That Night in Nashville (Ticket to True Love) Read online

He didn’t know if he ever would.

  10

  Hailey headed straight home after the short prelude with Adam. She’d intended to stay at the festival and support the other artists on stage. She was great at standing in the audience and calling out and cheering these days. She could get a crowd going for a new artist, just pretending she was an enthusiastic listener—and she was.

  But today she didn’t have it in her. She'd known she wouldn't be able to watch the bands while she was there, she’d be too busy watching Adam run the show. She’d wanted to stay and catch Wilder—the group she was sharing her tour with. But they’d gone out directly after her, almost passing each other backstage and she’d been pulled aside into her signing booth.

  Brenda had done a fantastic job with the PR. By the time Hailey arrived at the signing tent, a crowd waited for her. Hailey knew better than to believe it was all about her singing. It was marketing, and it was hustling, pure and simple—but she’d still had a tent with a crowd. That had felt good.

  Once she’d been ousted for Wilder to take over the small booth, she’d been ready to meet up with Adam. But their conversation had worn her out—mentally, if not physically.

  At home, she’d been almost too exhausted to plug her laptop into the monitor she’d bought secondhand and used as a TV screen. She’d been sluggish logging into her streaming services, but Hailey pep-talked herself into watching a few more episodes of a show she'd been bingeing until earlier this week. Maybe she could catch up a little bit.

  She'd been asleep before she hit the third episode.

  On Sunday, she’d gotten up and made herself coffee in the cheap coffee maker. Looking around at the small apartment, it was clear she was definitely a former poor kid. She had things. She didn’t have quality items, she had lots of cheap items. A lot of it she’d gotten at Goodwill and just never replaced. The coffee pot might have been purchased new but, given the sputtering and whining noises it was making, she definitely hadn’t gotten a quality item there.

  Was her philosophical self-check brought on by seeing Adam again? Probably. But she didn’t need a blast from her past. Aside from Adam and Shay, she’d been willing to walk away from all of it. She didn’t even know if her own mother was still in the trailer park or if she’d moved or re-re-re-married or what. Hailey could only assume that Donna Pulaski wasn’t dead or she would have heard about it.

  She pushed any deep thoughts aside and slowly rolled into her day. Only she didn’t roll, Hailey procrastinated. She messaged Shay and caught her at a good moment. On video chat with her best friend, she confessed to everything she’d done—much to Shay’s surprise. Then she listened as Shay worried about her young sons, both of whom were out with their fathers for the weekend.

  “They’ll be okay,” Hailey reassured her friend, though they both knew it wasn’t anything she could promise.

  Shay nodded as though trying to convince herself and changed the subject. “You’ll have to keep me posted about Adam. I admit, I didn’t see that coming!”

  After she hung up, Hailey got dressed and finally got her ass out the door and down to Love Note’s studios. Parking at the back, she headed inside and found more activity there.

  There were a few dedicated songwriters like her in on a weekend day. JD Hewlitt occupied one of the back rooms. Through the tiny window in the door, she could see him with his headphones on, head down, moving with music no one else could hear as his fingers crawled agilely along his guitar strings.

  She'd once considered getting involved with one of the Hewlitts—JD or his younger, bolder brother. TJ was a bit too wild for Hailey’s tastes, and JD wasn’t in any space for a relationship. His new daughter was already enough for him to handle, and besides, Hailey had met his neighbor Kelsey and it was pretty clear that JD had a thing for his neighbor. Hailey had liked Kelsey on the spot and she wasn’t getting in the middle of that. Passing by without knocking she headed down the hallway.

  Peeking through the window of the next closed door, she found Margaret, an older woman with an adorable silver ponytail, also with her head down over her work. Noise didn’t leak in or out of the newly redesigned workshop rooms, so Margaret must have been paying attention and caught the movement at the door, unlike JD.

  Looking up and smiling, the older woman waved, giving Hailey a warm fuzzy feeling that she needed this morning. Margaret and Hailey were slated to write a song together—something Brenda had decided would be a good idea. The label manager thought their styles matched. Margaret was definitely old school, but she was more than up to speed on what sold a song. Most people would have balked at writing country music with a woman in her sixties, but Hailey was excited and she waved back with a big grin on her face.

  Today wasn't the day to start on whatever that piece would become though. Margaret was clearly neck deep in something of her own. So Hailey passed by looking for an empty room. There was something about having her guitar slung over her shoulder as she looked for a place to sit down and sing that made it feel like a throwback to before she had an album out. Before she had a contract. Before she’d been the one on the stage. Before she could pay her bills.

  The room was definitely an upgrade from the horrible acoustics of her early apartments. It was an upgrade from the banging on the floor, a commentary from the people downstairs if they decided she played too late into the night. Hailey put her name on the board on the door, noting that it was already reserved at two. She’d probably be out of here before then anyway.

  Stowing her things, she grabbed a cup of coffee from the break room because a second cup of coffee today would be fine. And probably so would a third, or a fourth… She needed it to do good work, and she needed good work to stay in the business. It was the lie she told herself to keep drinking the coffee.

