by Mandy Baggot
‘Don’t tell anyone, Mia. If it gets out then … ’ Honor started.
‘I’m gonna have to start placing you two on the same shelf. It’ll be great for an offer weekend. Buy her and get him for free.’ Mia snorted a laugh and Honor smiled at her before checking her watch.
‘Are you meeting him?’
‘No, I’ve got an appointment at Micro. I’d better go.’ She stood up.
‘Sorting out the “Dan Steele Situation”?’
‘Something like that.’
Chapter Twenty One
Micro Records. The iconic building rose up from the street as tall and awe-inspiring as it had been when she’d first stood outside it at eighteen. It had held all her dreams, everything she’d ever wished for back then. But now? She still didn’t know what the future held for her yet, but for the first time she was really hopeful for it.
As she crossed the street to the entrance she saw Larry was waiting for her. He was dressed in a dark suit, matching Stetson on his head. He was pacing. Pacing wasn’t good.
‘Ah, here you are, honey. I dropped by the house but … ’
‘Did you think I’d forget? I called you. I said I’d be here.’ This constant need to babysit her was getting a touch annoying. She wasn’t so emotionally fragile she couldn’t make it to a meeting alone.
‘I know, honey, I just … ’ Larry started.
‘Do you know what this meeting’s about? Because if it’s strategy I’ve got a few suggestions and one of them is to start letting me know when you’re going to try and make a fool out of me,’ Honor said, pushing the glass door open and striding ahead.
‘Honor, I think … ’
‘Have you told them? Did you speak to Radley last night? Do they now know about Dan Steele? The history we have … ’ She stopped. ‘The history we had.’
She smiled at the receptionist. ‘Honor Blackwood to see Radley Stokes.’
‘I’m afraid it’s business, darlin’,’ Larry responded.
‘What?’ She turned on Larry, poised, like a wildcat preparing to pounce. ‘What did you say?’
Larry took off his hat, tucking it under his arm. ‘You remember how much Micro has supported you over the years? They retained you, kept advertising your albums even though … ’ He stopped talking.
‘Even though?’ She was willing him to say the wrong thing. Why was that? Why did she want him to give her reason to be mad?
‘I spoke to Radley at the party. I told him the history but … ’
‘Do you know what this meeting’s about?’ She put a hand on her hip and stared him down.
‘I think you should come on in and hear what Micro has to say.’
‘You haven’t answered the question.’ And that fact had her worried.
‘They’re ready for you. Conference Room Four,’ the receptionist addressed Honor.
‘They?’ Honor narrowed her eyes at Larry. ‘Just how many people are in on this meeting?
Larry hadn’t answered and they’d spent an awkward elevator ride up to the ninth floor watching every number from the ground up. She was holding the note card from the flowers tight in her hand. If he was here. If he dared to be here she was going to throw it at him and tell him exactly what she thought of him. Wait … she wasn’t meant to be thinking about it like that. What had happened to her speech about people just jumping at an opportunity? The flowers. The flowers had happened. They had changed everything. She poked the corner of the cardboard into her thumb until it hurt.
‘Listen, honey, my advice would be … ’ Larry began as the elevator doors opened.
‘I don’t want to hear it.’ She cut him dead as she approached the frosted glass doors to the conference room. It was etched with its number and Micro’s logo ‘Start small, aim high’. She raised her hand to knock then thinking better of it she just pushed it open.
‘Honor, great to see you! Larry! Come take a seat.’ Radley Stokes was out of his high-backed leather chair and beckoning them towards the large table. Honor wasn’t looking in his direction. Her attention was focused solely on Dan Steele.
Seated in an identical chair, dressed in a red and blue plaid shirt, open at the neck, he looked the epitome of casual. He gave her a smile, all perfect white teeth and clean jaw. Nausea bubbled in her stomach. Just what was going on? She couldn’t sit. She hovered, one hand on the back of the chair, the other clenching down on the note card.
