Game On (4 page)

She tipped her head back to look at him and
smiled. “This is a wonderful party. I know Clint is so grateful to you for
putting it together for him.”

Ryan didn’t want to hear her expressing gratitude
on behalf of her date.  “It’s the same thing I’d do for any of our artists.”

“You like him though, right? You think
Clint’s a good guy?”

He wanted to lie, to tell her a million
reasons why this relationship would never work, but he cared about her too much
to stand in the way of her happiness. “Yeah, he’s a good guy.” Ryan didn’t want
him to be. Hating him, resenting him would be so much easier if he was a
self-centered, egotistical jerk, but he wasn’t. He was a decent, honest,
hard-working guy who’d earned his big break the hard way: by paying his dues
and praying for his opportunity to make fans fall in love with his music.

“He respects you and Evan so much. He knows
that he owes everything to you guys for taking a chance on him.” She looked around.
“Speaking of your brother, shouldn’t he be here by now?”

“He texted me a little while ago. Said he
was dealing with a problem at the office, and he’d be here as soon as he
could.”

Brianna looked at her watch. “It’s after
eleven. I don’t see Erika either. Isn’t she coming?”

“I have no idea.” Ryan had his own problems
without worrying about his brother’s love life.

Evan staggered through the door and headed
straight for the bar with a determined look on his face.

“Hey, there he is,” Brianna said. “Uh oh,
he doesn’t look so good.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

Evan downed a shot and pointed to his empty
glass, indicating to the bartender he’d like another.

Ryan watched him repeat the action several
times before he finally said, “What the hell? I’ve never seen him drink like
that.”

“Maybe you’d better go over there and talk
to him.”

Before Ryan could respond, Clint
approached. “Would this be a good time to cut in?” he asked Ryan.

There would never be a
good time
for
Ryan to turn Brianna over to another man, but his brother obviously needed him.
“Yeah, but Avery said she needs to have a word with you, so don’t keep her
waitin’ too long.”

“You got it, boss,” Clint said, grinning.

Ryan stepped back and Clint took his place.
He wanted to say or do something to warn him off, but he knew it was pointless.
Brianna had to make her own decisions, and whether her heart led her to him or
Clint in the end, it had to be her decision.

Crossing the dance floor, Ryan waved off
the reporters asking him where Clint fit into Titan’s future plans. He promised
a comment before the end of the night, but he had more important matters to
attend to.

Slapping his brother on the back, he asked,
“You wanna talk about it?”

Evan stared at his full shot glass a long
time before he threw the amber liquid back. He grimaced and clenched his fist
on the bar. “Erika left me.”

Ryan cursed softly, trying to imagine what
his brother must be going through. Erika was the only woman Evan had ever
loved. Everyone assumed they would marry and start a family one day.

Climbing up on the stool next to Evan, Ryan
beckoned the bartender, who placed his beer of choice in front of him. “I’m
sorry to hear that. What happened?”

“She hasn’t been happy for a long time. We
all know that. I thought things would get better when she moved in with me, but
it only made things worse.” He lowered his head to his hands. “How the hell did
I let this happen, Ry?”

“Did something happen tonight to make her
snap?” Ryan brought the bottle to his lips when his brother seemed reluctant to
fill in the details.

“Today’s her thirtieth birthday. I told her
we had to attend this party.” Evan’s shoulders slumped as he leaned over the
bar. “I offered to take her out for a nice dinner on the weekend to celebrate
her birthday.”

“But she wasn’t happy with that?” Ryan
couldn’t say he blamed her. It was her birthday, and once again her boyfriend
was putting his business first. It had to sting.

“She pretended she was fine with it. Her
parents had her over for dinner last night, but I couldn’t make it. Her girlfriends
took her out last weekend to celebrate…” Evan raked a hand through his hair and
turned toward the crowded dance floor. “I tried so hard to make time for her,
but I never had enough hours in the day to get everything done, ya know?”

Evan was a perfectionist who found delegating
responsibility difficult. He believed no one else could get the job done to his
satisfaction, which made for long days that routinely stretched into nights and
weekends. He’d traveled a third of the year last year, and this year was
shaping up to be just as grueling. Ryan felt guilty that his brother had sacrificed
so much while he maintained a healthy balance in his life, but he wasn’t
willing to shoulder more of the burden only to end up alone and miserable like
his brother.

“Maybe she just needs a little space,” Ryan
said, slapping him on the back. “You never know, she might come around.”

“I think there’s someone else,” Evan said,
clenching his fist as he watched the couples on the dance floor intimately
swaying to the country music.

“You’re not sayin’ you think she’s cheatin’
on you? Come on, you know Erika wouldn’t do that.” At least Ryan wanted to
believe she wouldn’t. He didn’t know how long a woman could hold out when she
felt like she was constantly fighting a losing battle to win the attention of
the man she loved.

“No, I don’t think she would, but there’s
this guy they hired at the clinic. He’s another vet. I’ve met him a few times
and I got a weird vibe.”

Ryan braced his elbows on the bar behind
him and tried to ignore the scene playing out in front of him. Clint was
whispering in Brianna’s ear, making her laugh as he nuzzled her neck. It took
everything in him not to go over there and pry them apart. “What kind of vibe?”

“The first time I met him, he told me I was
a lucky man. Just the way he said it pissed me off. Son of a bitch had the
nerve to tell me I’d do well to remember that.”

Ryan couldn’t deny his brother was lucky to
have a woman like Erika in his life. She was beautiful, smart, sexy, and
totally devoted to Evan, or so his family thought. They’d all seen signs over
the past year that their relationship was in trouble, but everyone wanted to
believe they would work it out. “You think she’s been confidin’ in him about
your relationship?”

