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She wasn’t the kind to believe a relationship could solve all her problems, or bring harmony to a life she’d been living out of tune, but she couldn’t deny that the past twenty-four hours had been filled with more “destiny” than she’d ever felt before.
“You know one thing I really love about you?” she said after a long moment, the freedom to say the words making her chest feel full of butterflies. “That you don’t always rush in to fill a silence.”
“Didn’t seem silent to me,” Robert said softly. “Your eyes were saying all kinds of things.”
Her lips curved. “Like what?”
“Like that you like me,” he said, grinning as he hooked his thumbs into the top of her jeans. “And that this feels right, even if we are going at this love thing like we’re running out of daylight.”
She shrugged as her smile stretched wider. “I always have been an overachiever.”
“I like that about you,” he said. “You’re hungry and you go after what you want. I just feel damn lucky you want me for more than my pretty singing voice.”
“I still want you for that, too,” she said, laughing. “We should work on the chorus to “Where You Are” while we ride. I want to have that ready to go when we get back to Austin. I’ve got studio time booked for Sunday afternoon.”
As if on cue, her phone buzzed in her back pocket. Even before she pulled it out and glanced at the screen, she had a fluttery feeling in her belly that it wasthecall. The call she and Robert had both been waiting for, the one that would decide if he became an overnight success, or they went back to taking meetings, playing bar gigs, and working on his demo reel.
“Shit.” He tipped his hat off and ran a nervous hand through his hair. “It’s them, isn’t it? I don’t want to listen,” he said, backing away. “I’ll go saddle the horses, come tell me the verdict when you’re done.”
She wanted to tell him to stay and quit being ridiculous, but the phone had already been ringing long enough. “Hello, Eugene,” she said, voice controlled and professional despite that fact that her pulse was pounding in triple time. “Tell me you’ve got good news for me.”
Eugene chuckled. “Well, it wasn’t easy, Mari. Wendy loves your Robert, but she really wanted a female artist on the tour, to make sure she kept that girl power vibe. You understand.”
“Of course, of course.” Marisol nodded as she paced at the edge of the barn, but her heart was plummeting into her stomach. She knew there would be other opportunities, but she hated that this one had slipped through their fingers. She knew discrimination usually worked the other way around, and she applauded Wendy’s girl power agenda, but it wasn’t going to be easy to tell Robert he’d missed out simply because he had a penis.
“But in the end, none of the girls we auditioned here in Nashville had what Wendy was looking for,” Eugene continued, setting a tiny flame of hope to flickering inside her. “Wendy wants someone who can get the crowd up and moving before she comes on stage, and Robert’s got that something. He had a room of record execs on their feet just watching that video you sent along from the bar gigs.”
“Really?” Marisol asked, grinning so hard her jaw started to hurt. “You’re kidding me.”
“I’m not,” Eugene assured her. “And if you let me show that tape around, I’d bet my new Beamer you’ll havemultipledeal offers by the end of the week.”
“Please do,” Marisol said, with a breathless laugh. “Show it off, spread it around. The more competition, the better a deal I’ll be able to get for Robert.”
“Of course, my pleasure,” Eugene said. “And I’ll get that contract for the tour in your inbox by the end of the day. It’s pretty standard, but anything you need to discuss feel free to call me anytime. Wendy would love to get Robert signed on the dotted line as soon as possible so he can join us for rehearsals Monday before the tour starts up again in San Antonio on Tuesday night.”
“Yes, absolutely.” Marisol’s head began to spin as the reality of how quickly all of this was happening sunk in. She’d known on some level that if things started clicking, the dominos would fall pretty fast, but now that she was in the middle of it, it felt surreal. “I’ll go over the terms. If everything looks good, I can have the contract signed and sent today.”
They discussed a few more things—days on and days off, radio show interviews, when they would need Robert’s set list, and how to manage auditions for any of his current band members who might not be ready to pull up roots and go on tour—and then Marisol was hanging up the phone, wondering why she didn’t feel that same rush of rightness she’d felt when she was in Robert’s arms.
This was what they both wanted. This was the golden ring she’d nearly been crushed reaching for the first time.
But the tour would also take him on the road, and away from her for five long months. She could visit, sure, but she wouldn’t be able to see him as often as she did now, and they’d barely gotten started as a couple. Would they be able to handle a long distance relationship when they were still so new?
All those anxious thoughts and more were lingering in her mind as she entered the dark, musty barn, but when she slipped into the stall where Robert was saddling a speckled mare with pretty black stockings, she made sure that her smile was all sunshine and roses.
“I got it?” he asked, eyes widening when she nodded.
“You got it. And Eugene thinks there are going to be record offers trickling in soon.”
“You’re kidding me.” He ducked under the neck of the horse, shaking his head. “Just like that? Here Bubba, have a music career on a silver platter, without years of playing gigs for nothing, and busting your ass to get noticed.”
Her smile drooped. “Why don’t you sound happier? This is what you wanted, right? This was the dream.”
“I know. And I’m grateful, I am, I just…” He glanced down at the sawdust beneath his boots and sighed. “I guess my dream just changed a little while I wasn’t looking.”
He looked up, meeting her eyes, and she knew she wasn’t the only one thinking about how long they were going to have to be apart, or all the other ways his rising star might make the love they’d just barely caught hard to hang on to.
Her lips were parting to tell him they would find a way to make it work, and he couldn’t let anything make him miss out on the chance of a lifetime when he said—
