The Price of Love (Rockin' Country Book 2) (21 page)

“Then get your ass in the booth and give them the biggest fuck-you you got.” Their engineer pointed at Garrett. “Let’s get this shit done.”

*     *     *

That night as she came off-stage, Shell handed Hannah her phone. The first thing she always did was look for a text from Garrett. When she saw that she had a new one, she was excited and unlocked it to see who it was from.

“Huh? Wonder what Bryson is texting me for?”

“Probably because of your statement.” The
duh
was left out of Shell’s words, but it was heard.

“I figured he would have said something by now. What took him so long?” She shrugged, opening up the message. As she read it, her face burned.

“How dare you put me in the position of making you more famous than you already are and using me to make other people accept your marriage to your husband? I thought we were friends, Hannah. That song was supposed to be ours, you promised.”

She had no idea who had promised, it definitely hadn’t been her, and reiterated the fact that she thought someone at the record company had set the two of them up. “He’s mad.” She tilted the phone towards Shell and let her read it.

“He has no right to be that angry. If someone at the record company promised it, then he needs to take it up with them. That pisses me off,” Shell mumbled, walking with Hannah down the hall.

“How do I even respond to this? I feel bad that he seems to have gotten the short end of the stick, but there’s also a part of me that doesn’t care.”

“I wouldn’t respond, I’d let it go.”

That didn’t feel good to Hannah. She and Bryson had known each other for a long time. She tried to think of how she would feel if someone blew her off like that. “It doesn’t feel good to do that.”

“I’m being honest with you. He’s pissed. He’s going to piss you off, and then he’s going to say something that he doesn’t mean, and it’s going to make you mad. Without meaning to, you’ll get Garrett involved, and then it will be a knock-down, drag-out between everyone. I think it’s best to let it go. If he says something else, then you can answer it.”

Maybe Shell was right, maybe she did need to let it go. It wouldn’t change anything about her life now or after the tour was over. As far as she was concerned, her eyes were on the prize, and that prize was the Thursday before Thanksgiving. That’s when she would be done, and that’s when she could truly start living her life.

*  *  *

“Y
ou’ve got a delivery from California.”

Those were beginning to be Hannah’s favorite words in the world. That meant that Garrett had taken the time to send her something. Sometimes it was little, other times it was big, like flowers. Today, she wasn’t exactly sure what it was.

Shell sat a box down in front of her and waited patiently for her to open it. Hannah’s gifts had become something that they both looked forward too. They each tried to guess what it was before she officially ripped into it.

“I’m not sure about this one,” Hannah told Shell, tilting her head from side to side. “All the other ones have been self-explanatory, this one is a box.”

“I gotta admit, I’m stumped too. Usually there’s a rhyme and reason for what he’s sending and we can get a good clue from how it looks wrapped, but this…” Shell trailed off.

Shrugging, Hannah tore in, wondering just what in the world she would find there. She tried to think back to the conversations that she and Garrett had been having lately. “I have no idea either,” she said as she opened the box, laughing when she saw what was in there.

“What the hell is that?”

Hannah took a minute to examine it and then threw her head back laughing. “It’s different meal replacement drinks. He told me after I weighed in the other day that I needed to slow down the weight loss.” She pulled out the first one and saw it had a note attached to it. “Oh my God,” she giggled.

“Did he make personal notes for you?” Shell asked as she scoped the writing that was attached to each bottle.

Flipping the carton around in her hand, she saw that he had. “It looks like he taste-tested them for me,” she laughed. “He’s insane.”

“About you, and it’s super cute.” To say that Shell was a little jealous was an understatement, but it would do her no good to talk about it.

“He’ll be here the day after tomorrow and I’m excited.”

Shell watched her friend. The excitement was noticeable in the way her eyes brightened, the smile on her face got bigger, and the tone of her skin. There was one thing that none of them had counted on with this marriage—how much it would help Hannah become the person they all knew had been inside her. It had helped her blossom, and Shell had never been happier. “I’m excited for you. I know these past few weeks haven’t been easy.”

“They haven’t been easy on any of us. It’s not only me, it’s everybody. We’ve all worked our behinds off.”

“That’s true, but I think you’ve dealt with the brunt of the stress. You’re the one going out there killing it every night, when all you seriously want to do is be at home with your husband. I have to give it to you, I didn’t know if you would be able to do these eight weeks, but you’ve been a trooper. I’m proud of you, Han.”

She smiled. “Thanks, but I’m so ready to go home,” she laughed. “But I’m going to suck it up, drink this meal replacement that says ‘I rock’ and hope for the best.”

Truer words had never been spoken for all of them.