“Yeah, I do,” Evan said, the muscle in his
jaw flexing. “Instead of talkin’ to me about our problems, she was cryin’ on
his shoulder. She said they were just friends, but…”

“You don’t believe that?” Ryan turned away
from the dance floor when Clint brushed a kiss across Brianna’s cheek. His
brother’s problem deserved his full attention now. He knew if the situation
were reversed, Evan would set everything else aside to help him.

“I think it started out that way.” He
sighed. “I know she’d never cross any lines, but I think he was wearin’ her
down, tellin’ her she deserved better than a guy who was never gonna make her a
priority in his life.”

Ryan hated to say it, but the point had
merit. “Man, I know how much you love her, but maybe this is for the best.”

“How can you say that to me?” Evan asked,
his blue eyes darkening with suppressed rage. “I love her. She’s my life.”

Ryan knew if he didn’t force Evan to face
the harsh reality, no one else would. “If that was true, you wouldn’t have put
work first for so long. You would have made it a priority to marry the girl and
start the family you damn well know she wants.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Evan asked,
rocking back on the heels of his custom dress shoes. “If I don’t give
everything I have to this company, we could lose everything. The company our
old man spent his life building could be gone.” He snapped his fingers. “Just
like that.”

Ryan tried to remember his brother was
hurting, and he couldn’t take his comments personally, but it was difficult to
grin and bear it when he implied he wasn’t pulling his weight. “Titan is on
solid ground and you know it.”

“That’s what you think. Artists hate
change. They like to know that their careers are in the hands of someone who
knows how to manage them. Our father earned his reputation in this business the
hard way. We were born into it, and I know damn well everyone’s holding their
breath just waitin’ to see whether we’ve got what it takes to take this company
to the next level.”

Ryan brought the beer bottle to his lips. Everything
he said made sense, but it still didn’t seem fair that Evan had to sacrifice
everything that meant anything to him for the good of the company their father
built. “I know you’ve scarified a lot. I appreciate that, we all do. But when
is it time for you to find a little time for yourself?”

“I don’t know. I told myself the first year
would be the hardest, but we’re nearing the end of the first year and it’s not
gettin’ any better. If anything, it’s gettin’ worse.”

“What do you mean?”

Evan sat down on the stool behind him and
said, “The old guard is nervous, Ry. Sure, we have a few people like Nikki,
Trey, Ty, and Tori who will stand by us through the transition, but I know a
lot of our artists will jump ship at the first whiff of trouble. That’s why
it’s so important for us to find people like Clint, talent who is loyal to us
and trust you and me to lead them, to build and shape their career. The next
few years are gonna be all about puttin’ our team in place so that even if the
old-timers decide to move on, we’ll still be solid.”

Evan wasn’t telling him anything they
hadn’t discussed before. That had always been their strategy moving forward,
and it was working. They had already signed Clint and a female artist who was
now touring with Ty to build her own fan following. They had their eye on
several others who should prove to be strong additions to their roster, but
Ryan knew his brother couldn’t leave anything to chance. He was the kind of
person who didn’t wait for things to happen; he made them happen.

“Hey,” Evan said, pointing to Clint and
Brianna. “What the hell is that about? I didn’t know they were seein’ each
other.”

“They weren’t. This is their first date.”
Ryan spit the words out, but Evan seemed too caught up in his own problems to
notice.

“Huh, it looks like they’re really hittin’
it off, doesn’t it?”

Ryan didn’t trust himself to respond, so he
said nothing.

“That could be good for us.”

“What the hell are you talkin’ about?” Ryan
didn’t see how Brianna getting involved with another man could be a good thing
for him.

“It’ll mean Clint has permanent ties to
Titan. We’ve only got him locked down for two years, but if he and Bri get
married, we’d be damn sure he wasn’t goin’ anywhere.”

Ryan nearly spewed a mouthful of beer at
his brother when he heard that mindless excuse for logic. “Married? Are you out
of your mind? This is their first date.”

Evan shrugged. “Isn’t that how it starts,
with one date? You never know where it might lead.” He put his arm around
Ryan’s shoulders and leaned in, lowering his voice. “Do me a favor, talk him up
to her. Convince her he’s a good guy, that they’d be great together.”

There was very little that Ryan wouldn’t do
for his family, but his brother’s request definitely made that short list.

***

Brianna stood off to the side and listened
while Avery McCall, Titan’s publicist, gave Clint a run down on the type of
questions he would field at the impromptu press conference she’d scheduled in
just a few minutes.

“J.T. said we could use his office,” Avery
said, making some notes on her tablet. “I thought it would be easier this way.
Even though we limited the press to a handful of people we trust, they want
details about your plans for the near future.” She smiled at Brianna. “And they
want to know whether those plans include you, my dear.”

Since Avery had spent the majority of her career
working for Titan Records with Brianna’s father, Josh, they had many of the
same friends. Avery and Ty had been an extension of their family since Brianna
was a little girl.

“Um, this is just our first date,” Brianna
said, blushing. Talk about scaring a guy off, putting him on the spot about
where the relationship was headed on their very first date. Granted, she wasn’t
the one asking, but that didn’t make it any less embarrassing.

“But I’m sure hopin’ it won’t be our last,”
Clint said, grinning as he slipped his arm around Brianna’s waist.

Brianna knew Clint was just being polite.
The man traveled the world, met new and interesting people every day. He would
probably have forgotten all about her by this time next week.

“You two are so cute together,” Avery said,
smiling. “Talk about a P.R. person’s dream couple. Clint, you have this sweet,
sexy, good ol’ boy thing down, and Brianna’s your complete opposite… in a good
way.”