Page 95 of Wild and Wanted

Stevie slid him a side-eye and made a mental note to circle back to that later.

‘Thank you for being there for her while I have been so appallingly MIA.’

‘Mom… no. This isn’t me trying to make out you’re a bad mother.’

‘I know.’ Her mother smiled through her tears. ‘I know. But I have been.’

Stevie crossed to her mother, who opened her arms and for the first time in a long time, Stevie felt the power of her mother’s hug again.

Like things were going to be okay.

‘I’m going to fix this,’ her mom murmured. ‘I’m going to fix it.’

‘How?’ Stevie asked, pulling slightly back from the hug. ‘There’s contracts and ticket sales and fans and promoters and lawyers.’

Stevie didn’t want to bankrupt her family over this. She wouldn’t. She’d go on stage dosed to the eyeballs on Valium if she had to.

‘I don’t know.’

Her mother’s frank honesty should have been terrifying, but it wasn’t. It felt real, like she wasn’t living in some fantasy land any more and that’s what they were going to need.

‘But we’ll work something out. I’ll arrange a big meeting with everyone soon back in Boston and we’ll work out a way forward. Don’t forget, Stevie, you didn’t just sing the number one hit song from last year – you wrote it. They’re already talking about “Cowboy Kisses” being a mega hit and they’re going to want more where that came from. Although, you will have to leave the ranch reasonably regularly to get studio time.’

‘We’ll build her a studio here.’

Startled at his interjection, Stevie glanced at Clay. ‘You… will?’

He nodded. ‘Of course you can use whatever studio you want whenever you want, but we can build you what you need here, too. For convenience. I mean, I don’t know the first thing about how to build a studio but’ – he shrugged with a deprecating smile that filled Stevie’s heart with joy – ‘that’s what the internet’s for, right?’

Good Lord – this man. How’d she get so lucky?

Stevie didn’t know what to say. It had been such an overwhelming few hours – emotional, cathartic, restorative – and Clay had been the cornerstone of it all.

Her mother said it for her. ‘He’s a keeper, that one, darling.’

‘Yeah.’ Stevie gave her mom a squeeze before she crossed to Clay, sliding her arm around his waist as he stood. ‘I’m lucky.’

Clay shook his head. ‘I’m the lucky one.’

Her mother smiled at them, her eyes suddenly shiny again. ‘You deserve to be happy, darling. Yolanda would definitely have wanted that.’

Stevie blinked back tears as she revelled in Clay’s strong arms around her, sending a quick pray of thanks to her sister for sending this cowboy her way.

Music starting up outside penetrated their bubble and Stevie realised how much time had passed. ‘That’ll be the cookout.’ On cue, her stomach growled. ‘I’m starving.’

‘Me too,’ Clay said.

Stevie grinned at the glint in his eyes. The two of them had sure worked up an appetite in that shower. ‘You coming, Mom?’

‘Soon. You guys go ahead. I’m going to call your dad and check on Gran.’

After a quick hair fix, Stevie and Clay stepped out onto the back porch, the fairy lights from the BBQ area popping in her peripheral vision. ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.

Stevie expelled a long breath. ‘Better.’ There were still a lot of things that needed to be settled but her and her mom were okay. And she and Clay – they were more than okay. ‘Thank you for pushing me to do that,’ she murmured. ‘I never knew how much I needed it.’

She kissed him then, long and slow, enjoying the lazy spiral of it until she reluctantly pulled back. They wouldn’t make the cookout at this rate and it was the wrap party. She was kinda expected. Plus there were a lot of people to thank.

He held out his hand. ‘Shall we?’