All of them stared at her. Brooke asked, “Baby, do you sleep?”
She made a delicate wave, “I just get things done really fast. I built a search that enables me to add everyone’s different interests. Sidney, I have a special Cabaret performance planned for you. We’ll talk later. Not appropriate for little ears.”
Brooke was confused, “Jeanette, please tell me you used my credit card for all this. There can’t be enough in the incidental account you set up for me.”
“Oh, I don’t ever use your money, Brooke. I have three patents pending and four in manufacture for some little things I came up with. I think a lot, as you can imagine. I’ve put money with Boyd and Zane under my own corporation and the little corporation I created for Sidney. They’ve made her a fortune already and added significantly to mine.”
Turning to the two men whose mouths were hanging open, she added, “I wasn’t watching her food this week and I apologize. It won’t happen again, I can assure you.” She tilted her head at all of them, tapping her temple with a fingertip, “I have like ten things going on up here at any given moment, what did you expect?”
Now there was true stunned silence. Zane said, “Tiny Dancer? Big Brain Theories? Those were accounts we hadn’t handled before.” Jeanette nodded. “You emailed us to go aggressive and we did, the payoff was outrageous at the close of the market Friday. Oh my god.”
“I know, you’re both very good at what you do. The trusts I set up for the kids will be substantial in the next five years.” To the Bradshaws and Travis, she said, “I’ve created a portfolio of some investments you need to consider. Some of them tie into the band, some are simply smart money. I have a dossier for each of you to review after lunch. I’ve already given Kyle and his band my suggestions. For Brooke, Rex, and Mack I made my own decisions using my money and Brooke’s incidental account and those have paid off nicely. I can’t wait to go over all the details. Boyd and Zane are about to get a whole lot more business. It’s all very exciting, isn’t it?”
Struck dumb didn’t begin to describe everyone’s reaction. “Sidney, until further notice, we stick with Brooke and play with this other stuff on the side. I can help you and keep you organized.”
“Jeanette, you are scary smart,” Sidney said quietly.
Mack pulled her on his lap and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling her neck. She said breathlessly, “Yeah, I know. Just roll with it.”
They laughed and started the first leg of their itinerary.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Fall 2009…
When Brooke found out the fourth album would feature six of her songs at Logan and Decklan’s insistence, she threw a fit.
“Honey, your songs are real. Ours are about having a good time. Our stuff is played in bars. Yours is played in kitchens and bedrooms. Ultimately, it’s what’s pushing us over the limit again and again. You write stuff for us to sing and we love it. Stop stressing. It causes wrinkles, pretty girl.”
Logan hugged her and headed back into the sound booth he’d left when she truly lost it about contributing half the songs on the album when she was a third of the band. They were putting the finishing touches on the tracks, working out of the studio in Chicago they’d used since the end of their first tour. “Decklan, it isn’t right. You guys have great stuff.”
“Brooke, you have music that mamas and sisters, girlfriends and wives can relate to. Those women, they love to look at me and Logan but they love hearing what you have to say, babe. And I have to say, I don’t blame them. The stuff you write for Logan and me, well, the men out there learn a lot from those songs. I know we do. You’ve taught us so much.”
With a smile, he explained, “What it was like for Jeanette to be pregnant, feeling stupid for the first time in her life. How Sidney felt learning to drive. Jackson’s first girlfriend and all that entailed. What kind of hard loving woman you really are. We’re lucky to have you here to teach us about reality. Don’t ever apologize for being a better writer, a better musician, a better person than we are, Brooke. We embrace what you give us.” He kissed her forehead and went back in the studio.
Travis chuckled behind her. “Brooke, you are a presence to be reckoned with. When Tom first sent me the demo of you singin’, I saw dollar signs bigger than any I’d ever seen in my life. You’ve surpassed my expectations. Between you and Jeanette, I’m set for life.”
He looked down into a face that grew more beautiful every month. She was losing any little bit of softness she’d had in her teens and the fans loved her madly, sometimes truly madly. “When you gonna settle down?”
