“Miss Matthews?” a woman with an all-business tone asked.
I checked the rearview mirror. “Yes.”
“Hold, please.”
“Wait, what?” Instrumental music came through the line. Who called someone and then asked them to hold?
Someone picked up. “Emma, my girl, so glad to get in touch. Nick Copeland, here.”
Riley’s boss? What in the world?
He didn’t even pause for a response. “Listen, I don’t want to tie you up. We’re all busy, right?” The conversations in the background punctuated his point. “Yeah, Sue, thanks. Tell him I’ll be there in five,” he said away from the phone.
The buzz of voices dwindled behind what sounded like a door closing.
“So, Emma, I gotta tell ya, the music industry could use more winners like you. With all the drama these days, we don’t see a girl supporting her man in his career as much as we used to. It’s really somethin’ special. Riley’s a lucky guy.”
Did all businessmen have to be schmoozers? At least he couldn’t see my eyes rolling through the phone. “I’d say you ended up being the lucky one, landing a deal with him. I’m sure his level of talent doesn’t come around every day.” Two could play this game.
He took a sip of something. “Mm. Don’t I know it? Alls he has to do is hit the first stage, and he’ll build a fan base so fast, he’ll shoot to stardom overnight.”
And make you rich in the process. A businessman through and through.
“But my real luck would be having you on board with Riley’s tour schedule.”
And there it was. Motives exposed.
I shimmied up in my seat, defenses rising. “Of course I’m on board. I only want the best for him—”
“That’s what I’m talking about. A real winner. Knew I could count on you to convince him to stop bucking.” He took another swig of his drink. “Collaboration is refreshing, isn’t it? So much better than having to get lawyers involved.”
Wow. Apparently, I could add underhanded threats to his list of charming traits. Was he going to sue Riley if he breached his contract? Was that what Jess had meant was the best part?
A line beeped in the background. “Listen, honey, business calls. You know how it is with these creative types. It’s a nonstop job, talking clients into knowing what’s best for their careers.”
I looked back at Mr. Glyndon’s house and the way the world worked. You could always blackmail them.
chapter eight
Home
At least I had finals to distract me from thinking about Nick’s call. Recurring trips to Paradox Café had become even more commonplace than usual. All week, Jaycee and I’d joined the frenzy of students all boosting our caffeine intake before cramming for exams. The extra surge had pulled us through late nights and early mornings. Afternoons were another story.
Jaycee was sacked out on the couch, arm hanging off the side, mouth open, looking exactly how I felt.
I tossed my stats book off my lap and tiptoed across the living room. My phone buzzed from my pocket.
“Hello?” I whispered.
“Is this Miss Emma Matthews?”
I smiled at the sound of Riley’s voice. “Yes,” I said, playing along.
“The same Emma Matthews who’s engaged to Riley Preston?”
“The one and only.”
“Good. Then I have a very important message for you. He’d like you to know he’s dying to see you when his flight comes in today.”
“Today?” Shock echoed around the single word.
I clamped my hand over my mouth and spun toward Jaycee. She didn’t so much as flinch. I slipped around the partition wall into the kitchen and perched a hand on my hip. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming in today?”
“Well, I know how you love surprises.” A grin slid through his voice. “And getting to hear that excited response was well worth the wait.”
“Aw, sorry, babe,” I backpedaled. “Of course I’m excited. You just caught me off guard. It’s been a little crazy here with finals. These late nights are starting to take a toll. You should see me. I’m a hot mess.”
I picked at the frayed edges of my sweatshirt as my brain slowly caught up to the conversation. Flight. Today. I curved an untamed strand of hair around my ear. How much time did I have to get ready? “When do I need to be at the airport?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. I made other—”
A knock on the door rippled into the foyer of the apartment.
“Hang on one sec. Someone’s at the door.” I glanced at Jaycee, but the noise didn’t appear to disturb her. Jeez, the girl slept through anything.
My phone dropped to the floor before the door fully opened. “Riley? How did you . . . ? When did you . . . ?” It didn’t matter. Without hesitation, I jumped into the only thing that did.
“Now that response was definitely worth waiting for.” He loosened his arms but held me with his eyes. “I’m home, Emma.”
Home. I lifted on my toes to kiss him. Me too.
A yawn seeped out from under the pillow covering Jaycee’s face.
Without moving a muscle, I slanted a glance toward the couch. Jaycee rolled over and nuzzled into the crease between the cushions, hidden from the afternoon sunlight and any awareness of our presence.
He motioned to the stairwell. “Let’s take a walk,” he whispered.
I hurled another once-over down my sweatshirt, tattered jeans, and Converse sneakers. I probably could’ve used a shower. Or at the very least, a fresh set of clothes. But like everything else in that moment, aside from being with Riley, my appearance was irrelevant.
I eased the door closed and followed him outside. The wind picked up the farther we walked. I pulled my shirt cuffs over my fingers as we rounded the last bend leading to the sports field. Frozen blades of grass crunched under our feet on our way to the middle.
