by Mari Carr
“Tough,” Bryson said, approaching them.
“How did you know where to find me?”
“Marco called to see if we’d be joining you in New Orleans this weekend. Lucky for you, I think pretty damn quick on my feet. Said of course we were.”
Bryson’s smug smile had her fist clenching again.
She’d been a fool to accept Marco’s offer of a place to stay in New Orleans. She hadn’t meant to tell anyone she was leaving town, but the record producer had called to set up a planning meeting during the time she’d intended to be away. She had asked if they could postpone it a week, as she needed to make a quick trip to Louisiana. Marco had been more than happy to offer her the use of the record company’s penthouse apartment for her visit.
She had been tempted to ask Marco to keep her trip a secret, but hadn’t wanted to rouse her new boss’ suspicions. The ink was still wet on Closing Time’s contract. She didn’t want the CEO to freak out with news that she had a skeleton in her closet that had decided to poke its head out and wreak havoc.
“What’s up, Dani?” Aiden asked. “You’ve been acting strangely for a few weeks. At first we thought maybe you were just fighting some nerves about the deal and the new album. But it’s more than that, isn’t it?”
Bryson huffed out a hard, frustrated breath. “You left town without telling us. You never do that. If something is bothering you, just tell us and we’ll fix it. I can’t stand how you’re acting all distant and secretive these days. And now there’s this sneaking around crap. What’s wrong?”
She smiled sadly. Bryson and Aiden had been her best friends for six years. During that time, she’d gotten closer to them than anyone in a very, very long time.
But Dani hadn’t told anyone in Nashville about her past. Not even Stella. She’d walked away from it all and had genuinely believed if she didn’t talk about it, it didn’t exist.
Then Jett and her dad had found her and doors she’d thought were locked forever flew open.
“It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
Bryson took a quick step toward her, angry at her response. She stiffened her spine. It wouldn’t be the first time Bryson had tried to play knight to her damsel. The only problem was she never let him see her distress. “Goddammit, Dani. I thought we were past this.”
She knew what he referred to. When they’d first started writing music together, she’d held both men at bay, working hard to remain aloof. It had taken the better part of a year before she’d trusted them enough to share little bits of her life with them. Meanwhile, Bryson and Aiden had been open books from day one. How many times had she wished she could be more like them?
Aiden put a hand on his best friend’s shoulder, holding him back. “We didn’t come here to fight, Dani.”
Dani wasn’t sure if Aiden’s quiet comment was to reassure her or to remind Bryson. Either way, it worked. Bryson visibly relaxed. She walked over to a couch in the sitting area and sank down tiredly. Then she took a few moments to study her surroundings.
“Swanky place. Awfully nice of the label to let us use it.”
Aiden ran his finger along the top of a baby grand that stood in the corner. “I think this is going to be the norm for the next little while. We’re their rising stars and as long as we don’t blow it, it looks like we get to live the good life.”
The idea of the “good life” would have sent her soaring a month ago. Now all she could hear was the “if we don’t blow it” part. How would MC Records react if the details of her past came out? She wasn’t sure they’d be pleased to hear words like “sexual molestation”, “incest” and “runaway” hitting the media about one of their newest artists.
Her chest tightened as she tried to recall if there was something in the contract that would allow them to dissolve it. She was fairly certain there was. What if her father went public, made some sort of big stink, and MCR dumped them? It wasn’t just her future success she’d be destroying. It was Aiden and Bryson’s as well. And the worst part was…they’d be completely blindsided by it.
Bryson sat next to her on the couch, leaning against the soft cushions, his arm resting along the back. She giggled when he tickled the back of her neck. “I could definitely get used to this. Which is why it’s upsetting when the third member of our trio splits without saying a word.”
“I was going to email you as soon as I got here,” she said.
Bryson scowled. “Gee. That’s big of you.”
Dani rested her head against the cushions, Bryson absent-mindedly playing with her hair. “How did you get here so quickly?”
“We knew you were leaving before you left, so we booked flights,” Aiden replied.
She frowned. “When did you find out?”
Bryson stretched out his long legs and crossed his ankles, looking far too pleased with himself. “Marco called about an hour after you picked that damn fight.”
Dani didn’t respond. She didn’t know how. She had felt guilty ever since she’d stormed out of the recording studio a few days earlier. The return trip to New Orleans had been looming before her and she still hadn’t figured out how to tell Aiden and Bryson she was leaving.
With her nerves on edge, she’d hit a breaking point as they’d discussed a song list for their first few concert dates. She’d flipped her lid over something really stupid and left the studio. She had wanted to call them immediately to apologize, but she’d decided to use the argument as her out, a reason to give them the silent treatment—something she’d never done—for the few days it took her to travel to New Orleans, clean up her mess and get back to Nashville. She had hoped they’d be none the wiser about her escape.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said softly.
Both men grinned and she realized the apology wasn’t necessary. Knowing her friends, they’d forgiven her before she’d finished executing her storm-out.
