The butterflies in her stomach were the kind Bree relished, the kind that gave her fuel. The roadies were done switching out their equipment, and now, all she had to do was wait for her band to be introduced, and she’d finally be taking the stage again.
“Are you ready?” Shawna whispered in her ear, a huge smile on her face.
“So ready,” Bree replied, smiling and squeezing her keyboardist’s hand. She’d gotte
“The winner of the New Entrepreneur of the Year award is… Trent Walker of Walker Accounting Services!”Applause rang out across the room at the MCs words. Trent stood and buttoned his jacket, making his way the few steps to the podium, imagining the clapping was as much for the fact that his award was the last one of the evening and everyone would be able to get the hell out of there as soon as he finished speaking. He didn’t plan to talk for long. A beautiful woman in
“Be honest!” Christy demanded, tossing back her sixth or seventh shot of tequila. They’d only been at the bar for an hour or so, which meant Christy was making good time on hitting her quota, not that she ever hesitated to hit the drinks. “Is living with Trent everything you thought it would be?” “Uh… yeah,” Bree replied, her hands nestled around her first bottle of beer. It was about gone, but she wasn’t anywhere near as intoxicated as Christy was. Hank also was taking his time, though he’d finished at least two beers and was on his third. “I love living with Trent.”
Trent was asleep when Bree snuck into the bedroom. She could tell he had been exhausted when he’d gotten home because his suit was haphazardly tossed on the end of the bed and not hung on a hanger and placed in the “to be dry cleaned” section of his closet. She smiled and picked up his jacket, holding it up in hopes of catching a whiff of his cologne. It was there, but so was a faint scent of floral perfume. Assuming that had to be because Celia had been next to him all night long, Bree put the jacket down and tried not to be upset. Who knows whose cologne might be on her? She’d hugged every male member of her band that night--and some stage hands--and Hank. Deciding she was being silly, she headed into the bathroom to take a shower. Regardless of whose cologne may have collected on her, she definitely smelled of cigarette smoke and
It was a little past 2:00 when Bree and Trent walked into the restaurant Christy had suggested. When Christy said she’d be there at 2:00, that meant no earlier than 2:15, so Bree wasn’t surprised at all that they still weren’t there now, and she wasn’t expecting them for a few more minutes. The waiter showed them to a booth large enough to seat all four of them, and Bree and Trent sat together, leaving the other side for their friends--if that could even be used to describe Hank at the moment. He was still Bree’s friend, but apparently not Trent’s. Not that she blamed him.He’d agreed to come, though. That was something. She knew he was
They made it home. The trip had been excruciating, neither of them saying anything at all to one another, not a single word. It was as if they each understood the other’s position; I know there’s going to be shouting, and that doesn’t mix well with driving. As soon as she walked in the door, Bree slipped her heels off of her tired feet and sat down on the couch. Trent hung his keys by the door and slumped into the chair next to her, his fingernails biting into the armrests. As Bree tried to decide how to phrase her first question, he said quietly, “I didn’t want to upset you.”
A few weeks passed without another mention of Monica, the award ceremony, or even Hank, which Trent was thankful for. After he and Bree had made up, he decided to be completely honest with her from now on, even if he thought he’d be doing her a favor by not telling her the whole truth. She had several tours booked for the next few months; even some of the bigger venues across the country wanted to book her, The stories Trent was reading online about Bree’s miraculous recovery seemed more than a little blown out of proportion, but it was helping fuel her popularity, and since Cat still hadn’t decided to just admit defeat and plead guilty, Bree had time to go to as many venues as possible. Even some of the more popular talk show hosts across the country wanted to book her.
Bree sat down on her stool in the practice room and took a sip of her coffee, her eyes trained on the lyrics of the song they’d be going over next. It was a new one, something she’d written a few weeks ago and brought in for the rest of the band to collaborate on. She was really liking the way it was coming along. Every time they played the melody, they made a little more progress on getting the tune together. With some luck and determination, by the time they got ready to cut their new record, the song could be included. She thought it was going to be something special, along the lines of “Meant to Marry Me” and “Lead Me Home.”