“Man, I’ve missed this place.” Riley shuffled in a circle. His reminiscent gaze surveyed our favorite spot on the campus and landed on me. His forehead pinched. “Knowing you were here, making memories I wouldn’t be a part of . . . It was pretty excruciating.” He faced the sky. “I still have no clue what I was thinking, going there without you.”
“Riley, we’ve already been through this.”
“I know, and you’re right. I needed to go to Nashville as much as you needed to stay here. Didn’t make it any easier.”
I flicked my bangs off my lashes. “Tell me about it.”
He inched closer and caressed his thumb over the back of my hand. “I’d do it all over, though—walk through the pain of being apart, as long as it brought us to where we are now.” His eyes found mine, a grin following. “But if it’s all the same to you, I’d really prefer not to let you go ever again.”
I draped his arms around me, one at a time, and looked from my engagement ring back to him. “Guess it’s a good thing you’ll never have to.”
Flashes of Nick’s call butted into the moment with the reminder that that wasn’t entirely true. As much as I didn’t care for the guy or his tactics, I couldn’t get around admitting he was right. Riley belonged on tour. We’d have to be apart again, but it’d be different from last semester. I wouldn’t let anything come between us. Not this time.
He held my gaze. “Promise?”
“Always.”
The slightest hue of doubt tinted his eyes. Had coming back here, back to where A. J. and I’d been alone, made him question that promise? My heart winced at how much I’d hurt all of us by not guarding my heart the way I should’ve.
He rested his hand on the small of my back. “Dance with me.”
By now, I’d learned to stop asking if he meant dance right where we were, without any music. To him, music never stopped. Which was exactly why he should be out there, sharing that gift and passion with fans. How could I convince him that was the right choice?
I set my chin over my hand on his shoulder, thoughts swaying with our feet.
He rested his cheek against my temple. “You know, I’ve been thinking. Maybe we don’t have to wait until summer to get married. Why not after winter break? We can even go to Vegas if you want.”
I tilted back. “But I thought you—”
Another laugh. “I thought I had a lot of things figured out.” He tucked flyaway strands of hair behind my ear. “Jackson’s moving out in January. We can live in my apartment here until you finish school. Nashville will still be there when we’re ready.”
But would his career?
His phone rang. He tipped it out of his pocket and strained to keep a smile in place. He kissed my cheek, swiped the screen, and turned to take the call. “Yeah, Brett, what’s up?”
What did his agent want? I rubbed my hands over my arms but couldn’t shake the sense that he was still downplaying this thing with Nick. And where’d eloping come from? He was supposed to be the sensible one.
Riley rolled a rock back and forth with his shoe. “Mm hmm. Got it . . . So, we’re all good? . . . Yeah, sure thing. We’ll be in touch . . . Yep. I appreciate it, man. Later.”
His shoulders rose and fell before he turned. “Sorry about that.” He drew me into the same position where we left off.
Like that was happening. I set a hand on his chest and looked him in the eyes. “Riley, I love you for wanting to protect me, but I need to know what’s going on.”
“Brett’s taking care of it.”
“Of what?”
Exhaling, he lowered his gaze to the grass and kneaded his shoulder blade. “Nick’s threatening to pull the album.”
My arms came undone. I backed up. “He can’t.” Our phone call . . . He hadn’t given me enough time to persuade Riley to go.
He scratched his jaw and squinted. “Technically, he can. But I doubt he will. He’s too invested. And Brett’s already found a loophole in the contract, anyway.”
“A loophole?” That didn’t sound sketchy or anything. “Why doesn’t that give me the warm fuzzies?”
He slid forward. “I haven’t finished recording that last song. There’s no way anything’s moving forward until that’s finalized.”
“Aren’t they sort of in charge of making the rules?” And resorting to manipulating you when you don’t comply?
He swayed his head. “I like to think of them as guidelines.”
“Riley, you can’t push it back. They need you to go. Your fans need you. The—”
“You need me.”
I looked out toward the border of fir trees before he saw any confirmation of the truth in that statement. Of course I needed him. But not at the expense of his future.
If Nick weren’t being so hardnosed about it, we could’ve compromised—had Riley finish up the last track now and do some local touring until I graduated in May when we could travel together. I was sure a lot of money had gone into recording and promoting the album, but was Nick so pressed to recoup his investment he couldn’t hold off another six months?
His schmoozy voice hadn’t left my mind since he’d called. He obviously wasn’t the type to take no for an answer. If that was how the industry worked, fine. Why wouldn’t Riley just play along? “Do you even want to tour?”
He paused so long, I was afraid to meet his eyes again. “I want you more.”
I gripped the necklace Dad had given me and stared at the empty bleachers. “Riley, please don’t put me in the middle. You’ll end up resenting—”
“Can we not fight about this right now?” Assurance back in place, he laced his hands around my waist and tugged my torso close to his. “Come home with me for Christmas. We can talk about wedding plans after, okay?”
I exhaled a prayer. Please help us through this.
Maybe spending the break with him would give me the time I needed to change his mind, but the prospect of meeting his family sent one reason to worry chasing another. “You haven’t been home in years.”
He dug the tip of his sneaker in the dirt. “Yeah, but after being back in Nashville—I don’t know—I just feel like it’s about time.”
