Authors: Cheryl Douglas
“I’m glad you were free tonight,” she said, adding a little salt and pepper to the salad.
“I’m free every night,” he said, smirking.
She laughed. “You’re such a liar.” When he didn’t respond, she stole a glance out of the corner of her eye. “Have you been, uh, dating much?”
He smiled when he saw a blush stain her cheeks. “Some.”
“Oh,” she said, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. “Anyone serious?”
“No.”
“Hmm.”
Drake decided to put her out of her misery when it became obvious she wasn’t going to ask the question she was dying to know. “There are some functions when it makes sense to bring a date. It’s just easier, if you know what I mean.”
He opened the wine, pouring some into each of their glasses before putting an oven mitt on to extract the hot pan.
“You mean you bring someone so you won’t have to ward off advances all night?”
He chuckled as he set the pan on the stovetop. “Something like that.” Grabbing some plates, he headed over to the large, round table in the middle of the eating area to set them out.
She was walking toward him with the wine glasses in hand when she stepped in to his path. “Is there anyone special in your life right now?”
“Yes.” He smiled when she looked disappointed at his response. “You.”
“Really?” she asked, looking hopeful. “There’s no one else?”
“Baby, don’t you know by now? No one could ever compete with you in my mind.”
Seeming pleased with his response, she kissed his cheek before setting the wine glasses down on the table. “I heard Tori’s new song hit number one this week. Congrats, Mr. Producer.”
“Thanks,” he said, stacking the pizza on a serving plate. “But Tori’s such a pro. She probably could have produced that album herself.”
“That’s not what Evan Spencer said,” Cassidy said, smiling. “According to him, you’ve been a machine lately. Working all hours of the day and night, producing some of the best music of your career.”
He frowned. “When were you talking to Evan?” He counted Evan among his closest friends. Why wouldn’t he have told him if Cassidy had reached out to him?
“That’s the interview I had before I came here,” she said, sitting down.
He brought the pizza to the table and set it down before regarding her carefully, trying to figure out where this was going. “You said interview, not meeting. Does that mean you’ve given up on getting the record deal?”
She gestured to the seat next to her. “Why don’t you sit down and I’ll tell you about it.”
He couldn’t shake the feeling she’d kept this to herself for a reason. Maybe she knew he wouldn’t like the plans she was making for her future if they didn’t include him. “Okay,” he said. “I’m listening.”
“You know that Titan and a few other labels have bought some of my songs, right?”
“Of course I know that. Hell, “Demons” made it all the way to number one.” He smiled. “Made me wish I’d been the one to produce the damn thing.”
She reached for a piece of pizza. She took a small bite, chewing carefully, as though she wanted to take her time for a reason. “I’ve realized a lot of things about myself and my family over the last six months, Drake. My mama hasn’t been the only one healing. I’ve done a lot of healing too.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” He could barely breathe as he waited for the words that would seal his fate.
“I had no business accepting your marriage proposal the first time you asked me to be your wife.”
His gut clenched. That had been the happiest moment of his life, bar none. And now she was telling him she wished it had never happened?
“I was still struggling with my addiction, dealing with the trauma from my childhood and trying to figure out my place in the world. I thought being your wife would give me a sense of identity, but that wasn’t fair to either one of us.”
He knew it was selfish, but he wouldn’t have minded if her identity had been wrapped up in being his wife and the mother of his children. “Go on,” he said quietly.
“I started to heal during the year I lived at the center, but I didn’t realize how important it would be for me to go back to the scene of the crime, so to speak.”
“Your childhood home?” he asked. She’d shared some of the details of her childhood with him and he knew it had been pretty horrific by any standards.
“If you can call it that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It was really just a grungy little apartment with second-hand furniture, but I realized I had to stay there to exorcise my demons.”
“Demons? That’s where that song came from?” He struggled to remember every word of the song he’d listened to dozens of times. Nikki Spencer McCall had been the artist who recorded the song, but Drake couldn’t help but hear Cassidy’s voice behind the heart-wrenching words of abuse and loneliness.
“Yes.” She set some salad on her plate as though she needed something to distract her from the pain. “I started working on that song years ago, but I couldn’t bring myself to finish it until I was back in that apartment, surrounded by the vile memories of those monsters who stole my innocence.”
“Your mother’s boyfriends?” Drake clenched his fist beneath the table. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect this woman, and the thought of someone hurting the innocent child she’d once been enraged him.
“Yes.” She took a small bite of salad, blinking away the tears in her eyes.
He knew she was trying to pretend it didn’t still hurt, but he wanted to tell her she didn’t have to pretend with him. He would always be the guy she could let her guard down with. He would never judge or ridicule her for circumstances that were beyond her control.
“My mama and I talked a lot about my childhood these past few months and it’s helped both of us to forgive, start to forget, and move on. I feel like I finally have a mother for the first time in my life,” she said, smiling.
“I’m glad to hear that, sweetheart,” Drake said, squeezing her hand. He wanted her to rebuild her relationship with her mother, but he hoped that didn’t mean she felt she needed to stay in the same town to strengthen that bond.
