“Pleasure is all mine, ma’am.”
Trista’s eyes lit up, and Seth could tell that she wasn’t used to men calling her that.
“So what are you doin’ here?” she asked him.
“Couldn’t sleep either,” he said simply.
“Do you think this storm is going to die down anytime soon?”
Seth shrugged. The last thing he wanted to think about was the blizzard raging outside or the possibility of being stranded in this tiny town. “I hope so.” He watched Trista take a drink. She wore a form-fitted old T-shirt and a pair of faded jeans that revealed her curves. She was an attractive woman. Gorgeous actually, if he was being honest with himself. Then he noticed the pair of fuzzy pink slippers. “Nice slippers.”
She looked down and lifted her toes. “I can’t help it. They’re so comfortable.”
Seth flashed a smile. “So what’s your story, Trista?”
A serious look fell across her face as she studied his. “You know most of it already.”
“Something tells me that I haven’t even broken the tip of the iceberg with you.”
She reached over, pulled his glass of bourbon toward her, and held up a hand to get Harvey’s attention. “Can I get a Coke for my friend?”
Harvey nodded and set Seth up with a glass. “There,” she said. “Now we can talk.”
“You’re not like most women I’ve met.” In fact, he’d only met one woman like her. But he didn’t dare tell her that.
“That’s because I’m not like most women.” She looked him in the eyes. “I’ll make you a deal.”
Seth’s curiosity was piqued. He turned to face her, giving his full attention. “What kind of a deal?”
A smile formed on her face, and he noticed a set of dimples on her cheeks that could melt the snow outside. “The kind of deal where I tell you something about me and then you have to tell me something about you.”
Wary about telling her his past, but wanting to know more about hers, he gave in. He held out his hand and shook Trista’s. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
She drew in a deep breath and sat up straight. “All right, Seth Storm. Ask away.”
Her straight hair fell down past her shoulders, framing her small chin and full lips. He imagined kissing her and then quickly shook the thought from his mind. The last thing he needed right now was to get involved with a woman. He thought about his first question. It was the one thing he’d wanted to know ever since she thought her daughter had been kidnapped at the gas station. “Okay, so tell me more about the ex-fianc
é
. Tuck, right?”
The light from her eyes faded along with her smile. “Randall Tuck. Ex-fianc
é
as of earlier today. He’s not my first mistake, but he’s my biggest.”
“Why are you runnin’ from him?”
Her eyebrows rose, and she took a sip of her drink. “You don’t pull punches, do you?”
“Just want to know what I’ve gotten myself involved in.”
She set her glass down and let out a sigh. “When I first met Tuck, I thought, now there’s a man. Young, energetic, and ambitious. And the way he smiled at me…” She paused and looked off into the distance. “Well, let’s just say that it had been a while since a man had smiled at me in that way.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Seth mumbled.
“Excuse me?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Tell me what happened.”
“What usually happens when I meet a man.” She placed a hand on his arm. “No offense.”
“I’m not offended.”
“Tuck and I dated for a while before he convinced me to invest in his business. A towing company.”
Seth nodded slowly. “I see. Sounds lucrative.” Then he remembered how freaked out she had gotten when the tow truck had shown up to pick up the snowplow truck.
“You would understand if you met him. He was a real salesman. And I was…”
“In love.”
“Something like that. Anyway, I took what savings I had and put most of it into his business. He bought a big tow truck, specializing in repos, and things were good for a while.”
“Then what happened?”
“Let’s just say that Tuck overestimated the demand for another tow truck startup company, and he wasn’t very good at marketing, which didn’t help either. I noticed that the money I gave him was drying up month after month. But he never wanted to talk about it.”
“So he was a lousy businessman. That can’t be why you’re deathly afraid of him now.” He raised his glass to take a drink and then stopped. “Was he cheating on you?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “But he was…controlling.”
“Controlling?”
“He had his
requests.
And if I didn’t go along with him, well, he also had a bit of a temper.”
“Sounds like a prince.” Seth noticed the seriousness in her eyes and realized that she was reliving something horrible. “So, you’ve left him. But something tells me you didn’t tell him where you were going.”
“No. Of course not. He made it known what his feelings were on the subject of my leaving him. And what he’d do to me if I tried. So I had to leave…without notice.”
