Nashville - Boxed Set Series - Part One, Two, Three and Four (A New Adult Contemporary Romance)

by Inglath Cooper

  “Hope the tips are good tonight,” I say.

  “Y’all enjoy your morning,” the cashier calls out as we head back through the door.

  Patsy and Hank Junior barely glance up as we climb in the truck. “They look like they could sleep for days,” I say.

  “Who could blame them?”

  We drive for a few minutes, silent while we sip our coffee. With CeCe, there’s no feeling of having to fill the silence with small talk. I have to admit I like that. It’s not something I’ve experienced with anyone other than Thomas.

  We round a curve, and the view opens up with a valley sloping down to our right.

  “Let’s pull over for a minute,” CeCe suggests.

  I turn the truck onto the gravel edge that looks as if it’s been put there for people to stop and enjoy the view.

  “That’s just crazy beautiful,” she says, opening her door and sliding out.

  I follow her to the front of the truck. She climbs onto the hood and looks out at the valley below us. I step up and sit next to her. “Yeah, it is,” I say.

  The trees have that new leaf green that I imagine artists must yearn to get exactly accurate. A big red barn sits out to the right, and I can see horses grazing behind the white board fencing surrounding it.

  “So are you,” I say, the words slipping out before I can edit them.

  CeCe looks at me, her eyes questioning.

  “Crazy beautiful,” I add.

  She looks down, and I can see the color come into her cheeks. When she looks up at me, I reach out and touch her face with the back of my hand. I hear her short intake of breath, and it matches the electricity that zips through me from the softness of her skin.

  We study each other for what feels like a good while, and without censoring what I’m feeling, I lean in and kiss her. It starts out light and testing, but then just as quickly ignites into something completely different. I snag her waist with one arm and reel her in to me. She opens her mouth beneath mine, and we kiss like we’ve both been waiting for it all our lives.

  If so, it was worth every moment of the wait. If for nothing else, then to hear the raspy way she says my name now.

  She slides her arms around my neck, and I haul her in closer, slipping my hands up the back of her shirt and under the lacy bra beneath. Her skin is like silk, and I have never wanted to touch anyone the way I want to touch her now.

  I feel myself losing control and start to pull back, but CeCe presses her hands to the back of my head and deepens the kiss. We’re both breathing like we just ran here from downtown Nashville, and I know if we don’t stop now, there won’t be any stopping at all.

  I untangle myself and lie back on the truck hood, staring up at the morning blue sky and breathing hard.

  “I’m sorry,” CeCe says, lying down beside me, her voice regretful.

  “I’m not,” I say.

  “You’re not?”

  “How could anyone be sorry about a kiss like that?”

  She lets out a breath of what sounds like relief. “I thought I might have–”

  “You didn’t,” I say. I sit up then and pull her up beside me.

  “You’re not the kind of girl a guy should take advantage of, CeCe.”

  The look on her face makes me smile.

  “Yeah, right now, I kind of wish you were, too,” I say.

  “You’d never take advantage of anyone,” she says. “But then I don’t imagine you’d have to.”

  “Thanks, I think,” I say, grinning.

  She smiles at me then, and there’s no denying the spool of feeling unraveling between us.

  We study the view for a few moments before I say, “CeCe?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t make a habit of leading a girl on when I’m seeing someone else.”

  “Are you leading me on?”

  “I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

  “It’s okay. Neither do I.”

  “Is there someone in your life?”

  She shakes her head. “No one serious.”

  “Has there been?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Which means?”

  “Not serious enough for me to stay in Virginia.”

  I put my hand on the back of hers and lace our fingers together. “What do you really want out of this town, CeCe?”

  She considers the question and then looks at me. “Just a chance to do what I love to do. You?”

  “The same.”

  “You think anybody ever comes here just because they want to be famous?”

  I laugh a short laugh. “Ah, yeah.”

  “That I don’t get,” she says.

