“Oh, come on, Lea,” Rebecca teases when she sees my cheeks turning bright red. “If I had a guy like Colby, I probably wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off of him, either.”
“Last I checked, Aaron wasn’t exactly ugly,” I protest.
“True, but he’s so tired by the time he gets home I think he’s asleep before his head even hits the pillow. But that’s beside the point. I like you and I love Colby like he’s that pain in the ass little brother I never really wanted. I’m not sure I can take any more scenes like tonight on the way to the bus. You’re both miserable, so I think the logical solution is for you to move since he’s kind of stuck down here now.”
Rebecca reaches for her iPad, almost falling off the bed in the process. She pulls up a search results page showing rentals in the Nashville area. “Okay, don’t be mad at me, but I might have made a phone call while you were off saying goodbye to your boy. My friend owns some condos and one of them is open right now. I think it’d be perfect for you.”
She hands me the tablet so I can see the condo she’s trying to move me into. It’s nice, but so out of my price range. It’s almost double what I’m paying back home and there, my parents pay the rent because I’m in school. If I listen to my friends down here, I’ll have no job and no way to pay for anything. “That’s great, but how would I even pay for it?” I ask, hating the fact that I can already see myself living there.
“I talked to Aaron and he’s willing to cover the rent until Colby gets back to town. Plus, in case you haven’t noticed, he’s short a bar manager. The way I see it, it’s a win-win for everyone,” she says, waving her hands in the air as if this is the greatest idea ever. “You’ll be closer to Colby, Aaron’s not killing himself working open to close at the bar, and maybe I’ll be able to make sounds like the ones I hear coming from your mouth every once in a while.”
I bury my face in a pillow as my friends erupt into laughter once again. There’s no reason to be ashamed by what we were doing, but to know that someone I only recently met heard me is mortifying. “And what do I tell Colby? If I do this, he’s going to flip his shit. Not once has he mentioned the idea of me moving down here, so I’m not sure if he’s even ready for that.”
“The truth. You hate school, you couldn’t imagine leaving our smiling faces and the condo is too good to pass up,” April says, scrolling through the pictures. “Damn, does your friend have another unit? This is way better than our shithole. And as for him not being ready, you’re insane! We’ve seen what he’s like when you’re not here and I think all three of us can tell you, he wants you to move down here just as badly as you want to be with him. Seriously, Lea, if you don’t want the condo, speak now because I’ll have no problem telling Gabe that we’re moving on up.”
“Ugh, you ladies aren’t going to quit until I agree, are you?” I ask, pouring myself another drink. If I’m going to do something this crazy, I might as well have the benefit of inebriation as my excuse. I watch as all three of them shake their heads, smiling at me wickedly. “Okay, we’ll look at it this weekend. But I have to go home because it’s too late for me to drop my classes. If I quit now, I’ll have a semester of failing grades and that won’t help me a damn bit when I try to transfer.”
I can’t believe they’re actually convincing me to do this. “Plus, I have to pack all of my crap and all of Colby’s. And break it to my parents that I’m moving. Shit, this is going to suck,” I groan, taking a gulp of my fruity drink.
“Hey, I’m not working right now. You want me to fly back with you? I can help you pack so you can exercise that huge brain and then we can drive a U-Haul down here with your stuff as soon as school is done,” April happily suggests.
“Ooh, if you give me a date, I can come up too,” Kara chimes in. Somehow, moving me cross-country is turning into an adventure. “But since you’re going to have the nicest place, I’m nominating you for dinner after the guys are back.”
“Deal,” I respond, looking forward to having a nice place for everyone to get together. I’ll never take party planning to the lengths my mother does, but it’ll be nice to play hostess from time to time. The longer I stare at the pictures, the more I can see us being happy there. By the time my drink is empty, it’s not a matter of if I’ll move, it’s simply a matter of how to make it feasible. “And now I need to see how much room is on the credit cards. I’m not bringing much of our stuff down here. Right now, our style is college-kid-chic and that definitely won’t do for this place.”
