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“You have your own Legos, Jer. Mom, I’m trying to put my Mars space shuttle together and he keeps taking the pieces.” Charlie’s eyes pleaded with his mother to intervene. “He’s too little for the space shuttle.”
“Jeremy, let Charlie finish his space shuttle on his own. Why don’t you build a Lego dinosaur?”
“Wow. I’d like to see a Lego dinosaur,” Caleb told the younger boy. He’d been around these two when they’d joined their mother on tour. They were good kids, funny, and the younger one had only been a toddler during that first tour. “Maybe you can mix and match the pieces. Make an all new Jeranosaur. I’d love to see what you come up with.”
Jeremy eyed him as if gauging his sincerity. “Really?”
“Really.” Caleb nodded.
“Okay.” The little guy’s gaze swung back to his mother. “Can I have a snack?”
“Sure.” She brushed her son’s dark-brown hair back from his forehead before opening a kitchen cabinet. “Charlie, please help your brother open the bag if he has trouble.” She gave each of the boys a snack-size bag of cheesy crackers, and they ran off down the hall.
“Sorry about that. My au pair has a class this afternoon.”
“No problem. They’re great kids.” He stood in the middle of her kitchen feeling … awkward. What the hell business did he have trying to talk this woman into or out of anything? Discussing personal stuff with someone he didn’t know very well was definitely not in his wheelhouse. Hell, talking to anyone about emotional issues never came easily. Still, no matter how inept he might be, he had to try. To be completely honest, yeah, he’d hate to see her quit, but he’d also hate for himself and the rest of the band members to be out of their jobs.
“Would you like coffee or iced tea?” she asked. “We can sit on the patio if you’d like.”
“Coffee would be great.” He pulled out a chair from the center island and took a seat. “This is fine right here. I don’t want to take up a lot of your time. It’s just that, well, I’m wondering if maybe….” He raked his fingers through his hair. “This is none of my business, but I know you’re going through a divorce. I’m thinking the emotional toll might have a lot to do with your wanting to quit.”
“No doubt.” She added coffee to the filter and hit the brew button. Theresa busied herself with getting coffee mugs and a sugar bowl down from a cupboard. “Do you take cream or sugar?”
“Milk, if you have it.” Of course she had milk. She had two growing boys. He did a mental palm-to-forehead slap.
Once the coffee was before him and she took a seat at the island, Caleb turned to face her. “Theresa, I know what you’re going through. I imagine you want nothing more than to find a deep, dark cave to crawl into. I’m sure all you want right now is a place to hide out until the grief and the stress aren’t so heavy and you can breathe normally again.”
“You’ve got that right. The entire world knows what I’m going through, Caleb. Do you know what it’s like to have your personal life constantly splattered across the tabloids? Do total strangers make nasty comments about your looks and your weight on social media?” She scrutinized him. “I knew you were single, but I didn’t know you’d been through a divorce.”
“I haven’t.” He drew in a fortifying breath as the familiar grief swamped him. “I lost my wife and daughter in a car accident a few years ago.” Three years, and he still bled internally at the mere mention of everything he’d lost in the span of a few seconds. “And yes, I’ve had my personal despair paraded in front of the world by the tabloids and social media. I did mention on my resumé that I used to have my own band. My wife was our lead singer, and we were just taking off and rising on the charts at the time.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’d forgotten.” Her brow creased as she continued to study him. “I didn’t know about the accident. I’m sorry, Caleb.”
“It’s okay.” He could see from the way she looked at him the questions were piling up in her mind—the same questions that still tormented him. What happened? Who was driving? Why on earth would you insist on driving through the mountains during a snowstorm when you could’ve flown in the next day? He didn’t want to go there.
“Here’s what I learned. Turn it off. Ignore all the bullshit,” he said. “The trolls on those social media sites have nothing better to do with their lives, and I feel sorry for them. You’ve got to be pretty miserable to spend your days trying to tear everyone else down. People who believe they’re anonymous let the pettiness out because it makes them feel somehow bigger and better.”
Theresa snorted. “I haven’t learned how to ignore all that.”
“You can though. The reality is, you don’t know those people, and they don’t know you. You don’t have to care about what a total stranger thinks or says about you.”
“And yet I do, and it’s painful.”
“Especially now, I’m sure.” He pinched his lower lip, thinking hard. “Do you mind if I ask a personal question?”
“Go ahead.” The grip she had on her coffee mug tightened, and she kept her gaze fixed on the granite countertop in front of her.
“While we were on tour, I couldn’t help noticing the way your husband treated you, and you deserve so much better. What did you see in him? What was it that brought you two together?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “He was interested in me.”
Damn. “Okay, but what drew you to him? What did he do for you?”
“What do you mean?” Confusion clouded those soulful brown eyes of hers. “The usual things, I guess.”
Caleb struggled to keep the shock off his face. How was it possible she held herself in such low regard? Who had robbed this amazing woman of her right to see herself for the goddess she was? He gaped at her, speechless. Someone had really done a number on Theresa, and he suspected the damage preceded the ass she’d married.
None of their band members had failed to notice the way David had controlled her, or how he’d prevented her from forming close friendships with them. No one missed the emotional manipulation or the insults her husband hurled at her when he thought no one was paying any attention. The injustice done to Theresa set Caleb’s molars to grinding.
