“Ah, right. I forgot places do that before they open.”
“I don’t think I ever knew. But Hyram—our cook—said it’d be courtin’ trouble to open without it.”
He was tired. He’d done three interviews on country music podcasts, two on local network affiliates, and one had been on the nationally syndicated show Nashville Today. And that was huge. In between he’d done two dozen shows in venues ranging farther from home than he had yet, and bigger than he’d ever filled, pulling in capacity crowds at every one of them.
He’d slept in more hotel rooms than he could count with every piece of his flesh, blood, and bones aching to be home. It was an entirely foreign emotion.
He’d even done some songwriting. Heartbreak songs. They seemed to be his vibe these days.
There was a tap on the door. “Two minutes,” came through in a muffled voice, then footsteps retreated.
“You look like you lost your best friend, son,” Ang said. “You can’t go out there like that. You need something to pick you up.”
Ethan rose from his chair. “You ever suggest that again and I’ll be lookin’ for a new manager.”
Ang held up a hand, “Whoa, come on, I didn’t mean drugs. I meant—” He rubbed his chin again, then nodded. “This is an early show, right?” He’d pulled out his phone, was tapping and scrolling, and talking more to it than to Ethan. “And whaddya got, like a podcast tonight, that interview tomorrow, and then—that’s not so bad.”
“Yeah, I’ll get through it.”
“Not what I meant.” He got up and paced back and forth while tapping. There were whoosh sounds every twenty taps or so. “Done. You’re free.”
Ethan blinked at him. “What do you mean, I’m free?”
“I mean, you do this show and you’re done. Go home. I just postponed everything else. They want their interviews, we can set ‘em up remotely. Maybe do one from the honky-tonk later in the week. They’ll eat it up.”
Ethan blinked at his manager, who’d always been a decent guy, but had never treated him like this before. “Normally, you’d tell me to buck up and do the work,” he said.
“Yeah, and you bucked up and did the work. Now my job’s changed. I’m not beatin’ the bushes to get you decent gigs. We’re just sorting through for the best offers now. My new job is seeing to it that you, Ethan Brand, stay happy and healthy and well-adjusted. You want to go home, then home you go.”
The smile that split Ethan’s face then was so big it almost hurt. His throat even tightened up. He was going home. Tonight!
“I’m not even fixin’ to text her,” he said. “It’ll be a surprise.”
“Her?”
“Them,” he corrected. But it had been Lily’s face in his mind, her shining blue eyes full of delight. She was always so happy to see him. She made him ten feet tall.
Ang was scanning his face and nodding in a self-satisfied way. “There’s the guy this crowd’s waiting to see. C’mon, Ethan, I’ll walk you out to the stage.”
Chapter Sixteen
There were still two hours until everyone would arrive, and Lily didn’t know how she was going to contain her nervous energy for that long.
“Everything is perfect, Lil,” Harrison said, sliding his arm around her shoulders. “Look at what you pulled off, and mostly on your own.” He’d been looking around the place, same as she was, but he looked down to meet her eyes then. “I’m impressed by you, little sister. Blown away, as a matter of fact.”
She lowered her head, smiling hard and fighting an actual giggle that bubbled up into her throat. “Thanks, big brother. That means a lot, coming from you.”
“Ooh, smell that?” he asked.
Their father had started cooking, if the aromas were anything to go by. Her brother’s bride was in the kitchen, too, and Cat Shaw was taking her first shift behind the bar. Turned out she was an experienced drink-slinger with some time to kill, plus she loved working with Hyram. Seeing them together…well, she was pretty sure her mom was smiling down and egging them on.
Just then the kitchen doors opened, and Maria thrust her head out. “That’s what was missing! The smells!” She waved a hand toward her own face as if to inhale them all the better and vanished back inside.
“She’s probably driving Dad crazy,” Harrison said.
“Are you kidding me? He adores her. But don’t be surprised if he puts baby notions into her head.”
“Baby notions?” Harrison’s eyebrows shot up almost to his hairline, which made Lily burst out laughing.