Rebecca claps her hands as she bounces around on the bed, satisfied with herself for convincing me to do something completely illogical. It’s scary how little persuading was necessary to get me to turn my back on everything I thought I wanted and needed in my life.
**
Shopping with the girls was more fun than I thought it was going to be. By the time the sun went down on Friday, I had a good start on accessories, bedding and linens for the condo. April kept scrolling through the gallery of pictures, picking the right pieces for every room.
I look at the haphazard piles of shopping bags lining the wall of Colby’s bedroom, wishing I didn’t have to leave. April knocks on the door, slowly opening it in case I’m still getting dressed. “You about ready? Rebecca’s going to run us to the airport before Aaron and the kids get up.” She wraps her arms around my shoulders, holding me as I stare wistfully at small symbols of a future that seems too far in the distance. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Think of it this way…Nashville is your home now—you just have to go back to Wisconsin to tie up the loose ends.”
Turning, I hug her tightly, offering up a prayer of thanks that God brought her into my life. I’ve never been much of a spiritual person, but it’s impossible to look at everything that’s happened in our lives over the past few months and not believe that there’s some driving force behind it all.
Chapter 17
Colby
Sixteen hours on a tour bus is enough to make anyone crabby. Add to it the fact that I know Lea’s still in Nashville, having a blast with her new circle of friends, and I’m nearly unbearable by the time the bus pulls to a stop behind a club in Lubbock, Texas.
“Come on, Cowboy,” Missy jokes, bumping her hip against mine. Immediately, I bristle at the nickname. She may not have meant anything by it, but no one outside of Wisconsin calls me that. Coming from her, it feels like a slap in the face, a reminder that Lea’s not here with me for one of the biggest nights of my life. “It’s time to show these southerners what you’ve got.”
Glaring at her, I don’t say a word before storming out of the bus. She calls after me, following me, but I don’t turn to face her. If I do, she’ll see the weakness all over my face. When I make my way to the side of the bus, Missy pulls my hand, leading me inside. She laughs when I tell her I was going to unload my equipment. “Sweetie, the crew handles all of that. All you have to do is get up there and sing.” I scowl at her and jerk my hand out of her grip, falling in step behind her. The way she looks at me, I can’t help but feel like I’m somehow betraying Lea by following her. Missy is a friendly girl. Maybe a little too friendly. And I’m not available. The only reason I don’t pull away from her is that I don’t want to cause undue stress if she is simply just being friendly.
We make our way into a small room designated as the green room for the night. Whatever I thought it would be like to be on tour, this sure wasn’t it. Like so many other fools, I imagined a dressing room with my name on it, a high class area to relax after the performance is done. The reality is that we have a room with two grungy couches from the seventies and a handwritten note meant to keep everyone out of the room unless they are with the bands.
“Do you want to tell me what I did to upset you?” she asks, sitting down next to me. I pick at the bottle a roadie handed me in my hands, knowing that I overreacted outside. Instead of being grateful that she’s willing to show me the ropes, I got bent out of shape over her using a completely innocent nickname.
“Nothing,” I
grumble, bringing the cool bottle to my lips. I refuse to become one of those artists who has to have a buzz to go on stage, but I wasn’t about to turn down one beer to soothe my frazzled nerves.
“Bull,” she argues, placing her hand on my knee. When I flinch, she gives my leg a gentle, platonic squeeze. “Look, I don’t care what you’ve been told about how we’re all a team out here, but I guarantee you, it’s not as much of a happy family environment as you might think. The longer we’re out here, the more tempers are going to flare and you’re going to see some of the guys get bitter over the attention we receive while they fade into the background.
“The way I see it, you’re screwed if you start shutting people out now.” I look up at her innocent face, the way her dark doe eyes stare me down, daring me to challenge her. “So, instead of being a broody jerk, how about you tell me what I did to upset you so I can try to avoid doing it again?”
“Seriously, Missy, I was being a jerk out there and I know that.” I set my empty bottle on the low table in front of me and turn to face her. “When you called me Cowboy, it set something off inside of me.”
