Music City Dreamers Read online

  Heather laughed and swatted at her but missed. Emma had a natural propensity to paint a coat of fun onto a serious conversation. She would’ve been Heather’s type before…before Heather found herself seriously attracted to Louie. “How do you ask someone if they like beating up their girlfriend when they get drunk? How would that friendly chat go? And where’s the best place to talk that through? A coffee shop? Over dinner at a fancy restaur—”

  “In bed?” Emma wiggled her eyebrows and smirked.

  “What if it isn’t true? Mia isn’t the most discreet person in the world. It’ll be all over Nashville within a week. What about Louie’s career?” I’m getting ahead of myself. She could tell from Emma’s amused expression she needed to dial down the crazy. “If Louie was a guy, how would you handle it?” Though only three years older than Heather, Emma seemed to have packed her thirty-two spins around the earth with a lot more experience, particularly the sexual kind.

  Emma tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling of the restroom. “I’d make a date, get settled in, and then broach the subject of Mia. Easy.” She turned both hands palm up and shrugged. “Louie knows you were backstage with me and is probably thinking you know each other. I’ll wager she’s already worrying about what Mia might be saying about her. If you bring Mia up, it gives Louie the opportunity to tell you her version of events, and you can ask the questions you need to ask.”

  Heather nodded and began to contemplate a plan of action. If Louie did have violent tendencies, it’d certainly put an abrupt end to her hard crush. It wasn’t for her to judge before she knew all the facts, but she did have her own career to consider too. Working with Savana was the start of bigger things for her, and Donny wouldn’t tolerate even a sniff of a scandal. She sighed, realizing that again she was jumping the gun. The attraction between them was undeniable, sure, but maybe they had nothing else in common. She could easily be worrying about things that would never come to pass. She did know that she definitely wanted that date to find out. As long as Louie was okay with being discreet. Heather hadn’t let her libido get in the way of her ambition for the past five years. She didn’t want to start now. And she’d already sailed a little too close to that wind with her performance outside.

  “Earth to Feathers. Come in, Feathers.”

  Heather pushed away from the sink and draped her arm around Emma’s shoulders. “It’s a plan.” She let her go and opened the door.

  “You’re going for it?”

  Heather smiled at Emma’s obvious surprise. She’d never been in the dating game or learned how to play. Her two previous partners were friends who developed into something more. She suspected that might be the reason they didn’t last, but she had nothing to compare it to. It looked like now might be the time to suit up and get off the bench.

  “Batter up,” Heather replied with a grin.

  ***

  Louie handed Gabe a beer and flopped onto the couch beside him. She hadn’t expected her evening to end up like this, but Gabe needed to talk, and Heather seemed to appreciate her sensitivity to that. Louie could only hope she hadn’t blown it. She sipped her beer, waiting for Gabe to break the silence in his own time.

  “Sorry I ruined your night.”

  “Didn’t I ruin yours first? You followed me out of the Bluebird. You wouldn’t have run into those guys otherwise.”

  Gabe shook his head and traced the etching on his bottle with his finger. “Nah, they would’ve seen me in there too.” He tugged at his cheek. “It’s not like I blend in.”

  Louie tilted her head in acknowledgement and said nothing. Prompting conversation with people she hardly knew wasn’t her strong suit unless she was flirting. Her thoughts drifted to Heather again, but she pulled her focus back to Gabe. Jake had been her one true friend, and they’d shared everything, especially their fears and feelings. Thinking back, it had taken a while to get there. It felt like she and Gabe were on a similar path, but maybe it would take her sharing something with him to get him talking. The other side of the seesaw was that she didn’t want to hog the conversation and make the night all about her woes either.

  “Thanks for taking care of it. It’s not like I can’t handle myself. I just don’t want to have to, you know?” Gabe took a long draw on his beer and shifted so he was in the corner of the sofa, looking at Louie.

  She couldn’t begin to imagine the life Gabe had left behind, but there was a subtext to his words that indicated his Georgia years hadn’t been all peaches and pecans. “I’m glad they were easily distracted. I wouldn’t have been much help. I’m no fighter.” She pointed at Gabe’s bicep, the cotton of his short-sleeved T-shirt strained to contain it. “It’s probably good for them that you didn’t fight.”

