Pure desperation coated every word, and Adam found that he could not breathe properly. He’d forgotten to open the garage door, and he moved to do that. “Please,” he begged when Donna didn’t immediately shoot him down. “I’m an hour from Coral Canyon, and I can recruit other people.”
His phone rang, and Otis’s name sat there. “One of them is calling right now,” he said, his mind singular on this one problem that absolutely must fix before Adam did anything else.
He swiped Otis’s call away, because he could mobilize the entire Young family once he knew he should.
“I’m not going to say no to help,” Donna said. “But it’s a mess here. We have to pick through all the debris, and there’s snow and ice and water everywhere. I don’t even know if your lights will be functioning once I get them out of the warehouse.”
Adam swallowed, this problem much larger than he’doriginally imagined. “All we can do is try,” he said. “I’ll bring some muscle, and we’ll help.”
Donna did not confirm that she would allow him to have her people and the lights. But Adam had to do what he could. “I’ll be there in an hour,” he said. “Don’t do all the work without me.”
Donna laughed bitterly and said, “See you soon,” before she hung up.
Adam exhaled, tapped to turn on his Bluetooth, and pulled out of his driveway. Thankfully, it had not snowed for a couple of days, and the roads would be clear and dry all the way to Jackson.
He quickly tapped to call Tex, because the oldest brother in the Young family seemed to have the most connections and the most sway. Though he’d heard Harry tell stories about Mav and how, as the hinge brother,hewas the one who no one wanted to let down. But Tex was in the band, and this was definitely a band issue.
He waited impatiently as the phone rang, and Tex didn’t answer. He tried Trace next, surprised when a woman answered his phone with, “This is Trace Young’s phone.”
“It’s Adam,” he heard Trace gripe.
“It is Adam,” he said. “Is this Everly?”
“Yes,” she said. “What’s going on?”
Adam didn’t want to admit that he had a problem with Monday’s concert, but he had called, and he saw no way around it. “Our lights for Monday’s concert just got canceled,” he said. “I have to go to Jackson Hole to helpthem dig their equipment out of a wrecked roof and the snow and ice that caved it in. Is there any way I can get people to come help? It’s an hour drive and disgusting work.”
After that, scuffling came through the line, along with the crying, mewling sound of a baby. Ev started to shush it, and Trace said, “Our lights got canceled?”
“In an email,” Adam clipped out. “I called Donna, and she told me that the roof had been caved in by snow and ice. She’s not even sure the lights will work, but she’s dedicating her entire staff to cleaning the warehouse out, and she canceled our equipment.”
“That’s not good,” Trace said.
“I told her I was on my way to help her clean up, and that I would bring as many people as I could.” Adam came to a stop at a stop sign and pinched his eyes closed. “That was a stupid thing to promise her, wasn’t it? I mean, it’s a Saturday.”
Trace said, “I don’t know what people have going on.” He heard someone say something on his end of the line, and then Trace exhaled heavily. “Joey’s moving today, isn’t she?”
Adam swore right out loud, because, yes, his beautiful girlfriend was moving today—and a quick glance at the clock told him he should’ve been at her grandparents’ condo an hour ago.
He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about it; he’d orchestrated all of it. Pure foolishness drove through him, lanced with regret and guilt.
“I forgot she was moving today,” he said.
“I’m going to pretend like you didn’t say that,” Trace said. “And no one but me and you ever needs to know that it came out of your mouth, or that it even happened.”
Adam bashed the palm of his hand against the steering wheel. “I’ll head there first,” he said.
“I’m out at Reggie’s,” he said. “With him and Kassie and the baby, but I can put it on the family text for anyone who’s willing to go to Jackson after they’re done with Joey. I don’t really know who Otis coordinated with to help her.”
“He didn’t,” Adam said miserably. “I did it all.”
“Oh, well, there you go,” Trace said, as if Adam hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of his life.
“I gotta go,” Adam said.
“Yeah, I bet you do. Good luck, brother.” Trace ended the call, and Adam got on the Apple Highway leading down into Coral Canyon.
He wasn’t sure who to call first—Joey or her daddy—and he finally decided that Otis would probably answer over his daughter. He’d called while Adam had been on the phone with Donna, so it was easy to tap on the screen in his car and get a call connected back to Otis.
