The Nashville Bet

by Shana Gray

  The woman sized her up again then gave a small shrug, turning her attention to the food on the buffet. “It’s quaint that you don’t know who I am. Donna Evans. The E of E&R Records.” Nodding toward the stage, she said, “That’s one of our acts on stage. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?”

  The condescension was so thick in her voice, Ava could’ve cut it with a knife. Before she could come up with a suitably scathing response, Donna the E put two pieces of lettuce and a slice of tomato on her plate before flouncing away. God, what a bunch of stuck-up snobs.

  Before she could shake off her anger, her phone vibrated in her back pocket. As she pulled it out, she was anxiously hoping it would be Chase, but it wasn’t. It was David.

  David: Checking in. I hope you’re enjoying yourself with your friends, Ava. I’m glad you were able to use the tickets.

  She quickly typed back to him:

  We are and it’s amazing. Thank you so much. See you when I get back.

  “Who is that? Loverboy?” Fredi asked around the mushroom she’d just stuffed into her mouth.

  Ava shook head. “No, it was David, you know, my boss, the man responsible for getting us into this suite.” Sending a final glare to the awful people on the other side of the room, she resolved to take the high road. She didn’t want to do anything that would reflect badly on David or the company.

  Settling back into her seat, she rescued her plate and started eating. Halfway through the first headliner, and right as she was finishing a delectable chocolate mousse, her phone vibrated in the pattern she had set for incoming FaceTime calls. This time, it had to be Chase.

  “Here, hold this.” She shoved her plate at Fredi, who didn’t have time to juggle hers and Ava’s properly so the plates tilted precariously, nearly spilling all the food down the front of her top. Bonni came to her rescue as Ava answered the call.

  “Hey, superstar. How are tricks?”

  “Exhausting, that’s what they are. I tell ya, Boots, I’m looking forward to chilling at the party with you. I swear that last interviewer would have been all over me if I’d given the slightest hint I’d be open to it.” Chase looked so adorable when he was this grumpy.

  “Aww, is that why you FaceTimed instead of texted? You wanted to remind yourself you were taken?” The words just fell out of Ava’s mouth. Celia gave her big eyes as Ava’s brain began to scramble for ways to deflect.

  Fortunately, Chase didn’t even seem to notice that Ava had staked a claim on him after less than forty-eight hours. “Yeah. And to see when you wanted to be picked up.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief over her narrow escape. “Well, Luke Combs is finishing up now, so Little Big Town is up next. Another hour, maybe? We can meet you downstairs?”

  Chase stared off into the distance for a moment, like he was checking the time, before he looked into the camera and nodded. “Sounds like a plan, Boots. Ask the suite’s hostess to show you where. See ya soon.”

  Ava said goodbye and clicked off the phone with a silly grin on her face. The grin died quickly when a voice said from behind her, “Was that Chase Hudson? You know Chase Hudson?”

  Folding her arms across her chest, Ava stared down Donna the E and her band of misfits, who were gathered in behind her with curious expressions on their faces.

  “I do know Chase, rather well, actually. I also know CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, a couple of A-list entertainers, a bestselling novelist or two, and many, many members of the idle rich. But why should that matter to you now? You didn’t give a rat’s ass a minute ago.”

  Donna the E gave her the brightest, fakest smile Ava had ever seen. “Oh well, it was all in good fun. Perhaps we can arrange—”

  “Why don’t you go have your ‘good fun’ over there?” Ava echoed the insulting brush-off gesture the snobs had made earlier then turned back to her friends, completely ignoring the other group.

  “Where did that lioness come from?” Celia asked her.

  “I knew you had that roar in you,” Fredi said as they did a round of high-fives.

  “I guess it takes a certain kind of something for that roar to come out loud and proud,” Ava said, feeling wonderful. Chase was eager to see her and she had put those arrogant jerks in their places! She was flying higher than a kite right now.

  The lights dimmed and the music from the stage got louder. Cheers echoed around the stadium and the crowd surged to their feet, heralding the beginning of the final set of the night, Little Big Town.