*     *     *

Shell loved mornings when she was the only one awake. The bus that she and Hannah occupied never had that many people in it, Hannah valued her privacy too much, but sometimes it was nice to be awake without Hannah. It was in those moments that she allowed herself to reflect on where she was in her life and do it alone. It was where she cried most of her tears and let her fears take hold. She never told those things or shared those feelings with anyone. It was her way of self-preservation.

This morning, she moved to the coffee maker and got her first cup before sitting down at the bar. In front of her on her laptop screen was the information that she needed to apply for the college program that she had been looking into. Scared didn’t even begin to describe the way she was feeling. There had been points in her life where she hadn’t been sure what she wanted to do, but this was a whole different ballgame. Hannah had told her what her own plans were, and for the first time, those didn’t include Shell. It was time for her to realize and understand that maybe she would have to continue with something that didn’t include the two of them. It had weighed heavily on her, after they had their talk, but Shell had made it a point not to dwell on it and never to mention it in front of Hannah. Hannah already felt bad enough about everything without her piling on other drama.

Beside her laptop, her cell phone vibrated. It was Jared, and that brought a real smile to her face.

Morning! I’m about to go to bed, but I wanted to wish you a good day
.

It was times like this when she could believe that he did love her, that what they were building on was something as important to him as it was to her. She held these little moments close to her. It wasn’t often that he thought to do the little things like this. He wasn’t thoughtful in the way that Garrett was. There were no trinkets just because he was thinking about her. There were no surprise flower deliveries because he knew she liked them, but that was okay. That’s who Jared was, and she could deal with that, but she wasn’t sure she could deal with the lack of feeling.

Thanks! I hope you have a good day too!

Overuse of exclamation points, another thing that told her just how much she wanted this to work with him. She was willing to act like everything was fine, even be overly cheerful about it. That was not her at all. If he noticed, he didn’t say anything about it, and that pissed her off too. All she wanted him to do was care about her the way she cared about him. Turning the phone over with more force than needed, she went back to the application, hoping that she was doing the right thing. As she read along with what she needed, there was a knock at the bus door.

Glancing out, she saw that they were stopped at a convenience store, and she wondered who in the world would be knocking. She got up and walked up to the front of the bus, her eyes widening when she saw Garrett standing outside.

“What are you doing here? I thought we were picking you up later on today?” she asked as she let him in.

“I texted the bus driver to see where you all were and it wasn’t too far from the airport that I flew into. Since I knew he had to gas up and that would take a while, I decided it would be easier just to go ahead and meet you all. Is she still asleep?” he asked as he made his way onto the bus and sat his bag down.

“Yeah, I didn’t want to wake her up, she’s been so tired lately with everything going on.”

Garrett shrugged out of his hoodie and sat it down on top of his bag. “I don’t blame you; she seems very stressed when I’ve talked to her on the phone the last few times. I hate what this is doing to her, and then all that bullshit with Bryson? I have half a mind to find that fucker myself.”

“I’m always up for assholes getting what they deserve, and I think he deserves whatever you give him. There was no reason for him to bring Hannah into that, unless of course what she said was true. The record company made promises on her behalf that she never intended to keep.”

He nodded, but even then, Garrett didn’t think it mattered. He didn’t trust the fucker, and that was all there was to it. “I’m gonna head on back if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure.” She smiled softly. “Go see your wife. She’s missed you.”

“Oh, before I forget.” He reached into the pocket of the hoodie he had just taken off and pulled out an envelope. “Jared told me to give this to you.”

For a long time, Shell held it in her hands, not sure what to do with it. Did she open it? What if it was a ‘see ya later’ letter? Finally, after glancing up at the clock and realizing that she’d held the envelope for over an hour, she steeled herself and tore into it. If he wanted to be alone, she had to know; there was no point in following along with Hannah when Black Friday toured next year, if that was the case.

Shell,

I know I try your patience, I know that I’m not the type of man that you thought you’d end up with, and I know that you’re a saint for putting up with me. I don’t tell you half the things you deserve to know or half the things I think about you. I was at Garrett’s the other night and overheard something that Hannah was talking to him about. You confessed that I’d never told you I loved you, and Hannah was all over Garrett’s shit for it.

She’s a great friend, one you need to keep for the rest of your life.

Hearing her say the things she did made me feel like a piece of shit, and maybe that’s what I needed. I’ve taken you for granted for a long time, beautiful, because you’ve been here, and I always assumed you would be. From the moment we had coffee with each other, I always knew you would be in my life, I never thought of it another way. It’s my fault that you don’t know how I feel about you because I can’t put those feelings into words. That’s why I’m writing this right now, I can’t open my mouth and tell you these things.