“Travis, I’m twenty. I have plenty of time. Rex asked me and I said yes. Neither of us are stressing over the actual ceremony. You know my schedule and he’s been busy with the new book. Who knew so many people would be so interested in the tattoo industry?”
Staring at one another, they both said, “Jeanette” at the same time and laughed. “That woman is a treasure. I’m glad you’re leavin’ the girls with her and Mack for school while you and Rex do his book tour. They have so much planned for them.”
“The girls can’t bear to leave that baby and she’s a bundle of precious. When I start getting weird, I go over there and get my fix. I’m a little scared about Molly and Becca being in Chicago without me but Mack found an excellent private school and Jeanette is having them driven back and forth. Being around Jeanette and Mack is good for them. They’re calm and steady. I can’t keep dragging them all over the country. They need friends, a life.”
Jeanette and Mack were married two weeks after the end of the first tour. She’d gotten pregnant at the end of the second tour and had kept it together until she’d felt the baby move the first time. At that point all her brain cells got pregnant stupid and her real cells went on vacation. She forgot phone numbers, missed appointments, and called everyone by the wrong names.
Brooke had insisted on giving her time off. The day the baby was born, everything seemed to flow right back into her head but Brooke lovingly talked her into working remotely. Jeanette repaid her by being a surrogate sister for the two youngest Kincaids.
Baby girl Sofia had immediately captured the hearts of everyone who met her. With dark wavy hair and a serene vibe about her, Sofia was the spitting image of her mother. Jeanette was thrilled when she started showing signs of having Mack’s hazel eyes. Brooke’s sisters couldn’t go more than a day or two without spending time with her.
She’d closed up her place in Idabel and brought their horses to Chicago and had them stabled. They tried to ride weekly but allowed the boarding place to put young girls on Buttercup for riding lessons because she was so well-behaved. All of them had moved in with Rex who’d added more security when he realized his woman was satisfied with his simple home.
He’d proposed last Christmas and she’d said yes in complete happiness but neither of them had gotten around to planning the actual wedding. Between public appearances, studio time for the second, third, and now fourth albums, three tours under their belts, and keeping everyone on track with school and activities, they barely had time off anymore.
Rex hired an up and coming tattoo artist to take his place in the shop but still did custom work sometimes and auctioned a custom tattoo for each of her various charities to stay in the habit.
He’d pierced her belly button since most of her wardrobe for concerts bared her killer stomach. A small black stone set in gold hung there. It was her ‘Black Mark’ piercing and she wore it for the man who loved her.
Jackson. He’d become one scary young man to watch as an older sister. Travis had him on the payroll as a musician. The older man had told her recently, “I know you worry constantly on the road. Jackson at eighteen, well, he’s popular, I’ll say that. He’ll come into his own this year.”
He’d grown another four inches since winter and would likely match Rex by the time he was done. Grown women threw themselves at him everywhere he went. His shaggy blond hair, blue-green eyes, leanly cut frame
, and wonderful personality had garnered him his own fan club and website.
Brooke often complained, “He’s got more years of growing in him and he’s taller than me already. Time is passing so fast.”
Six months after the first tour had wrapped, Finn had left the band and broken Kyle’s heart. He’d told them he couldn’t take the constant pressure of hiding, his heart didn’t belong in country, and the genre was too restrictive to his sexual orientation. He’d begged Kyle to leave with him for alternative but Kyle loved the music he made too much.
The fact that only she and Jackson had been able to help him had been rough.
Jackson was his regular drummer now. He’d switched to online high school courses since it was the only way Brooke would agree. He consistently handed her excellent grades so she let him do weekend gigs and he traveled with Kyle’s crew from fall to spring when they weren’t performing as Broken Bronco’s regular opening act.
