Nashville Nights

by Alicia Hunter Pace

  Then she’d go riding. The Hill Country was beautiful, and she could take a little hot weather. She’d come from Laredo, after all, where spring temperatures often topped a hundred. She and Domatrix could use the exercise.

  After she dressed, she picked up her phone to find a number of messages. The first one was from Lillie Mae. Surprised, she opened the message. “Girl, you oughta know this picture is out there. Rafa won’t be happy.” And there she was in the Silver Dollar, with Doug Harper grinding his mouth against her cheek, almost getting her right on the lips.

  Lillie Mae was warning her, not scolding her. But if Lillie Mae had somehow seen it, could Rafael have gotten it? She had no idea who had taken it. Surely not Marie who’d been shocked, hurt, embarrassed—she wouldn’t have had the time or motive. The place had been full of people she didn’t know, and everyone these days took pictures of everything. So who did it didn’t much matter. But where had the picture gone, besides to Lillie Mae? What if someone who knew Marie sent it to both Marie and herself? Girls night out, they might have decided, not knowing that Bounty was destroying Marie right in front of their eyes.

  Oh, God. What if Tía got the shot, too?

  She didn’t know what to do. Call Rafael and ask him straight out if he’d seen the picture? Ask Lillie Mae how she first heard? She smiled grimly. One thing she wouldn’t do would be to ask the cantankerous woman what to do about the whole mess. She’d gotten her head bitten off once too often already.

  Nothing she could do made sense. The woman she’d been once would have gone out to demolish her foes, whoever they were, even if they were just small town gossips. The woman engaged to be married—the woman in a lot of trouble—deleted the picture and went shopping.

  • • •

  Hours later, she thought she had a grip again. No one else had called or texted, so maybe only Lillie Mae had seen the picture. Rafael didn’t strike her as the kind of man to sit and do nothing if he thought he were being played for a fool, so surely he would have had the balls to call her and ask. She tamped down the little voice in her head that pointed out the old Esmeralda would have called him.

  She’d found a beautiful dress, a silvery sheath with wispy lace sleeves that made her think of fairy wings. A fantasy dress for a make-believe wedding—perfect. And the price had been reasonable. If Rafael wanted to give her a ring she’d give back to him at the end of the summer she couldn’t stop him, but she could afford her own clothes.

  Rushing, because she didn’t know how she’d spend her days once she married Rafael, she threw on riding clothes and hurried down the stairs. She almost pulled off her escape, grabbing a bottle of water and sprinting for the door, just in case anyone should appear, and—

  “Not so fast, sobrina!” Tina’s voice froze her steps. She’d never heard her aunt call her “niece” in Spanish before, and the word held a sinister tone the way she said it.

  She inhaled, forced her hands not to knot into fists, and turned. “Good afternoon, Tía. I hadn’t seen you.” She made herself smile. “I bought a dress for the wedding. I think you might like it.”

  “I’m sure you’re concerned about what I like,” her aunt spat. Esme stared at her, surprised. And worried. She didn’t smell alcohol on her aunt’s breath and Tina’s eyes looked clearer than she’d seen them recently. And yet she seemed furious, ready to attack her own niece. For the life of her, Esmeralda couldn’t understand the changes she saw in the woman. The woman she’d idolized for so many years evaporated into a harder, more insulting version of her mother.

  “Did you have fun last night?” Tía hissed. “Get all hot and bothered slumming in that hellhole that calls itself a bar? Oh, and you didn’t just go out whoring around, you took Rafael’s little spy just to make sure he’d find out about everything.”

  “You know what? I’m done trying, Tina. I don’t owe you explanations, and I don’t want the apologies you owe me. I’ll move out tomorrow.”

  She left, careful not to look back or let the door slam. She was on the bottom step before tears traced a slow course down her cheeks. She didn’t bother wiping them away, just climbed in the truck and drove away.

  Irving Peterson was repairing the fence when she arrived, with Connie standing by to offer assistance. As she parked, both turned to wave at her, friendly as always.

