Back To You (In Tune Book 1) Page 4

  I waved away her concern. “There’s no big rush. It can wait until Mr. Hannigan is back on his feet. A plumber will charge you way too much.”

  After another minute of reassurances, I went down the stairs built into the slope behind their house to get to my apartment. As soon as I went inside, I toed off my shoes and flopped onto the couch with a sigh. When they’d retired, Mr. Hannigan had converted their basement into an apartment to supplement their pensions. The place wasn’t much—only one bedroom, one bath, and a small, combined kitchen and living room area—but it was perfect because it was mine. Admittedly, when Lacey was home, it was tight with just one bedroom. Rentals in Cedar Creek were hard to come by, though, and I was grateful to have found one in the good part of town. In turn, the Hannigans were grateful to have a trustworthy tenant. It was a win-win.

  I stared vacantly into space, not sure what to do with myself. I didn’t usually have much free time. I contemplated studying for Monday’s microbiology test, but I’d relistened to all the lectures while cleaning Tyler’s mom’s house. My brain was stuffed with as much microbiology as it could contain at the moment.

  I grabbed my phone and texted Lacey.

  ME: Whatcha up to?

  She texted back almost immediately: About to eat, then shower, then party!

  ME: Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

  She responded with the eyeroll emoji and Then I wouldn’t get to do anything fun!

  Staring at my phone, I rolled onto my side and tucked my arm under my head. I could be fun. I could be loads of fun.

  Who am I kidding? I was twenty-three, it was Friday evening, and the most exciting thing I had planned was a solo Netflix binge.

  ME: Have fun! But be safe. Don’t let your drink out of your sight.

  Lacey was only eighteen, but I was under no illusions that she was abstaining from alcohol.

  She sent back a gif of a cartoon character giving a salute.

  Sighing, I placed my phone facedown on the table. I logged into Netflix on the TV and flipped through my options. Seen it, seen it, boring, seen it, lame… ugh. I settled on Supernatural. I hadn’t watched that series in a while. But as witty and handsome as the Winchester brothers were, I couldn’t focus when Gabe was mere miles from me.

  I wondered what he was doing, if he was spending time with Rose or if he had plans later with Tyler. There wasn’t a helluva lot to do in this town. There were a few restaurants, one dive bar, and the bowling alley. If one were feeling lucky, they could find bingo at the Ruritan club three nights a week.

  A lot of Cedar Creek was rural—dirt and gravel roads that were identified by number rather than name. Tyler’s parents were divorced, and his dad lived way out in the country. We’d spent countless hours crowded around a bonfire in his back yard. If we were lucky, someone would manage to score some booze. That wasn’t essential, though. Mainly, we were content to hang out and enjoy one another’s company.

  I missed those days. As shitty as my home life had been, with Gabe’s arms around me as we watched the dancing flames of the fire, I’d had hope. I’d believed anything was possible, that Gabe and I would make it out of this dumpy little town… together.

  The funny thing about hope was that the brighter it was, the more it burned as it fizzled into ashes, leaving you with nothing but the cold harshness of reality.

  Chapter 4

  Gabe

  “You should have told me if you couldn’t handle it.” Martin had been saying some variation of that statement for the past five minutes. I couldn’t blame him for being frustrated, especially since I’d dodged his calls the past few days.

  “I handled it,” I muttered.

  I held the phone away from my ear as he started cursing a blue streak. “Telling the VP of Killjoy to shove something up his ass is not handling it.”

  It was handling it—maybe not with the most finesse, but the end result was the same. I was done with Killjoy. I didn’t care if I’d burned that bridge. Hell, I should have done it a long time ago. I felt like a weight I didn’t even realize I’d been carrying was lifted. “Chinsky is a douchebag,” I said.

  “True,” Martin allowed, “but he’s a well-connected douchebag.”

  “We don’t need him.”

  “You realize you’re not my only client, right?” I could practically see Martin’s scowl. “I’m working on another deal with Killjoy for someone else.”