“How was your day?” Trent asked, his hand tightly wound around Bree’s as they walked along a quiet street in their neighborhood. It was a nice spring day, transitioning to summer, a little warm, but not too hot. After work, he’d gone home to find Bree in shorts and a T-shirt ready to go for a stroll and had changed into a similar outfit to take advantage of the opportunity to get some fresh air with the beautiful woman next to him. “It was good,” Bree said, her voice wavering slightly that made him question whether or not she was telling him everything. He thought she probably would if he gave her a chance to keep ta
Two weeks later…. Bree sat on the beach, a drink one hand, Trent’s fingers interlaced with her other where it lay in the sand. The ocean waves rolled in, wetting the sand near their toes, the sun baking down on their tan skin as it dried from their first dip in the ocean. There would be plenty more.&nbs
The sound of the gavel echoed throughout the courtroom. No one said a word for what seemed like the longest few seconds Bree could ever remember. Then, the people around her came back to life, and she found air in her lungs again. “Are you okay?” Trent asked. He was always asking her that, checking on her, making sure she was all right. Bree nodded. She was all right. She was going to continue to be all right, too. It seemed like a nightmare that had lasted almost two years was finally over.&nb
Yet again, Bree found herself speaking to a police officer. This time, she wasn’t the one lying in a hospital bed, though. Instead, after they’d pieced together enough of the story to know that the maintenance man had been trying to make it so that the pipe above her head would move down, Bree and her bandmates had been asked to come to the police station. The others were sitting outside, or maybe one or two of them were being interviewed by other officers now. All she knew was the man sitting across from her, Detective Coop Wellington, didn’t look like the sort of person one kept information from. “We know Monica and this&helli
“All right--Bree Matthews!” a stagehand shouted, coming over with a clipboard and a microphone on his head. “Are you ready?” “We are ready!” Bree said for all of them, bouncing on her heels. “Then, head to your spots.” He signaled for them to approach their section of the stage. The band had been prepped on how this would work before the show. They headed to the places they’d been told to earli
Sitting in a chair, staring at a runway, brought back way too many uncomfortable memories for Trent. Had it really just been a little over a year since he’d spent at least one or two days a week sitting in just such a chair, waiting for Monica to come down the stage? It seemed so strange now. He tried not to fidget, but his leg was bouncing up and down so quickly, he was glad he wasn’t outside because he might manage to start a fire with the right kindling--and like Bree, he’d had enough of fire for one lifetime. “Are you all right?” Celia asked, leaning over to whisper in his ear. “You’re making me nervous, an
Anxiety bubbled up in Bree as she stood in the staging area, getting ready for the big show. All around her, models and bands were putting the finishing touches on their makeup and hair, the models getting into their first outfits so that they’d be fully prepared to grace the runway as soon as it was their turn to take the walk and show off the newest fashions to an invigorated audience. From what Bree could tell, this wasn’t actually one of those fashion shows where the clothing was practical and might be bought by the average housewife. No, it was mostly lingerie, and it was mostly, well, ridiculous, in her point of view. None of it was s
The sound of voices from the television met Bree’s ear as she walked through the apartment door. She checked the time on her phone. It was only a little past 3:00. What was Trent doing home? She had to assume it was him watching the television because it sounded like the news channel, and if the housekeeper had turned it on, it would’ve been a soap opera or court show. Hanging her purse by the door, and placing her keys where she could find them, she went into the adjoining room to investigate. Trent was sitting on the couch with his laptop open on his lap, his stocking feet on the coffee table, typing away. She almost didn’t want to
Meeting Monica at the event center where the Nashville Nights concert was to be held was intimidating, even though Bree had her bandmates with her. She had insisted Trent go to work; it was a Thursday afternoon, after all, just after lunch, and there was no reason for him to miss work to walk with her through the building where she’d be playing in a couple of nights, not when she had three capable men and Shawna with her to give her moral support.Trent had protested, saying he’d feel much more comfortable if Bree allowed him to go along, that the rest of the band wasn’t aware of how Monica could be. It had almost led to an argument. Bree had insisted she wasn&
“This is a horrible idea. The worst one ever. In the entire history of the world, I cannot imagine one idea worse than this one.” Celia sat across from Trent in his office, her arms folded, her legs crossed, her face puckered.At the moment, he couldn’t even allow himself to snicker at her exaggeration. While he agreed that what he was about to do was a terrible idea, he could think of lots of other ideas that were worse, many of them involving wars that had killed thousands or millions of people. Or spread disease. Or polluted the environment. But she was right--of all of the decisions he’d been directly involved in, this one was pretty awful.