  “Oh my God!” Celia screamed, her voice mixing in with the rest of the thousands of concert-goers. “It’s Miranda Lambert! She’s crashing into their set!”

  Ava quickly tapped out a text to Chase:

  OMG, Miranda Lambert is performing with Little Big Town!!! I love LBT! Will text you when set is almost over. XO

  He replied back almost instantaneously:

  I’ll introduce you to them someday. :) enjoy the show and c u later.

  She pumped her fist in the air and did the loudest “Yeehaw!” she could muster. If only Chase could hear that. How could he ever say she wasn’t country when she could holler with the best of ’em?

  She trembled with anticipation of what was going to come after the concert: time spent with her superstar and likely between his sheets. Now how could a night end up any better than that?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Once again, Chase had a truckload of women. “I’m kind of getting used to chauffeuring you ladies around,” he said as he put the truck in gear.

  “So what kind of party is this?” Celia inquired.

  “A bunch of old buddies, some industry people, their womenfolk—”

  “‘Womenfolk.’ Can you believe he just said ‘womenfolk?’” Fredi said, and rolled her eyes.

  “No offense meant. It’s not a long drive, so we should be there soon.” Chase’s phone rang—he’d tossed it in the tray under the dash—and he quickly picked it up. As he answered the phone, he heard the women begin to talk among one another, and tuned them out.

  “It’s Chase,” he said into the phone.

  “Hey, bro, it’s Dozer. Are you heading to Astro’s?” His agent always wanted to know where Chase was; his reasoning was that you could never know when an opportunity would present itself.

  “No, Harper’s. Why, what’s up?” He glanced in the rearview and smiled at seeing the women in his back seat having a laughing fit. He looked at Ava. She had turned and had her arm slung over the back of the seat and her knees pulled up so she was sitting sideways.

  “What’s all that racket?” Dozer demanded to know, but before Chase replied he bulldozed right over them (hence his nickname, Dozer). “Listen, Warrington’s agent is going to be at Astro’s, maybe even Warrington himself. I want you to go and schmooze him up a bit, because they’re talking about you coming on stage with Lance.”

  “Is that right? Exactly how do you want me to schmooze him? You know me, I am who I am and a schmoozer ain’t it.” Chase knew that would irritate the hell out of Dozer, and he loved to yank his chain whenever he could. But Chase was a little pissed he was throwing this at him at such late notice. He had plans, and the biggest one was sitting right beside him.

  “Enough of the bullshit, Chase, this could be big. You know he’s on top right now. You’re not there yet, but you’re on your way, and if Lance Warrington wants to play with you, then dammit, you’re gonna play.” Chase could hear the tone in Dozer’s voice change. He’d hit a nerve and now was the time to bring Dozer back down.

  “Okay, boss, I’ll go and schmooze, but I’ll be taking people with me and I’m not staying long. When was he thinking for this performance?” Chase was running through his schedule and his head, he wanted to make sure he could fit in Ava as much as possible, but, at the same time, ensure he did all he could for his career.

  “I don’t care if you take Santa Claus, just go. And he’s thinking during his set on Saturday, since you’re performing before him,” Dozer said with great emphasis.

>   “Are you kidding me? Huh, that’s a pretty big deal.” Chase was a little surprised to be invited—correction: potentially invited—to play with the closing headliner on the last night of CMA Fest.

  “And why you need to talk the talk,” Dozer said. “Okay, then, I can count on you? I’ve done my bit, now it’s up to you.”

  “Yep, it’s all good. Don’t you worry.” Chase ended the call and, while he was glad this opportunity had presented itself, he was a little annoyed it happened when he had Ava with him. He didn’t want to have to split his time between her and industry talk, but now he was going to have to.

  He hardly noticed Ava had put her hand on his forearm until she squeezed it and he turned to look at her. “Everything okay?” she asked him. The sincerity in her eyes told him she really did care.

