Country

by Danielle Steel

  “That makes me sound so boring. Steady and reliable. Like a solid car, or an old workhorse.”

  “They’re the best kind. And the ones you want to come home to, not the ones you want to run away from.”

  “Maybe that’s why Bill had an affair. Because he knew I’d always be there. He was looking for excitement. She wasn’t a bad girl, though, just bored with her marriage. I guess Bill was too.”

  “It doesn’t have to be that way, boring with a good woman,” he said wisely. “I’d rather have a fast car now, and slow women. A fast one will always burn you. At least the ones I knew always did, every time.”

  “I don’t know what the right answers are anymore,” she said with a small sigh in the darkness. “The marriages that last aren’t the ones I want. My friend Jean is married to a man who cheats on her constantly, and she hasn’t loved him in years. She stays married to him because he has a lot of money, and she’d rather have everything she can buy than a man who loves her. And my other friend Alyson, the one who just called, is madly in love with her husband. But she has so many illusions about him that I always feel like they’re an accident waiting to happen. Like me and Bill. I never thought he’d cheat on me, and then he did. And nothing was ever the same again. We never got back to the way we felt before. So what’s the answer to that one?”

  “Maybe you should have left him if you weren’t in love with him anymore. In spite of the kids. That’s not enough reason to stay married.”

  “I thought it was. I don’t know. Maybe I was wrong.” She looked pensive as she said it.

  “What did your kids think? Did you ask them?”

  “They were too young. And we never told them what happened. I didn’t want them to hate their father.”

  “You’re a noble woman, Stevie. And they weren’t that young. From what you’ve told me, the two oldest ones were sixteen and eighteen, seven years ago when it happened. And your little one was thirteen. That’s plenty old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Hell, I had a kid myself when I was your son’s age at the time. And he was seven when I was the age your son is now. That forces you to grow up. Young people stay kids a lot longer today. Those were different times, in a different world. Kids in the south used to marry a lot younger, especially poor ones. No one I knew went to college. You graduated from high school, got married, and had a baby nine months later. Or you got pregnant and got married. That’s why I keep an eye on Sandy. I don’t want her doing either one, getting pregnant or married. She has a big future ahead of her, if she sticks with it. I want to get her an album when she’s ready, in another couple of years. She’s not ready for it yet, but she will be. That’s the best gift I can give her father. He was a hell of a fine musician. He died of a brain tumor. He was gone six weeks after they diagnosed him. That taught me something too, about life, and how fast it can change.”

  “She’s lucky to have you,” Stephanie said quietly. “You’re a good man too,” she said and meant it. “You’re steady and reliable.”

  “Reliable,” he grinned at her, “but not always so steady. At least I didn’t used to be. Now I’m just old and tired.” But he sure didn’t look it. He still seemed young and sexy. Jean wasn’t wrong about that. Stephanie realized too how shocked Alyson would be to see her with him, not to mention her children. They were a slightly incongruous pair. She was a Pacific Heights housewife, and he was a star on the country music scene, and everything that went with it, including his good looks. But there was a lot more to him than that.

  “I don’t think ‘old and tired’ is the way I’d describe you.” She laughed in the darkness at his self-deprecating description.

  “Well, you don’t look like anyone’s boring wife, I can tell you. Your husband was a fool to be after greener pastures, with all due respect. And if you’d bought that black leather miniskirt I picked out for you, I’d be beating guys away with a stick, to keep them off you,” he said with a guffaw, and she laughed.

  “Yeah, and they’d be cops trying to arrest me for indecent exposure. The white one I bought is short enough.”

  “Nah, we’ll get you into some decent clothes in Nashville,” he teased her. But he liked the way she dressed—she managed to be clean cut, respectable, and sexy all at the same time. He knew she was the kind of woman you married, not just slept with. Her husband just hadn’t known what a prize he had. But he didn’t want to press the point and say it to her. Chase had been proud every time he left the hotel with her, and she had no idea how beautiful she was. He admired her innocence and honesty. He found everything about her refreshing. He was tired of the jaded women he met constantly, and the lunatics and women who wanted to go out with him just because he was Chase Taylor, or for what he could buy them. He could have had a dozen women like that every day. But he had never been with anyone like Stephanie. He knew it the minute he met her.

