Wounded But Not Scarred (New Adult Rockers 2) (16 page)

He laughs as he loads our luggage
in the back of his truck and Blake and I get in.

“Still working out. And still
eating all my healthy food.”

“Good for you!” We fill him in on a
few things about the tour and then I give Blake a kiss.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he
promises “and we can decide if we still want to look at houses.”

“Alright. Tell your parents I said
hi,” I say, giving him one final kiss.

Daddy and I get all my stuff
inside, and I can’t help but feel tired. I didn’t sleep all that well on the
bus, and I hadn’t managed to take a nap during the day.

“How’s your grandma?” Daddy asks,
after we eat a light dinner of sandwiches.

“The same,” I sigh. “They’re
bringing her out of the coma tomorrow, but Momma says for me to wait until
Friday to come up, so I guess our Thanksgiving plans remain the same.”

We were planning on having brunch
at Blake’s parents house and then we're going to Jami’s later in the day, which
is where Daddy and Daisy will be, along with the rest of Jami’s family.

“How are you and Daisy doing?” I
ask coyly, noticing the subtle changes around the house. There were fresh
flowers in the kitchen and I noticed some new candles and a pink sweater thrown
over the couch.

“Good,” my dad says blushing,
“Daisy’s here about half the time now.”

“That’s nice, Daddy,” I say
honestly. “Is she coming over tonight?”

He shakes his head. “I wanted to
spend time with you.”

“That's sweet of you.”

“I think she’s going to look for a
renter for her condo,” he says quietly. “If that’s alright with you,” he says
looking at me.

“That’s fine, Daddy, and you know
you don’t have to ask me that. This is your house. In fact, I think that’s
great.”

“Well, you’re still living here and
I want to be respectful of you. Probably won’t happen until after the holidays.
That’s too much of a pain to deal with now.”

“Sure. Well I’m happy for you,
Daddy.” I smirk at him.

“What?”

“I guess you’re not doing things
traditionally.”

He gives me a rueful look. “I know,
I know. I gave you a bunch of crap about doing things properly. But I’m old,
and I already
did
things properly. I don’t know if I’ll ever get married
again.”

I burst out laughing. “It’s fine,
Daddy. I was only teasing you! I know it’s different.”

“But you’re right. I should be
practicing what I preach.”

“Really, Daddy, it’s fine!” I look
at the clock, and even though it’s not even nine o’clock, I’m beat. “I think I
need to go to bed,” I admit, yawning.

“Of course! Sorry, sweetie! I
forgot how tired you must be!”

“It’s alright. I just need a good
night of rest, that’s all.”

My daddy stands and gives me a
kiss.

“So glad to have you home for a few
days, Paige.”

And I realize that I’m glad to be
home with Daddy. Our relationship sure has come a long way.

I drive over to pick Paige up late
Wednesday morning, and I have to hand it to Cici for being able to show us two
houses the day before Thanksgiving. We had originally planned to look at three
houses, but today didn’t work for one of the owners. We may be able to look at
it on Sunday morning, but that will probably depend on the state of Paige’s
grandmother and how things are shaking out that day. We had to be back on the
RV early Monday morning to resume the tour.

Paige is waiting for me at the
front door, and I don’t even get a chance to get out of the car before she’s
hopping in the passenger seat.

“Hey baby!” she says happily,
leaning over and kissing my cheek.

“Hey! You seem happy.”

“I am happy! We’ve got five days
off, we’re going to look at houses, I get to spend a holiday with you, and
they’re bringing Grandma out of her coma today. I know it’s going to be a good
day.”

Her mood is infectious, and I find
myself feeling just as happy and light as Paige. I think about the engagement
ring that’s now sitting in the top drawer of the dresser in my room at my
parents’ house. I had really wanted to propose to Paige this weekend, but it's
certainly bad timing with everything going on with her grandma.

“I can’t believe Cici was able to
get us house showings today,” she remarks, brushing a piece of her long blonde
hair out of her face. She’s dressed in skinny jeans and tall brown boots, with
a long caramel-colored sweater. She’s the perfect mix of sexy and cute today.

“I know. Got to hand it to her.”

When we arrive at the first house,
I can tell that Paige is a little put off as we get out of the car.

“What is it?” I whisper, as we walk
up the porch.

“It looked like more land in the
picture,” she frowns. I have to agree. It’s not that Paige and I want a ton of
land, but we definitely want privacy and some property. Especially since we
seem to be followed by the paparazzi more and more. I peer over at the neighbor’s
house and think that it’s probably too close for what we want.

“Let’s see how we feel about the
inside.”

Paige nods and then Cici is pulling
the door open to greet us.

“Hey y’all!” she cries cheerfully,
hugging Paige and giving me a kiss on the cheek. “This here is Mrs. Clayton,”
she introduces as an older woman behind her waves.

“Hi,” Mrs. Clayton says, “I hope
you don’t mind that I’m in my kitchen cooking our Thanksgiving meal.”

“Goodness, no!” Paige exclaims,
“Thank you so much for letting us tour the house today and on such short
notice. We really appreciate it, and we’re sorry for interrupting your
cooking.”

“No problem at all,” she says
kindly, bustling back into the kitchen.

“Come on, let me show you around,”
Cici says, grabbing Paige’s hand. She leads us through the downstairs, which is
lovely, but I see that Paige’s face is guarded. The family room has huge
windows that look out over an expansive back yard, and I realize that this is
where most of the land is located. We tour the upstairs, which consists of five
bedrooms and a beautiful attic that can be used as an additional room.

“So you see,” Cici explains as we
wrap up, “You really don’t need to do any work to this house. The kitchen is
brand new and modernized, and all the bathrooms were updated in the past three
years. I know y’all were talking about having a pool, and there’s plenty of
room out back to build one.”

