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Jordan had just gotten on the phone for business when another truck pulled into the parking lot. My smile lit up when I recognized it. I traipsed across the lawn of Wright Vineyard and rapped on the window.
Hollin rolled it down and hung slightly out the side. “Can I help you, ma’am?” he drawled, low and country.
I laughed. “That is quite some twang you have on you.”
He tipped his cowboy hat at me. “Ma’am.”
“You’re ridiculous. I didn’t think you were coming up here for the rehearsal.”
“I wasn’t,” he said as he popped the door of his truck. “But I wanted to see you.”
“Oh good.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed me. He’d been letting a beard grow out the last week, and the whiskers scratched against my face. I hadn’t minded them scratchy elsewhere.
“You keeping this?” I asked, pulling gently on the beard.
“You like it?”
“I am yet undecided. You look good either way.”
“Well, it’ll be gone soon. We all agreed not to shave until the wedding. Julian hates it,” he said with a laugh. “So, it’s half the fun.”
“Ah, I see. No wonder Jordan and Isaac both have beards. Why did you even decide this?”
Hollin shrugged. “We’re guys. I don’t know.”
I rolled my eyes. Typical.
He took my hand in his as we returned to the rehearsal. Everyone had moved out of the baking sun and into the air-conditioned barn. Thankfully, the reception would be indoors even if the wedding was out in the sun.
Jordan and Isaac both shook hands with Hollin.
“Just think, you’re next,” Isaac told Jordan.
“Patrick first,” he said with a laugh.
“Sure. Patrick and then us,” Annie said with a smile. Her eyes darted down to her ring. She hadn’t stopped messing with it since he’d proposed.
“And who’s after that?” Isaac asked. “Julian?”
Jordan quirked a self-satisfied smile. “Maybe Hollin.”
I laughed at the suggestion. We’d only been dating since Easter. Julian and Jennifer had been dating a year. There was no way that was in our future yet.
Hollin pulled a ridiculous face. “Yeah, right. We all know Julian is next.”
I frowned slightly at the way he’d said it. The way he’d scrunched up his face. The immediate denial. It wasn’t like I was looking to get married. Far from it. But I’d stopped to consider it. I’d said yet in my head. That was a huge step forward, but eventually, I wanted to get married. Maybe even to Hollin.
Hollin frowned. “What?”
I laughed, brushing it off. It was stupid. A month ago, I hadn’t even wanted to date him. “Awfully quick about that Abbey.”
He pressed a kiss to my lips. “It is Julian next. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Someday, dude,” Jordan said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Someday, you’ll have to grow up.”
“That day is not today,” Hollin said. “Marriage is a trap.”
That sounded more like his issue with his mom. Marriage had to seem that way to him after what he’d gone through. Maybe it had nothing to do with me at all, and I was reading into it. I didn’t need to read into anything with Hollin. He always said exactly what he was thinking with me.
Annie caught my attention and rolled her eyes. She mouthed, Men.
We both laughed.
She sidled up next to me. “Jordan was the same way, I swear. And then, bam, he couldn’t live without me.”
“Sounds right.”
I pushed it from my brain. One day, I’d get there, just like everyone else.
And when he glanced back at me and smiled, I knew I was far past gone. I wanted it to be with Hollin. I wanted everything with him.
32
Hollin
Today was the wedding, but that wasn’t what I was excited for. It was in second place to my brother coming home. The tour was officially over, and he was off until he had to get back into the studio and work on a new album. Normally, he’d hole up in LA, but things were different. Now, he was coming back home.
Nora had wanted to come with me to pick him up from the airport, but she was too busy with the wedding. She was still furious with August and Tamara. Not that I could blame her. I’d gotten a bunch of boxes and helped her pack up her apartment. She was currently living in my guest room. Dad had offered for her to stay with him, but she hadn’t wanted to. Moving back home would have felt like a defeat. I didn’t know how she was putting on a happy face. She was a professional—that was for sure.
Having Campbell home was going to help her, too.
Campbell had given me directions to pick him up from the private terminal where he had his own suite. He was driven straight to the airplane, and all of his baggage was handled exclusively. Lubbock was a small airport, but it still had all the luxury for when celebrities came through.