  “Fine then. I don’t need him.” I sighed. “I’m sorry if I messed up your business relationship with him, but the more I think about it, the more I think it’s for the best. They were pushing me in a direction I didn’t want to go.”

  “I know, but we could have negotiated on that.”

  “Why should I have to?” I demanded. “I’m the most successful artist they’ve signed in the last five years. They’re the ones losing an asset, not me.”

  Martin chuckled. “Is that so?”

  “You know it is.”

  “I’ll give you that. But what do you want to do now?”

  I kicked at a loose brick on the porch steps. “I’m still figuring it out.” More like I had no fucking clue. Normally, I wrote songs at such a pace that I’d never be able to record them all. But I couldn’t remember the last time I’d composed anything. It was as if the music that used to flow inside me had dried up. I had a stockpile of songs that I could record for my next studio album, but I would have been lying if I said it didn’t worry me.

  “I could look into getting you on the lineup for the Rattled Tour this spring.”

  I considered. It was early October, so hopefully, Aunt Rose would be back on her feet by then, but I wasn’t ready to commit. And hell, I needed a break from touring. It was nice knowing where I was when I woke up in the morning for once. “No, thanks. I’m dealing with some family stuff. I’m going to be MIA for at least a few weeks.”

  There was a pause. “I didn’t think you had any family.”

  I’d done everything in my power to keep my fucked-up family history out of the media, and that included not sharing a whole lot with my manager. If not for some internet sleuth who’d dug up my senior yearbook photo, no one would even have known my hometown. “I lived with my great-aunt from the time I was twelve. She’s still around.”

  “So you’re in Virginia.” I could tell Martin wanted more information, but one of the reasons our business arrangement worked so well was that he knew when not to pry.

  “Yeah, but if you want to drop some hints that I’m taking a hiatus on some unknown island, that would be great. It would be better for my aunt if the media didn’t find me here.”

  The sound of the screen door opening had me looking over my shoulder. Aunt Rose stepped out onto the porch.

  “Got it,” Martin said. “Take care of yourself. Let me know when you want to talk about your next steps.”

  “Sure.” I was about to hang up when I realized I hadn’t even asked about his wife or newborn child. “Hey, how’s—”

  But he’d already hung up. Damn it. I really sucked at being thoughtful.

  Aunt Rose gave me an assessing gaze. “Better for me? Or better for you?”

  It took me a moment to figure out what she was talking about. “You don’t want the paparazzi showing up on your front lawn, taking pictures of you in your bathrobe as you check the mail. Trust me.”

  She snorted. “Oh, honey, if they want pictures of me in my bathrobe, they can have at it. It’s not me they’re interested in.”

  That was true, but I didn’t know how to agree with her without sounding disrespectful. I pointed to the loose brick. “That’s a safety hazard. You should get it fixed.”

  “Are you offering?”

  “No, but I can call someone if you like.” From what I remembered of my father, he had been good at fixing things around the house. Unfortunately, I’d been too young to have picked up any of those skills from him, not that he’d been willing to teach me. I was useless when it came to handyman-type things.

 
Tyler pulled up in a pickup truck instead of his police cruiser. He stuck his head out the window. “Come on. We’re going fishing.”

  “I hate fishing.”

  “That’s because you’re an impatient dick ass.”

  I gave Aunt Rose, who had an amused expression on her face, a meaningful look.

  Tyler blushed. “Sorry, Aunt Rose.”

  She waved her hand dismissively. “No, that’s okay. He is an impatient dick ass.”

  My jaw dropped. “Not cool. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

  She shrugged. “Then don’t act like an impatient dick ass.”

  I shook my head. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “It’ll be good for you to get out of the house,” she said in a gentler tone. “You’ve been brooding since you got here.”

  “No, I haven’t,” I muttered.

  She shot me a look, and I ducked my head.

  I wouldn’t have admitted to brooding, but I had been doing some serious thinking, and who could blame me? My career was at a crossroads that I hadn’t seen coming, even if I should have. I hadn’t been happy in a while. Maybe I was acting like a dick ass. Not an impatient one, but a thoughtless one. I was there to support Aunt Rose, and instead, I’d done nothing but skulk around the house.

