“Fair enough, besides—they’rekind ofbuzzkills,” Gordon snorted, tossing back the rest of hisbeer.
“You’re telling me,” I sighed in agreement, taking in the transformed waterfront. String lights illuminated the entire beach area. Several chairs were arranged around the fire pit, with the fire already burning. The picnic tables were weighed down with food and there was an old wheel barrow with a wooden sign that readBeer Barrow. I nodded at Grady, Tommy, and Ben in greeting before my attention zeroed in onBrock.
“Hey! Groom guy! What the fuck is with this backwoods sausage fest!? Aren’t we supposed to celebrate your dwindling time as a free man by ogling strippers and shit?” I asked, placing the brown paper bag I’d brought down on the table and embracing my best friend in a one armedhug.
“Guess I got enough of a stripper show when you brought the Vegas escorts by O’Riley’s,” Brock responded smoothly, his lips twitching with a repressed grin.Fair enough. I tried not to wince at the reminder. “Hey, Grayson—this is my buddy Travis. Travis, this is GraysonDixon.”
Recognition flashed as I appraised Brock’s friend, Grayson. His face and his name both seemed so familiar to me, but I’d met so many people over the course of my career that it was impossible to place him. “Hey, do I know you from somewhere?” I asked, tilting my head as I tried to figure itout.
“By proxy, yes,” Grayson replied, his eyes narrowing as he gave me a rather menacing scowl. His reaction to my question helped me place him, so I let it roll of me like water on aduck.
“Ah right, you’re Everly’s man right?” Grayson clenched his jaw and nodded once, the only response I could expect to get from him, if my memory served me right. “How the hell is she? Haven’t seen her in a while! I think the last time I saw her was at the 2014 MusicAwards.”
“She’s good,” Grayson replied unwillingly, uncomfortable and pissed off at my line of questioning. I had to resist the urge to chuckle at him for seeing me as athreat.
Everly and I had done a few charity concerts together in the past. She had impressed me with her talent, and the fact that she hailed from a small town east of Toronto hadn’t hurt. She’d been very down to earth, and we became easy friends. But friends was all we ever were. She was fun and creative…but she had also been tragically distracted…as if her heart had been elsewhere. Two years ago, her sister died in a car crash and she left the musicscene.
“Everly Daniels was the lead singer ofAutumn Fields,” I explained, catching Brock and Braden’s bewildered expressions as they watched our exchange. “Will she be at thewedding?”
Grayson was silent for a moment before replying. “Yeah, shewill.”
“Fucking eh! It’s a small world after all,” I joked, laughing. Grayson seemed less than thrilled with me, so I picked up the brown paper bag that contained one very expensive bottle of aged whiskey. “Anybody want ashot?”
By the end of the night—and after we’d consumed nearly the entire bottle of aged whiskey—Grayson had warmed up to me. I couldn’t stop thinking about how good it would be to turn the first-dance song I was going to sing solo into a duet with Everly as we sat around the fire pit slinging beers and smokingdarts.
Once the idea came to me, I couldn’t let it go. BeckylovedAutumn Fields, and it was a miniscule way I could show her I cared about her—Isawher, and I paid attention to the little things—like her CD collection in thecar.
Plus, it benefited me. My music to date had mostly been about having a good time, but I was considering changing direction. I’d slipped in a few more romantic songs on my latest album, and I was toying with the idea of doing a duet. It was something I’d never done before, but the songwasmeant to be sung as aduet.
Everly’s voice had a folksy quality to it, and from a musical standpoint…we complemented each other nicely. It’d be a good test run to see how I sounded in a duet, before I made a massive fool of myself in thestudio.
Some of the guys had retreated into their tents, but a few were fishing off the docks. Neither Grayson nor I felt like fishing, so we sat around the fire talking about how I knew Everly. We had a bit of a heart to heart, where I told him that I’d only ever seen Everly as a friend and a talentedartist.
“Yeah, she’s talented,” he said, nodding in agreement. He stared into the fire and took another swig of the hundred year old whiskey we’d been drinking. He smiled a little, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe how lucky hewas.
“Do you think she ever misses it?” I asked. Sometimes, the thought would cross my mind. There was a time when I had truly believed I wouldn’t give it up for anything. But I knew without a doubt that I would give it up, if that’s what ittook.
“Without a doubt,” Grayson admitted quietly. “She still writes and sings, and we’ve talked about it before and she calls it her prolonged pause. She wants to be home for Cadance, and she’s not ready to go back. Not yet,anyway.”
Leaning forward, I dipped my chin forward. “Do you think she’d help an old friend woo the girl of his dreams?” I askedhopefully.
“How?” he askeddistrustfully.
“By singing a duet for the first dance song at Brock’swedding.”
“I’ll ask,” Grayson said after a moment of consideration. “But no promises. Everly’s never met Brock before. She’s basically only coming because she knows we’re friends. I don’t have many of those,” he half-laughed. “I’m a bit of adick.”
With another five days to kill before the wedding, I grew restless. I could hear the countdown in my head, and I needed to escape for a bit, so I took my mom to Nashville for a few days. Being in such close proximity to Becky and unable to see or talk to her was driving me mental. I needed to put a border between us for a few days, or I knew I’d blow our cover and jeopardize itall.
Mom had never been to Nashville, and it was fun seeing it all through her eyes, seeing the pride that reflected in them when she listened to the tracks on my new album in thestudio.
I stopped in to see my usual stylist to get my hair cut for the wedding. I had it buzzed short at the sides, keeping it a little longer on top. My curls went with the shorter cut, but it was so much cooler in the thick humidity and summerheat.
We returned the night before the rehearsal dinner, and I counted down the hours until I saw heragain.
The day before the wedding, everyone was supposed to meet at the Armstrong’s farm to set up and do a trial run of the ceremony. After that, everyone would head to The Dock for the rehearsaldinner.
I showed up early, hoping for a chance to talk to Becky, but she came last with Aiden in tow, who immediately darted over to the field where Tessa’s horses weregrazing.