  “Hi, honey,” Connie called, bending over to pick up some wire cutters and hand them to Irving. “Come to visit the horse, or us?”

  “All of you.” Esme smiled. “How are you doing?”

  “We’re doin’ fine,” Irving assured, and the two of them exchanged glances. “I guess we can tell you.”

  “She probably already knows,” Connie retorted, giving Esme a quick hug. “Why, I bet you thought of it.”

  “What did I think of?”

  “Yesterday, Mr. Benton called us.”

  “Rafael called you?”

  “From Houston,” Irving said, with satisfaction. “Our kids don’t even call us from Houston.”

  His wife elbowed him. “You’ll make her think we raised ’em bad,” she protested. “The kids call us,” she told Esme. “When they can.”

  Esme smiled. “I don’t call my parents as often as I should. So I’m sure you did a great job raising yours. But why did Rafael call?”

  “He offered Connie and me jobs,” Irving explained. “Sort of.”

  “Really?” He seemed to have a habit of hiring people for unlikely jobs. What did he want the Petersons to do?

  “Since you and him are getting married, I figured it had to be okay just to listen,” Irving was saying, and his wife looped her arm through his, apparently to offer moral support. “Never thought I’d be willin’ to listen to a man who lived in Witches Haven.”

  “And now we’ll be workin’ there!” Connie chortled, squeezing his arm. “I told the man not to judge, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, I remember. That’s wonderful! What will you be doing?”

  “Well, his folks will be visiting, and Cody’s little boy—poor thing.” Connie’s face filled with sorrow. “Cody was like those clouds before a storm—shiny and all edged with fire and gold—then dark as death. But her little boy doesn’t have to be like that. I’m glad his grandpa and grandma have him. And Rafael.”

  “Anyway, Rafael wanted me to help out with the horses and the yard,” Irving took over for his wife. “And he asked Connie if she’d like to work in the house.” Irving looked a little embarrassed over that, and his wife shook her finger at him.

  “I sold worms and catfish bait! I think I can run a vacuum cleaner and duster, old man! And I’m proud that at my age I can still do for myself and others!”

  “It’s wonderful,” Esmeralda said sincerely. “I’m really happy for you both.”

  “Well there’s somethin’ else,” Irving admitted. “There’s a problem with your horse.”

  “Is Domatrix okay?” she asked fearfully.

  “She’s fine. We put her up to work on the fence. But Rafael wanted you to move her. Said it made sense if we were there, she should be. And since you’re marrying him . . . ”

  It did make sense, and he’d already suggested it to her. The problem was how easily he’d made sure she would take his suggestion. By hiring the Petersons, she didn’t have a choice. If she didn’t move her, her mare would be alone and unwatched. A suggestion became an order just that easily.

  “Of course it makes sense,” she assured them. “We’ll make whatever arrangements we need to when he comes home. I’m going out for a while. If I don’t see you when I come back, take care. And congratulations.”

  She left them standing there, arms looped around each other, and headed off at an easy trot, wanting to put some distance between her and the world. She rode up one of the lower hills behind the Petersons, stopping at the point where the cedar cover broke into a small, flat area. There were a couple of flat rocks there that would make perfect places to sit—unless of course there were scorpions or rattlesnakes. She finally decide
d she’d rather not take a chance and lifted her reins, ready to ride on.

  Suddenly Domatrix’s head came up and she twisted her head and looked around. Esmeralda turned too, and caught her breath in surprise as she saw Rafael come cantering up the hill after her, the tall gray gelding’s strides eating up the terrain.

  She patted her mare on the neck to steady her and waited until he drew up alongside her for him to tell her why he had come back to Truth a day early.

  “I got pictures,” he said, without preamble. “Seems the whole town of Truth has my private phone number.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Kind of scary to be in a town where that happens. Why would you get pictures?”

  “Probably because whoever sent them thought I should know that my future wife was burning the town down.”