  “What is fame, anyway? People knowing who you are, seeing your face on the cover of some rag tabloid with whatever skeleton you happen to have in your closet peeking out?”

  CeCe laughs. “Success, I get. That just means you get to do what you love because you’ve found a following of people who love the same thing.”

  “Which is not that easy, apparently.”

  “No one ever said it would be easy.”

  “But we’re here, anyway.”

  “Yeah. We’re here.”

  She’s looking at me again with that look in her eyes, and I feel something low inside of me shift, like I might have crossed a line I’m going to have a whole lot of trouble stepping back from. I rub my thumb across the back of her hand, and then let go.

  She slides off the hood and jumps to the ground. I follow, glancing over my shoulder. Hank Junior and Patsy are sitting in the middle of the seat, her head resting against his shoulder. “They look like a couple,” I say.

  CeCe smiles. “Yeah, they do.”

  “We better get them home.”

  She nods, and I like knowing that word includes all of us. Home.

  ♪

  14

  CeCe

  It’s almost eight a.m. by the time we park the truck in the back lot of the apartment complex. We get out and let Hank Junior and Patsy have a few minutes in the grass before we head up the stairs.

  I’m so tired I feel like I can barely stand and at the same time so wired with feeling that I hardly know what to do with it. Has it really been less than eight hours since we left here last night looking for Hank? It seems like a lifetime has taken place since then.

  Hank and I follow Holden and Patsy up the stairs, and I can’t help but stare at his wide shoulders. My lips tingle with the memory of his kiss, and I have to stop myself from reaching for his shirt tail and pulling him to me.

  At the apartment door, he sticks the key in the lock, then turns to me. “Weird as this sounds,” he says, “it was kind of great being with you last night.”

  “Yeah,” I say, “you, too.”

  He leans in, and I start to close my eyes in anticipation of his kiss. Just then, the door jerks open, and we both jump back from one another.

  “Hey, you two,” Thomas says in a tight voice I don’t recognize. “Been wondering when you were gonna get back.”

  From behind him, a girl steps out, the look on her face clearly one of confusion. “Surprise,” she says, only the word is flat, like a balloon someone has just let all the air out of.

  “Sarah,” Holden says, sounding as stunned as he looks.

  “She drove all night to get here,” Thomas says. “Isn’t that something?”

  “Is everything all right?” Holden asks.

  Sarah glances from Holden to me, and her blue, very blue, eyes start to well with tears. “I thought it was,” she says.

  “You got a dog,” Thomas throws out, as if looking for a diversion.

  “Yeah,” Holden says. “Her name’s Patsy.”

  “A dog,” Sarah says. “Wow. I didn’t know you were–”

  “It was kind of spur of the moment,” he explains.

  We all stand there for a few seconds like frozen popsicles, none of us sure what to do or say next. Holden moves first, stepping in to the apartment to put his arms around Sarah and
hug her.

  I watch, unable to move. Hank Junior whines and looks up at me, as if asking what this means. I don’t dare look at him, sure I’ll burst into tears if I do.

  Holden steps back from the hug and waves a hand at me. “Sarah, this is CeCe. CeCe, Sarah.”

  We look at each other and smile, and I feel sure mine is as wobbly as hers. “Nice to meet you,” we both say at the same time.

  “So,” Thomas says, “what a night, huh?”

  “Yeah,” Holden agrees, running a hand across the back of his hair.

  “I bet Sarah would like to hear all about it,” Thomas says. “Why don’t y’all take the bedroom for some privacy, and I’ll get the lowdown from CeCe out here?”

  Holden looks at me, and I immediately glance away since I have no idea what to do with any of this. I feel as if a wrecking ball just landed in the center of my stomach.

  “Ah, okay,” Holden says. “Anything you need me to get out of your car, Sarah?”

  She shakes her head. “Thomas already brought it in for me.”

  “You mind feeding Patsy when you feed Hank?” Holden directs the question to me.