While Brooke and Travis stood talking, Sidney came breezing into the studio with Zane who twirled her as he let her go and she went on tiptoe for a kiss. “You don’t have to stay. I’ll call you when I’m done.” Giving Travis a kiss on his way to his office, she implored him for help and he openly ignored her. “Traitor.” His chuckle echoed back as he went down the hall.
Shaking his head, Zane said, “Boyd would have my head since we will only leave you alone in one hundred percent secured environments. I feel the same way and would kick his ass if he left you unprotected.”
She pouted stubbornly, “It’s been more than a year, Zane, and I learned my lesson. I was like a little kid on the side of the road with predators who say your mama is hurt. Totally stupid but I just didn’t think. You can believe I know better now.”
Zane kissed her senseless then whispered, “Not a chance, baby.” He took out his laptop to work and she sighed in resignation.
Boyd and Zane had taken Sidney and joined Mack and Jeanette on a cruise around the Caribbean for the couple’s anniversary trip. The cruise she got pregnant on, incidentally. They’d planned on stopping and taking a plane into Mexico so Mack could introduce his new bride to any family who hadn’t been able to attend their wedding the year before in Chicago.
With the kids in school and too many professional commitments, Brooke and Rex hadn’t been able to go.
A few days into the cruise, Sidney was lying by the pool when a young man had approached her. Boyd and Mack had gone to grab food for them, Zane to get her sun block, and Jeanette was taking photos at the deck railing. The kid told her Zane had fallen, cut open his leg, and needed her.
Without thinking she’d taken off running, following him inside the ship. When he tried to pull her into a cabin with the help of another guy waiting inside, she’d beat the shit out of them both but not before they’d put bruises on her in the tight space.
By the time her panicked men had tracked her down with the help of security cameras, she was repeatedly kicking the unconscious men with her bare foot. They’d had to bodily carry her away. Squirming out of Boyd’s grasp, she’d run back and kicked them again. Both men had to be hospitalized but Boyd and Zane couldn’t stop thinking about what could have happened if her attackers had drugged her.
During the investigation, it had been discovered the guys had been stalking Sidney for months. There were pictures of her all over their cabin. They had taken photos of her alone, with Zane and Boyd both separately and together, and with Brooke and Jeanette.
They’d booked the same cruise spur of the moment when they’d been following the object of their obsession and she boarded the boat with her men and friends. In the hospital, they’d been handcuffed to the bed, begging her to understand they needed her so bad. They would do anything for her, could love her harder than the two men she was known to be with.
Zane had been forced to physically restrain her from beating on them again. He and Boyd had really wanted to let her fiery-tempered little ass go though.
Since then, unless she was in their converted warehouse with Fort Knox security or in the company of their friends, one of them was always with her. She whined since she thought it was expected but in reality loved having them to play with all the time. The only time she really wanted quiet time was during yoga and Tai Chi. Even then, she knew they sometimes watched her. Their attention afterward always let her know.
After the tour, they’d had a three day fornication marathon that left her body raw and she’d put her foot down about condoms. She couldn’t handle it. They put her on heavy duty birth control at her request and condoms had been forbidden. They reminded her daily to take her pill and both of them were constantly tempted not to.
“My pretty canvas, Brooke, you look stressed. Stress causes wrinkles. Do I need to call Rex?” Sidney loved to tattle on her as often as possible because the result was a very relaxed and happy best friend.
Flinching, Brooke retorted, “Wrinkles? That’s the second time someone has said that to me today. I’m twenty. Do I really have to add that to my list of freak-outs, already?” Taking a deep breath, she said more calmly, “No, I’m just feeling, I don’t know, off-balance today. The guys are using my songs for more than half the album. I feel bad about that.”
Sidney laughed, “Brooke, you write the coolest songs for them. That one about the husband who’d put his wife through so much…Logan tore that shit up. The other one about being on the road with a family at home, Decklan’s voice and guitar got you nominated for songwriting at the CMA’s. Girl, you need to relax. You’re driving the band as a whole forward, not just yourself.”