  “Your temporary wife,” she reminded him. He’d said pictures, so there were more than the one Lillie Mae sent her. She wondered if all of them were of Bounty coming on to her or if he had pictures of Marie and she together. Maybe even pictures of her dancing at Tía’s. It was creepy to think someone had followed her around with a camera, though. Even worse if she hadn’t noticed. “Someone sent Lillie Mae a picture,” she added. “For the life of me, I don’t know why some old lady gets all the town dirt first.”

  “Your choice of words is dead on,” he muttered. “All the town dirt.”

  She bit her lip until it hurt and looked away. “Your choice of words is insulting.”

  She thought he might just turn and ride off, but instead he swung off and dropped the reins. “Let’s sit over there and talk, Esme.” He indicated the flat outcropping of rock. “We’re going to have a lot to do tomorrow without anything hanging over our heads.”

  “I had decided not to sit there,” she admitted, but got off Domatrix anyway, dropping the reins and hoping the mare remembered her training and wouldn’t wander off. “Scorpions and snakes.”

  He grinned slightly. “Have you quit taking risks, Esme?”

  She snorted. “That’ll be the day.” She climbed up on the rock and scraped her feet around hoping to dislodge any unseen residents. He followed her up, and when she looked back, he had his cell phone out.

  “These,” he said, handing it to her.

  She glanced at the photos. The video of her impromptu dance made her smile. “I’m not apologizing for these,” she told him. “I had a blast.”

  “So I saw.”

  “We’re going to be married for a few weeks, Rafael. You’ve made that clear. You’re not going to control my life. You hired me. You haven’t bought me.”

  “Are my mom and dad going to buy we’re happily married if you spend your nights dancing with drunks?”

  “They weren’t that drunk, and it was one dance. I didn’t spend the night there.”

  “No, I know.” He moved on to another picture. “You spent half the night with Doug Harper slobbering over you.”

  “Two things. I don’t like your tone of voice, and how the hell did I know someone named Bounty Collins was Doug Harper?”

  “Everyone in Truth knows. He changed his name legally right before Cody died.”

  “I was not in Truth. I did not know.” She started to add that Marie had conveniently not mentioned that to her, but stopped herself. This was between the two of them. Marie must have thought she would know.

  “So, did you go to the Silver Dollar just to see him?” he asked.

  She walked to the edge of the rock and stared out into the tree-covered distance. “Yes. But I didn’t know who he was.”

  He rubbed his face. He looked tired and she wondered if he’d stayed up all night raging over the photos.

  “Can we sit?” she asked. “Before I see something scary and don’t want to?”

  He nodded and came over to join her, sliding down and resting his feet on the smaller rock below and reaching his hand to her. She took it and let him steady her as she, too, eased down to the hard surface.

  “I didn’t know you wore boots,” she observed. “Nice.”

  He ignored that, and pocketed the cell phone. “Can we make this work, Esmeralda?”

  She thought about that. After her aunt’s new attack, which didn’t even seem driven by alcohol, just viciousness, she didn’t know that there was any reason to. Except that she wanted it to work.

  The realization struck her hard. She wanted to marry Rafael Benton. She scooted away a few inches, unable to think logically with most of his body in contact with hers.

  “Do you still think you should?”

  “Now more than ever. And there’s not a lot of time.” He half-turned, and a lizard they hadn’t seen skittered off the lower rock.

  “I hope nothing else does that.” Esme leaned over to look again. “I don’t mind lizards. They’re okay. But snakes . . . ” She reluctantly turned to listen to Rafael. “Why is time running out?”

  “Nana Ellen’s old.” He circled a hand in the air. “I mean, of course she is, and my parents are, but I never think about their age. Sometimes it seems that our lives together just started. I lost a lot of years. To have Ellen tell me she was retiring at the end of the summer and then find out my parents had hired two nannies to help watch Justin came as a shock.”

  “I can see how it would. But I still don’t know—”

  “My mom’s scared that a court wouldn’t want to leave Justin with them if he won’t be watched by family members.”

  “But you’re plenty young enough. And responsible. How can they think . . . ”

  “They’ve known me in all my worst moments, maybe. You haven’t. Yet.”

