The Price of Love (Rockin' Country Book 2) (18 page)

“W
hat are we going to do today?” Hannah asked Garrett as they sat at the table in their hotel room, enjoying their breakfast.

“We really need to do something besides spend the whole day here, in bed.”

“Yes, we do. Although I’m not sure what this place has to offer us.”

“Me neither,” Garrett sighed, pulling his phone over to him. He fiddled around for a few minutes. “Not a damn thing. This is the most boring town on the planet.”

“We could hang here, I do have some things I need to do,” she told him. “But we can’t spend all day in bed.” She smiled.

He smiled a slow smile back at her. “Are you sure?”

“Very. We get used to that and then what are we going to do for the next few weeks?”

She had a point, he had to give her that. “I have some writing for the next session we have to get done. How about I call Jared and see what he and Shell are up to.”

“Sounds good,” she nodded. “I’ve got a few things I can write on too. Even if we’re only in the same hotel room, I’m fine with that. I just want to be around you until I have to leave.”

“Me too.” He leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips.

She finished eating her breakfast and then went to the bathroom to freshen up. Lying on the bench were her beloved high heels. After she brushed her teeth and put her hair up in a ponytail, making sure that everything Garrett had done to her the night before was completely covered, she walked out, shoes in hand. “I think you owe me a new outfit.”

He wore a shit-eating grin as he made his way over to where she stood. “Seems like you’re right. Do I get to pick out the outfit, or do you?”

“Don’t really care about the outfit, babe,” she teased him, calling him what he normally called her. “I do care about the shoes, they better well be the same exact ones. I’m giving you these for reference. You don’t want to see my southern crazy come out if they aren’t the same.”

He watched her, his eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to tell me they’ve been discontinued and I’m gonna have to give my left nut to get a pair of them?”

“You are so crude sometimes. No they aren’t discontinued, but they are very expensive. They were my treat to myself when my first song went number one. I didn’t have the money to buy these, but I bought them anyway. They cost me a month’s rent, if that tells you anything.”

“I happen to think that the time we had together was worth it. I don’t know about you…” he trailed off.

“Oh, I never said it wasn’t worth it. My favorite thing in the world is when you lose control and you take me any way you want to. I love that.” She ran her hand down his arm, clasping their fingers together. “But I loved these shoes too. They’ve seen me through some very hard times.”

“I can show you some very hard times,” he mumbled, just loud enough for her to hear.

“I’m serious, Garrett.”

“Oh, I am too, like a week ago.” He laughed when she slapped him in the chest. He captured her hand and brought it to his lips.

“Stop trying to be sweet after being crude.” She wrinkled her nose.

“You know you love it.”

She opened her mouth to answer him but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Walking over, she opened it, seeing Jared and Shell on the other side. “Hi.” She waved at them.

Shell thrust a frappe at her, a smile on her face. “Figured you might need this today.”

“I love you,” Hannah laughed, closing her eyes and taking a drink from the cold beverage.

“I have to admit I had ulterior motives.”

Hannah took a good look at her friend, and noticed that she wasn’t as happy as she should have been after spending the night with her boyfriend.

“Don’t be a Debbie Downer,” Garrett yelled from where he sat at the table.

“What’s going on?” Hannah asked, her stomach clenching for some reason. It was too much that they be happy for longer than a few hours. That was the way this tour was going.

“Have you been on your phone or anything today?”

Garrett groaned from where he sat. “Not something else. For fucking real, can’t we all just be happy for one day?”

“I honestly wouldn’t say anything about this, but I know it’s going to upset and piss her off in a very big way.”

Hannah closed her eyes. “Can you tell me? Maybe it will be better coming from you.”

Jared reached over, putting his hand on Shell’s shoulder for support while she searched to find the words. “The record company put out an alternate version of your new song. It’s a duet with Bryson Grant.” Silence greeted her announcement and that made Shell nervous. “Please say something.”

“What is there to say? How did they do this? Why did they do this? I didn’t even record with him.” Hannah was beginning to panic, they could all see it in her face, could tell it in the way her breath was coming quickly, in short pants.

Garrett got up from where he sat. “Babe, calm down. Come on, let’s sit down.”

“Why aren’t you upset about this?” Her eyes cut to Garrett. “I wanted you on this song.” Tears pooled and her face broke.

“Shit.” Garrett pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay, I’m not mad,” he told her, enveloping her in his arms.

“I am,” she sobbed. “How dare they do this to me? I was very clear in what I would and would not do about this song. How could they do this? I wrote this song for you, that’s why I was so upset. How could he do this to me? I thought he was my friend.”

“Han, they probably did to him what they did to you.” Shell had a seat next to her friend and put her hand on Hannah’s arm. “I’m willing to bet he recorded his own version, you recorded yours, and they put them together. Don’t be so quick to throw Bryson under the bus.”

Angry didn’t even begin to cover how upset she was at this news. Glancing around the room, she saw what she had to work with and knew what she had to. “You know what? I’ll record my own version and upload it online then.” She sniffed, shrugging as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“What do you mean?” Shell asked, not understanding.

“I have the person here that I wanted to sing the song with, we have a guitar player, and you would make a phenomenal camera woman. Why can’t I do what I wanted to do in the first place?”

They all looked at one another, realizing that Hannah was right. They had everything they needed to make a video to upload to YouTube or wherever else they wanted to upload it to.

“Alright.” Garrett shrugged. “Let me learn the words. Jared, you got your guitar?”

“Don’t go anywhere without it. Let me go back to our room and get it.”

“You don’t know the words yet?” Hannah glared over at her husband. She’d sent him the song a few weeks ago.