‘Hey, Honor.’ He’d spoken at last. Still smiling, still relaxed.
‘Hey, Honor? Is that all you’ve got?’ she spat. His mouth dropped then and his eyes told her he was surprised by her retort. Perhaps he thought the flowers would make up for what he did.
‘It’s great to see you,’ he offered.
‘You shouldn’t have sent me flowers!’ She threw the notecard on the table and it slid over and stopped a little way in front of him. ‘Radley, what’s going on here?’
‘Well, if you take a seat I’ll take you through the plans we have to promote you both,’ Radley said. He pointed a tiny remote control at the flat-screen on the wall.
‘Honor, I didn’t … ’ Dan started, the card in his hand.
‘Don’t speak to me!’ She gave him a sideways glance. He looked slightly less calm now.
It was the animated bobble heads on the slideshow that pushed her back up out of the seat thirty minutes later.
‘I don’t understand this. This whole presentation almost pitches us as a duo. We’re not a duo! Is this what the flowers were about? A sweetener? Trying to get me on side after yesterday?’ She narrowed her eyes at Dan.
‘That isn’t our aim. Micro just want to make the most of you both joining and rejoining the label at the same time. It’s an ideal opportunity for some joint promotion.’
‘What flowers?’ Dan remarked.
‘Why are you here?’ Honor turned to Larry next to her. ‘Where’s his advisor?’
Larry shifted in his seat. He’d already unfastened his collar at the beginning of the meeting despite the air conditioning running at full pelt.
‘Well, honey, this was something I was going to talk to you about a little later,’ he began.
It took only a split second for her to realize what he’d said without actually saying anything much at all.
‘No.’ She couldn’t stop the mix of fear, horror and bewilderment coating her tone.
‘Honor, darlin’, have a seat. It isn’t all it seems. I … ’ Larry started.
‘You lied to me. For how long? How long has this been shaping up?’ Her voice was trembling and she hated the fact. ‘Was this why you were so keen for me to come back? To help launch his career?’
‘No, darlin’, nothing was discussed until yesterday and nothing’s been agreed yet.’
She didn’t know what to say. What else was there to say? Her advisor, the guy who’d been there with her from the very beginning was planning to start helping her ex-boyfriend launch his attack on the country music charts. How did he expect her to feel? First Micro had wheeled out Dan into her comeback PA without telling her, and now Larry had turned traitor. She felt like the walls of the boardroom were closing in.
Dan got up out of his seat.
‘Honor, I didn’t mean for any of this to upset you. I thought we could just put the past behind us and create something new here for the label. I’ve been reading up on mutual support in entertainment circles and there’s a lot to be said for it.’
Put the past behind us. He was talking about it as if it was a bad fashion decision he’d made or a wrong call on a business deal. He’d bailed on her the second he’d seen her scar. He’d been weak and shallow and he’d abandoned her, left her with only Larry. And now he was back to take Larry from her too.
She surveyed them all. Her heart ached, yet it was still pushing the adrenalin anger brought with it through her body at the same time. Why had they done this? Why did they think this was OK?
‘This meeting is over.’ Her voice was robotic but determined. ‘I want
to terminate my contract. You can communicate with my lawyer. I don’t want to be professionally associated with any of you. Pull the record. Pull it today.’
She’d tried to stop the emotion leaking through into her words but it hadn’t worked. By the time she’d spoken the last ‘pull’ there were tears in her eyes and sentiment in her throat.
‘Honor, honey, wait.’ Larry scrambled to his feet but she was already marching through the door.
She hadn’t text him. She didn’t know if he’d even be home. She just knew she wanted to see him. Someone who understood her. Someone who wouldn’t lie to her.
When he pulled open the front door she could have wept with relief.
‘Honor,’ Jared greeted, a smile immediately forming on his lips. ‘I was gonna call you.’
There he was. All six foot of him. Wearing a black vest-top over ripped jeans, bare feet.