Bryson reached for her hand, squeezing it. “What is it, Dani? Is it the contract? I know you’re not comfortable with the limelight, but lately it felt like that had been getting better. I thought this was what we all wanted. What we’ve been working so hard for.”
MC Records had offered them a sweet deal and there had been no question they’d hit the big time. All the hours, writing and rehearsing, performing in clubs and at county fairs had paid off.
The label had huge plans for them, including a three-album deal, a performance on the CMT awards show, and a forty-seven-city tour headlining for Bryan Lucas, the hottest name in country music. It was a dream come true and, according to their agent, James, an unheard-of offer.
Unfortunately all she could think about when they’d been planning their concert playlist was the names of cities for the tour—their kick-off performance was taking place in New Orleans.
Twelve years of repressed fears combined with the stress of returning home had bubbled out and she’d exploded. Irrationally. Insanely. And then she’d raced out of the studio and avoided their calls.
“It’s not the deal. Or the playlist. I just have some personal things I need to sort through. Things I need to do. Alone.” She had to force herself to add the last word. Now that Aiden and Bryson were here, she was damn happy to see them.
It was ridiculous, considering she didn’t want them to know about her past. But the fact remained she was stronger when they were with her.
Bryson snorted. “Yeah. Alone’s not an option.”
Before she could take exception to the way he dismissed her request out of hand, Aiden stepped closer. “You might want to call Benji and let him know you got here safely.”
“Benji knows I’m here too?”
Aiden shrugged. “We stopped by there after Marco’s call to see if he knew what you were up to. We figured if you’d confided in anyone, it would be him.”
“Shit.”
When she’d first arrived in Nashville, she’d found a job bussing the tables and washing the dishes at Benji’s bar. From there, she’d graduated to waitressing and then to a
performer. For well over a decade, she’d worked for Benji in some manner.
“I’ll call him,” she muttered, not looking forward to that conversation. Like Aiden and Bryson, her beloved boss was also in the dark about her past. Her two worlds were suddenly colliding and Dani was terrified about the fallout.
“You should have told us what you were doing, Dani,” Aiden said.
Dani lifted one shoulder casually, though she didn’t feel as relaxed as she was pretending. “You’re not my keepers.”
Bryson’s brows furrowed and she could see the anger in his eyes. She didn’t blame him. She’d be pissed as hell if either of them said the same thing to her. They were more than just bandmates. They were her best friends and her family.
“I’m sorry,” she added quickly. “You caught me off guard here. I’ve been driving all night and I’m really tired.” Then, she offered them an olive branch. After all, they’d come all this way to be with her because they loved her and they were worried about her. “I’m here to reunite with my foster family.”
It wasn’t the entire truth, but it was part of it. And given the fact they weren’t planning to leave, it was inevitable that they’d meet the Lewises. She’d reunited with Jett and met his fiancée, Carissa, this morning at a late breakfast as soon as she arrived in town. It had been truly wonderful to see him again.
Tomorrow she was going to Mama Lewis’ house to reconnect with everyone else. Deep down, she wanted Aiden and Bryson to meet them.
“You were a foster kid?” Aiden asked.
Dani fought hard to stem the tears threatening as she considered the part she couldn’t tell them. She’d spent her entire adult life recreating herself. She had been a victim, but Aiden and Bryson had never seen her as such. They saw her as independent, self-sufficient, confident. She didn’t want that to change.
“Yes.” She didn’t offer them more than that. Her short answer annoyed them. She could read it in their faces. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to confide in them. It was that she couldn’t. Her throat was clogged with unshed tears. She swallowed heavily, and then offered them as much as she was able.
“Apparently they’ve been looking for me for a long time. My foster brother, Jett, called me a couple months ago. We’ve been talking on the phone quite a lot since then. I thought…” she paused, hating herself for the lie she was about tell. “I thought I’d take this weekend to see them again before our lives go crazy—between the recording studio, the television appearances and the tour, I wasn’t sure when I’d have a chance to reunite with them.”
“Our first tour stop is New Orleans.” Leave it to Aiden to point out the obvious. It was hell trying to lie to him because he was too fucking smart.
“We’re going to be busy.”
His expression told her he didn’t buy that answer, but luckily, he didn’t press her on it. “So you’re just here to see your foster family?”
She nodded. “Yeah.” And again, there was absolutely no reason on earth she couldn’t have told the guys that harmless tidbit in Nashville. The confusion on Aiden’s face told her he was still trying to find the catch.
“The Lewises,” she added stupidly, hoping that by throwing out a name—her last name—they’d find something innocuous to focus on instead of the obvious, which was that she was lying to them.
“You were close to them?” Aiden asked.
Dani swallowed heavily. “Yeah. I was.”
She had only suffered one regret by running away, and that was that she’d had to leave the Lewis family. However, the pain she’d felt in leaving them was alleviated by the realization her absence would keep Mama Lewis from doing anything stupid in her attempts to save Dani.
“I thought Stella was your aunt,” Bryson said.
She shook her head. That was the lie she and Stella had created when Dani moved in with the oft-absent trucker. Stella had offered her a place to stay for a few weeks. When the weeks turned into months, they decided to make it a permanent arrangement. Stella had never pressed Dani for details about her life before coming to Nashville. She’d simply accepted her presence and they had gone on from there.