That was for sure. Still, I couldn’t imagine anything more awkward than showing up to the family he’d left behind in anger his freshman year after a blowup with his dad.
“Sorry, I’m trying to picture this.” I impersonated him approaching the house. “Hi Mom. Hi Dad. I haven’t been home in over four years but thought I’d drop in. I’m about to tour with a major record label. And oh, by the way, this is my fiancée, whom you’ve never met in your life.” I cocked my chin at him.
His amusement gave way to sobriety. “I actually went home once—summer before my senior year. Jasmine was in the hospital. She didn’t know I came. No one did except my mom.” He scratched the back of his hair. “I wasn’t ready . . .”
“And now you are?”
“Hope so.” He released a hard breath and took my hand. “I need you there with me, Em.”
Then I couldn’t afford to be anywhere else. “Okay.”
He draped one side of his coat around me while we walked back to the apartment, but the fear of meeting his dad kept slicing through with the wind.
We strolled up beside his Civic. “I think I can handle Jake giving me the cold shoulder for leaving him with Jackson till we get back, but your mom’s not going to hate me for stealing you for the holidays, is she?”
I pitched a brow at him. “You kidding me? After you invited her to the lake house when you proposed, you can do no wrong.”
He brandished the self-conscious smile that was way too attractive for its own good.
“It’ll be fine. Austin’s planning a snowboarding trip with some friends, and Mom arranged to spend the holidays with my grandparents. I have to take my last final on Friday, and then I’m all yours.”
“It means a lot to me.” He reclined against the fender. “My mom will welcome us with open arms. My dad’s another story. And I have no clue what to expect from my little sisters. I’ve let them down too many times.”
“I doubt any of them have stopped loving you.” They’d all be ecstatic to see him. I was sure of it. Me on the other hand . . . I twisted my engagement ring back and forth. “Do you think they’ll come to the wedding?”
The corner of Riley’s lips climbed up his cheek the way it always did when he was reading between the lines. “They’re gonna love you.”
I slid the pearl along my necklace, not convinced.
He hooked a finger in my belt loop and drew me toward him. “Stop worrying.”
I folded my arms over my hoodie. “Hey, right back at you, buddy.”
We should’ve been experts at the whole conquering fear thing by now. But after as many times as we’d tried to convince each other we were braver than we thought, we might’ve just found the ultimate litmus test.
chapter nine
Impasse
The drive from school to Riley’s parents’ in southern Oregon was shorter than I expected. With one leg still inside the car, I peered over the hood. A single willow tree stood front and center in the middle of a yard outlined by a weathered split rail fence. In the far corner, an old wooden tractor wheel leaned against the house’s brick siding in front of a garden.
Throw in a tire swing, and the scene could have passed for a painting.
I followed Riley up the single-car driveway to the front porch. Two empty plant hangers bookended a wind chime playing a love song with the breeze. The atmosphere oozed with a petition to relax. But even the comfort of standing hand-in-hand with Riley couldn’t distract me from the door looming in front of us.
As relieved as I was to have a break from school, I would’ve taken the end-of-semester pressure over this restlessness any day.
I shifted my weight from leg to leg, one second standing behind Riley, the next by his side. The porch light zeroed in on his slanted grin.
“Don’t worry,” he said from the corner of his mouth. “The dog’s the only one who bites.”
“Very funny.” I released his hand lon
g enough to transfer the sweat from my palm onto my pant leg. “Why didn’t you call ahead of time to let them know we were coming?”
His smile dropped. He picked at a scrape in the trim. “I think I was afraid they’d tell me not to.”
It killed me to hear the heaviness in his voice. I squeezed his hand and searched for the right words, but a creak from inside pulsed across the concrete porch to my feet and shot up to my throat.
The door cracked open and revealed a teenager’s silhouette. His sister . . . Melody? She stayed behind the screen, staring.
Waiting might’ve been suspenseful, but standing there in silence was downright torturous. I looked up at Riley in a silent nudge for him to say something.
She removed her earphones. “What are you doing here?”
My fingers tightened around Riley’s. If his sister’s reaction had caught him off guard, he didn’t let on. My heart flinched. It was probably no less than what he’d expected.
“Nice to see you too, Melody.”
“It’s Mel,” she said in a tone as dry as her deadpan stare.
“Okay, Mel, mind if we come in?”
Without altering her expression, she opened the door and swung her arm in front of her. A clamor rang from down the hall, followed by someone skidding around the corner in a pair of bright purple socks. “Is that . . . ?”
A girl about ten years old stopped at the opposite side of the entryway. Her hazel eyes stretched open as wide as her priceless smile. “Riley!”
He knelt to the floor just in time to meet a running hug from his younger sister, Jasmine.
Riley spun her in the air. “Man, I’ve missed you, kiddo.” He set her back down and took in the sight of her. “When did you get so grown up?”
“Hmm,” Melody grunted from the corner. “Maybe it was during the last four years you haven’t bothered to come home.”
My insides constricted at the same time Riley’s jaw twitched.
At least Jasmine seemed immune to it. She tugged on the bottom of his shirt, cupped her hand around her mouth, and lifted on her toes. “Who’s your girlfriend?”
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