“She’s starting to build a new life for herself and I’m so proud of her, Drake.” Her face lit up as she said, “She’s even started going to church and she’s made a whole new set of friends who are really supporting her in the changes she’s making.”
“It sounds like she’s in a good place.”
Please, let that mean you’re ready to come home to me.
“She is. When I saw her making all of these positive changes, getting out more, making new friends, starting a business, I realized I wanted to give her a fresh new start in a new place.”
“That’s why you decided to move to the new apartment?”
“We spent a lot of time fixing it up, but it’s still affordable so she’ll be able to manage the bills on her own soon.”
Drake wished Cassidy wasn’t too proud to accept his help, but he knew he had to let her do this her way. Taking a bite of pizza, he was relieved when it didn’t sit like lead in his stomach. “It sounds like your mama is on the right track. So, what does that mean for you?”
For us?
“I realized that writing music is my passion, Drake.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. Cassidy was one of the most gifted singers he knew, but being a musician required a commitment at a whole different level than that of a song writer. Song writers worked behind the scenes, set their own schedules, didn’t have to deal with the celebrity status artists did, and often took time off for things like…
having a family.
“I had a story to tell and my songs allow me to do that.” She smiled before finishing her slice of pizza and dabbing her mouth with a napkin. Sitting back in her seat, she reached for her glass. “I always thought that could only happen if I was the one to sing them, ya know? I thought I had to be out there on stage every night to really connect with an audience.”
“But…?”
“But the first time I heard one of my songs on the radio, I realized that’s not true. The singer is kind of like the narrator telling my story. It’s still my story, it’s just his or her voice sharing it with the world.”
“Makes sense,” he said, finishing his slice of pizza before setting his plate aside. Food was the last thing on his mind right now.
“So, that’s why I decided to accept Evan’s job offer,” she said, smiling.
“You’re going to be writing music exclusively for Titan’s artists?” He didn’t want to get too excited. He knew some of Titan’s writers worked in-house while others were scattered across the country.
“I sure am.” She grinned. “You’re looking at the newest member of the Titan Records team.”
“Congratulations, sweetheart,” he said, raising his glass in her honor.
She touched her glass to his and said, “The best part is that the contract comes with a great salary and performance incentives based on how well the song does.”
“It sounds like the perfect job for you,” he said, taking a sip of his wine. There were a million questions racing around in his head, but he didn’t want to come on too strong by firing them at her like missiles.
“It is, for a lot of reasons.” She slid her foot up his leg, winking at him as her tongue reached out to lick a drop of liquid off her wine glass.
“Such as?” he asked, shifting when her foot found his inner thigh.
“I’ll have a lot of free time, since I’ll be able to work from home whenever I want to. I mean, I can go in to the office or work from home, it’s up to me.”
“Go in to the office?” he asked, seizing her wandering foot in his hand so he could concentrate on what she was telling him. “That means you’ve decided to move back to Nashville?”
“That kind of depends…”
His heart nearly stopped as he waited for her response. “On?” he asked, finally.
“You. Do you want me to move back to Nashville?”
“Jesus,” he muttered, reaching for her hand to pull her into his lap. “You damn near gave me a heart attack, girl. Of course, I want you to move back. What the hell kind of question is that?”
“There’s something I need to say, Drake,” she said, bringing her hand to his face.
She looked so serious, so uncertain, and he knew if she continued torturing him this way, he would never survive the night. “Just say it already, please.”
Hiking her skirt up, she shifted so she was straddling him, facing him, looking into his eyes. “You are the man I was meant to spend my life with.”
He let out the breath he’d been holding in a gush as he tipped his head forward. “You don’t know how much I needed to hear you say that.”
“I didn’t need this time to figure out how I felt about you. I knew that all along, but I couldn’t come back to you until I figured out who I was. Until I felt like a complete person, healed from the past, in control of her addiction.” She smiled. “Someone who’d wrestled her demons and won.”
“I’m so proud of you,” he said, kissing her fiercely. “And I love you so damn much.”
“I love you too,” she whispered, kissing him multiple times before pulling back to look him in the eye. “But there’s more, and I’m afraid you’re not going to like this part.”
As long as she intended to stay here and commit to building a life with him, he could deal with almost anything. “Let’s hear it,” he said, brushing her hair off her shoulders.
“I think I want my sister to be a part of my life again.” She eased the lines between his eyebrows with her fingertips when he scowled. “She and Lee are having a baby, and I want to have a relationship with my niece… with
our
niece,” she corrected.
Time hadn’t softened Drake’s anger toward his brother, but the news that he was going to be an uncle gave him reason to pause. If anything, he wanted to make sure Lee didn’t screw up some innocent kid’s life the way he’d managed to mess up his own. “You’re free to do whatever you want,” he said. “I’d never try to stand between you and Katie.”
“Do you think you might be able to forgive your brother at some point?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not ready to think about that just yet.” He held her close.
“But you’re not saying no?” she whispered in his ear.
He smiled at her persistence. “I’m not saying no.”