  He flexed and smiled. “I got these working in sanitation. Throwing those metal bins around for a couple of years built me up.”

  “Did you always want to be a country singer?” The change of topic felt clunky, but Louie figured Gabe would simply shut it down if he wasn’t ready to talk.

  “I always wanted to sing, I remember that much. I spent a lot of time in church on Sundays, and my mom forced me to join the choir.”

  Louie caught Gabe’s jaw twitch when he mentioned his mom. She didn’t miss his word choice, either. When Gabe didn’t continue, Louie pressed gently. “Forced you?”

  He nodded but didn’t make eye contact. “It was the one thing she forced me to do that I actually enjoyed.”

  Louie swallowed another mouthful of beer. The truth she needed to write Gabe’s song for him was seeping out. She suspected writing it would be far easier than the effort it would take Gabe to perform it publicly. “How did you get from church to country?”

  His eyes brightened. “Darius Rucker.” He swept his hand across the air before him as if he could see what he was saying. “I was fourteen when he made number one on the country charts in 2008…the first African-American to take that spot for twenty years. It also happened to be the year my dad found me and took me away from Mom.”

  “Bombshell much?” Unsure whether trying to lighten the mood was the right way to go or not, Louie did it anyway and was rewarded with Gabe’s goofy laugh and a big show of his rounded, snow-white teeth.

  “You’d have preferred me to build up to that?”

  “Maybe a little.” Louie finished her beer and stood. “Another one?” Gabe handed over his empty bottle, and Louie made a quick trip to the kitchen for replacements. She settled back into the sofa, scooched her feet beneath her, and faced Gabe. “Rewind a little. Did your dad leave you and your mom?” It seemed like this could be another thing they shared.

  Gabe scrunched up his mouth and shook his head. “Dad didn’t know about me. It was only when he happened to come back to Blakely that he found us. He was a traveling salesman, and he’d hooked up with mom briefly while he was in town selling bronzed baby shoes.”

  Louie held up her hand. “Wait. What? Bronzed what, now?”

  “You heard me—bronzed baby shoes or anything else you wanted bronzed. Teeth, footballs, guns. If it was important to you, Dad could bronze it for you. Pretty cool, actually.” Gabe climbed over the back of the couch, took something from the sideboard, and handed it to Louie. “That’s the stick shift from the car he taught me to drive in.”

  Louie hefted it and slapped it in the palm of her hand. “You could do some damage with this.”

  “Maybe I should carry it around with me for when I run into idiots like those guys tonight.”

  Louie raised her eyebrows. “Or…”

  Gabe held up his hands. “I’m kidding. Someone like me takes to a white guy’s head with something like that, and I wouldn’t see another sunrise.”

  Louie placed the gear stick on the table and turned to Gabe. “Back to your story. Why did your dad take you away, and did he get thrown in jail for kidnapping?” Gabe was opening up, but Louie felt it was only because they were talking so lightheartedly. The dark shadows had been fleeting, but Louie didn’t miss them bec
ause hers were similar. Gabe had clearly become adept at dismissing them as swiftly as they arose, just as Louie had.

  Gabe took a long draw from his beer. He picked up his bronzed stick shift and fiddled with the ball of it in much the same way that Catholics turn over their Rosary beads.

  “Mom wasn’t the maternal type, and I was the product of a drunken one-night stand with Pops. I got in the way of the life she wanted to lead so she found ways around that. Sometimes…a lot of times, her anger would get the better of her, and I got my share of the devil inside her.”

  A track of tears traced a lonely path down Gabe’s cheek. He wiped it away with the back of his hand before running his hand through his hair as if to disguise the real reason for his movement. Louie didn’t draw attention to it. He’d bared his experience to her, someone he’d just met, and the significance of his revelation humbled her. She’d asked for his truth and he’d given it willingly, though the past still clearly burned hot.

