“You can’t believe everything you read,” Keegan said, rolling her eyes. “Isn’t that what you’re always telling us?”
“I don’t want to talk about your father anymore, honey.” She’d be happy if she never had to utter his name again. “Let’s go in and start dinner. I was thinking of chicken stir-fry. You can chop the veggies.”
***
Gunnar stared at a photo of his girls, the same one that had resided on top of his baby grand piano since the day they walked out on him.
Gianna still took his breath away. The teenager who’d won backstage passes to his concert twenty years ago had grown into a stunning woman… who still owned him.
“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be working, boss?” his bass player, Rich, asked, plopping down on the distressed leather sofa in Gunnar’s home studio.
“I was just thinking.”
Rich’s gaze strayed to the photo. “Still missin’ them, huh?”
It had been three months since Gianna moved the girls clear across the country and he still couldn’t get used to the idea of having to board a plane instead of hop in his car whenever he wanted to see them.
“I can’t believe she took them so far away. What the hell was she thinking?”
“Maybe that you’re never around, so it wouldn’t matter where they lived?” Rich smirked when Gunnar glared at him. “Come on, man. You know this was never Gi’s scene. She was a sweet, small-town girl when you met her. You tried to corrupt her, get her to take a walk on the wild side with you, but it didn’t work.”
He cringed when he thought of some of the things she’d tolerated over the years. He’d once been so high at a concert that he’d allowed some dude on his security team to feel her up backstage while she tried to push him away.Just a quickie, the dude suggested, prompting Gi to slap him across the face before she stormed out.
She wanted to be his. All his. And he’d blown it.
“I was an idiot for trying to sell her on this shit,” he said, looking around at the gold and platinum records lining his walls. “She had the right idea all along. She knew what was important. I didn’t have a clue.”
“What’re you talking about?” Rich asked, looking concerned. “You knew what was important. The music. It’s always been about the music.”
“The music,” Gunnar repeated, swallowing the lump in his throat. “I loved the music. I loved that life, touring the world, making people happy. I loved the fame, the money, everything about it. But I hate what its cost me.”
“Hey, come on. Your girls are going to college in a few years anyhow. By then it won’t matter to them where you are.” He laughed. “Hell, you could be living on some island in the middle of nowhere for all they’d care.”
His friend was right. Soon his girls wouldn’t need him. They wouldn’t care about him. They’d have lives of their own. Work. Husbands. Kids. He’d be lucky to get a birthday or Christmas card from them.
For years, he’d been the one too busy to be a part of their lives. Soon the tables would turn on him and that would leave him alone. With his music. It suddenly hit him like an avalanche. That wouldn’t be enough.
“Where the hell are you going?” Rich asked when Gunnar jumped up. “I thought we were going to hammer out this song?”
“I’m getting them to gas up the jet.”
“What the hell for?”
“I need to see my girls. Now. Tonight.”
***
Gianna answered the door wearing a long coral sundress and a cropped jean jacket. Her long, dark hair was curled around her face and her makeup was flawlessly applied, which could only mean one thing: she was on her way out.
“Gunnar,” she whispered, stepping out on to the porch and closing the door. “What the hell are you doing here?” She looked down the road when she spotted headlights. “You can’t be here.”
“Why not?” Though she suspected he knew. She had a date. And if that didn’t get him right between the eyes. They’d been apart for a long time, but Gi had never stopped being his. Not in his mind.
“Because I have a life,” she seethed, wrapping her arms around her mid-section as she looked up at him. She was wearing flat sandals, which gave him a full head on her. “Or at least I’m trying to build one and I don’t want the whole town talking about my ex tomorrow.”
“Then no one knows I’m Ramsey and Keegan’s dad?” That pissed him off even more. He wanted every one of those teenage boys to know the power their father wielded, should they even think about stepping out of line.
“Williams is a common name,” Gianna said, sounding defensive. “I just encouraged the girls to keep it under wraps until we got settled here. I want people to get to know us and like us for who we are, not because of our connection to you.”
