“Re-record them.” She leans forward. “You re-record them, and lay claim. Don’t let them have anything that’s yours.”
For a minute I look at this long list of shit we need to do, things I never thought I’d have to. Glancing over at Harmony, I ask a question I’ve wondered often.
“Are we crazy to try and do this?”
Madison stops what she’s doing, her mouth starting to hang open. I get what she’s probably thinking. I’ve made this mess and now I don’t want to see it through to the end.
“Do you love EJ? Do you enjoy the life the two of you have together? Do you want Christmas mornings and birthdays with your kids?” Harmony asks.
These are all things I haven’t really thought about, except the loving EJ part. I know without a shadow of a doubt I love him. Quickly he’s become my calm in the storm, the member of my family I never knew I needed, and the person I cling to in the middle of the night. He’s my happy, my sad, and every single bit of the future I see for myself.
“Yes, I want all of those things.”
“Then you must take this step. Unless you do, they’ll always be in charge of your lives. Do you want a record exec to tell you it’s not a good time to have a baby, so they think it’s best if you’d just go ahead and abort? Do you want someone to tell you, you can’t spend the holidays with your family? Everyone thinks being signed to a record deal and traveling all over the word is the pinnacle of what this business is about.”
I’m beginning to understand what she’s gently trying to tell me. “Until the business isn’t about you anymore. You are the business,” I whisper.
“Exactly. When your name makes someone a ton of money, they want you, Bri. Mind, body, and soul. Forget what they have to do in order to keep your name on the front page of the gossip columns. They don’t care if you and your husband have only seen each other three days out of the last three months. They could give two craps because a divorce would put you on even more of the front pages. Does someone see you with an unidentified male, but it turns out to be your second cousin? Then they can say you’re cheating. There will always be someone who wants you to fail, because your failure will be a win for them. The only way you’ll get out of that is if you take control and do what you want to do.”
“You’re an amazing woman, Harmony.” Madison smiles at my mother-in-law.
“I had a lot of people to show me the way, and honestly when I started doing the things I wanted to do, I got more popular. It can be a double-edged sword, but once you can set the boundaries, they’re yours. No one else’s.”
I nod, thinking over everything she’s said. “It’s scary. Knowing we’ll be putting up our own money for records and our record company. We’re talking about being independent.”
“It’s a lot different now than it was when Reaper and I decided to do things our own way. There are so many different ways to be heard now. Like take the Vegas residency for example, I never would’ve been able to do that with my previous record company. They made all their money off me touring, and if I wasn’t touring, they didn’t want it.”
“What did you want?” I love hearing this part of her. It reminds me we haven’t had a whole lot of time to get to know one another on a personal level since EJ and I got married.
She grins, her eyes seeming to look far away into her past. “All I wanted to do was raise my kids, be there for them when they got up, take them to school, and pick them up. I preferred to make dinner instead of someone else making it, or going out. There were so many parts of a normal childhood I wanted them to have, and I couldn’t see myself giving it up. Everybody said I was crazy, but I will never - not for one second - regret my decision.”
“Didn’t you have a clothing line at one point?” Madison asks, settling in to listen along with me.
“Yeah,” she grins. “Shell and I ran it in downtown Nashville for almost ten years. When we decided to close up shop, it wasn’t because it wasn’t successful. It’d just gotten to be too much work and neither one of us had the time to devote to that and my music. At that point the kids were almost grown. They were doing basketball and EJ was running track.”
“Wait.” I giggle. “EJ ran track?”
“Oh yeah, actually he was a cross-country runner. Never seen a kid with more stamina than him.”
My cheeks burn as I mumble. “Me neither.” Only realizing after I said the words, that I’ve said them to his mother.
All three of us giggle, laughing so hard it’s minutes before we start talking again.
“Any other EJ secrets you’d like to tell me? I’m taking notes.” I pull up the notes app on my phone and sit at attention. “He never tells me any of this stuff.”
“His first celebrity crush was Ariana Grande, and when he met her, he made a fool of himself. Go ahead and ask about it sometime.”
“What?” I squeal. “How bad did he make a fool out of himself?”
“So bad he hid from her for three years afterward.”
We’re cackling when we hear footsteps coming down into the basement. “Y’all okay down here?” EJ asks when he gets to where we can see him.
“Fine.” We giggle.
“We’re thinking of ordering some food. Do y’all want?”
The three of us look at each other, before I answer. “We could eat.”
“Okay, come on up. This could be a long night.”
“I just bet it will be.” I laugh walking over to him. “You care if we listen to some music while we wait? Maybe some old Ariana Grande?”
His eyes zero in on his mother. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she laughs.
“What did you say?”
She shrugs, walking past him and taking the stairs quickly.
“Mom, I asked you a question…” His voice trails off as he follows her up.
Madison and I look at each other, bursting into laughter again.
“I’m glad she’s here.” Madison puts her arm around me. “I needed the laugh.”
As I think about all the decisions we have to make, I sober up. “Yeah, me too.”