Missy’s eyes go impossibly wide seconds before she turns away so I won’t see her laughing at me. “Wait…you got upset…” she stutters through her laughter. After taking a few breaths to compose herself, she continues, “You got upset because I called you Cowboy? Seriously? You do realize that’s going to be a common occurrence now that you’re singing country music, right?”
My shoulders slump forward and my gaze lowers to the floor. “I told you it was stupid,” I admit. “It’s just that Cowboy was my nickname back home and hearing it from someone out here threw me for a loop. Lea’s really the only person that calls me that and it sucks that she’s not here. I can’t stop you from calling me whatever you want, and most of the time it won’t upset me, but you have to know that I can be a moody bastard sometimes. Try not to take it personally and we’ll be okay.”
Missy stands, rubbing my shoulder as she hovers over me. “Deal. I have to go get ready, but don’t worry, you’ve got this.”
My knee bounces uncontrollably as it gets closer to our start time. I’m going to have to talk to Pete because I don’t like the idea of not tuning my own guitar. If someone screws it up, I’m the one who looks like an idiot up there on the stage, not him and definitely not the crew. Gabe appears with a round of shots, claiming it’s just what we need to calm our nerves. Looking at him, it appears that I’m the only one at risk of losing his lunch. Even though it’s Gabe’s debut on a national level, he looks like the consummate professional, like he’s been doing this forever.
“Buddy, you’ve got to get your shit together before we walk through that door,” he says, pointing to the door leading to the stage. “This isn’t that much different from the shit you’ve done in Nashville, it’s just a new city and a slightly bigger crowd. I’ll admit, that first day we all got together to practice, I wondered if you were going to be ready for tonight. But let me tell ya, buddy, if you weren’t, we wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be putting my ass on the line to be part of what you have. You’ve got this.”
While my attention is on Gabe’s little pep talk, someone walks behind me, leaving the faint scent of raspberry and vanilla in her wake. It fucks with my head to have so many little reminders of Lea around me when the only thing I want is to have her curled up next to me on the couch. I want her to be the one telling me that I’m freaking out about nothing while she runs her fingers up and down my arm, not Gabe and his ugly mug. Okay, so maybe he’s not ugly, but he’s definitely a little too scruffy to offer me any real comfort.
“Colby, you’re on in five.” I can hear the rowdy crowd when Pete cracks open the door. They’re ramped up for an amazing show and that’s what I need to deliver. If I give them anything less than my best, not only is it a waste of their money, but also it will make Missy’s job even harder. She’s been trying to downplay her own nerves, but I know she’s worried about her first show since her surgery.
Missy eyes me from where she’s relaxing with her own band, offering me a kind smile. As we stand to make our way to the stage, Gabe wraps an arm around my shoulder. “Let’s get out there and show them what country really looks like.”
We quickly work to get to our places, the crowd watching us with critical eyes. This is our moment. The lights high above the stage come on, blinding us from being able to see beyond the first few rows and I’m grateful. It gives me the ability to close my eyes and pretend that this is just another show at Black Skye. We lead off with a few covers of current hits to get the crowd’s attention. It could be seen as a risky move, but where we’re still new; it’s easier to do this than it would be to try all original songs.
“It’s good to be here in Lubbock!” I introduce the band after our third song. “My name’s Colby Davis and I’m the new kid on the block. When we were trying to figure out where I should join up with Missy, the powers that be insisted that this was the place to be. So tell me, what do you think so far?” The crowd cheers louder and my confidence begins to grow. “We’re going to slow it down for a minute with a song I wrote for a special girl back home. With any luck, you’ll start hearing this one on the radio in the next few days.”
Gabe, Alex, and Trent leave me alone on the stage and I take a seat on a bar stool. The crowd settles as I begin strumming the opening chords to “The Road to You,” the song I wrote for Lea. Just like I did when we recorded the song, I close my eyes and picture Lea’s face as I lean into the microphone. No matter how far away she is, this is the song that will keep her close to me throughout the next few weeks.
