She forced herself to gather her bags and look ahead when the memories of her time with Blake inside that bus crept into her mind, causing her body to tingle all over. Katie sternly reminded herself that it was time to rehearse like the professional she was if she was going to make it on this tour. She let assistants handle her luggage while she strode across the lot to meet Caroline Mathers.
“Katie, hello. Welcome! We are so pleased that you could join us. How was your flight?” Caroline gave Katie a firm handshake.
“Great, thank you. I’m glad to be here.”
“Wonderful, well, I am sorry that you don’t have more time to get settled before you get started, but the schedule is very tight. I’m afraid you’ll just be thrown right in to the thick of it this afternoon. I’ll get someone to take your things to the bus and you can get settled in later. You’ll have enough time to get what you need before the show. The band has already set up for a rehearsal inside, and they are ready for you.” Caroline led Katie into the venue and on to the stage, where Blake’s band was set up and waiting.
Katie gripped the handle of her fiddle case and swallowed her fear with an audible gulp as she made her way up the steps to the stage. You can do this. You’ve played these songs for years and you are a professional. She pasted a friendly smile on her face, hoping to hide her nervousness, and joined the band on the stage. “Hi everyone, I’m Katie McCoy.”
Blake’s band greeted her with friendly reserve and she wondered if they had been told that Chet was not coming back or if they thought she was a temporary replacement. Were they unhappy to have her on tour? Did they resent that Blake was playing favorites? As if it wasn’t stressful enough to join such a huge act right in the middle of the tour, now there might be tension between her and the band?
A door opened and Blake strode in, heading straight for the stage. Seeing him again brought a rush of emotion so powerful that Katie swayed on her feet for a second. He bounded up the steps and cleared his throat. “I see y’all have met Katie McCoy, our new fiddler.” He gave Katie a brief glance that set her heart racing before addressing the band. “Before any rumors get started, let me just tell you guys that Chet has gone back home to be with his family indefinitely. His mother is very ill, and he didn’t want to be on the road when he should be with her. He wanted to take a leave, he wasn’t fired, but I have chosen to terminate his contract altogether. He will not be returning, and you can consider Miss McCoy our permanent fiddler.” Blake gave the band a level stare as they grumbled, then continued on as though he hadn’t heard them. “Y’all might remember her from other shows. She used to be with one of the openers, Sterling. They were with us in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. We’re all going to miss Chet, he was a great fiddler, but Katie is an excellent musician and will be a great addition to the group. I expect that you’ll help her get up to speed. Everybody got that?” He challenged them to object with a direct look to each man in the group.
The men nodded and mumbled their welcomes to Katie. She smiled as enthusiastically as she could and said, “Thanks y’all. I’m really happy to be here and I’m looking forward to working hard.” She tried to catch Blake’s eye, but he was deliberately ignoring her.
“All right, let’s get started.” Blake took his place at center stage and the band ran through the set list. Katie organized her sheet music and equipment around her and got to work with the rest of the band.
The rehearsal was exhausting. Between the flight, Katie’s nerves over seeing Blake again, and working so hard to play as well as the rest of the band, she was ready for a nap by the time Blake dismissed everyone to get ready for the show later that night. Katie was thankful that she already knew most of the songs, but playing along with the radio and playing in the band were two different things. She’d also never played in a stadium before. This was probably the biggest show on the tour, and Katie berated herself for not delaying her arrival one or two more days so she could start somewhere smaller. She was packing up her gear when Blake approached her.
“I’m so glad that you’re here, and it feels so good to see you again. I don’t have much time to talk right now, but I really want to meet with you later. Please be patient with me for a while. The guys are kind of upset about me letting Chet go, so I think it’s probably best that we lay low when we’re in front of everyone for now.” He looked around and, seeing nobody, dropped a tentative kiss on her cheek. “I missed you so much.”
The kiss went straight through Katie, sending a zing of attraction right to her toes. “Me too.”
He checked his watch and groaned. “Our schedule is tight today, so I gotta get moving. You sounded great in rehearsals, but just in case, I ordered a screen prompter for you. It’s like a teleprompter but it displays music. You’ll be able to see the screen but to the audience it looks like the rest of the stage gear. That way you don’t have to worry about messing up while you’re still learning the songs.”
“That will be really helpful, thank you. I have never played anywhere near this size, so to be honest I was kind of wishing that I hadn’t come for this show. My nerves have been fried. This will make things a lot easier.”
“I’m glad, sweetheart. I also just want to assure you that I’ll never let our personal situation affect your job with this band or on this tour. I know how important your career is to you, and I want you to know that whatever happens between us won’t affect your job here.” He shifted nervously and looked at her hopefully.
“Thank you. That means a lot to me, and I’m really looking forward to working with you.” The tension, the strange situation, the unknown future—it was so stressful. Katie wanted to grab onto Blake and never let him go, but it was almost a relief when he left and she was free to prepare for the show on her own.