  “Yes, that was my agent. We have to make a little detour before Harper’s.” He shifted his hand so he could close his fingers around hers.

  “Does he have some good news for you?” She shifted in her seat a bit so she wasn’t facing her friends as much. They were carrying on a rather rowdy conversation in the back seat.

  “It could be. Apparently, I have to do some schmoozing for a while.”

  “If it’s good for your career, then you should definitely do it. What’s the schmoozing for?”

  Chase debated how much detail to go into, since they’d not really talked jobs or careers yet in their relationship. The fact that he even used the word “relationship” again made him realize she’d become more important to him than he’d ever anticipated. And in such a short span of time!

  “It could be very good for my career. Lance Warrington’s agent is going to be at our first stop tonight. Lance might be there, too, and there’s talk he might want me to join him on stage during his set on Saturday night.”

  “Oh my God!” Celia squealed from the back. “Lance Warrington is going to be at this party tonight? If I wasn’t in a committed relationship, man, I would be all over that sexy boy.”

  Chase chuckled. “You and about a million other women.”

  “I know.” He watched the expression on Celia’s face turn to a pout in the rear-view mirror. “Anyhow, a little bit of harmless flirting, if I get the chance, will give me the thrill of a lifetime. Even though I have my man waiting for me back home and he’s even watching my children so I could come out and have shenanigans with my girls. Definitely, that man’s a keeper.”

  “Well, I don’t have any man back home,” Fredi announced. “Perhaps you can make an introduction for me?”

  “Fredi, don’t put pressure on Chase like that. This is business for him and he doesn’t need to worry about you,” Ava reprimanded her gently.

  “Ava, hon, I am a good Southern girl. One whiff of my magnolia blossoms and he will come to me,” Fredi said, fluttering her eyelashes exaggeratedly.

  “Unfortunately, Lance tends to be a bad Southern boy, so I don’t know if he’ll stick around long enough to smell your, uh, blossoms,” Chase said.

  “Well, now,” Fredi said, with a cat-ate-the-canary smile. “Now he really sounds interesting.”

  In response to that remark the women spoke over each other and Chase was hard-pressed to figure what the hell they were saying. All he could make out was that Fredi could be very, very bad indeed. And for her to call herself a good girl was an oxymoron.

  He broke out laughing, which halted their conversation as they all stared at him. “I’m sorry, but you guys are too much. Hilarious. And, by the way, Fredi, Lance is a very bad boy, so if you’re a very bad girl, y’all probably get along just fine. I’m happy to make an introduction.”

  “Fantastic!” She clapped her hands and stuck her tongue out to her friends. Which made him laugh even more.

  He turned to Ava and shook his head. “I’m really getting to like your friends.”

  The bright smile that broke out on her face was all he needed.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The event at Astro’s wasn’t a small and intimate gathering, it was a huge affair. It was catered, with waiters walking around holding silver trays with all manner of hors d’œuvres, and others with trays of champagne flutes. People dressed up or down, but there was bling, and sparkle, and big hair, and fancy instruments all lined up along one wall. Platinum records were showcased above the instruments and they were all for country music. Music played from the speakers at a carefully selected decibel in order to facilitate conversation. It was absolutely mind-blowing.

  “Can you believe this?” Celia linked her arm through Ava’s and whispered into her ear.

  “No, actually I can’t. I was expecting, like, well, I don’t know what I was expecting.” Ava was feeling a little out of place in this crowd of industry folk.

  “Aw, honey, it’s just people. You’re good with people. In fact, you’re an amazing businesswoman so this shouldn’t faze you one little bit. Don’t fret about it. It’s all good.” Celia shook her arm in encouragement.

  “Where did Fredi and Bonni go?” Ava asked as she looked around, trying to find them in the crowd.

  “No idea, both of them seemed to vanish the minute we got inside the door. Listen, are you feeling a little weirded out by this? Because if you are, you shouldn’t be. Look at how it all turned out for Landon and me, and I was truly weirded out. Being with him was so much more than I’d anticipated, and I kinda get the same feeling about you and Chase.”