  At last, when she settled in, staff paper spread in front of her so she could record what she did, she turned on the built-in recording device in the corner of the room. It would collect not only her music, but her mutterings and the long spaces in between.

  Picking up her guitar, she was pleased to find this was one of those mornings when a tune came out easily. She worked with it, building in her bridge. The chorus and verse parts came along with a little work and some vocal checking.

  But the words were harder to get out.

  Every time she started to sing, it was about Adam.

  11

  Hailey stood quietly, listening as her newest song played into the soft air of the office while Brenda sat behind her desk with absolutely no expression on her face. This was one of Brenda's best skills and probably why she was succeeding as a new label owner. She could listen to anything and formulate any reaction she chose. No one would know what her reaction was until she decided to share it.

  Though Hailey hadn't used Adam’s name, anyone in the know would recognize that it was a song about him. The idea had been inescapable for the last week and a half.

  She’d been frantically writing new music. Songs about saying goodbye, songs about making hard choices, and even one about finding the one who got away. That one wasn't real. She wasn't kidding herself. She and Adam weren't picking up where they left off, but the song about it—about what might have been—it was good. She could only hope Brenda thought so, too.

  As she watched her manager listen carefully, Hailey wondered how much of hers and Adam’s story Brenda could glean from the song. Could she tell that Hailey and Adam were no grand love story? They’d simply run into each other after a long time, and they’d hooked up. That wasn’t the song though. The song had bigger dreams. The song was great.

  Or Hailey thought so. It took another full minute for Brenda to raise one eyebrow, before she said, “Wow.”

  Hailey let out all the breath she had been holding as she tried to get her own poker face to be anywhere near as good as Brenda's. It didn’t work, so she just asked “Yes?”

  “Oh, definitely.” Leaning forward, Brenda tapped the end of her pen on the desktop as she clearly began t
hinking through the logistics. Once Brenda told you how she felt about your song, she would easily show every thought and feeling on her face. So it was easy for Hailey to read now that Brenda was making decisions.

  Hailey, still standing, took in another deep breath and steeled herself for whatever her boss had to say. She still wasn’t prepared.

  “So we've hit a bit of a snag with the tour.”

  Oh? This was the first she was hearing of it.

  Brenda went on. “One of the guys in Wilder inherited a five-year-old recently—”

  “I'm sorry. What?” Hailey asked.

  “It's his kid. But he didn't know he even had a child. The mother died and finding out he had a daughter was a shock.”

  “Wow, which one?” Hailey knew these guys, or she thought she did. She was shocked one of them might have a mysterious kid in the back corner.

  Brenda stunned her further by saying the last name Hailey expected. “JD.”

  “Oh.” She felt the word slide out of her mouth again. She’d known JD had a daughter but had no clue it was that crazy of a situation. Still, she struggled to figure out how this was her problem.

  “So, they can't go out on tour full-time like I’d been planning for them. What I want to do is alternate their tour dates with yours.”

  Hailey felt her heart sink. She'd been told she would be on tour herself full-time. She had plans to put her things into storage and be on the road for almost six months, hitting every tiny fair and festival along the way. Apparently, JD and his crazy love child meant that now Hailey couldn't go. She tried to keep her smile in place, even though she was certain she was failing miserably.

  “Alternating the dates still gives us one complete tour. It also gives you a chance to ease into your first tour rather than get slammed into it. Touring is hard. I like this solution. It allows JD time to be at home and to be a father.” Brenda cut herself off and changed directions, apparently seeing the expression on Hailey's face. “Look, I'm here, rather than in LA or New York because family is the most important thing. You know this. Everyone here knows why we founded Heart Beats. I ran myself ragged and my husband raised my kids and I was pretty sure they didn't recognize me. So understand that I'm not going to do that that to him.”

  Hailey nodded trying to look for an upside to getting downsized. Brenda had seen right through her uncharitable and selfish feelings and Hailey wasn't sure if she’d just been chastised or not. But Brenda wasn't wrong. JD did need time, and family was important.

  Still, Hailey had made her sacrifices. She’d walked away from everything to pursue this career and, as much as she agreed with Brenda, and as much as she understood JD needed time, it didn't seem fair to pull her because of his mistake.

  But Brenda had said her piece and she was moving on to the next topic. Hailey scrambled to catch up.

  “—and I want to pull your album.”

  “Why?” Could this day get any worse? First, she’d given Brenda a great song, but everything was getting taken away! Why would they pull her album? It hadn't even been released yet, so it couldn’t have performed badly.

  “I want to rework it.” Brenda was tapping her pen on the tabletop again.

  Hailey sat down abruptly in the chair across from Brenda's desk and clutched her hands in her lap. This was more than she'd bargained for and she wasn’t fooling anyone about her growing distress, so she just let it all hang out. “I thought you liked the new song.” She’d thought it might go on her third album. Damn. Maybe she wasn't going to get one. Maybe she was over before she’d even started.

  The music industry was full of failure. She was about to be next and she was struggling both to breathe and to not burst into a fit of tears or anger.

  But Brenda was shaking her head.

  “No, it's not like that. See, I thought we were going to put your album out and that we would get some traction with it. We would use it to build your fan base more and then, with your third album, we could see a real hit. I thought it might happen then because some people would already know you and like your music.”