‘I’m sorry … for turning up unannounced. I just … had to see you,’ she blurted out. She was still willing herself not to cry but none of her senses seemed to be listening. During all those years in foster care she’d never let out her emotions, but after the attack everything had snowballed. It still seemed like she was catching up on a whole life’s worth of tears.
‘Hey, what’s going on here? Come on, come here and come on in.’
He put an arm around her and drew her over the threshold, closing the door behind her. Once the outside world was shut away she let the tears fall.
‘What is it? What the hell’s happened?’
He gathered her into his arms and she clung to his solidity with everything she had. She couldn’t answer him yet. She just needed to be held, to know someone was here for her. On her side. Supporting her. How could it be that a guy she’d known just a few weeks was the person she trusted most in her world right now?
‘Honor?’ He wanted an answer, she knew, but she also knew when she told him he was going to be mad as hell. That’s just who he was.
She’d made him go into the den before she opened up. Now that she had he wanted to leave her, head over to Micro Records and destroy Radley Stokes. Dan Steele already had it coming and roll on the next time he saw him.
‘Speak to me, Jared. Don’t keep it all in. I know how you’re feeling.’
She raised her beautiful eyes to him and he felt that kick to his stomach. She knew him. Could read him already. Just like that.
‘You want me to tell you I want to rip up that record label guy? Take Dan Steele’s head off and make sure your advisor never works again?’ He kicked out, barefoot, at the coffee table and it shifted half a meter.
Honor blew out a breath. ‘It’s done now. It’s over.’
‘They took you back on. They made you promises. Yesterday they put on that show and then they signed him and did this. That’s disrespectful, Honor.’ He was gritting his teeth, the rage he felt boiling up as he imagined the scenario.
‘I know. But perhaps it was a wake-up call. I mean, who was I trying to kid? The country music scene doesn’t need singers like me anymore. Mia introduced me to Taylor Swift’s latest album the other day. I’m nothing like that.’
‘Praise be!’
There was no way in this world he was going to let this happen. After everything she’d overcome he was damned if he was going to let the new team at Micro give her another crisis of confidence.
‘Listen, today they’ve lost the best darn vocalist Nashville has ever seen. They’re disloyal. They’re underhand. Not one of them deserves you.’ He sat next to her on the couch, took her hands in his. She was trembling and he just wanted to make the three of them pay for kicking her like this.
‘I don’t know what to do,’ she admitted.
She looked so desperate. Yesterday’s high was a distant memory. He wasn’t going to let this go.
He released his grip on her hands and reached for her face, cupping her jaw with his fingers. Slowly he brought his mouth to hers, placing feather light wisps of kisses on her lips. Every time they touched he fell a bit deeper, another piece of his soul loosened a little. This girl was getting inside of him and he was powerless to stop her.
‘You are not throwin’ away your career because of this. You’ve fought bigger battles. Where I come from we don’t just get even, we get on top – whatever it takes. D’you hear?’ He held her shoulders, leveled her eye to eye. She nodded.
‘I’ll make you a deal. I’ll help you get a new label if you help me drink half the Pure Nectar in my refrigerator.’
Honor spluttered a laugh at the suggestion.
‘Last count there was sixty-four bottles after I sent over three hundred to the homeless shelter. I could really use some assistance.’ He grinned, nudging her arm.
‘Deal,’ she responded.
‘Alright. Then I need to go make a couple of calls.’
He’d only been gone a half hour but when he returned to the den Honor was asleep. As he looked down on her, there was that tightening of the chest again and that swell in his gut that washed all over him.
He’d do anything for her. Absolutely anything. That’s why he’d come clean on the phone to Buzz about their relationship. He had a plan to fix this. He wanted to make things right for her. She deserved a break.
He picked up the plaid rug from the back of his La-Z-Boy recliner and carefully draped it over her. He touched her cheek, then quietly backed away settling down into his chair.
