their doorstep.

  “Let’s walk the facilities one more time to make sure we know everything is working and meets the requirements,” Sawyer said, holding Faith’s clipboard.

  “Where is your sister this morning?”

  “In the arena with the horses.” Besides checking all the records on the animals, they needed to prove that all the therapy horses could follow a list of commands.

  They started in the parking lot and moved to the horse barn. From there they went to the arena. Faith was riding Sassy, who was being stubborn about getting close to the new and improved mounting ramp.

  “I don’t know what’s spooking her, but she won’t get close,” Faith said, backing the horse up to try again.

  Sawyer checked the ramp and couldn’t find anything that would cause the horse to disobey. He called Sassy over and she lined up fine. Faith didn’t look relieved. The stress took all the color from her cheeks. Her lips fell in a straight line, refusing to curl up even when Dean tried his best to be funny.

  “The horse can probably sense your stress. You need to relax,” Dean suggested.

  “Easy for you to say. This isn’t your life’s work on the line. Today doesn’t decide if your company will continue to thrive or be shut down.”

  In some ways, it did. Sawyer wouldn’t pursue music until he knew that Helping Hooves had the advantage of being a NETA facility. Grace Note Records had a very real stake in what happened here today.

  Dean and Sawyer were on their way to check on the fencing they had put in yesterday when a white SUV with Alabama plates pulled in. This time, a man stepped out of the car and apologized for being early, offering to wait in his car until it was time for their appointment.