  “Yet?” When he didn’t answer, she sighed. “I know it can’t be easy to talk about her, but Cody and my aunt have a history. You and she do. And I’m on the outside. How can you expect me to know anybody, do anything, when you keep everything hidden away?”

  “What is there to tell you that I haven’t? I was assigned to protect her. I didn’t. She died.”

  “Why do you blame Bounty Collins if your sister was a grown woman and chose the destruction she did?”

  “After I introduced Harper to Cody, she wanted to spend all her time with him. At first, it looked like a relationship that might work in spite of the fact that she was already becoming well-known and he was just starting out.

  “He went on the road as her assistant, someone who could sit in with the band in a pinch—and Cody liked him, so I stepped aside and pretended they were just friends. But Cody’s life started to fall apart. Drinking, dating one loser after another, canceling performances . . . ”

  “Having Justin?” Esme put in.

  “Yes,” Rafael agreed. “Except that Justin was a blessing, not a curse like all the rest. Cody loved him so much. At first, he was enough to help her hang on. My parents were upset that Cody refused to tell who fathered Justin. She insisted she didn’t know. They kept telling Cody and me that Justin was why marriage mattered—for him, and for all the Justins of the world. I don’t think an hour went by that my parents wouldn’t bring up that ‘m’ word. Cody got ballistic about the situation, and Harper got scared. Kept saying that he was leaving, and none of us tried to stop him.”

  Unbidden and unwelcome, Toby’s memory needled her. He’d gotten scared, too, scared of making her life miserable with her parents and brother constantly attacking him. He’d left, and she’d tried to keep him from joining the Army for her sake.

  “Then Harper signed over at the Silver Dollar and became a permanent fixture there,” Rafael continued. “When Cody was between road trips or appearances, she’d wind up over there too, just to be close to Harper. Your aunt was furious. She kept telling Cody that she’d betrayed her by hanging out with the competition. We never could figure out why Tía thought Cody owed her. The only tie between them was that Cody happened to stop in Truth on her first tour, and enjoyed singing karaoke and visiting the club.

  “To appease your aunt, Cody started insisting that Harper be allowed to sing at Tía’s, too, and have acc
ess to the club when and if he wanted.”

  “I wonder how Cody got into my aunt’s good graces so easily.” Esmeralda shifted on the hard rock, wishing she had somewhere softer to sit.

  “I don’t know, but after Harper showed up, so did the drugs. Cody might have dabbled before, but with Harper around she just plain went over the edge. Before she died, we’d put a restraining order on Harper. We were keeping him away from her, and she seemed to be doing really well. My parents had been awarded custody of Justin, but Cody wanted to win him back. We were all praying that she would.” His boot heel began tapping the rock with frustration. “We thought Harper had left town. I was keeping Cody busy at Witches Haven, listening to songs, planning a new tour, riding every day. Marc called and asked me to fly up to Houston for a day. There didn’t seem any harm in it.”

  He fell silent for a long time. Birds squabbling in the trees around them and a single engine plane flying over them took the place of conversation. “I was in Houston and Marie called, saying that your aunt had stopped by and Cody left the house with her, even though she wasn’t supposed to. Marc and I got Dad’s pilot to fly us to Truth. We were there within two hours and just minutes too late. According to investigators, Doug Hooper, your aunt, and Cody were all upstairs when Cody overdosed. She was alive when I got here, but barely.”

  “Rafael, nothing you’ve told me sounds like any of it was your fault. None of it.”

  “Maybe.” He pushed himself up, rubbing his butt and then holding out a hand. “Can’t take it any longer.”

  She caught it and pulled herself up, but she didn’t let go of his hand. “Your parents must have been devastated. They’d had so much trouble having her.”

  “Yeah. Things were . . . ” He eased his hands out of hers and turned away. She suspected he was fighting back tears.

  “My mother took it harder than any of us. She had to be hospitalized for a couple of days. The first time she saw me after it happened, she asked why I hadn’t been there. She said she wouldn’t be surprised if subconsciously I hadn’t envied Cody because she was their real daughter.”