Chapter Twenty Two
Her nose wrinkled to the smell of cooking. What was being made she couldn’t identify except to the point that it was something oily. As her other senses came to life she caught the sound of violent sizzling. She opened her eyes and with one hand pushed the rug away from her face. Her head was muzzy. She was on a couch. Jared’s couch. It was rough on her skin and it smelt funny. He’d said something about it belonging to his grandmother. She sat up.
Looking at her watch she saw it was morning. Her eyes were sore and her mouth was dry. She didn’t remember falling asleep … but she did remember what happened at the offices of Micro Records.
She stood up and stretched her arms above her head as a string of curse words filtered in through the door to the kitchen. She headed that way.
‘Darn eggs! You don’t come from an Alabama chicken that’s for sure!’
Her breath caught in her throat as she entered the room. Jared had his back to her as he stood doing something with a frying pan over the hob, wearing nothing but jeans and his baseball cap. She kept silent, watched the contours of his back, the muscles twisting and shifting as he worked the food around. He had a tattoo at the small of his back, a bird. As he moved around the range she caught brief glimpses of his other markings. The tattoos on his obliques, the scar down his abdomen. She felt her insides take a turn, lust sweep up out of nowhere. What this guy did to her was unexplainable.
He noticed her. ‘Hey, good mornin’. I’m having a tussle here with the breakfast.’ He lifted up the plastic spatula he was using as if in explanation.
‘You have a bird on your back,’ Honor said, closing the distance between them.
‘Have you been checking out my pecker?’ He turned full frontal then and leaned against the range, watching her.
‘What?’ Her cheeks were already heating up just from looking at that washboard stomach, the tight muscular shoulders and upper arms.
‘The yellowhammer. It’s a woodpecker. National bird of Alabama. What did you think I meant?’ His eyes were sparkling with devilment and she loved that. She adored the way he was so comfortable in his own skin.
She touched his chest then and snaked a finger down the scar on his midriff, making her way south.
‘You wouldn’t be tryin’ to make sure I burned breakfast would you? Because I’m no chef. I do eggs and barbecue and that’s about all. You might spoil the only meal I’m capable of makin’ for ya.’
He was talking because he was scared. When she touched him he felt it more than skin deep. He was already hard and if she got any closer
she would know that too. He couldn’t go there, he wasn’t ready. That sounded crazy but it was true. He couldn’t remember how many girls he’d slept with in the last year - since his career skyrocketed - but he hadn’t felt anything. Mild sexual satisfaction, a quick high and then nothing but emptiness. But he hadn’t wanted to feel. He didn’t deserve to. Was that still true?
He swallowed. Her hand was pulling at the studded belt, slipping it from the buckle. He closed his eyes.
His skin felt slightly damp like he’d showered. Had she slept through that? The thought of him underneath hot running water had her insides folding. It was all imagination; after all she’d not seen him naked. She wanted to. It was like he’d opened up a side to her she didn’t recognize, let alone know. She pulled the belt undone and felt for the first metal button at his fly. She unfastened it and that’s when his mouth crashed against hers. Hot breath, the stubble on his face, his firm insistent lips, the moistness of his tongue dancing with hers. She was getting a head rush with the excitement and adrenalin. She pulled at the second button, then the third. Her hand parted the denim and he was right there. No underwear.
A flood of heat soared through her and then he grabbed her hand and took it upwards and away, placing it on his chest as he kissed her again.
She broke away, out of breath and a little confused. She thought they’d cleared things up. She thought after the other night they both knew what they wanted. Was this another rejection? The way he looked at her, the way his body was reacting to her told her otherwise.
Her eyes were damp before she could check herself. She looked away, focused on the wooden tea, coffee and sugar canisters with moose antlers on each lid.
‘I’ve not had … ’ He paused. ‘Someone like you in my life before.’
The way the words came out sounded genuine and heartfelt. But what did it mean?
‘I just … want to get things right. Do things right.’
He drew her head back, making her look at him. She blinked, tried to understand exactly what he was saying, see the translation behind his expression.