“But he hurt you, right? Physically?”
She nodded.
“Savannah?”
“No. Thank goodness. I would’ve been long gone by now if it’d come to that.”
“Why did you stay?”
She leaned her elbow on the bar and rested her head on her hand. “I don’t know. Love. Fear. Stupidity. Take your pick. Every time he laid a hand on me, he seemed sincerely sorry for it. And I told myself that he was a good man. That I was lucky to have a man who’d accept me, a woman with a child.”
“Was it the abuse that made you decide to leave?”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But not me. I thought for sure that I could make this one work. But it never did…work. No, I knew it was time the day Savannah’s boyfriend, Trey, hit her.” She turned to Seth, tears welling in her eyes. “She acted as if it was no big deal. As if that was something that men did to women. And I knew right then and there that I had failed her. I had shown her a way of living that made it okay for a man to use her as a punching bag.” She paused and wiped a tear from her eye. “It was then that I knew I had to get us out. I had to show her another life. And I needed a fresh start to do that.”
Seth turned toward the bar. Harvey was at the other end of the bar, counting the money in his drawer. “And you think that he’s following you?”
“Yes,” she said, shaking her head.
Seth knew that they should probably go to the cops, but that would be another delay. Something he couldn’t afford at this point. Faith needed him to be there, and there was no way that he’d let her down again. He tipped back his glass and finished his Coke, wishing it were the bourbon burning through his throat instead.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Seth placed an arm around her. “Don’t worry about it. Everything’s going to work out.”
She looked into his eyes, and he saw the same look on her face he had seen in the airport. A warm ache filled his chest, reminding him of the way he had felt when Lexi would look at him after he had been on tour for weeks. The warmth was replaced with guilt as he remembered his manager, Adam, on the phone, dropping a bomb that had changed his life forever.
Seth, did you hear me? Lexi was on her way to surprise you. Her plane went down, man.
The phone had fallen from his hand as he looked at the television in his hotel room and watched as the news played back the horrific crash. Fire had engulfed the plane until he could no longer see it.
“Are you okay?” Trista asked, snapping him back to the present.
“Huh? Yeah,” he said, looking around. “Everything’s going to be okay. Don’t worry about anything.”
“Can I ask you something now?”
Seth pushed back the memory of the crash and tried to focus on Trista. “Shoot.”
“What’s with the tattoo of those flames on your hand? It’s a bit…unusual.”
He looked at the flames on the back of his left hand, a reminder of everything he’d lost. And a reminder of the man he really was. “It’s…it’s…well, it used to be a tattoo of a music note. I paid a guy to remake it into this.”
“Really? I don’t understand.”
Seth looked over at the glass of bourbon that Trista had pulled away from him, wanting it more than ever. He resented her now for taking it away. “I’ll tell you what.” He flashed his famous smile and stuck out his chest. “You come back to my room tonight, and I’ll tell you all about it.” As soon as the words were out, he wished he could take them back. How stupid, he thought. Don’t take it out on her.
Trista’s eyes grew wide. She picked up her drink and swirled it around in her glass a few times as if stunned by the request. Then she smiled, stood up, and dumped the cold Diet Coke onto Seth’s head. “Nice, Seth. Real nice.”
Drenched, Seth watched as she marched her pink slippers out of the bar and then out of the restaurant. He looked around at the tables, hoping no one had seen what had just happened. But no such luck. A group of guys sitting around a table filled with empty beer bottles held up their drinks and smiled. “Way to go, man!” one of them called out.
Chapter 16
Trista
February 14th
Trista sat in the chair across from the large bed and watched Savannah sleep, wondering if she would ever forgive her mother for not giving her the life she deserved. Maybe she shouldn’t have left all those years ago when her mother had begged her to stay, but when you were young and in love, your heart tended to make decisions for you.
She brought her legs up into her arms, wanting a blanket. She wished she had gotten more than a few hours of sleep. She knew her lack of sleep would catch up to her once she was back home in Indiana. Light from the sunrise cast a glow on the white curtains. She rose to see what the morning had brought.