  She nudged me. “Go on. Get the cooler out of the garage. If you catch anything, I’ll fry it up for you.”

  “You heard the woman,” Tyler called. “Get the cooler and come on!”

  An hour later, we had set up shop at the pond behind Tyler’s dad’s house. If Tyler had told me about the cooler full of cold beer in the truck, I would have been more willing to come.

  He fished a worm out of the bait bucket. “Are you actually going to fish?”

  I popped open a beer can and took a swig. “Nope. But you’re doing a great job.”

  “Cocksucker.”

  “Rumpelforeskin.”

  He grinned. “That’s a new one.”

  I grinned back. “I’ve been waiting for the right time to drop it on you.”

  “You should put it in a song.”

  “Not sure how that would work.”

  Tyler dropped his fishing pole on the ground and started playing air guitar. “Rumpelforeskin!” he wailed in a lackluster imitation of me. “Where you been, Rumpelforeskin?” He made pathetic guitar solo sounds and plucked at his invisible guitar.

  “Are you finished?” I asked dryly.

  He retrieved his pole from the ground. “That’s your next hit single. You’re welcome.”

  “I’ll get right on that.”

  While I didn’t care to actually fish, Aunt Rose had been right—it was good for me. Other than the time Tyler had driven to one of my shows in Richmond, I hadn’t seen him in years. But it felt like no time had passed, like just yesterday, we were swiping booze from Tyler’s stepdad’s liquor cabinet to take to the bonfire. He didn’t give a shit that I was a multiplatinum musician. To him, I was just the guy who’d backed him up in a fight in middle school.

  I couldn’t think about my past with Tyler without thinking of Leah, though. I’d known her my whole life, had a crush on her for half of it, and loved her since I was fifteen. Past tense for that last part.

  Being back in Cedar Creek was messing with my mind in a way I hadn’t expected. Except that was a lie. There was a reason I’d stayed away so long, and it wasn’t just my crazy schedule.

  Leah had betrayed me, and apparently, I still wasn’t over it. The real pisser was that I also wasn’t over her.

  Hell, I’d dated some of the most desirable women on the planet—supermodels, actresses, and socialites alike—but none of them compared to the skinny blonde with big brown eyes I’d left behind in Podunk, Virginia.

  She was my first love. My only love.

  “Are you okay?” Tyler eyed me suspiciously.

  I blinked. “Yeah, fine.”

  “You don’t have to put on a front for me.”

  I looked over at him, prepared to make a smartass comment, but his expression was earnest as he watched his bobber in the water.

  “I burned the bridge with my label,” I said. “Champagne problem.”

  “Champagne problems are still problems.”

  That was true, but I also tried to keep things in perspective. I hadn’t forgotten where I’d come from. What I was going through was nothing compared to being a scared eleven-year-old kid sleeping in a car with an empty belly.

  “I don’t want to talk about it. I’d rather talk about you.”

  His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Me?”

  “Yeah, you, Officer English. We all know what I’ve been up to the past few years, but what about you?”

  He shrugged. “My life isn’t that exciting.”

  “You don’t have a wife and kids I don’t know about stashed somewhere?”

  “Hell no.” He reeled in the line and prepared to recast. “I’m not responsible enough for that.”

  I laughed. “You’re a cop. Isn’t it your job to be responsible?”

  “Exactly. I don’t want to have to be responsible in my free time too.”

  “That’s fair,” I allowed. “Being responsible sucks.” I was lucky in that I usually paid people to be responsible for me. Bette handled all my shit in California, and Martin usually made sure there was someone to look out for me when I was on tour. I shifted uncomfortably, suddenly feeling like an overgrown man-child. Change of subject needed. “Are you seeing anyone?”

  Tyler snorted. “There isn’t exactly a huge dating pool in Cedar Creek. Half the girls in our senior class got the hell out of Dodge, and the other half are either married or pregnant.”