  “Sure,” I say, super cheerful. “No problem.”

  Holden nods and walks down the hall to the bedroom. Sarah follows him. I stand perfectly still until I hear the click of the lock. Only then do I unhook Hank’s leash and let out all the air in my chest.

  “I’m real sorry, CeCe,” Thomas says.

  “You don’t need to be,” I say, assuming he’s talking about Hank Junior, but suspecting the apology encompasses Sarah’s arrival as well. “It all worked out.”

  “Tell me about it?” he asks, heading for the kitchen where he pulls two bowls from the cabinet and gets the dog food out of the pantry.

  While Hank Junior and Patsy scarf up their food, I lay out everything that happened at the pound, including Holden’s adopting Patsy at the last minute.

  “I’m glad,” Thomas says. “She’s a cute little thing.”

  “I think she and Hank are in love.”

  Thomas smiles and then looks at me, the smile fading, “That got a little awkward out there.”

  I start to act like I don’t know what he’s talking about and then just as quickly realize how unbelievable I would be. “Yeah,” I say.

  “He really didn’t know she was coming,” Thomas says.

  “Apparently.”

  He leans against the sink and folds his arms across his chest. “Holden is a lot of things, but he’s never been a player. I think you kind of caught him off guard.”

  “Timing has never really been my thing.”

  “They’ve been together almost two years. I don’t want to see you hurt, CeCe.”

  “She’s beautiful,” I say. “Really beautiful.”

  “So are you,” Thomas says.

  I start to shake my head, but he adds, “You are. It’s just gonna be that timing thing.”

  I feel the tears start to well up, try my best to stop them, but they roll down my face like a faucet’s been turned on inside of me.

  “Hey, now,” Thomas says, walking over and pulling me into his big embrace.

  My tears get his t-shirt all wet, and I start to apologize, but he shushes me, rubbing the back of my hair. “I’m sorry for the hurt.”

  “I’ll get over it,” I say.

  “You’re strong like that,” he agrees.

  I want to tell him that I don’t want to be strong. I want to march down the hall to that bedroom, pound on the door and beg Holden to give what we’d both felt this morning and last night a shot.

  But I don’t. I just press my lips together and nod. Because, what else, really, is there for me to do?

  ♪

  15

  Holden

  I stand under the shower spray way longer than I should, considering that Sarah is in my bedroom, waiting for me to come out. I let the water pummel my face into full-out awake until all threads of fatigue have dissolved.

  When I can avoid it no more, I get out, dry off, put on sweat pants and a t-shirt, then open the bathroom door.

  Sarah is sitting on the bed, her knees against her chest, arms wrapped tight around her legs, as if she is physically trying to hold herself together. She doesn’t look at me, her gaze on her pink toenails. “Can you explain to me what just happened out there?” she finally asks.

  “Nothing happened,” I say, hearing the lack of conviction in my own voice.

  She looks up at me then, and her blue eyes snap fire. “Holden Ashford, don’t you dare play me. I deserve better than that from you. Who is she?”

  “A girl hoping to make it in Nashville just like Thomas and me.” I blow out a sigh and sit down on the edge of the bed. “Her car burned up on the side of the interstate. We stopped to help her, and that’s how we met. That’s it.”

  “That’s it?” Sarah repeats, incredulous. “She’s living in your apartment. How is that it?”

  “She lost everything in her car. It made sense for us to help her out.”

  “I get that. And why were you out all last night with her?”

  “Waiting at the pound to get Hank Junior out. Her dog. Thomas lost him while we were at work.”

  “We?”

  “We got a job at the same restaurant.”

  Sarah folds her arms across her chest and stares at me hard. “I see. Wow. It sure didn’t take long for you to forget all about me.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It seems like you’re well on your way,” she says, tears welling in her eyes.