Chapter Seven
EJ
I’m eye-balling Bri, wondering what in the fuck she and my mom talked about. She keeps looking over me with this little smirk on her face, like she knows a secret that I don’t. Considering she mentioned Ariana Grande, I’m ninety-nine percent sure Mom’s told them all about one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.
“Would you stop smirking at me?”
“What?” She giggles as she tucks her underneath her. “What are you talking about?”
I shoot a glare at my mom. “I can’t believe you’d betray my trust like that.”
“Oh my God, EJ,” she laughs. “It’s not that big of a deal. She was a teenage crush.”
“I knew it!”
“You should’ve been honest with her, she’s your wife.”
“I didn’t have to be honest, it never came up.”
“It’s cute.” Bri gives me a grin. “Kinda like how I had a crush on you.”
It still doesn’t make me feel any better. “Can we please just order food?”
The group gathered, laughs at me, which is beyond irritating, but I guess it’s okay to be the center of attention like this. Lord knows Bri’s the only one I’ll let tease me the way my mom does.
“Yes.” Bri grabs her phone. “What do you want? Since we’re being rude to you, you can pick. I’ll even order it, and go get it if I have to.”
Flipping through my own phone, I find a Ramen place I really enjoy that she doesn’t like. When I mention the name, she wrinkles her nose and shoots me a glare. “You did that on purpose.”
“Maybe.” I shrug. “Maybe not.”
She sighs. “So if anyone doesn’t like Ramen, there’s a deli across the street. I don’t mind going to two places, since I’ll be stopping for myself.”
The noise level in the room increases to almost deafening. She’s trying to get everyone to pay atte
ntion to her, but no one is. When I look at her, I see the small girl who stood in the background, allowing her parents to push her into situations she didn’t want to be in. Letting the record label run her ragged and schedule her far too much for anyone to be able to handle. I hate the indecision on her face, the way her eyes are wide, glancing around at the group all talking to her at once. It makes my heart clench and a red haze move in front of my vision. Pissed off doesn’t even begin to verbalize the emotion that washes over me.
“Hey!” I yell loudly, standing up to my full height and crossing my arms over my chest. “Y’all can fuckin’ quit yelling at her and treat her with a little respect. If you’d like her to get you something, you can ask for it like a damn human being. Back off!”
Everyone glances at me like I’ve lost my mind, but they know I have the same sort of temper as my dad. Immediately everyone backs off like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs.
Bri walks up to me, a great big smile on her face. Once she gets to me, she goes up on tiptoes, putting her hands on my forearms before dropping a kiss on my chin. “Thank you, I appreciate you.”
Hitching my chin at her, I lean down so that we’re in our own little world. With a soft touch, I caress where her tattoo is under her clothes, and she does the same to me. “I love you, ain’t gonna let them treat you like that. They can damn well wait their turn.”
She puffs out a little breath along with a slight giggle. “I guess your turn is first?”
“Always.”
“Can we order our food?” RJ cuts into our discussion.
Tilting my eyes up so that I can look at him over her head, I shoot him a glare. “I guess so, if it means that much to you.”
“My stomach is eating itself, dude. Like I’m withering away into nothing.”
The entire room erupts in fit of giggles and laughter. “Will you please go get this whiney ass some food?”
“Yeah,” she grins. “Okay, if everyone would go around the room and tell me what you want, I’ll make a list and call in the order to the two restaurants.”
“I’ll go with you,” Madison offers from where she sits on the couch.
“I’ll go too.”
The voice that’s spoken causes me to do a double-take and makes RJ stand up from where he’s been sitting. Neither one of us knew Montgomery would be here today. Seeing the smile on RJ’s face is good for all of us. I know, at least, me and mom were worried about him having all this free time. I’ve been doing my best to hang out with him a few times a week, and not let him get too far into his own head.
As Bri keeps taking orders, I watch the two of them. Montgomery walks straight to him, standing all up in his personal space. My brother, who used to be so closed off and unwilling to let others in, opens himself up to her. He’s standing with his arms hanging down to the side, a smile on his face, his shoulders loose and relaxed. This isn’t even remotely close to the little brother I remember as a kid. He’s a new, improved version of himself. In this moment, I can see how much his therapy and recovery from addiction has changed his life.
“Okay, is that it?” Bri asks, looking around the room.
There’s a chorus of affirmations.
“I’m going to order all this, y’all better be pooling your money together. We’re in the middle of a battle with our record company.” She’s sassy, putting a hand on her hip and sticking it out as she sends a wink over my way. “Ain’t like we can afford to be paying for everybody.”
“Listen to you,” Mom laughs. “Talking like a true Southerner.”
“Learned from the best.” She grins.
I step back, letting Brianna handle herself with this crew now, showing her that she’s strong enough to do so. I may have had to get their attention, but now that she has it, she’s holding them in the palm of her hand. It’s important for her to maintain a comfort level with all the people I love in my life, and for them to be comfortable with her too.
“How are things going?” Dad asks, leaning against the wall, next to me. “When are you putting your plan into motion?”
“Things between me and her? They’re great, always have been. It’s the outside shit that pisses me off. Luckily for us, the guys agree with forming our own record label and releasing our own stuff. As you know, our next album is done, has been done.”