• • •
Blake slumped on the couch in his dressing room and stared at the ceiling, motionless. He didn’t know how he would react to seeing Katie again, but he never imagined that he’d be so stiff and ridiculous. He could just hear himself telling her that their relationship wouldn’t interfere with her job, and he felt like an idiot. He should forget about the other guys, pull her into his arms, and beg her for forgiveness.
She was so beautiful on stage during rehearsal, so clearly in her element. He would have to pull himself together if he was going to work alongside her for six months. Would she take him back? Would it be better to wait until the tour ended? Seeing her this afternoon assured Blake that his feelings for her had not changed except to grow stronger. He felt the same magnetic pull towards Katie, the same undeniable attraction to her. One look at her affirmed that he had made the right decision in asking her to join him on tour. Fortunately for him, she was as talented as she was beautiful. Unfortunately for him, the hurt lingering in her eyes was caused by him and his stupid inability to commit.
He didn’t know how he was going to do it, but he did know that he couldn’t mess things up with Katie this time. He thought calling her to hire her was hard. Now he had his work cut out for him.
• • •
A knock on her door woke Katie from a nap on the little couch in her dressing room, and she stretched, feeling like she had been asleep for days instead of an hour. Her body ached and her mouth felt like she had been chewing on a sweater, but it was time to get ready for the show. Tiffany and Cara stepped into the doorway, matching expectant smiles on their faces.
“You guys! What are you doing here?” Katie hopped up, forgetting how sore her muscles were and how foggy her head had felt. “I can’t believe it! You’re really here! How can it be?” She squealed as she rushed over to the hairstylist and makeup artist and pulled them into a big hug.
Tiffany laughed, “Girl, when Blake Jackson called, I came running.”
“You know it. Well, actually his assistant called, but I think it was his idea. He thought you might like a couple of familiar faces when you got here,”
Cara added.
Katie’s eyes shone with tears. “I’m so glad that y’all came. I’m excited to be here, but I have to admit, it has been so hard. I don’t really know anybody and I can’t tell if they want me here or not. Blake kind of let the other fiddler go to bring me here, and it’s not going over with the rest of the band very well.”
Cara sucked in a breath. “Ooh, awkward.”
Katie laughed without humor. “Tell me about it. So there’s that, and it’s weird to be back with Blake. We hadn’t spoken once since I left.”
“Wow, really? Last time we saw you two together, you guys were like two peas in a pod. Did you break up or something?” Tiffany asked.
“Yeah, I guess we did. We couldn’t really agree about what we would do when my band was finished with the tour and things just kind of went downhill from there. I’m sure you know that I had a bad fall and ended up in the hospital, right? Well, that’s why I had to go home early. I ended up with a concussion and had to take it easy for a couple of weeks. Blake’s fiddler replaced me for the last couple of Sterling’s shows so they finished up without me. One thing led to another and now here I am, working for Blake.”
“So now what? Think you two will get back together?” Cara finished setting up her products on the vanity and started working on Katie’s hair.
“I don’t know,” Katie said. She looked down at her hands in her lap and sighed. “To be honest, when he called to hire me, I really thought we would. I tried not to let myself get carried away, but of course I thought we would. I think I really want to, but I’m not sure.”
Tiffany’s brow furrowed as she applied Katie’s makeup. “You think you might not get back together?”
“I really don’t know. I have to be really careful this time, really consider everything before I decide what to do. It’s hard, because I love him, he’s my heart. It’s like when he’s gone I can’t breathe. I left my band to be here though, and I had been with them for six years. That was a lot to give up, and there’s no going back for me now. I have to be really careful with Blake, because now he’s my boss. If things don’t go well this time, he could fire me, or at least make things really uncomfortable for me. I didn’t really think it through before I made my decision. I was just hoping that he felt the same way that I do and that maybe he would have missed me so much that he would have changed.”
“Hmm, well I don’t know what’s going to happen, but one thing I can tell you for sure, you made the right choice. The last time I saw you two together, Blake Jackson looked like a man in love, and I’ve only seen a man look at a woman the way he looks at you in movies. You can’t fake that in real life,” said Tiffany.
“Well I guess we’ll see. I have to figure out how to work with him no matter what happens.”
Tiffany and Cara finished Katie’s hair and makeup and said their goodbyes. They stepped aside, giggling, as Blake came in as they were leaving.
“Perfect timing. We just finished hair and makeup.” Katie turned to Blake and smiled shyly.
“I see that.” He eyed her appreciatively. “You look gorgeous.”
“Aw, thank you. Well, come on in. What’s up?” Katie was being artificially casual, but she wasn’t going to throw herself at Blake.
“I just wanted to see you before the show. I still can’t believe you’re here.” They sat on her little couch together and he took a strand of her hair between his thumb and finger, rubbing it absentmindedly as he looked into her eyes. “I never got a chance to see how it went with the Sterling guys.”