  “You know what I think the answer is, Stevie?” He thought about it for a long moment. “I think you have to wait for the right person to come along, even if it doesn’t happen till you’re ninety-eight years old. It’s just not worth messing with the wrong ones. They break your heart or screw up your life every time. I guess that’s why I haven’t bothered for the last couple of years. I’ve been around that track too often. I don’t need to go around it again. You always wind up in the same place, right back where you started. I can’t be bothered.”

  “I still feel married to Bill,” she said softly, in the confessional atmosphere of the dark car as they drove along the highway.

  “You probably will for a while,” he answered, not looking at her. “It just shows you’re a good woman, and you were a good wife. You don’t have anything to reproach yourself for on that score. And I’m sure he knew it too.”

  “Maybe,” she said thoughtfully, but she wasn’t sure. “We didn’t even say goodbye to each other that morning. All we talked about was the weather. And his last word to me was ‘thanks’ as he walked away.”

  “That’s a lesson for you right there. When you fall in love again, you’ll talk about the things that are important.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” But she couldn’t imagine falling in love again. Like Chase, she didn’t want to get her heart broken. And Bill had injured hers severely. She had never really recovered. She realized that now. She had just been on autopilot for the last seven years of their marriage, and maybe even before, and so had Bill.

  They rode along in silence for a while, and then he started singing in his soft, deep voice, and she sang along with him a capella. They sang a few songs, and he turned to her. “We sound pretty good together. We’ll have to record that. After you write me some songs.”

  “I’m not going to write you any songs. They’d be awful.”

  “Try it. You might like it.” He was teasing her, but he had a feeling she might be good at it.

  He talked to her about Nashville again then. He was happy she was going with them. And it was eleven o’clock when they finally drove into Elk City. He headed down the main street to the simple, but comfortable hotel where they had stayed before. The others were piling out of the bus, when Chase pulled up beside them. They needed six rooms for all of them, and he had had Charlie call ahead. The desk clerk was waiting for them and had all their keys ready. They always spent the night there on their way to or from Vegas.

  The boys in the band slept in pairs, and Sandy and Delilah shared a room. And he had reserved two rooms for him and Stevie. They happened to be next door to each other, and he walked her to her room to make sure they had given her the best one. She was carrying a tote bag with what she needed, and had left her suitcase in the trunk of the car. His was on the bus, and he was carrying a backpack with his toilet kit, clean underwear, and a clean T-shirt. He was satisfied with the room they’d given her and turned to look at her from the doorway.

  “Sleep tight, Miss Stevie. Call me if you need anything. I’ll be awake for a while.” The band had gone to eat at Friday’s at the hotel, but Ch
ase said he wasn’t hungry. And all Stevie wanted was a bath. She felt grimy after riding in the car all day. And they had another long day ahead tomorrow. They had agreed to ride the bus and have one of the boys drive her car.

  “Thanks for the nice room, Chase.” He had insisted on paying for it with the others.

  “Of course. I tried to get a rollaway to put you in with Sandy and Delilah, but they didn’t have one,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, and she laughed.

  “That would have been fine. I’ve had worse.”