Paige nods thoughtfully, but Cici
doesn’t miss a beat.

“Let’s go check out the other house
and then we still might be able to see one on Sunday.”

We thank Mrs. Clayton for letting
us in her home, and then we get in my truck and follow Cici to the next house.

Paige speaks before I can say
anything.

“I’m just not feeling that house,”
she admits.

“I’m right with you. It was nice
and all, but I think we want more privacy, and I found the downstairs a little
small.”

“Me too. The upstairs was great,
but the office was real tiny, and the basement didn’t have a lot of room.
Especially if we want to set up a place to work on our music.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of time. No
rush. That’s why we’re looking so early.”

“I know. I’m really excited to see
this next house though,” she says, her eyes shining brightly.

The next house belonged to the
family who was moving to the west coast for a job transfer in the spring, so
the house wasn’t even officially on the market yet. It was actually a little
bit out of our initial price range, but our record sales and ticket sales have
been doing so well, that we're pretty confident now that we can afford it. And
the house seemed like it had more than enough room for us and a family down the
road.

We follow Cici through the packed
city, and then into the West End, before making our way towards the affluent
area of Belle Meade. This house was just on the outskirts of Belle Meade, which
boasted huge mansions, many of them owned by country stars. While the house we
were looking at was beautiful, it was a mere cottage compared to the homes of
Belle Meade.

We pass a number of long gated
driveways, and then arrive at a smaller gated driveway. Cici pulls up and
enters a code and the wrought iron gates swing slowly open. I roll my eyes, but
look over at Paige who is excitedly bouncing in her seat.

I can’t help but laugh.

We follow Cici up the long
driveway, and Paige lets out a little gasp of happiness when the house comes
into view.

“Oh, Blake! Look at it!” she
exclaims. And I have to admit the house is a beauty.

The house is in the style of a
Georgian estate, and it’s nestled among tall trees. The exterior is all large windows
and decadent-looking brick.

We get out of the car and Cici is
grinning at us.

“I can tell y’all like it already.”

“Let’s see the inside!” Paige says,
squeezing my hand.

We follow Cici inside as she tells
us that the owners are out of town for the weekend. We walk from room to room
and I can tell that Paige is in love with the house because she's practically
skipping from room to room. The backyard doesn’t have a pool, but there’s a
large screened in porch, with a ceiling made from natural wood that seems to
effortlessly blend in with the surrounding trees. And there’s more than enough
room for a pool in the future.

The downstairs has more than enough
space for us, including an office, playroom and even a small room where we
could make music. The upstairs doesn’t disappoint either with five bedrooms,
including a huge master suite.

“So, what do y’all think?” Cici
asks, as we finish up the tour.

I turn to Paige.

“I love it,” she admits gleefully.

Cici laughs. “Don’t worry. Since
the other realtor isn’t here, you don’t need a game face.”

“Oops, right,” Paige says catching
herself.

“Look, I love it too,” I say to
Cici, “but we’re going to need some more information. Like when exactly this
family is looking to move, and what kind of timetable they have. And while it’s
a great house, I think it’s overpriced. Obviously, we aren’t in any big rush,
and the longer we can hold out the better.”

Cici nods. “Tell you what. First
thing Monday, I’ll call the realty company that’s supposed to pick up this
house, and try to feel them out for more info. I’ll just hint that I may have
an interested couple, but one that is equally not in a rush. Then we’ll go from
there and see what happens.”

Paige nods eagerly and we walk to
our cars to part ways.

“Happy Thanksgiving!” Cici calls as
we get in our car.

“Oh my gosh, I loved that house!”
Paige squeals as soon as we shut our doors.

“I know! I could tell!”

“Didn’t you love it too?”

“I did. It's a little big though,”
I admit.

“I know, I know. It is a bit big.
But we can grow into it, right? I mean, if we have a family and stuff.” She
suddenly seems unsure.

“Of course I want a family, too.”

She smiles at me. “We would have
plenty of room for kids, and space for a guest bedroom or two.” She starts
rattling off rooms. “It had a den, an office, a playroom – even a room for our
music.”

“I know. It was great. I just don’t
want us getting our hopes up on the first house we love. I’ve seen these things
fall through before.”

Paige frowns and bites her lip.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t be getting this excited. I’m jumping the gun.”

Her phone starts to ring, and she
scrambles to pull it out of her purse.

“It’s my mom!” She answers it
quickly. “Hey momma, what’s going on?” I can hear the nervousness in her voice.
She slumps back into her seat and at first my heart stops, but then I see a
huge smile spread across her face. “Oh my god, I’m so happy! That’s wonderful!
Oh, Momma, thank goodness!”

I relax and keep my eyes on the
road. It sounds like good news.

“Yes! Please keep me posted and if
she’s up to talking on the phone, please put her on later!” She lets out a
little laugh. “Okay, okay, well then you tell her that I’m going to see her
Friday morning!” She nods her head at something her mother says. “Okay….yes,
Momma, you too….alright, love you too.” She hangs up the phone and grins at me.
“Grandma woke up this morning and she recognized who Momma was and seems to
understand that she's in the hospital. She’s not talking yet, and they think
she might have some facial paralysis, and maybe even some speech issues, but
they’re going to run all kinds of tests today to check everything out.”

“Oh, Paige, I’m so happy for you,”
I say, reaching over to squeeze her hand.

“I’m so relieved,” she says, a tear
slipping down her cheek, as she quickly wipes it away. “I was so worried. And I
felt so bad that I wasn’t up there to help out.”

“Well, you’ll be there Friday, and
that’s all that matters.”