  My heart suddenly feels like it’s been wrapped in one big rubber band, and I know I’m coming across as a jerk. Which considering what’s been happening between CeCe and me, I guess I am. “Why did you change your mind about coming?” I ask, meeting her tearful gaze.

  “I missed you,” she says, and the words are so broken, so heartfelt that the wall of resistance inside me starts to crumble.

  “I can’t believe you drove through the night. You hate driving at night.”

  She nods. “Don’t worry. I know it was stupid.”

  I feel like such an ass. I am an ass. “It wasn’t stupid. I just wish you’d let me know you were comng.”

  “I wanted to surprise you.”

  And I can see that’s exactly what she’d hoped to do. Just forty-eight hours ago, that would have made me ecstatic. Forty-eight hours ago, we would have already been in bed, making up for lost time.

  But we’re not. And we both know something feels different.

  “I’m sorry, Sarah. It’s been a long night. I’m just beat. I need some sleep.”

  “Do you want me to go?” she asks, her voice cracking a little.

  I hear the question, and yet my response doesn’t come immediately, as it should.

  “Of course not,” I say, but too many seconds have passed for me to be completely convincing. I know Sarah, and I know what she wants right now is to tell me to go to hell and leave as suddenly as she came. But I guess she’s not ready to throw in the towel just yet, so she bites her lip and nods.

  I open the bedroom door and call for Patsy. She trots down the hallway, looking up at me with expectant brown eyes. “Come on, girl,” I say. “Nap time.”

  Inside the bedroom, Patsy looks around, walks to the side of the bed and lies down, stretching out with her chin on her paws.

  Sarah looks at her like some unidentified object just fell through the roof. “She’s sleeping in here?” she says.

  “Yeah,” I say.

  “But you know I don’t like–”

  “I know you’ve never been around dogs, and you think you don’t like them.”

  “That’s not at all fair, Holden,” she says, her voice deliberately even.

  “I have a dog now, Sarah,” I say. “I’m hoping you’ll like her once you get to know her.”

  “I never should have come here!” Sarah jumps off the bed and stomps into the bathroom, where she promptly slams the door.

  I
reach down and rub Patsy’s head. I want to call Sarah back and reassure her that she did the right thing in coming. I want to. I just don’t know if it would be the truth.

  ♪

  16

  CeCe

  I should sleep.

  But I can’t. Don’t. Won’t. One of those, anyway. To close my eyes and invite sleep would be to open the current plug on my thoughts and let them come flooding in. And since I’m pretty sure I will drown in them, I opt for staying awake.

  I do take a shower, and that helps wash away some of my fatigue. I try not to think about what Holden and Sarah are doing in the next room, and when my mind refuses to blank, I increase the cold water until I’m shivering and nearly blue.

  When I walk back into the kitchen wearing jeans and a wet ponytail, Thomas looks up from a bowl of cereal and says, “Aren’t you going to bed?”

  “I don’t like to sleep during the day.”

  “Me, either. Wanna walk over to Starbucks for a coffee? I’m meeting a couple people there.”

  I glance at Hank Junior who’s snoozing on the sofa. “I don’t really want to leave him yet.”

  “He can go with us. We can sit outside.”

  At this, I immediately agree, since the last thing I want is to stay in the apartment alone with Holden and Sarah. “If you’re sure we won’t be in the way.”

  “Course not. I think you’ll like them, anyhow.”

  The Starbucks is only three blocks over from the apartment. We walk the short distance with Hank Junior on full sniff alert. He meets up with an elderly Pug and a regal Great Dane who both greet him like they’re old friends.

  We get there at just after ten and find a table on the outside patio where students from Vanderbilt sit in front of laptops, and a variety of music types talk on cell phones and text in between sips of the morning’s blend.

  Thomas waves at a girl standing by the main entrance. She waves back and walks over. “Hey,” Thomas says while they hug.

  “Adrienne Langley, this is CeCe MacKenzie,” he says. “And her boy Hank Junior.”