Girl in Love (42 page)

“I wouldn’t do that,” Kylie assured her.

“Well I appreciate that. I know you and I aren’t going to be shopping buddies anytime soon, and I won’t lie and pretend I think you’re necessarily what’s best for him. But I’ll keep my opinion to myself and I’ll respect that the two of you are together. I really do care about the rehab facility. That place may have stopped Trace from destroying his life, but it’s what kept me from
ending
mine.”

Kylie struggled to swallow. She’d never really thought about how bad off Gretchen might’ve been. She’d been too busy hating her.

As they stood to leave, Gretchen pulled out her wallet. Kylie shook her head and slid several bills onto the table.

“Hey, Gretchen?”

“Yeah?”

“For what it’s worth, I hope the investment deal works out for you. For you and Trace both. But even if it doesn’t, I bet your son won’t think any less of you.”

The bell overhead chimed as they exited the diner. The woman smiled at her with gratitude in her eyes.

“Oh, and Gretchen, one more thing.”

“What’s that?”

Kylie smiled sweetly. “If and when Trace and I do work things out, I’ll expect any
offers
you make him to remain strictly business-related.”

To Kylie’s surprise, the woman grinned back at her. And nodded her understanding. “Good luck to you, Kylie. I guess if you decide to work things out with Trace then I’ll be seeing you around.”

Kylie watched the woman—who’d been the bane of her existence for the past year—walk off in the other direction. She knew she couldn’t hear her, but the words came out anyways.

“See you around, Gretchen.”

“D
OES ONE
really need to wear a tie for a meeting in which one is getting dropped from one’s record label?”

Claire Ann adjusted the knot at his throat. “You don’t know that they’re dropping you.”

“I haven’t finished either of my last two tours. I’m pretty much a lost cause. They’d be stupid not to drop me.”

His sister met his eyes with her determined stare. “You could tell them, you know. You could get Mr. Ludlow to make them all sign something saying no one would leak anything to the press. Trace, if you just explained what happened—”

“No.” He shook himself loose of her grasp. “I’ve seen what happens when the sharks smell blood in the water. I won’t risk that where Rae is concerned and I don’t trust anyone there anyway.”

His sister sighed. “Well then, you’re better off without them. I’ll tell Pauly and Maude to start putting feelers out with other labels.”

Trace gave her a one-arm hug. “Thank you. But I think it’s time I handled these things myself. You have your own life, Claire Bear. I appreciate how much you do for me, but it’s time to be a big boy now.”

She nudged him. “You know I never minded.”

“I know. And that’s why I love you.”

“Speaking of love,” his sister began. “Have you talked to her?”

Trace scrubbed a hand roughly over his face. “I want to. I’m just trying to figure out what I should say.”

“Rae thinks you should lead with, ‘Will you marry me and have my babies?’”

Trace laughed. “What do you think I should lead with?”

His sister straightened his tie once more and placed her hands on his broad shoulders as her steady gaze met his.

“Your heart.”

T
RACE WALKED
into the offices of Capital Letter Records for what he knew was probably the last time.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, he held a very faded, slightly blurred memory of the first time he’d walked through those doors. He’d thought his dreams were finally coming true.

It had been a hell of a lot more complicated than his twenty-year-old self had been ready for.

But his twenty-eight-year-old self had both feet in the real world. This was a day for saying goodbye.

“So Davies is here already and so are several members of the legal team,” Pauly informed him as they waited for his agent in the reception area. “They’re bringing in the big guns, so I just want you to be ready for anything.”

“I am,” Trace assured him. “It’s okay, Pauly. I’ve made my decision. I know they’re most likely going to drop the ax or give me some ridiculous ultimatum so I end up looking like the bad guy. They can bring it on. I’m ready for anything.”

The elevator opened and Kylie Ryans stepped out of it with their agent. Hannah was there too, but all Trace really saw was her.

She wore a short black business-style dress with a zipper in the front that screamed
unzip me
and Trace lost his center of gravity. The fuck-me heels she had on weren’t helping matters any either.

“Ready for anything except that, I’m guessing,” Pauly muttered from beside him.

“What’s she doing here?”

Maude approached them first. “I’m starting to think the label’s experiencing budget cuts. Looks like they’re going for a two-for-one special with the two of you. Your meeting is scheduled for the same time.”

Kylie’s face displayed her surprise clearly. Apparently Maude hadn’t told her this ahead of time. Sometimes he thought the old woman was going senile and sometimes he suspected she was just screwing with them for her own amusement.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” He did his best to sound nonchalant, but the truth was, his heart was pounding, his tie was choking the shit out of him, and his dick was twitching in Kylie’s direction with a vengeance. Damn that dress.

Sweat dripped down his back as she approached him.

“Hey, um, can we talk?”

He wasn’t sure. He stepped away from the group and she followed. “We can try, darlin’. Though last I heard I was supposed to be giving you space.”

She frowned, and he clenched his fists so his fingers wouldn’t reach out and smooth those lines in her forehead. He was pretty sure touching her face didn’t constitute space giving.

“Not about us,” she whispered. “That we can discuss…later. But right now, here, I’m worried.”

Now it was his turn to frown. “Kylie, your debut album sold more copies than most of the other artists at this label combined. You have nothing to worry about.”

