Strummin' Up Love

by Erin Wright

  Screw fancy boarding schools. Sawyer had the potential to be so much more than it had been before, and Zane was excited about the challenge. Georgette was his best idea thus far for improving the local school district. It had been just what he’d expected: Normal. Problems because every place has problems, but no knife fights or gangs roaming the hallways. It also wasn’t going to win any awards for its music program – at least not until Georgette started making shit happen.

  Never stand between Georgette Nash and what she wanted to get done. Force of nature was one way of putting it.

  Georgette left him in the hands of the makeup and hair team, the sound team darting in and strapping equipment to him whenever they could get close enough. “I’ll be back later,” she promised him as she melted back out into the crowd, off to fix yet another problem.

  As Zane’s crew did their job quickly and efficiently, Zane reached down and felt the round band of metal in his front pocket through his jeans and sucked in a breath. Today was the day.

  His nerves were about to chew right through his stomach lining.

  He took a swig of water, waiting for his team to finish up, and then jogged to the edge of the curtain, watching from the sidelines as The Boot Stompers entertained the crowd. They were just a local act and didn’t have any stand-out performers, but they weren’t that bad, either. Fairly impressive, really, considering they were only a local group.

  Then Jacob was striding up on stage and the cheering began in earnest. “Jacob Allen Group! JAG! Jacob Allen Group! JAG!” the crowd chanted and Zane smiled to himself. The girls liked to use his nickname of JAG, and from the sounds of it, more than a few of his diehard fans were in the crowd. How many women would Jacob go home with tonight?

  But not the one girl who matters…

  He reached down to his pocket again, rubbing the ring like a talisman.

  Today was the day.

  They’d finally been able to move into their new home just a month ago. After all of the planning and building and hard work, it was done. It’d taken on monstrous proportions there for a while, and Zane had started to wonder if it would ever get done, but finally – fin.a.lly – they’d been able to move in as soon as the snow began to melt off the ground.

  It had been worth the wait. No more old-man dark wood. No more oppressive drapes. No more ornate crystal-and-gold chandeliers. It was a house he could breathe in.

  The local voice talent – is Kurtis Workman his name? That seems right – cut through the roar of the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, give it up one more time for JAG!” The crowd was roaring so loudly, Zane wondered for a moment if they’d still have enough voice left to cheer for him, but somehow, he was sure they would.

  Jacob was jogging off stage and flashed Zane a grin as they passed. “Great crowd,” he shouted over the noise and then he was gone, disappearing into the changing area to clean off the stage makeup. Jacob had been one of the people who’d been most vehemently against Zane moving to Sawyer, and didn’t mince words when he’d bluntly told Zane that he’d gone off the deep end. And trusting Louisa? Was he that naïve?

  But when they’d met, Jacob had fallen under Louisa’s spell also, just as neatly and completely as Skyler and Zane had. When he’d found out that she had twin sisters, he’d looked a little too interested. “They’re barely out of high school,” Zane’d told him. That had squelched that thought.

  “And now, what we’ve all been waiting for,” Kurtis said. “The reason y’all are here. Welcome to our humble little town, Zane Risley!”

  Zane jogged out onto stage as the crowd went absolutely insane. It was a damn good thing this was an outdoors concert – Zane would’ve had serious worries about the structural integrity of the roof otherwise.

  He slipped right into A Honky Tonk Life, belting out the words, the crowd singing along with him. His eyes sought out Louisa’s, looking for her in the shifting faces blending and weaving below. There she was. She blew him a kiss. Skyler was beside her, sitting in his wheelchair, clapping and singing along. Through damn hard work, Skyler had gotten to the point that he could stand and even walk a little, but he tired easily still, and an entire concert on his feet just wasn’t an option.

  The beat of the music, the energy of the crowd – Zane was coming home. He’d gone back on tour – he’d been around the world and had sung in sold-out stadiums. But being here, tonight, in this tiny mountain town that’d welcomed him with open arms, his gorgeous girlfriend, his handsome son watching him…

  He’d come home.