Garrett’s face blushed a deep red. “I’ve been busy.”

“Hmmm.” She shot him another look.

“Do not judge me.” He pointed a finger at her. “I love your stuff, but I have been very busy.”

She finally let the smile break over her face, wiping the tears away. “You’re cute when you’re trying to get in my good graces.”

“Woman, I just got there, I don’t need to go back to the dog house.” He got up. “I’m gonna go with Jared. If he’s got another guitar, I might be able to play with him.”

Hannah glanced over at Shell; she was already setting up her computer, pulling up the video editors she had on there. “Do you think this is a good idea?”

Shell looked up and shrugged. “You have to stand up for yourself, no matter what that means, no matter how. If you keep letting them walk all over you, then they will. I have to admit that I think this is a super low blow. You were very adamant in the fact that you absolutely did not want to do this with Bryson, and they went behind your back anyway. As bad as it sounds, they deserve whatever they get.”

“You think I’ll get in trouble?”

“I think you’re a songwriter who should be able to perform her song in any way she sees fit. If that’s in a hotel room with her husband and a guitarist, then you should be allowed to do that,” Shell sighed. “They’re used to jerking you around because they can. If you do this, then they know they can’t anymore, and you’ve taken a huge step in your desire to be free of all the chains. I’m proud of you for this.”

“Thank you.” Hannah reached over, hugging her friend.

“Now do I think we’ll both get a stern talking to? Yes, so we might as well go ahead and be prepared for it.”

The guys came back then, both carrying guitars. Hannah busied herself with getting the original lyrics and sheet music out of her bag, setting it down in front of them. She had never been a part of the actual music process and was excited to see Jared look at the music and begin to play it. Garrett took a little while longer to catch up on it.

“You got it,” Jared told him as Garrett struggled with a chord progression. “Put your middle finger here.” He indicated by moving his own fingers. “It’ll make it easier on you to switch.”

Garrett did what Jared told him and they continue to play. The first couple of times it was sloppy, and Garrett had more than a few mistakes. He glanced up at Hannah, his face red with embarrassment. “It takes me a few times, usually.” He gave her lopsided grin.

“You’re still better than me, I can’t even play chord progressions,” she told him. “The question is can you play and sing at the same time.”

Jared laughed from where he sat. “She called you on that one.
Can
you sing and play at the same time?”

“Yes, fucker.” He threw one of the papers at Jared.

“Shell, you should sing some harmony for us,” Hannah told her.

“Wait a second.” Jared glanced over at her, surprise on his face. “She can sing?”

“Not well,” Shell laughed. “But I can harmonize. I do it with her all the time. I’m on most of the singles. I tend not to ask for a lot of publicity for it because I’m not great at it.”

“She’s a very good harmonizer, but she’s very shy about it,” Hannah was saying. “That’s why I’m trying to get her to do it.”

“If it’ll get you to shut up, then I’ll gladly do it.”

“Great!” Hannah beamed.

The group of them got ready, situated themselves, and then Shell hit record. It took them a few takes—Garrett messed up the chords once, Hannah messed up the lyrics twice, trying to keep from laughing, and then Shell erased what they had considered their best performance. Finally, they got it all together, and by the end of the song, Hannah had tears in her eyes. There was something that she loved about singing with Garrett, and when he looked at her like she was the only person in the world, it solidified that she was exactly where she needed to be.

“Let’s get this uploaded,” Shell clapped. “I can’t wait to see how many views it has by the end of the night. I can almost guarantee it will out-view Bryson’s version.”

“I hate to do that to him, but sometimes I gotta do what I gotta do.” Hannah folded her arms over her chest.

“He’ll get it. Hell, I think everybody will get it once they see this. If you could see it from my point of view.” Shell shook her head. “It’s beautiful.”

Hannah couldn’t wait, and she was excited to see what the fans would think of it. As far as the record company went, she could care less; they hadn’t cared about her wishes. It was time for her to do what she wanted to and what she knew would be best for her family. Screw anyone who stood in her way.

*  *  *

“W
ell, it took seven days, but I finally got my nasty gram,” Hannah told Shell as the two of them sat on the tour bus making their way back towards the Midwest.

“About uploading that video?”

“Yeah, I was waiting on it.” She shifted in her seat and pulled the laptop closer to her. “Figured it would have been before now.”

Shell stood up and came to stand behind her, reading over her shoulder. “They are so damn condescending,” Shell laughed.

“I know, but I checked with legal, there’s nothing they can do to me. I own the song, I wrote it, and it’s published under my company. They can only express their displeasure.” She clapped her hands. “This not-doing-what-I’m-supposed-to thing is getting to be fun.”

“Wonder what took them so long?”

“I guarantee you they were looking for a way to screw me over. I’m not letting them do it again. The holidays are coming up; I want to spend time with my husband and my family. I’m not letting them put a damper on it. We end this tour the week before Thanksgiving. I am going to spend my first married Thanksgiving with my husband, and then hopefully I’ll spend Christmas in my brand new house.” She ran her hand through her hair.

“How’s that going by the way?”

“We close next week. I’m faxing the paperwork in because I can’t be there and neither can Garrett. It’s kind of sad. Dad’s going to go over and make sure everything’s okay and oversee the changing of the locks and stuff. Then we’ll transfer my house into your name.” She grinned.

Things were moving ahead on all fronts, and for that she was excited. She couldn’t handle anything else going wrong.

“You still holding up okay? Physically and mentally?” Shell asked. She tried to make it a point to ask now, just because of what their friendship had gone through over the years. If Hannah got overwhelmed, it wasn’t good for either of them.