“I’d never leave the band unless they got sick of me,” Brooke agreed. “I just want them to feel connected to the music, too. For it to be personal for them and not all about me.”
“Believe me, they’re connected,” Sidney said quietly. Brooke kissed her cheeks and headed back into the studio. Sidney watched the brothers light up when they saw her. Whispering to herself, “You have no idea how connected they are, how much they love you, honey. I am so fucking glad you don’t know.”
“I am, too,” Zane said behind her as he dropped his hands to her shoulders, “They’ve grown a lot in the time we’ve known them. I think rehab did wonders. They’ve only had a couple of girlfriends and tried to make them long-term. They’ll probably struggle with that, like we did.” He paused and watched how the Bradshaw brothers always managed to keep Brooke between them. How they found reasons to touch her but never inappropriately.
“It would cause her pain if she knew. But yeah, they’re madly in love with her.” Rex’s voice caused them both to turn their heads. He was staring through the glass with his arms crossed over his chest. “They are. They try to hide it around her, even more around me, but you can’t hide emotion that strong. Had they woken up one month earlier, I wouldn’t have her in my life. That’s the truth.” He watched Brooke notice him in the tech area and her entire face showed her love for him.
He smiled and blew her a kiss. She picked up her fiddle and went back to work. “Since there are more nights than I care to admit when I wake up and ask myself how the hell one of the most wanted women on the planet is sleeping beside me, it scares the shit out of me knowing how they feel.”
Sidney smoothed her hand over his shoulder, “You never have to worry about Brooke. Not ever, Rex. That girl is solid and more in love with you every day.” She asked carefully, “Why haven’t you guys gotten married yet?”
Shrugging, he said, “I guess I don’t want her feeling like she’s legally obligated.”
“Wow, for one of the four finest and most together men I’ve ever met, you sure are insecure about your place in her life. Rex, for Brooke, the sun rises and sets with you. She stays because she loves you, period! Don’t be annoying. Don’t question her love for you. The only thing she says about Logan and Decklan is that they’ve ruined themselves on normal. They have no idea how to connect with women now. Not real women. It isn’t even the ménage thing. It’s about seeing women as som
ething other than objects to be used and tossed away. It makes her sad but Brooke cares about everyone. You know that. You also know she cares about you more than anyone.”
Smiling down at her, Rex said, “You know, I should call you up when I have a panic attack, Sidney. You’re like talking to a guy who still understands the woman shit. You’re bad-assed, honey.”
“I do my best. Seriously, y’all figure things out and make it legal. Brooke Black has a slamming ring to it, don’t you think?” He nodded and kissed her cheek.
To Zane he said, “You still shadowing her every movement?” At Zane’s nod, he said, “I don’t blame you one fucking bit.” Sidney rolled her eyes and they all chatted about the logistics for the show. “Why did you need to be here today Sidney?”
“Photo shoot.” Both men groaned. “Oh come on, they’re fun. And Brooke knows she will totally reap the benefits when you get her home later after both brothers have had their hands all over her. She loves it when you go alpha.”
When Vaughn Deflora breezed in an hour later, Brooke and the twins left the studio and headed to the sound stage that had been set up for their session. Beds, sofas, and a small stage had been placed in such a way to let everyone know this was going to be hell on all of them. Vaughn barked orders throughout and Sidney worked on Brooke while the brothers were in and out of wardrobe.
Each outfit and backdrop was harder for Rex to bear. He and Zane stood behind glass watching and Zane kept whispering, “Be strong, man. You know this is part of her job, it’s just part of her job. It doesn’t mean shit to her.” Rex nodded and took deep breaths, leaning on the ledge and gripping it with white knuckles.
Brooke’s first outfit was a formal gown in a medieval princess style, the brothers in tuxes. She was draped over them on the antique sofa and their hands were, indeed, placed all over her. Her hair was arranged over Decklan’s lap and he avoided looking at her for as long as possible. Logan had his hands on her upper thigh through the dress and her bare foot cupped in his hand.
Yes to Everything Page 28