  “I’m getting my guitar. Let’s write that song for your Rocky Top audition.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Louie’s new boss, Clare, was a big improvement on Keg-belly back at the GrindStar. For starters, her clothes fit properly and she didn’t act like she was better than her staff. Her induction had been mercifully brief—brewing coffee and taking money weren’t a big drain on Louie’s brain—before she’d returned to the kitchen and left her to staff the counter with a cute brunette called Hayley. In the spirit of proving that she was over Mia, Louie had wanted to be a little bit more than friendly and possibly even work up to asking her out. But meeting Heather King had put her game off kilter, and in the brief moments between orders, Louie drifted to their exchange outside the Bluebird. In every one of the twenty or so versions she’d imagined so far, none of them involved leaving alone.

  “How’re you finding it?”

  Louie turned to Clare and smiled. “It’s really good. The customers are great, a lot friendlier than the city types I’m used to.”

  Clare patted her on the shoulder and nodded. “That’s the beauty of a place for the locals, Louie. You get to know everybody and they get to know you. It’s nice to be part of something. Y’know?”

  Louie grinned at Clare’s coffeehouse philosophy, especially since almost all of her staff were wannabe singers from all over the country, but she wasn’t wrong. She’d been searching for somewhere like this before she even left home. Her mom’s family had made them feel like they didn’t belong with them. “I sure do, Clare. Thanks again for this opportunity. I really appreciate it.”

  “Not a problem, Louie. You get through the rest of this shift like you’ve worked the morning, and you’ve got yourself a job.” She tapped her watch. “Time for you to take a break before the lunch rush.”

  Louie looked up at the wall clock, surprised how quickly the morning had passed. “Am I okay to grab a coffee and sit by the bar?”

  “Sure. Just take off your apron and cover your shirt so you don’t get bothered for orders.” Clare tapped her nose and turned back to the kitchen.

  Louie slipped into the back area and did as she was told. She pulled on a hoody to cover her uniform, grabbed her lyric book, and took up a station at the bar where Hayley had already placed a coffee for her. “Thanks, H.” She took a sip and closed her eyes as the strong, hot liquid coursed down her throat and the caffeine headed straight for her brain.

  “Are you asleep or meditating?”

  Louie opened her eyes to see Heather King standing in front of her. “Would you believe me if I said both?”

  Heather smiled and Louie tried hard to stop her brain from making some romantic comparison to the light of heaven. That kind of gushiness was best utilized in song lyrics. She had to maintain some level of cool, even though the briefest glimpse of Heather had roused a bevy of butterflies in her stomach. But damn, Louie wanted to continue exactly where they’d left off at the Bluebird a few nights ago.

  “You’re an empty vessel, then? You’ve achieved some level of higher enlightenment that the rest of us could only dream about?”

  Louie grinned, patted the stool beside her, and withheld the filthy pun about being happy for Heather to fill her empty vessel. She didn’t want Heather to think of her as crass. “So I’m told. Take a seat, and I’ll give you some tips.”

  “I only have ten minutes.”

  “Me too.” Louie didn’t miss the way Heather swiftly scoped the café before she sat beside her. Had Louie missed something? Heather hadn’t seemed too worried about who saw her outside the Bluebird when she snuggled her breasts to Louie’s chest. Maybe she wasn’t so open when she was sober. Louie pushed the thought to the deeper recesses of her mind. She didn’t want to deal with a closet case right now. “You’ve obviously got great taste in coffee. This place serves the strongest you’ll find in this town.”

  “Ah, you would’ve put me off with that line if I hadn’t been in here hundreds of times before. They know exactly how I like my coffee.” Heather pulled the takeout cup Hayley passed to her across the counter. “Thanks, Hayley. Perfect as usual.”

  “Only the best for the talent whisperer,” said Hayley and winked.

  Louie clenched her jaw. It was probably an innocent enough wink, one that had come from familiarity and one that wasn’t steeped in lustful intent. Still…

  Heather popped the lid on her coffee to add sweetener, and Louie noted that it looked more like steaming milk than any cup of beans she’d ever seen. “I don’t know if I can trust someone who has their coffee that weak.”

  Heather tapped the side of Louie’s mug with her manicured nail, and Louie wanted to be the mug.

  “I don’t know if I can trust someone who drinks coffee that looks like hot mud.”

