“I bet he sure does know his way around,” Izzy jibes, and this time I swipe her on the arm, which she almost dodges.
“Thank god I have you three to help me with crazy ideas I don’t need,” I say. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
They all laugh in unison and chime, “You’re welcome.”
I know my friends just want to see me happy, and although I haven’t told them everything, they know I’m having a strong reaction toCowboy Brett,and that he stayed over last night.
I haven’t stopped thinking about him. Not since I walked in on him making dinner. Then our escapades in my bedroom. The spanking. The cake. Trussed up in the shower after said cake, and falling asleep with him exhausted in bed. We even cuddled, for goodness sakes. Something I’ve not been comfortable doing with anyone for a long, long time.
Then he was up at the crack of dawn, making me coffee before he had to leave, kissing me on top of the head and exiting the way he came in.
The guy is a fucking saint, that’s all I can say.
As for the rest. I guess I’m going to just have to wait and see.
CHAPTER 18
Brett
A few days later…
I’ve been helping Zane and his dad Frank out for the past couple of days with some of the tree exports, which means I haven’t seen Bailey at work, but she’s all I’ve been able to think about since our date night. How can I not? When I came here for some time out and to reflect on my recent past, I never expected to meet a woman like Bailey straight off the bat. And to have this connection to her like I do is next level.
I want to take her out on a proper date and get to know more about her. It may not be practical since I live in Nashville and she lives here, but I’m not thinking about that right now. All I know is that I’m enjoying every second I spend with her.
The chime of my cellphone breaks me out of my reverie over Bailey, when I glance down, I see it’s my relentless ex-manager, Richard. I blow out a breath and contemplate silencing him again, like I have been doing, or rather, avoiding him like the plague.
But knowing I can’t hold off forever, I decide I’d better answer. It will only lead to delayed anticipation of what he has to say, and I’d rather just get it over with.
“Richard,” I say down the line.
“Finally! You’ve been avoiding me.” He doesn’t sound happy, and frankly, neither am I.
“Can you blame me after everything that went down?”
“Look. Damage control is out of the way now. We need to get back to normal and talk about the new album, tour dates, the band. I can come to you. Your mom said you’re out of town.”
“You called my mother?” I balk.The nerve of this man.
“What did you expect?” he says sharply. “You weren’t answering my texts, or any of my calls. I had to do something.”
“I fired you,” I remind him. “Not that it’s any of your business now, but I needed to get out of town and lie low for a while.”
“I get that, but it’s done now. So, just tell me when and where and we will pick up where we left?—”
I sigh, which cuts him off, and I run a hand through my hair. “There’s no picking up where we left off, Richard. As we discussed when I got dragged through court over that whole incident, I’m through with you as my manager. You did nothing to defend me the entire time. You wanna talk damage control? Start by supporting your client!”
He laughs. It’s Richard’s auto response to everything he doesn’t understand, and I always hated it. “You clearly need some more time to cool off and I get that, I really do. You’ve been through a lot.”
I feel my temper surge, and it’s not often I get like this. But Richard wasn’t there for me in one of the most confrontational episodes of my life. I found out pretty quickly who my friends were, and I can count them on one hand.
My life went up in smoke a few months back. I had no choice but to stay in Tennessee until a court hearing date came upagainst a crazy fan who accused me of doing some pretty messed up shit. It went on for months, and the publicity was bad, real bad, but that isn’t even what upset me the most, it was the fact that I had very few people on my side, other than my family, Jed and Dale.
“I don’t need any time to cool off. The time for talking is over.”
“You’re being irrational, Brett. This isn’t the way forward, you know as well as I do that I’m the best manager there is in the business. All this unfortunate publicity is behind us now.”
“No thanks to you,” I grit. “You’re out, Richard. If you keep harassing me, you’ll be next to hear from my lawyers.”