A white blanket of snow covered the vehicles below, making it impossible for her to tell which car was their rental. The sun’s rays gave her hope. At least it wasn’t snowing anymore, she thought. But how on earth were they ever going to get out of this mess? A man with gray hair made his way through the drifts of snow. Frank. She brought up her hand to tap on the glass but stopped when she saw Seth trailing behind him. A pit formed in her stomach. She didn’t know what was worse, sticking around until Tuck found them or sitting in a car with that egotistical, superstar wannabe for hours.
“Seth!” Savannah yelled and waved.
Startled, Trista turned around and saw her daughter, her hair spiked halfway to the ceiling. “What are you doing? Stop that.”
“What? It’s Seth. Are they leaving?”
“I’m sure they’re just heading to the gas station to get the tire fixed.”
Savannah plopped down on the edge of the bed, smoothing down her hair. Just as quickly, she bounced back up. “I’m starving.”
“Get cleaned up and we can head downstairs to get a bite to eat. I bet this place has great breakfast choices.”
“I was hoping to have breakfast with Seth,” Savannah whined.
“Well, you’ll have to make do with your mom for now. Besides, I don’t know if it’s a good idea for us to hang out with that guy. I don’t know what his deal is, but I don’t trust him.”
“Gosh, Mom. Give the guy a break. His wife died a year or so ago, and he lost his daughter.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t you know anything?” Savannah looked annoyed. “His wife’s plane went down, and she died. Then he ended up in rehab and lost custody of his daughter.”
“Rehab? What do you know about rehab?”
Savannah let out a long sigh. “I’m not twelve anymore. You always think I’m this little girl who doesn’t know anything. I know what rehab is. It’s where people go to get off drugs and alcohol.”
It was true. No matter how big she got, she would always be her little girl. And maybe that was the problem. Maybe she had a difficult time coping with her little girl turning into a woman. Sometimes the passing of time brought with it changes she wasn’t ready to accept. “Seth lost custody of his little girl?”
Savannah nodded.
“And how do you know all of this?”
Savannah rolled her eyes. “The news.”
Trista had no idea Savannah watched the news. Of course, for Savannah, the “news” could have been the Enquirer for all she knew. Then she thought about what Seth had said right before they nearly hit the snowplow truck. He had said that he was heading to Fort Wayne for a girl. It explained his obsession with getting back to Fort Wayne and why he’d pushed so hard to get back there this entire trip.
Savannah stood up and pulled a suitcase out from beneath the bed. Trista turned back toward the window. Seth and Frank were digging out the rental car and had made good progress in a short amount of time. What kind of man was willing to risk everything to travel through a blizzard to get back to his daughter and then turn around and act like a total jerk all in the same day? There was still something that didn’t make sense. A mystery that resided deep beneath those clear blue eyes and glowing smile.
“What is this?”
Trista turned to see Savannah holding up a huge envelope. “Put that back!”
Savannah started to open the envelope. Trista snatched it from her hands. “Hey!”
“I told you to put it back. It’s none of your business. You have some serious listening issues.” Trista opened the suitcase and stuffed the envelope inside before zipping it up and shoving it back underneath the bed.
“You are so weird.” Savannah turned on her heels and headed into the bathroom.
“Savannah. Come here a minute.” Trista sat on the edge of the bed and held out her arm. Savannah walked over and sat down. “I know this hasn’t been an easy trip for you, sweetheart. But when we get to your grandma’s, everything is going to get better. I promise.”
“I know. But I miss my friends.”
Trista looked into her daughter’s big blue eyes. For a moment, all she could think about was how much she looked like Anthony. “Can I be honest with you?”
Savannah nodded.
“It’s moments like these when I wish your father were here. He was always the one who knew just what to say.”
“You’re a great mom.” Savannah said, squeezing her. “And you’re too hard on yourself.”
“Do you know why we’re leaving Nashville?”
“To get away from Tuck?”
Trista shook her head. “That’s not the only reason, sweetheart. We both need a fresh start. Ever since your father passed away, I’ve been trying to raise you all by myself. And even though you’ve turned out to be this smart and beautiful young woman, I think it’s important for you to have more than just me in your life. I’d like you to know your family. There’s more than just Grandma waiting for us in Indiana. All of my relatives and your father’s relatives are there. And they’ve always wanted to get to know you.”