  “Not on my watch.” He smiled at her then and left, and she gently closed the door. And a little while later he could hear her bath running, and he tried not to think about her getting in it. Those kinds of thoughts always got him in trouble, and she wasn’t the kind of woman you could take lightly. And he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to do anything to spoil the trust they were building. He could tell that she felt safe with him, and he wanted to keep it that way. She brought out the best in him, and had ever since he met her. This wasn’t Tamra or the women like her. She was a lady, and a woman he respected. He walked into his bathroom then and turned on the shower and washed off the dirt of the day. He put on clean shorts and lay on his bed then, still thinking about her. He kept thinking back to the day he had met her, sitting on the bench, looking out at the Grand Canyon, and then walking along the trail with her. And seeing her from the stage, and his excitement knowing she was there. He was beginning to feel as though she had been in his life forever, and he hoped she would be. He had no idea what they would be to each other, maybe just friends, but he knew that something important had happened that day on the trail. Whatever this was, Chase could feel the hand of destiny in it. He felt like a boy again when he thought about her. Just a country boy, and as he thought it, a song started dancing through his mind. He could already hear the music, and the words that came into his head as he fell asleep were “the country boy and the lady”…the music sounded great, and all he needed now were the rest of the words.

  Chapter 10

  It was easier riding the bus, the next day, than it had been driving her car for so many hours, and two of the men from the band took turns driving it as they went through Oklahoma, and then into Arkansas, which Chase said gave him nightmares just thinking about it. He had hated his childhood there. He said he had felt stifled in the tiny town he grew up in, there was no opportunity to grow and be something more, and most people got stuck there forever. And he admitted that even as a kid, he had had big dreams.

  They sat on the bus and talked to the others, and Sandy monopolized Stevie every chance she got, showing her gossip in fan magazines and dresses she thought were terrific. She wanted to know Stevie’s opinions about everything, and Chase smiled as he watched them, and finally rescued Stephanie and invited her to watch a movie in his bedroom. They had to sit on his bed, propped up against big pillows, and he let her pick the movie. He had one of the guys make them popcorn in the microwave, and he and Stephanie sat engrossed by the movie, and he loved her choice. The others were eating microwave pizza when they finished, and he and Stevie helped themselves to a slice, and looked out the windows as they sat at the dining table. The bus was a wonder of practicality, luxury, and comfort, with a sound system better than most homes had.

  It was early evening when they reached the Mississippi River, and Stephanie was amazed by how wide it was, and how much activity there was on it. They crossed over at Memphis, and had another three and a half hours to get to Nashville. But everyone on the bus was coming alive by then and was excited to get home. Chase sat next to Stephanie and told her again about the sights he wanted to show her in Nashville. He had to work for a few hours the next day, but he planned to pick her up by noon and show her around the city. She already knew about the full-scale replica of the Parthenon and could hardly wait to see it, and he wanted to show her Andrew Jackson’s home, which he said was a tribute to one of the great love stories of the south. The president had designed the gardens himself for his wife, Rachel.

  Everyone was animated in the last hours on the bus, and Delilah couldn’t wait to see her boys. Chase had already made a reservation for Stevie at the best hotel in town, the Hermitage, which this time she insisted she would pay for, and he had agreed to let her. The hotel was in downtown Nashville, and Chase had told her it housed one of the best steakhouses in the city. He ate there often.

  It was ten o’clock by the time they drove up to the hotel entrance, after a twelve-hour drive, but they were home. Chase had the bus stop at the hotel first, and the boys who had been driving her car dropped it off, so she would have it with her. And he watched the bellman unload her suitcase and then walked her into the elegant lobby. He stayed with her while she checked in, and went upstairs with her to make sure she liked her room, and she assured him she loved it. The hotel had all the graciousness and elegance of the south that she had expected. Then he looked regretful as he left her.

  “I’m sorry to run out on you. I need to get these guys home so they can work tomorrow. They’ve got to start laying down the music tracks in the studio for our album. I’ll call you in the morning.”

  “I’m fine,” she said, and then gently put a hand on his arm. “Chase, thank you for everything.” He could see that she meant it, and was touched. She was such a gentle woman. He had been making notes all day for the song he’d thought of the night before, “The Country Boy and the Lady,” but he hadn’t told her about it.

  “We haven’t even started,” he said, and then kissed her cheek. “Wait till I show you the city tomorrow.”

  “I can’t wait. I’ll take a look around in the morning.”