  The song ended and instead of moving into the next one like the crowd had expected, he paused and waited for them to quiet down. Every eye was on him when he said, “Y’all know that tonight is a fundraiser for the music program at the Sawyer School District. What you don’t know is that I’ve written a song that I’m debuting tonight. It’s for my son, Skyler Risley, but I hope that all y’all enjoy it.”

  He started singing then, the haunting words of love and pride in a child even when you aren’t making the right choices yourself, swirling around the audience, and more than a few women began openly crying. It was when the refrain hit and he sang the one line of the song that would stick forever in the minds of anyone who heard it – I gave him everything; everything but me – that the men started tearing up too.

  This. This was why he’d wanted to write this song. He looked at Louisa again, just for a moment, and found that she was wiping the tears off her face furiously.

  The song drifted to a close, the last notes dying away, and then the crowd went absolutely berserk. They loved it.

  The glow of pride flooded through him. He’d composed a song and the crowd had loved it.

  He was back on top of his game.

  Now, just one more piece to the puzzle and his life could be complete.

  “Before I go on with the show, I wanted to bring my son and my girlfriend up on the stage for y’all to meet them. Would you like to meet them?” The crowd went nuts as Skyler and Louisa picked their way up to the front, Skyler walking slowly, carefully over the uneven grass. Dusk was falling fast, making it hard to see, and then the uneven footing…this was the worst possible combination of factors for Skyler, and yet he moved forward, never letting it show how hard this was on him.

  That’s my boy.

  Zane’s gaze slid over to Louisa and found that she was just a step behind and to the right of Skyler, ready to catch him if he stumbled, her eyes trained on his son. Their son.

  No one loved Skyler more than Louisa. It was time to make it official.

  They came up on stage, waving to the crowd as they crossed over to him, the crowd cheering and yelling hello back. It was such a small-town moment, and Zane wanted to chuckle at the quaintness of it, but he was mic’d and the sound would be projected far and wide. But there were some friends of Skyler’s, yelling and pointing. There was Juan Miller, waving enthusiastically. There was Brooklyn Morland, another kid Juan had introduced Skyler to, jumping up and down like someone had attached springs to her feet. Skyler reached his side and Zane pulled him up close, feeling the fatigue run through his son’s body at the strain of working so hard. Louisa stood on the other side, casually helping to keep Skyler propped up, hiding her help from the world.

  It was such a Louisa thing to do, Zane wanted to tell her right then how much he loved her, but he didn’t. Instead, he looked back at the audience.

  “Everyone knows the story of how Skyler and I ended up in this tiny little town you’ve probably never heard of, called Sawyer, Idaho.” The whoops and hollers went on for what seemed like days. “What you don’t know is that Skyler wasn’t the only one who was learning how to ride. I too borrowed a horse from Dr. Whitaker and went out riding. Needless to say, there’s a reason why I’m up on stage singing, and not on the back of a horse riding in a rodeo.” The laughter rolled over them in waves, and Louisa shot him a laughing grin along with a small shake of the head.

  Your agent is going to kill you.

&n
bsp; I know.

  But he was done pretending to be someone he wasn’t, trying to impress the world. He was taking a page out of Louisa’s book. He was gonna be himself, and the rest of the world could love it or lump it, and he didn’t rightly care which.

  “There’s something else I’m not sure you know,” he continued, looking back at the waiting crowd. “You might’ve heard a rumor or two that I fell in love with my son’s nanny, of all people.” The crowd bust up laughing again. He shot them a knowing smile. “The world was only surprised by this because they didn’t know Louisa. Anyone who’s met her just loves her, and rightfully so. While we’re sharing secrets with each other, though, I wanted to share one last one with you.” He dropped to one knee as he pulled out the ring he’d been rubbing for good luck all night long. He would need all of the luck he could get in the next minute or so. He could hear the women in the crowd crying again as he held the ring up. “Louisa Vargas, will you marry me?”

  “You better say yes!” Skyler put in, and the sobs from the crowd turned to choked laughter instead.

  Louisa’s shoulders were shaking also, and it took Zane a moment to figure out if it was from crying or laughing, and then realized that it was both.

