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“That feels a little bit like we’re throwing Ivy under the bus.” Trent’s tone was neutral, giving Nate no idea which way he was leaning. “Bottom line—do you want Mia to get credit for the songs or not?”
“Let me talk to her. Can you give me a couple hours?”
“I’m not going to rush into anything. Tomorrow morning is soon enough.”
Nate hung up with Trent and dialed Mia. He wasn’t surprised when he got her voice mail. After leaving a message, he began to pace. Not more than five minutes later, his doorbell rang. Expecting to find Melody on his doorstep, he was shocked to see Mia.
“I was on my way here when I got your message.” She looked miserable as she stood outside his front door.
He reached for her hand and pulled her inside. “Are you okay?”
“No.” Mia pressed herself against his chest and mumbled her next words into his shirt. “She thinks I did it.”
“You didn’t, did you?”
Mia pushed away and glared up at him. “Absolutely not.”
Of course not. He wasn’t even sure why he’d asked. “But now that the truth is out there, Trent and I will back you one hundred percent.”
“She threw my journal in the pool. There was almost six months’ worth of ideas and melodies.” Her small frame shook. “And she fired me as her assistant.”
Nate tightened his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. It was probably best that she couldn’t see his face at the moment because the news that her sister had fired her pleased him. He knew she wouldn’t agree that it was the best thing for her.
She pulled out of his arms and wiped at her eyes. “I can’t believe she did that.”
He drew her from the foyer and into his living room. Her expression was blank, her gaze turned inward as he settled her on the couch. Once she was tucked against his body with her head resting on his shoulder, he gave a contented sigh. Her life might be falling apart, but in the depths of her despair, she’d come to him.
“I don’t know what happened,” she murmured after a long, long time. “One second I was working on a shopping list for Thanksgiving dinner, the next Skylar and Riley are bursting into my room and accusing me of being the one who told the media I wrote all Ivy’s songs. And when I told Ivy that I wouldn’t have done that, she didn’t believe me.” Mia’s breath came in unsteady gasps as she relayed her tale. “She was half out of her mind, saying all sorts of crazy things that made no sense.”
“She’ll realize it wasn’t you.”
“I don’t think she’ll ever believe that. She threw me out. I don’t know what that means. I’ve always lived with her.”
This was sounding better and better by the second. “You can move in here,” he said, keeping his voice as calm and gentle as possible. Mia was vulnerable. He didn’t want to spook her. “Maybe this will all work out for the best,” he began. “It’ll be a fresh start.”
“A fresh start?” She echoed the words as if she were tasting some strange and suspicious dish. “It’s not over.”
“I thought you said she threw you out and fired you.”
“She didn’t mean it.”
“What if she did?” Nate intended to capitalize on this turn of good fortune. “You could come work for me. Live in Las Vegas.” Be with me.
It was the same offer he’d made to her in Australia. The one she’d turned down without giving it a second’s consideration.
“I could.” Her shoulders slumped. She shook her head. “But this isn’t how I wanted things to happen.”
“What did you want?” Nate couldn’t stop his expression from turning grim. “Her blessing? She was never going to give you that.”
“I know, but this seems so abrupt. It’s like she hates me. Knowing how important my song journal is to me, she ruined it. That’s six months of work. Gone.”
His eyebrows went up; he couldn’t help it. “You forget you have the demos you made.” What he’d heard was pretty fantastic. “And you’ll write plenty more songs.”
She made a face at him. “You make it sound so easy.” Taking him by surprise, she set her hand on his cheek and brought her lips to his in a sweet, poignant kiss. “Besides, those songs were special. They were about us. How I feel when I’m with you.”
Nate’s heart gave a mighty thump. For a second he lost the ability to breathe. “How do you feel?”
“Like I exist.”