“I’m not worried about me.” She rolled her eyes like he was some kind of moron. “I’m worried about you. I think they’re going to try and dissolve your contract, Trace. You’ve got to tell them about Rae’s accident. Or I will.”

There was literally not another female on the planet that drove him as crazy as this one. Naturally, he had to go and fall in love with her too.

“Like hell you will. Listen to me,” he said, lowering his voice to a cross between a whisper and a warning. “I told you about this. I vowed to protect Rae when we were kids and I failed back then. But this time I won’t let her down. She will get to recover in peace and without the vultures surrounding her and turning her into something she’s not.”

She huffed out a breath. He half-expected her to stomp her foot.

“Now you listen to me. I know Rae wouldn’t want you to do this. You’ve worked so hard, Trace, and you don’t deserve this. Just tell them the truth.” She shook her head and pinned him with those wide blue eyes of hers. “I used to think you were a selfish jackass, and now I know you’re just a jackass. All the stuff I thought was selfish was just you punishing yourself for everyone else’s mistakes.” She stepped even closer to him, making his head swim from her intoxicating scent. “So…how about you fucking quit that now?”

He forced himself to focus the best he could and ignore the urge to grab her to him like a damn animal.

“I’ll work on it. But this isn’t up to you. And if you care about Rae at all—or hell, if you care about me at all—you won’t say a word about either of us in there.”

“Trace,” she pleaded, her eyes growing wider as she looked up at him. “Sometimes you have to choose yourself. Sometimes you need to do what’s best for you.”

He stared at her for a moment. Part of him understood where she was coming from and he knew she’d never had any siblings. Never had anyone she’d felt responsible for.

“And sometimes you have to choose love, Kylie Lou. Even when it isn’t the smart choice, or even the best one for all involved parties.”

Before she could argue with him anymore, a receptionist called for them.

“Here we go, kiddos,” Maude said as the doors to the conference room opened.

K
YLIE WATCHED
Trace take his seat next to Pauly across from her. He steepled his fingers below his chin and her stomach twisted.

Sometimes you have to choose love.

She agreed. And she loved him enough to see what he was doing today was a mistake.

“Well look what we have here. So the two of you
can
actually show up for scheduled appointments?” Noel Davies paused to glare at each of them. “Good to know. I was beginning to wonder.”

“Neither of them have ever missed an appointment with the label,” Maude objected.

“Right. It’s just performances they can’t seem to make it to,” Davies clarified.

Kylie shot him a dirty look. This man made her want to stick her tongue out at him. Right before giving him a solid knee to the crotch. Lulu would’ve threatened to junk-punch him for sure.

“Do they have detention after school, Mr. Davies? Or is there an actual point to this meeting?”

Sometimes Kylie wasn’t sure about Maude Lowenstein. And sometimes she kind of loved her.

“Oh, there’s a point. Several, actually.” He smiled at the members of the table, though to her it felt more like a baring of teeth. “First, there’s the matter of revenue lost by the canceled shows and refunded tickets.”

The room fell silent.

“For which each artist will be billed individually. They will split the cost of vendor fees, refunded tickets, sponsor—”

“Just put it on my tab, Davies,” Trace broke in. “None of it had anything to do with her.”

“Oh, but it did,” the man countered. “And, Miss Ryans, in the future, if you decide to publically refer to any Capital Letter recording artist as a cheap imitation of another, please know you are opening yourself up to a lawsuit from not only that artist but from the label as well.”

She lowered her eyes briefly. She’d known better, but Bryce Parker was a repulsive swine. He’d met her at the show in Oklahoma, joining the tour as Trace’s replacement, and he’d made more than one inappropriate comment to her on the bus and a few in front of her band, which had almost led to a brawl. Ending the tour then and there hadn’t been a tough decision to make.

She squared her shoulders. “Well, Mr. Davies, in the future, if any of your other artists invite me to ride their face or their dick to the next stop instead of the tour bus, please know they are opening themselves up for me to bury my knee in their balls. And I’m sure my attorney would love to discuss a possible sexual harassment lawsuit against the label for forcing such a disgusting scumbag on me without my prior consent.”

Maude snickered from beside her but Trace was livid.

“He said what to you?” All other members of the room disappeared as Trace’s blazing glare burned into her.

She waved a hand and shook her head. “It’s handled.”

“My ass it’s handled. Unless you actually did bury your knee in his balls.”

Kylie shot a pleading look at Pauly. He said something low in Trace’s ear that seemed to placate him for the moment.

Davies actually looked mildly flustered. As did some of the suits sitting beside him. “Well, if that is true about Mr. Parker’s behavior, then we can schedule a meeting to discuss that in the future.”

“I won’t be discussing anything with or about Bryce Parker in the future. You can add that little stipulation to my contract.”

She met the man’s beady eyes, challenging him to argue. Which, thankfully, he didn’t. He looked down at the papers on his desk and shuffled them a little.

“Moving on. In addition to the financial concerns, there is the issue of legality and bankability. The two of you certainly aren’t in high demand where venues are concerned at the moment.”

Davies continued to drop legal mumbo jumbo on them for the next several minutes.

Apparently Maude had better places to be, because she was the one to finally call him on his bullshit.