Dani had gotten a job at Benji’s while Stella continued to make her cross-country runs. Stella said she found it easier to leave knowing someone was looking after her house. It was a lie, but Dani had let herself believe it, so grateful to have a home and a friend.
After a few years, it stopped feeling strange to call Stella her aunt because they’d definitely forged a tiny family—just the two of them. When Stella, a chain smoker, had been diagnosed with lung cancer, it was Dani’s name listed as next of kin and she sat beside Stella for weeks in the hospital, holding her hand as she died.
“She wasn’t a blood relative, but she was still my aunt.” Dani had spent a lifetime perilously short on family. So she’d created her own—adopting Mama Lewis as a mother and Stella as an aunt. Even her cantankerous old boss, Benji, had become family.
After Stella’s death, Dani had been devastated, distraught. Benji had stepped in, becoming less employer and more overprotective uncle. He’d helped her deal with Stella’s estate, guiding her through the process of planning a funeral, selling the house and settling all of Stella’s debts.
Stella had named Dani the beneficiary in her will, and while that hadn’t amounted to any great inheritance, it had given Dani enough money for a decent used car, to put down a security deposit on a nice apartment in town, and to tuck a little bit in the bank for a rainy day. Through it all, Benji had held her hand and given her a shoulder to cry on.
She considered Aiden and Bryson family too, though for some reason, she didn’t feel the same sisterly fondness for them that she felt for the Lewis kids—Caleb, Justin, Chloe and Jett. She supposed it was because she’d been a girl when she had met the Lewises and a woman when she’d met Aiden and Bryson. Perhaps her needs in terms of family had changed.
“So you’re really only here to reunite with the Lewises? Nothing else?” Aiden asked, his voice still skeptical. She didn’t blame him for his doubts.
“Yes,” Dani responded quickly, determined to keep the other goal from them. It was her own fault she was in this mess.
For years, she’d covered her tracks—changing her name, setting up residence in Nashville and lying her ass off about her childhood. After so long, she’d actually become complacent and started to feel secure. She should have known her secrets would come back to bite her in the ass eventually.
Dani shuddered to think how Bryson and Aiden would react if she told them about her father and the things he’d done to her. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep them from killing the man. And while she’d harbored more than a few murderous thoughts toward her dad in the past, that was all they were—thoughts.
Aiden sat down in an oversized chair across from her. “How long has it been since you’ve seen them?”
“Twelve years.”
“Did you live with them for long?”
Aiden was inquisitive by nature. And while he was keeping the conversation light and breezy, she knew he was hurt that she’d lied to him…that she was still lying to him.
As far as Bryson and Aiden knew, Stella had raised Dani after her parents died in a car crash. She’d never mentioned the Lewis family or New Orleans to them. Not once.
She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Two years.”
He nodded slowly, his gaze intent on her face. “And before that?”
Dani couldn’t do this. Couldn’t give them the answers she wanted. Exhaustion mixed with fear and shame. She had been so determined to find her father, to call the man a bastard to his face, to tell him he hadn’t broken her and he meant nothing to her. To say all those things she’d longed to say when she’d been fifteen.
It had been a much easier prospect in Nashville. However, her courage had begun to waver the second she saw the sign welcoming her to New Orleans.
“I was somewhere else.” The vague response had the desired effect, even
if it gutted Dani to do it. Aiden looked hurt. And then he looked away.
Bryson wasn’t as easy to shake. He cupped her cheek, forcing her to face him. His jaw, covered by that permanent five o’clock shadow he never seemed able to shave away, was tight. “We’re not strangers, Dani. I don’t know what’s going on inside that head of yours, but we’re not the enemy and we’re not going to hurt you. Why are you shutting us out?”
Dani blinked rapidly, desperate not to cry. Everything he said was true. Neither of them deserved the way she was treating them. They were her friends. The three of them had shared a lifetime of adventures in the past six years as they’d spent hours rehearsing, traveling from one small town to the next, and as they’d written songs that became big hits for one superstar after another to pay the bills.
Then they’d made their own huge breakthrough six months earlier when they had recorded a song they’d written and uploaded it on iTunes. The thing had gone viral and made them a shit ton of money. It had put their little trio, Closing Time, on the map, and from that had come the big record deal.
As far as Dani could see, there was only one thing standing in their way. Her.
Dani wanted to look away, unable to face the hurt on Bryson’s face, but he wouldn’t let her go, refused to let her escape. “I just need some time to sort things out here. It’s nothing you need to worry about. Honest.”
“This Lewis family…they’re good people?”
Dani smiled. “The best.”
“When are you going to see them?” Bryson asked.
“Tomorrow. Sunday dinner. Jett knows I’m coming and he’s promised to get the rest of the family there. My arrival is going to be a surprise.”
“We’re going with you.” Bryson’s tone told her to save her breath if she was planning to argue. When he made a proclamation like that, it was going to happen, no matter what.