  I frowned. “Really?” That statistic troubled me.

  “Why don’t you just ask about her?”

  “Who?”

  Tyler rolled his eyes. “Don’t play dumb with me. Leah.”

  My jaw worked as I ground my teeth. Part of me wanted to know, but the other part knew I’d lose my shit if I found out she was married or pregnant with some guy’s baby. She was supposed to have my babies one day. Christ. I gave my best attempt at a smile, but I was sure it looked more like a grimace. “Sure. What’s Leah up to?”

  “Well, obviously, she works at the diner.”

  He didn’t say anything else. What a tease. He’d goaded me into asking about her then didn’t give me anything I didn’t already know. But I’d already come this far. And it was Tyler—he wouldn’t judge me. Much. “Yeah… and?” I prompted.

  “She’s going to school to be a nurse.”

  “Huh.” I could see that. Leah always had a nurturing quality, especially when it came to her little sister. She hadn’t planned to become a nurse when we were in high school though. We were too busy planning our life together and how great it would be when I hit it big. I’d known in my gut I was destined for bigger things than Cedar Creek could offer. Leah had believed it too.

  I missed that—having someone by my side who believed in me unequivocally. Sure, Martin believed in me, but it didn’t mean as much, considering he was on my payroll.

  “She cleans houses too. She cleaned my mom’s just the other day, which reminds me, I have to go have dinner with my step-grandparents tonight,” he grumbled. “All Richard talks about is politics.”

  Giggling sounded behind us. I turned to see Tyler’s little sister standing up the hill near the house, surrounded by a group of her tween friends.

  “I told you,” she hissed, her voice carrying. “It’s him!”

  Tyler groaned. “Sorry, man. I told my dad to tell her not to do this.” He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Go away, Libby!”

  She’d only been six when I’d left, so she probably didn’t remember much of me. She only knew me as Gabe Gable and not her half-brother’s childhood friend.

  “It’s okay.” I was no BTS or Zac Efron from High School Musical, but I had my fair share of tween fans. Smiling, I waved at them.

  Their eyes widened, and one of them
shrieked. In a fit of giggles, they scurried into the house.

  “It must be exhausting to have adoring fans everywhere you turn,” Tyler said dryly.

  “You get used to it.” What was really exhausting was that conversation and Tyler not just telling me what he knew I wanted to know but didn’t want to ask. “So I guess since Leah didn’t get out of Cedar Creek, she falls into the second group.”

  “Huh? Oh, you mean Leah being married or pregnant. Ha. That’s funny. She’s one of the few exceptions.” Tyler pulled in his line and threw down his pole. “These fish aren’t biting. My stepmom must be feeding them again.”

  “Why is that funny?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  Tyler sighed. “Look, I’m Switzerland. She’s one of my best friends. So all I’m going to say is you should talk to her. You might be surprised.”

  I’d known Leah too well for her to ever surprise me, or so I’d thought right up until she told me she cheated on me. I finished off my beer and threw the can into the empty cooler that was supposed to be full of fish by now. “No thanks. I’ve had enough surprises from Leah to last a lifetime.”

  Chapter 5

  Leah

  For my next few shifts at the diner, every time the bell above the entry door chimed, I tensed, expecting Gabe to walk through the door. But of course, he didn’t. I was a fool to think he would—to hope he would. Because damned if I didn’t want to see him again, no matter the circumstances. Nothing good could have come of it, but tell that to my stupid, stubborn heart.

  Tamara came up behind me as I refilled some drinks at the soda machine. “Do you mind if I take off early? I only have two full tables, and they’re finishing up. Eddie said it was fine as long as you agreed.”

  I plunked a fresh straw into the glass of Sprite. “Of course. Is everything okay?”

  “Dominic has a science project due tomorrow, and he didn’t even tell me about it until today, the little heathen.” She shook her head. “Times like these make me wish I never stopped taking birth control.”

  I chuckled. “You don’t mean that.”