“Are you all packed, sugar?” Birdie asked softly as she settled beside Jamie, idly picking at her food. Clayton’s mom had prepared her famous roast beef dinner for the send-off, yet no one was eating.
“Yes, ma’am.” Jamie had learned the proper way to address Clayton’s parents when they asked her a question. “All packed.”
Birdie nodded. “You too, Ruth?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ruth replied before tears began to fall. “I’m going to miss you all so much. These next two months are going to feel so long.”
“They sure will,” Nolan said, fighting back tears himself. “We’ll talk every day, more than once.”
“It ain’t got to be that way,” Birdie piped up, fixing her gaze on her husband, who gave a slow, knowing nod. “Doc and I been chewing the fat about something, and we got ourselves a little proposition.”
“What’s that?” Clayton asked.
She went on, “Well now, the girls will be done with school by the end of the month, and they’ll be turning ten come June. Reckon that makes them just old enough to hit the road.”
Charlotte and Emily looked at each other, stunned.
“Can we, Daddy?” Emily pleaded.
“Pretty please?” Charlotte made prayer hands. “We won’t be any trouble.”
Clayton looked at Jamie and she nodded. “Well, it’s not just my decision, girls. It’s Miss Jamie’s tour too, and she’s staying on my bus.”
After a lengthy negotiation Jamie had eventually agreed to ride on Clayton’s bus. He proposed she use his bedroom as a study, assuring her he wouldn’t mind sleeping in a bunk. Besides, they’d be staying in hotels some nights. Buddy and the band had their own bus—which wasn’t an option for her—and the crew’s bus was already full. Having crunched the numbers countless times Jamie realized it wouldn’t be financially sensible to rent a bus just for Ruth and herself, so she’d accepted his offer.
“Miss Jamie, may we please?” Emily asked hopefully, fingers crossed. “Charlotte and I promise to be on our best behavior—I even crossed my heart!”
Jamie widened her eyes. “Of course!”
The girls sprang from their chairs, screaming with delight as they enveloped her in a tight hug.
“That means you’ll miss the end of baseball season,” Clayton said, giving them pause.
“I don’t care,” Charlotte replied with a shrug.
“Me neither,” Emily added. “Our team kind of stinks this year.”
“Then it’s settled,” Birdie agreed, clearly thrilled that the girls had chosen something over baseball.
“I’ll hold down the fort and take care of Poppy and the puppies,” Nolan declared.
Jamie set her knife and fork aside and shot him a look. “Poppy’s coming with me.”
“They’re just over six weeks old,” Nolan explained. “Poppy shouldn’t be separated from her puppies until they’re at least eight weeks.”
“What about Reba?” Ruth cried. “I was planning on bringing her—”
Before Ruth could finish, Doc chimed in. “I have a proposition myself.” All eyes turned toward him as he faced Nolan. “You haven’t taken a vacation in years, son. If you want to bring the girls with you at the end of the month, I can handle things here.”
“Are you sure, Daddy?” Nolan asked. His father nodded, adding, “Is that all right with you, Clay?”
Clayton nodded. “Heck yeah. The more the merrier.”
The buses idled outside the rehearsal space the next morning as everyone gathered. Gus drove the black bus carrying Jamie, Ruth, and Clayton; the blue bus held Buddy and the band and the white bus transported thecrew. The rest of the gear had already hit the road, making the three-hour trek to Birmingham, Alabama, where the tour would officially start.
Shorty had driven himself to the venue at dawn, determined to make sure everything ran smoothly for the first show. He’d be popping in now and then during the tour, but he had no intention of babysitting them for two months. That suited Jamie just fine—she was still pissed at him over what had happened in Vegas.
Not that she cared about Vegas. If Derrick wanted to marry some B-list actress that was his problem. He’d asked her to marry him more times than she could count, and she’d never once said yes. She’d always blamed the timing—the endless cycle of touring, filming, and award shows. But the truth? She just didn’t want to marry him. Maybe she’d watched too many reality dating shows, tricking herself into believing in perfect love. Or maybe, deep down, she’d always known Derrick wasn’t husband material.