“Oh, them.” Katie frowned and took a deep breath. “It was pretty harsh. I told Charles about it first, and he was so understanding and sweet about it that I mistakenly thought the other guys would be okay with it. It was truly awful. I was hoping that we could all be friends, that maybe we could work together again in the future, something. I don’t think they’ll ever want to see me again.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Yeah. They were really mad. The band is struggling, financially, and we—or they, I guess—need to wait before going back into the studio. Everyone was already kind of down about everything, so this was just like more bad news. They were pretty resentful that I was moving on to a bigger act while Sterling still has to struggle.”
“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t sure which way it would go with them. It it’s any consolation, my band was pretty ticked off, too.” He smiled ruefully.
“Well, you can just fire anyone who gives you a hard time.” She punched him playfully on the shoulder.
“I should do that, maybe just remind them who’s boss,” he said with a smile. “Seriously though, it’s probably my fault. I always thought I was doing the best thing by treating my musicians like we were in this together, but when it comes time to make tough decisions it goes down harder. It’s not easy for them to go from seeing me as the singer in their band to their boss.”
“Well, I’ll be extra careful, then. Don’t want to blur any lines.”
Blake took Katie’s face in his hands and gently placed a soft kiss on her lips. “You are the exception.” Reluctantly, he got to his feet and walked to the door. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Chapter Fifteen
Katie felt like she had been baptized by fire the past week after joining Blake’s tour, but things were smoothing out and she was hitting her stride. The music was coming more naturally to her, the guys in the band seemed to be starting to respect her as a musician in her own right, and every day she felt more confident.
It was so tempting to reach out and touch Blake every time they were together, but he treated her with professionalism and painstaking equality when they were with the band. It was almost physically painful for her to keep her distance from him, but now that the band was starting to bring her into the fold, she was so glad that she had. If they believed she was there as Blake’s girlfriend, her life on the road with them would be miserable. Her heart still skipped a beat when she saw him, and she longed for the day when they could have a chance at a normal relationship.
Katie was resting in her dressing room in Wichita, Kansas, after Tiffany and Cara had finished transforming her for the show when Caroline Mathers stopped by. “Katie, Blake would like for you to see him in his dressing room as soon as you can.” Caroline’s carefully arranged neutral expression revealed nothing.
“Hmm, okay. I’ll be right there. Thanks.” Katie wondered if there was a problem.
She gave herself a quick look in the mirror and applied a fresh coat of lip gloss before heading down the hallway to Blake’s dressing room. She knocked on the door, which was already slightly ajar.
The door opened to reveal Blake standing in the middle of the room surrounded by soft candlelight. Katie walked in and turned around in a slow circle, taking in the candles filling Blake’s room. He had placed about a dozen candles in small jars on every flat surface of the room. Blake offered Katie a flute of pink champagne and led her to the couch. They sat side by side, and he looked at her with hope in his eyes.
“First, I want to tell you how glad I am that you’re here, and how sorry I am for everything that’s happened. I have been so scared that I would mess things up with you that once you were here I didn’t know what to say. I know that you were probably expecting something different, and once again I didn’t deliver. I feel like a fool for how I’ve behaved, and I want you back.”
Katie took in the scene that Blake had constructed, breathed in the heady amber scent of the candles, and took a sip of her champagne, feeling bubbles tickle her nose. Everything was beautiful, a perfect scenario. She thought that any girl in America would be happy to be in her cowboy boots right now. It would be so easy to say yes and go back to the way things were. It felt right, and Katie wanted to be with Blake. Just being in the same room with him made her nerves tingle with excitement. Everything about Blake was made just for her, l
ike he was the perfect fit. She had worked so hard to find the place within herself where she could work alongside Blake without tasting the bitterness of his refusal to commit, but all she wanted to do was surrender to his touch now that he had said he wanted her back. She wanted him back too, but she hadn’t forgotten the dark days of loneliness she suffered through during the weeks at home in Texas with no communication from him. It would take more than candles and champagne to assure her that he wouldn’t hurt her all over again. As much as she ached for Blake to be back in her life, it had been too hard to let him go. She’d have to be sure that he was sincere.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m quite ready. This is lovely,” she gestured around the room. “It really is. I know that I’m lucky to be here, but you know, you’ve really hurt me. When you let me go, my world stopped. I felt like my heart had cracked wide open. Everything was darker without you. When I was at home and didn’t hear from you even once, I thought I would stop breathing. But I didn’t. I picked myself up, all on my own, and now I’m starting to feel normal again.”
“I’m so sorry. I’ll never forgive myself for how I treated you. You deserve so much better, and I want the chance to give it to you.” Blake’s eyes were pleading.
“I appreciate that, and I forgive you. I really do, and you don’t have to be sorry any more. But I can’t forget it, at least not yet. I have to be realistic and ask myself if this would be happening if you hadn’t been able to hire me. If you didn’t need me in your band, would we have ever spoken again?”
“Of course we would,” Blake insisted. “I risked losing the respect of the rest of the band to bring you here. I let a great fiddler go for you. I risked my reputation for you, and I didn’t do that on a whim.”
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