He sighs. “I feel like I should warn you. They’re gonna do their best to stop you.”
“They can try.” I hear the stubbornness in my voice. “We have lawyers, you guys, and each other. We’re gonna make it.”
“I wondered,”, - he presses his shoulder against mine. “ -how she would handle you.”
I chuckle. “And here I wondered how I would handle her, but six months in, we’re good.”
“You’ve dealt with some hard stuff already, but just be aware there’s gonna be more, there always is. Life will try to stop you at every turn. It’s not going to be easy.”
“Dad, I know.”
“Do you? I feel like the two of you have lived in this bubble where you’re not prepared for the worst.”
“What worse can happen to us? Our record company has tried to kill our livelihood.”
“Money isn’t the be-all, end-all, EJ.”
“I’m not even talking about the money,” I argue. “It’s more about the creative outlet. The longer we’re stuck in this limbo, without getting the record company started, the more I feel a little less settled, every day. I need that outlet, even if it’s just going someplace to write. We had that option when we always had a recording studio available to us. Now we don’t.” I rub my forehead. “It’s starting to affect me.”
“Have you talked to Bri about it?”
“No, she has enough shit to worry about. We both do, without me bringing in my complaints about not being creative. How stupid does that sound?”
“Not stupid at all. Look at your brother. If he doesn’t have enough to keep him busy, we all know where he goes. I don’t want you to end up like that.”
Blowing out a deep breath, I roll my eyes. “I don’t have the gene, Dad. Not like he does. The only vice I have is smoking and rough sex.”
He snorts loudly. “God, I’m sorry you turned out just like me.”
“I am who I am.”
“That’s what I always told everybody too. See, you can’t escape it.”
Truth is, I’ve always wanted to be like my dad. Have completely molded my life into being the person he taught me I could be. For me, there’s no further for me to look at my hero, than to look right next to me.
“Seriously though, at some point, this is probably going to become too much for you. When that happens, know I’m here. No matter what time or what day. I’m always here for you.”
“I know, trust me, I know.”
“We’ll be back.” I hear Bri say as she, Madison, and Montgomery grab their purses and head for the garage door.
It makes me happy to know she’s got someone to talk to, too. As much as I want to be, I know I can’t be the only person she has to confide in. Madison can sometimes be too close to the situation, and she’d never go to her parents.
My hope for her, and for us, is that we always have amazing people surrounding us, and as I look around the room, I realize we do.
We really fuckin’ do.
Chapter Eight
Bri
As the last person leaves our house, I let my head drop, feeling the muscles in my neck give way. I’m exhausted. Beyond exhausted, even. When we’d decided to have a powwow about what our decisions should be going forward, I hadn’t realized it would be an all day, almost all-night thing.
Glancing at my watch, I realize it truly was almost all-night too. It’s three am,.. long past my bedtime. Turning around to face the living room, I groan, truly seeing that everyone is gone. There’s stuff everywhere. I always forget how people treat a home that isn’t theirs.
“Don’t even think about it,” EJ says from where he stands at the kitchen island.
“This shit will be here tomorrow when we wake up. We’re both dead on our feet, we’re not doing this right now.”
I almost want to weep in relief. Had this been my parents’ house, if I were still under their thumb, there would be no relaxing until this was done. And I would be the one to clean it up, by myself.
“C’mon,” he motions to me. “Let’s head to bed.”
“Sounds like an amazing idea to me.” I turn back to make sure the door is locked, before I meet him over at the island, entwining our fingers together. We go around making sure all the lights are off, doors are locked, and the security system is on, before we turn, making our way upstairs toward our bedroom.
There’re still some nights I have to pinch myself, knowing I’ll be sleeping with this guy I had pictures of on my phone. Knowing he’ll curl his big body around mine, put his arms around me, and protect me from the world. His warmth will penetrate all the way down to my core and the scrape of his whiskers against my shoulder will send a little tremble through my entire body. Thanks to this man, I’m starting to believe that dreams actually do come true.
“It’s been a long day,” he moans as he has a seat on the side of the bed, rolling his head first to the left, and then to the right. “I don’t really wanna say that since we hung out with the family today, but sometimes it’s a lot.”
“It is,” I agree, as I turn around, starting to undress. “Especially for someone who grew up like me, can’t say I ever really had a day like this.”
Getting up, he walks over to me, wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me tightly into him. “You stick with me, and you’re gonna have many more days like this.”
Inhaling deeply, I let his scent surround my body, melding softly back into him. “I can’t wait.”
Catching our reflection in the mirror we have standing in the corner, I tilt my head to the side, giving him room to bury his face in the gap where my shoulder and neck meet. He takes the invitation given, rubbing his lips against the flesh. In the mirror, I watch his dark head move back and forth as he drops little kisses in all the places exposed to him. It starts off slow, much like the way Everett always does, but gradually they build like the foundation of a house. The kisses become the bricks, the touches the concrete that holds them together.
Breach of Contract: A Rocker Romance (The Nashvegas Series Book 2) Page 4