  “Yes, I’ll marry you,” she said clearly, looking him straight in the eye when she said it, her dark brown eyes – the color of the richest, deepest chocolate in the world – filling with unshed tears.

  “Good job, Dad,” Skyler stage whispered, and the crowd broke out into roars of laughter once again.

  As Zane slipped the ring onto Louisa’s finger, noting with pride that he’d managed to figure out her size without her having a clue of what he was up to, he realized that this was what life was made of – tears and laughter and joy and pain.

  But most of all, love.

  Be sure to turn the page to check out my personal notes and thoughts on Strummin’ Up Love. Warning: This one hit close to home…

  Author’s Note

  Strummin’ Up Love is the kind of book that makes you grateful for all of the blessings you have in your life, especially the simple ones like the ability to walk.

  I was particularly inspired to write Strummin’ because during the final stages of finishing up my last book, Baked with Love, my niece got into a terrible car wreck between her junior and senior year of high school, and became an instant paraplegic. It was a complete and total coincidence that I was slated to next write a book about a little boy who’d become a paraplegic because of a car wreck.

  Like, what are the chances, right?

  I ended up “stealing” a lot of the information for Skyler from my niece’s situation. She too had the entire force of the accident aimed directly at her T12 vertebra. She too did not know if she would ever be able to walk again. She too had to have the Jaws of Life used to cut the car apart around her so she could be pulled out.

  But unlike Skyler, she had a system of family and friends around her who’ve helped her along the way and her progress has been remarkable. In fact, when she really pushes herself, she has already gotten to the point where she can sort of walk/shuffle along…as long as she has leg braces on and is using a walker.

  But she’s getting stronger and better with each passing day, and much of that has to do with her inner will and drive. She doesn’t take no for an answer.

  I love you, Heidi, and I’m so proud of you.

  Also, a huge shout-out to the staff at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City. It’s where Heidi ended up after her accident, and I spent several days following her around, asking lots of questions of the staff and making sure that the information that I included in Strummin’ would be medically accurate. Every single nurse, CNA, and therapist was super patient with me, and I learned waaayyyy more about post-accident therapy than I ever expected I’d need to in this lifetime, lol. Any medical inaccuracies, however, are all on my shoulders.

  And yes, in case you were curious, the University of Utah Hospital has one of the nation’s premiere spinal cord units in place, and people really do transfer in from all over the US just to be able to take advantage of their knowledge and expertise. However, Dr. Matthew Funk is totally an invention of my imagination, I promise. The real head doctor of the spinal cord unit, Dr. Rosenbluth, is actually a wonderful human being.

  Some other thoughts and notes:

  I’m not Hispanic and my handle on Spanish is about on par with Zane’s, lol. So, I relied a lot upon amazing friends who were willing to critique my Spanish phrasing and help me find just the right words to use. Thank you, Geeta and María. Please know that any mistakes in this arena are mine, not theirs.

  Also, if you somehow stumbled onto Strummin’ Up Love without having ever read any of my other books, boy are you in for a treat! Remember how Wyatt fell in love with his jailer? Yeah, that’s all in Arrested by Love. Remember how Stetson talks about how he and Jennifer had a “pretty rocky start” but that his wasn’t as bad as Zane and Louisa’s was? You can judge that for yourself in Accounting for Love. (I think they’re a pretty close tie, honestly!)

  Curious why it is that someone as young as Iris (Declan’s wife) is walking around with a cane? That’s Returning for Love. Oh, and don’t forget about how it is that the veterinarian, Adam Whitaker, fell in love with his wife, Kylie – you’ll find their story in Bundle of Love.

  Then there’s the firefighters, Levi and Moose. Yes, Moose’s father did name his son Deere after his John Deere dealership and yes, it really is a rocky relationship between the two of them. If you’re dying to know about that, you’ll definitely want to check out Inferno of Love and then read Levi’s story in Fire and Love.

  If you haven’t picked up on it yet, all of the stories in the Long Valley world are intertwined. Characters from one book will “walk” through others, which means that you never have to say goodbye to anyone, and if you’re anything like me, that’ll make you very, very happy.