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Aubree clapped her hands. “Oh my gosh, that’s gonna be amazin’. I can’t wait! How long are y’all stayin’?”
“Everett said it’ll be a couple weeks.”
“I’m happier than a possum eatin’ a sweet tater,” Momma said as she put plates of bacon, eggs, toast, and fruit in front of the three of us sitting in age-order at the counter like we always used to. “I can’t believe I’ll get to have all three of my girls in the same place for so long.”
Aubree took a bite of her bacon and frowned a little. “Well, I do have another trip next week, but thankfully I’ll be back in time for the festival.”
“You think Everett will come watch you play?” Dakota asked, leaning over Aubree so she could give me a devilish grin.
Song lyrics scrolled through my brain like on a teleprompter, all of the ones about him and what we’d had—what we’d lost. Back in the day, when I was only a teenager playing at our local bars in Charlotte Oaks, I loved having him in the audience while I performed.
Even after he’d joined the Marines and I was still trying to make it in Nashville, I’d died and gone to heaven every time he came out to visit me on leave and watched me do a set on Broadway.
When we were together and I got to sing to him about him, there’d always been so much love and affection in his gaze as he smiled up at me from the crowd. I practically felt it piercing me on the stage.
But now, having him in the audience sounded like a waking nightmare.
I swallowed, shaking my head. “I guess we’ll see. But after the way it’s been between us since I got to town, I’m not sure he’ll want to.”
“How’s it been?” Aubree asked.
Shrugging, I chewed my bacon and then followed it up with a sip of coffee. “I feel like he can’t decide if he hates me or if he’s jealous of Riley.”
“Or both,” Kota supplied.
“Is that what you’re after by not telling him this whole thing with Riley is about as real as Pamela Anderson’s assets?” Momma asked, stabbing the air with a forkful of scrambled egg. “You tryin’ to make the poor boy jealous?”
I choked out a laugh. “Momma. Of course not.”
“I’m serious. Your sisters and your daddy and I all know your relationship is a phony.”
“That’s because I’d never be able to lie to you guys,” I said.
Momma gave me a look. “But you can lie to Everett?”
“It’s not like that. I hadn’t even talked to Everett in six years until yesterday. He gets his news from the media just like everyone else in the world. And it’s the world we’re lyin’ to. It wasn’t like I called him up and told him I had a boyfriend when all this started.”
“Maybe you should have,” Momma said on a sigh.
“Why? What difference would it have made? I’m only with Riley because our managers set it up. Riley knows it’s nothin’ more than that, and so do you guys. Why should I have told Everett about us personally?”
“Maybe so he didn’t have to be blindsided with it when the news first broke?” Dakota asked quietly.
The sadness in her pretty eyes made my chest hurt. She’d always looked at Everett as a big brother—all of the Wilson boys were like family to us—and she’d been so sad when we’d broken up. I could see how much she wished we’d get back together, but that ship had sailed, hadn’t it?
“You’re right,” I said after a long minute. “I’m sure that wasn’t easy for him to hear. But I can’t go back, and I’m not keepin’ it from him to make him jealous. If I tell him that it’s not real now, I’m not sure if that’ll do any of us any good. As soon as my car is fixed, Riley and I are headed back to Nashville, and we can all go back to life as usual.”
Momma made a tiny little harrumph and sipped her coffee. “If you say so, punkin’.”
“So,” I said over the rim of my mug, choosing to close this topic with the biggest distraction on the face of this green earth, “I just met Gertie.”
10
LANEY
The big family dinner at the Wilson house next door was as hard to stomach as I’d imagined it would be. Not because I didn’t love the Wilson family—they were as important to me as my own family. But the difference between the me I could be with them and the me I was in Nashville felt as big as Tennessee was wide.
Georgia opened up her home to me like no time at all had passed, and she’d been welcoming and kind to Paisley, too, since by association, she was family just as I was. Judd was cheerful as ever, and Jackson and Adam were as goofy as they’d always been.