When the song ends, there’s a moment of silence that worries me. It’s a deeply personal song and risky for a debut single. I open my eyes and see men holding their women close as the applause and whistles begin. The guys return, congratulating me before we finish out our last six songs, all originals. The crowd roars as we finish our set, continuing once the lights go down and we make our exit in the darkness. There are a few kinks that we need to work out, but overall, I’m feeling pretty fucking great having my first national show behind me.
As soon as we’re off the stage, I reach into my pocket, wanting nothing more than to call Lea. Before I can dial, I’m surrounded by Pete and the rest of the crew, all congratulating me on an amazing performance. Even though I feel good about how tonight went, it’s good to hear their praise. Pete introduces me to the programming director for the local country radio station as he leads us to a small office in the back of the building. Apparently, that phone call will have to wait. I feel like an ass, already breaking my promise to never put anything before Lea, but my gut tells me it would be suicide to blow off the person who will decide whether or not my songs are heard on his station.
“Colby, you sounded awesome out there,” the programming director praises, waiting for me to sit down. But I can’t. Right now, I’m so pumped full of adrenaline, I feel as if I could run a marathon. “We’re looking forward to having you on our morning show tomorrow and I have an idea I wanted to run past you and Pete.”
I look to Pete, making sure that it’s okay with him to hear this proposal. If it were up to me, I’d jump at any opportunity, but my life is no longer my own. Pete’s politely drilled it into my head almost daily that all decisions have to go through him now. He nods, motioning for me to talk to the programming director. “Thank you, sir. I’m looking forward to KLCT being my first radio appearance. What do you have in mind?”
“Rather than having the typical appearance, where you simply sit across the studio desk and answer some questions before your single is played, we’d like to invite you into the Sound Booth. What that means is that you’d perform live, both on the radio and as part of our web series. It would be a great opportunity for you because we’ve found that our YouTube channel sees a spike in traffic every time we upload a new performance.” He pauses, looking from me to Pete. “Now, it would be a bit more of a time commitment, but if you ca
n swing it time-wise, I think you’ll be pleased with the results.”
“Thank you, sir,” I say, trying to keep from jumping up and down, making a complete ass of myself. I’ve seen groups who do shit like this and know how many new groups I’ve found from just this type of viral marketing. “Pete, what do you think? You know the travel schedule better than I do.”
Pete pushes off from the windowsill where he’s been leaning, making his way closer to me. “I think that, if your voice is up to it, it’d be a great move. We’ll probably wind up sending the bus ahead and then we’ll drive to the next venue as soon as you’re done.”
I know that I’m the act and the guys are supposed to be my back-up, but I’m not sure I like drawing that line in the sand so soon. The last thing I need is to piss them off just when we’re getting started. But that’s not the type of conversation to have in front of a stranger, so I file it away for later.
“I told you before, I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” I remind Pete. Other than the minor issue we need to discuss, I’m totally on-board with this idea. “You guys figure out where I need to be and when and I’ll be there.”
I quickly dismiss myself, using the excuse that I have to find a restroom. It’s not totally a lie, but I figured it sounded better than telling them that I’m dying to call my girl.
Lea picks up before the phone can even ring on my end. “Hey, baby,” she says enthusiastically. “Are you done with your set? How did it go? What did Pete have to say?”
I laugh, loving how excited she is for me. And then, the longing takes over and I wish even more that she were here with me. “Yeah, we got off stage about fifteen minutes ago. I don’t have long to talk, but I needed to hear your voice. I already miss you,” I say, looking around to make sure no one’s in lurking in the hallway. I duck into the bathroom, knowing that someone will come looking for me before long.
“It hasn’t even been a full day,” Lea laughs. “But I miss you too. Luckily, the girls kept me busy today, so I didn’t have too much time to sit around and wallow. I can’t wait for you to get home so you can see everything I picked up.”
Dare to Dream (Truth or Dare #2) Page 14