  “I’ll call you,” he promised, and then hurried down the hall with a wave, as the bellman and elevator man looked at him in awe. They were used to seeing stars around the hotel, but Chase Taylor was about as big as it got in Nashville. And just seeing their reaction to him, Stephanie realized again just what a huge star he was. She had already gotten used to being with him, and he was so natural and relaxed that sometimes she forgot about it.

  She settled into her room then, unpacked her suitcase, and ran a bath, and she was suddenly glad that she’d been brave enough to come, and called Jean in California.

  “So how is it?” Jean asked with an expectant tone. “Is he there?”

  “No, he had to get the band home. Jeannie, it’s fantastic here. I love it. It’s so…so southern.” They both laughed at what she said, and Stephanie told her about the two days on the road, the places they’d gone through, her day on the bus, and how beautiful the hotel was.

  “Shit. We’ll never get you back to San Francisco.”

  “Yes, you will. I live there. But this is so much fun.”

  “I’m happy for you,” Jean said, feeling emotional about it. Her friend had had such a hard time in the last few months that she was genuinely grateful that something good had happened to her. And meeting Chase Taylor sounded like a good thing to her. He had already turned Stephanie’s life around in a short time. And even if nothing came of it, it had been a great experience. Her voice sounded different. And she seemed more hopeful about life, and excited about what she was doing. She had finally stopped mourning, and had begun living again.

  They talked for a while, and then Stephanie got into the tub. And she was just getting out of it and had wrapped herself in a towel when Chase called her. He was home after he dropped everyone off. And the first thing he did when he walked in was call her.

  “I know this sounds ridiculous,” he said, sounding embarrassed, “but I already miss you. You’re nice to be with, Stevie.”

  “So are you.” They had talked nonstop for two days, when they weren’t singing, laughing, or watching a movie. The trip from Vegas to Nashville had been great with Chase. “I could definitely get used to your bus as my favorite mode of travel.”

  “Maybe I should send it back to California with you. They could tow your car,” he said seriously.

  “If you do th
at, I might never send it back. I think I’d better drive home. Besides, how would I explain it to my son?” She laughed at the thought.

  “Is everything okay at the hotel? Did you order something to eat?”

  “I was thinking about it,” she admitted, but she was almost too tired to eat. The bath had made her sleepy.

  “The food is great there. They have one of the best chefs in the city. We’ll have dinner at the steakhouse one night.” There was so much he wanted to show her, she’d have to stay a month. And he had to fit his work in somehow. “Get a good night’s sleep. We’re going to be busy tomorrow. And I have to be in the studio tomorrow night. Will you come?”

  “Of course, if you’ll have me.”

  “The boys say you’re our mascot. And Sandy loves you.”

  “Is that polite for groupie?”

  “You can be that too.” But he was always respectful of her. He treated her like a porcelain doll, and he was very southern in his manners and how he addressed women. She liked it. For a poor boy from Arkansas, he had learned quickly a long time ago, and behaved like a gentleman despite the long hair and tattoos. He was more polite than any man she knew in San Francisco.

  He sounded sorry to hang up, and she ordered chamomile tea, which arrived on a silver tray, with a plate of delicate butter cookies. She loved the hotel he had picked for her. And after she finished her tea, she texted all her children, sent them her love, and said she hoped that they were fine. Then she called Alyson to see how her kids were doing. She sounded frantic, Stephanie could hear them crying in the background, and Alyson got off in under two minutes. But Stephanie felt like she’d done her duty. She got into the big, comfortable bed, turned on the TV, watched a movie, and fell asleep halfway through it.

  —

  And the next thing she knew, the sun was streaming into the room, and when she got up, she peeked out her windows at the view of Legislative Plaza, in front of the Tennessee state capitol building. She ordered breakfast and got dressed and walked around downtown near the hotel. She was back long before noon, when Chase had promised to pick her up. He arrived a few minutes late and looked harried. He said he had been getting things organized at his house all morning.