  Well that was good, but it didn’t explain anything. Hailey clutched her hands harder and waited.

  “I think you're fantastic.” Brenda was leaning forward, but now she was no longer tapping the pen. She was making a point, and she needed Hailey to listen.

  At least it became a little easier to breathe after hearing that. But only a little.

  “What I thought,” Brenda said, “was that we were going to roll you into things. I thought it would be a slow build. But after this song, I think we can do better than that. If you can give me a couple more like this, we're going to rework this new album. We're going to pull a few of the songs. I like them, but maybe we sell them to somebody else. You'll get songwriting credit, they can perform it, whatever, I don't know.”

  She took a deep breath and looked Hailey in the eyes. “If you can give me two or three more like this one, then we're going to drop this new album to the biggest splash Heart Beats has ever seen.”

  It was Hailey's turn to lean back. She was stunned. Could she do a few more of these? She didn't know. “I mean,” her mouth opened, and she started talking without thinking first. “This is one of about four songs I wrote the other day.”

  “Why didn't you play them all for me?” Brenda frowned suddenly.

  “Because honestly, they're all the same theme.” Hailey could feel her eyes squinting, as though she were apologizing as she spoke.

  Brenda nodded, “I get it.”

  Did she? Hailey thought. Then again. Brenda did live and work with songwriters. She probably knew when big things happened in her artists lives, because they tended to put it in a song.

  “Give them to me. Let me listen and let's decide together.” Brenda’s demands felt better than her earlier explanations. Hailey was thinking through all the changes. Was she good with losing some of her tour dates? She was muddling it through when Brenda cut into her thoughts again. “Are you okay if I change some of them around?”

  “I don't understand,” Hailey asked before she even processed the question. The one thing she understood about Brenda was that Brenda was not a songwriter. Brenda was a great producer. She knew what she liked, knew what she heard and was able to look at an artist and say, no, go higher, change the bridge, add a background chorus. But Brenda didn't write music.

  Then Hailey understood. “You want to tweak them?”

  “Well, I want to see if there's something else we can use that we can tweak around to make into a separate song. Hailey, I can tell you bled for this song.”

  Hailey nodded, but Brenda wasn’t done.

  “But whatever you did, it was amazing. I’m going to need you to bleed for the next three, too.”

  12

  Adam sat at his desk with his head in his hands.

  “Hey boss!” Jerry had stuck his head in the door and waited until Adam lifted his eyes and actually looked at him.

  Damn, Adam thought, even as he looked up, this wasn’t going to be good. If it was just an update, his best friend would have barked it at him and been gone before Adam even had a chance to respond. “What is it?”

  “We may have to turn down the Hilton job.”

  “Why?” The Hilton job was huge. Adam had been counting on it even though it wasn’t fully confirmed yet. Adam knew better than to anticipate thing before they were signed. Even when contracts were all signed and the job was completed, he didn't count on anything until the paycheck was in his hand. But he needed the Hilton job. It was big enough to change the depth of the debt he was drowning in.

  “We don't have all the equipment,” Jerry said.

  Adam felt his face pull into a frown wondering how ridiculous Jerry could get. “Then sub-rent it.” It was the obvious solution. One they’d used on many, many occasions.

  “I'm not finding it. Not on those dates.” Jerry shrugged. “I’ve tried piecing it together from different places, but even that’s not getting all that we need.
I think we need to buy the equipment.”

  Oh, dear God, Alex thought. The last thing he needed was to go further in debt for this company. At the level of professional display and audio services his company offered, the equipment was worth millions. Sub-renting it dug into their profits, but buying it outright? That could eat everything. It would set them up well for the future, but only if they bought wisely.

  He could not deal with this today, but he wasn't convinced that Jerry was wrong. The Hilton job would cover the extra equipment, as long as the job came through, and as long as they paid him on time.

  “Look,” Jerry said, “it's about having the amount of equipment when we need it. It’s your company and your decision. But we should be able to send these projectors out in the future for good money. They’re in relatively high demand, which is why I'm struggling to find the number we need for all the dates that we need them.”

  Jerry wasn’t just his friend, he was in the company the same as Adam. Only, Adam had bought the company and started wearing suits to meetings with clients. Jerry was clear he didn’t want the headache or the ties. But he was the best advice Adam could find. He sighed out a breath. “Okay. Let’s do one more search and see if we can find sub-rentals. Also, put Tommy on it. I don't know why, but everybody likes that kid. They'll bend over backward to get him whatever equipment he needs. He's like some lost puppy.”

  He shouldn't have said that, but Jerry grinned. “Good point. I’m on it.”

  “Let me know tomorrow by noon, and we’ll make a final decision.”

  With that, Jerry was out the door and Adam was sitting in his office, head in his hands, just like he’d started, but now with more to worry about. His brain had not been in the game for almost two weeks, not since the Nashville Brewers Fest.

  Hailey.

  He’d told himself long ago that he was over her. He’d believed that if he saw her again, she’d just be a girl he used to know. But it hadn't gone down that way—Jesus, it had not gone down that way.