  Ava nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right. It’s really strange because I feel like I’ve connected with him so well, and yet I see all this and I feel like a fish out of water.” She waved her hand around and raised her eyes to the ceiling, stunned by the beautiful crystal chandeliers sending prisms of sparkling light across the cathedral ceiling.

  “This doesn’t seem like him at all. Remember, we’ve been in his house, seen his truck and spent time with him. He’s way different than all this. He’s a down-to-earth guy.”

  Ava knew Celia was doing her best to reassure her and she appreciated it. “I know, even though I’ve known him for such a short period of time.” She turned to look at Celia. “Not even two days—barely one! Yet I feel like it’s been a lifetime. I can’t even imagine life before him or, dare I say it…without him.”

  “Wow, you’ve been bitten by the love bug, haven’t you?” Celia wrapped her arm around Ava’s waist and gave her a squeeze. “Just don’t get yourself hurt.”

  Movement caught their eye and they turned to find Chase maneuvering through the crowd of people with ease and charm, a total gentleman.

  “He’s just so effortless in how he works the crowd,” Ava said as she watched him, starting to get annoyed with herself for starting to feel a little bit left out.

  “Ava, need I remind you, you are a very successful businesswoman. Where is this insecurity coming from? This isn’t like you,” Celia pointed out. “You’ve schmoozed CEOs, CFOs, board presidents, just like you pointed out to those dicks in the suite earlier. You don’t need a hug or mollycoddling here, you need a kick in the ass.”

  Ava looked at her friend in surprise. Celia rarely got this serious unless she was in her so-called “Mommy mode.” So her loving, chastising words really made Ava sit up and take notice. “You’re right.”

  “Of course I am. Moms are always right.” Celia flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder then gave Ava a big hug. “Come on, you know you can do it.” Then she looked intensely at Ava and tipped her head to the side. She narrowed her eyes. “Unless there’s something else bothering you.”

  Ava smiled at her friend and shook her head. “You can see right through me.”

  “Of course. We can all see through each other. We’ve known each other far too long.”

  “This is only a weekend fling. But if it were to be more—” Ava started to say.

  “Which it looks like to me,” Celia interrupted.

  Ava raised her hand, knowing Celia was about to go off on a tangent. “Hold on, think about it. If this was to be more, how wo
uld it work? I am stuck in a contract for the minimum of another year and based way in the middle of nowhere. He’s here in Tennessee, while also traveling around the world doing concerts, cutting records and having all kinds of demands placed on him. Look at what happened tonight with this event overshadowing the party. And my career demands time as well. Where do I fit in? How does he fit in? How do we make it work?”

  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Like trying to make it work long distance. Like Landon and me. Sorta. It can be done. And Chase’s star is rapidly climbing. He can afford his own jet.” Ava saw the determination in Celia’s eyes and felt deflated. She let out a sigh and shook her head.

  “No, I’ve been down that road once before. It was an abysmal disaster.”

  Celia cocked her head back and gave her an inquisitive look. “What? Why don’t I know about this?”

  Ava didn’t really want to get into it with Celia, but her friend would be relentless if she didn’t give her something. “Oh, a few years ago I met this guy at a conference and we were hot and heavy, but in the end we couldn’t figure out how to make it last longer than a weekend. Plus, he was from London.” Ava shrugged her shoulders.

  Celia gripped Ava’s arm and shook it. “That was London. As in the UK. As in flying across the Atlantic Ocean. This is America. You can practically walk to each other’s state.”

  Ava laughed. “Walk? You’re the one who’s a dreamer, Celia.”

  “I’m being facetious. But, Ava, we will talk about this later. If you feel that much for him, you ought to treasure it.” Celia gave her a little nudge and pushed her in the direction of Chase. “Now, go get ’em, tiger. That’s your man standing over there.”

  Ava watched Chase: he was magnificent, there was no doubt about that. Just looking at him gave her all the feels, made her breath quicken, and something intimately deeper, more heartfelt, blossomed inside her.