  Heather flashed her show-stopping smile, and Louie wondered if everyone other than her had perfectly white teeth.

  “Where does that leave us?” Louie didn’t see the point in playing coy. There was no denying the attraction, and she hadn’t misread Heather’s interest when she hooked her finger in Louie’s belt and moved in close enough to kiss her. Heather quickly surveyed the café again, and Louie raised her eyebrow. “Are you looking to see if someone else is more interesting before you say yes to a date with me?”

  “Are you asking me on a date?” she whispered.

  She’d avoided the question. Alarm bells sounded in Louie’s head. She recalled the news piece about the VP at Rocky Top and the penny dropped. Heather was fearful of her sexuality being discovered. Her brazen behavior at the Bluebird had been a slip, possibly fueled by a little too much wine. “I suppose that depends on whether or not you’d consider going on a date with someone like me.”

  Heather looked beyond Louie and smiled at Hayley. “What do you mean, ‘someone like me’?”

  There were a few reasons Louie thought Heather wouldn’t have entertained a relationship with her, but she hadn’t considered this one. Maybe she was being naïve, thinking everyone could simply be who they were. Rocky Top’s VP being fired should’ve been Louie’s first clue. “I don’t exactly blend into the crowd,” Louie offered, not wanting to be too confrontational.

  Heather’s smile disappeared, and she bit her lip. She didn’t answer immediately, and Louie thought she’d blown it. Dating someone like Heather was a nice dream while she had it, but she was already floating away from her like Aladdin on his flying carpet.

  “I like you, Louie. And I’d like to get to know you. Dating anyone is hard for me; it doesn’t matter what they look like.” Heather sipped her coffee and again looked everywhere else in the café other than directly at Louie.

  Louie wanted to take Heather’s face in her hands. She needed to see that the look in Heather’s eyes matched the words that were coming from her mouth. She had a drink of her own coffee and let the bitter taste fill her mouth for a moment before she swallowed. How hard could it be to date someone who wanted to be discreet? Wasn’t it worth trying rather than always wondering what might’ve happened
if she didn’t try? “But you want to try?”

  Heather nodded. “I do.”

  It was all Louie needed to know…for now. “Good enough.”

  After a short silence, Heather tapped Louie’s lyric book. “Anything in there about me?” she asked quietly.

  Louie grinned. She’d been close to writing some words for Heather but had been distracted by Gabe. “Not yet. I’ve been writing with Gabe. The story behind his songs should blow you away…hopefully.” Louie added the last word to save herself from sounding over confident. No woman she’d ever met had found arrogance attractive.

  “Can I see them?”

  Heather’s hand remained on the edge of the book, and Louie allowed herself a second to fantasize about how Heather’s hand would feel on her neck as they kissed for the first time. She placed her hand on the other edge of the book and slowly pulled it from beneath Heather’s hand, careful not to touch her though she was desperate to. Louie opened the book, thumbed through it to “Bronzed Baby Shoes,” and passed it to Heather. “If you’re not at least teary-eyed when you’ve finished reading that one, your heart is a cold, dead husk.”

  Heather laughed. “Steel Magnolias is the only thing that makes me cry ugly.” She ran her fingers over the inked page. “Is it a deal breaker if there’s only a slightly discernible lip wobble?”

  Louie shook her head. “Total breakdown, ugly crying, complete devastation. I’m talking mascara running down your cheeks and banshee caterwauling…or no first date.”

  “Wow. That’s a strong reaction you’re looking for.”

  Louie pushed her book closer to Heather. “It’s all in. Go on. I dare you not to cry.”

  “With so much at stake, how can I not?” Heather glanced up at Louie before beginning to read.

  Heather’s smile made Louie’s stomach flip. She tried hard not to stare and looked at her coffee instead, but it was impossible not to. Louie thought about Heather’s words—“Dating anyone is hard for me”—and what she might be getting herself into. After Mia, Louie had promised herself she’d be more careful with her choices, with her affections. But her attraction to Heather didn’t seem to be under her control. It wasn’t like she was already falling head over heels, can’t live without you, let’s U-Haul, in love, but she wanted more…more Heather. That much she knew. It looked like the die on that game had already been thrown.