“That’s right,” Harry said, as if they had rehearsed this. “And I went straight to Adam and told him that I thought Country Quad, along with me as a solo artist, as well as Bryce—all six of us—could really raise some money and awareness for the horse rescue operations. Not just Bryce’s, but around the country.”
Adam smiled at his best friend, so grateful for the day that he had walked into that conference room in Nashville, Tennessee, and met Harry and his daddy.
“I immediately texted Morris,” Adam said. “And we set up this meeting.” He turned to the desk behind him, where he had prepared several folders. He handed them out as he continued, “Morris, Bryce, Harry, and I thought a five-concert series over the holidays would allow enough time for planning, as well as appeal to people in the giving spirit.”
“You want to do a concert series in the winter?” Luke flipped open his folder without looking at it. His voice sounded like hammering nails out of staples, and Adam glanced at him. He’d been told that Luke was one of the grumpier brothers, but that he usually came around in the end.
Trace wouldn’t say very much, and when he finally did say something, Adam would need to listen. Otis and Tex would talk the most and really hash things out.
Bryce had laughed as he said, “It takes them a while, but they get there—eventually.”
Adam had hedged his bets as much as possible, questioning Harry, Morris, and Bryce relentlessly about whether the band members would go for this idea or not. They had all agreed that they would…eventually, and Adam had taken it as his job to get them to agree.
“A concert on Christmas Eve,” Adam said, handing a folder to Tex, who had taken the seat at the head of the table. Harry had told him that most of the band members would go along with Tex, and that winning him over first was the smartest move. “Then Bryce wants to do one on his birthday a few days later.”
“You forgot about OJ,” Bryce said.
“Oh, right.” Adam met Otis’s eyes, and time seemed to stall completely. Images of Joey with her long, pale hair flashed through his mind, immediately followed by Otis’s younger child, OJ.
“Bryce wanted OJ to do a number with him, and maybe you, maybe everyone.” Adam suddenly felt like hewas rambling. “On Christmas Eve, because that’s his birthday.”
Otis took the folder with a little too much force and switched his gaze over to Bryce, where he glared.
“What?” Bryce asked. “You don’t want OJ to play the guitar? He’s really good, Uncle Otis.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to be a country music star,” Otis said.
“Maybe he does,” Harry deadpanned.
“You’re not the boy’s father,” Trace said in a low voice, and Harry looked over to his daddy.
“We know that,” he said. “This is just all a proposal. We’re here to talk about it.”
Adam glanced at the clock and handed the last folder to Morris. “Three additional concerts,” he continued. “One on New Year’s Eve, which we can pre-record and set to play as the clock hits midnight around the world. One on Christmas Day, which again, we can record in advance. And one on Three Kings Day. It rounds out the concert series and only takes thirteen days of your life.”
Luke scoffed but said nothing, and Adam didn’t blame him. Thirteen days of live appearances, sure. Thirteen days of massive social media, yes. Thirteen days of everyone talking about the concerts, absolutely.
But Adam knew that if Country Quad was going to play and produce five concerts in only two months’ time, the work would have to start immediately.
He took a seat at the foot of the table and gazed around at everyone as they looked at the single sheet of paper in thefolder. Adam knew that sometimes silence was the best motivator to get someone to speak, and he simply waited.
Bryce and Harry exchanged a glance, and Harry drew a breath, as if he would say something. Then he pressed his lips together and looked across the table to the three uncles sitting there.
“Looks like only Harry and Belle are doing a new song,” Trace said, almost in an off-hand way, like he didn’t care at all about anything happening right now.
“That’s too bad,” Otis said. “I’ve got some music in my mind that I think I could write for this.”
Bryce ducked his head as a slow smile curved his mouth, but Adam remained stoic.
“You think you’ve got some music in your mind?” Luke repeated, putting a question mark on it. “Are you kidding me right now?”
Otis looked at him coolly. “Just because we don’t tour anymore doesn’t mean I’ve stopped writing songs.” He looked over to Trace. “We just did three last week that are in negotiation for purchase by Sabrina Roundy.”
“Oh, that’d be a good sale,” Tex said.
Otis switched his gaze to his. “Yeah, it would be.”
“You’ve got a different song for us?” Tex asked.
