I just shook my head. There was nothing I could do about any of it until we arrived.
My phone buzzed again, this time with a message from my friend and PR manager.
DANI: The idiot from The Reporter doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Dani had taken a flight direct from Paris to Georgia, to the waiting arms of the man she loved, a retired Navy SEAL who’d helped with our security for a while. Together, they were carving a life for themselves on an estate that had been in his family since before the Revolutionary War. I could feel her slipping away from me as they made plans for their family-owned business’s new charity. I’d told Lee to expect her resignation any day. We had a bet going on how soon it was going to happen.
ME: Nash actually let you out of the bedroom already?
DANI: Har har. I don’t want you to obsess over the article.
ME: I have plenty of time to prove him wrong.
DANI: You have nothing to prove. You just won two more AMAs in November and are up for two more Grammys.
ME: Go make mad, passionate love with your husband so he continues to let you come play with me and let me worry about myself.
DANI: “Let me come play.” You know how bad that sounds, right?
I smiled as I typed my response, knowing it would not only change the subject, but get a reaction out of her.
ME: Babe.
DANI: *** slapping head GIF ***
DANI: I owe you at least one when I see you again.
ME: Merry Christmas, Dani.
DANI: You too. Don’t obsess.
ME: I won’t.
DANI: You will. But try not to. Just be with your family.
ME: That’s the plan.
“Does your phone ever stop?” Mom asked.
I laughed. “When I’m with the team, there’s no one else to text me, so that’s when it’s the quietest.”
“Leave him be, Arlene,” Dad said. “He’s a big rock star now. We’re lucky we get time with him at all.”
“Come on,” I said with a smile and shrug. “I’ve never missed a holiday.”
It was the truth. I’d also never missed a birthday or an anniversary without a call and a present. They were important to me, and I tried to show it the best I could amongst the nonstop life I led.
I rolled my neck and went back to staring out the tinted glass.
We were almost to Grand Orchard. The rows and rows of apple trees with their bare branches were the proof. I’d loved escaping into the orchards with my friends growing up. We’d spent many a Friday night partying with the smudge pots as a background. I smiled at the memories of me on the tailgate of William’s truck, playing my guitar, making people swoon, and ending the night with kisses. I hadn’t thought of my one-time best friend or those secret parties in years.
The orchards gave way to the college grounds, which were almost as old as the land itself. Old ivy and brick that had been modernized on the inside. The college gave way to the town, which looked like it should be cast in either a horror movie or a movie from the 1950s. Quaint and cute. Almost too perfect. A stereotypical college and tourist town rolled into one.
Marco turned down the first street past the college and was soon parked in front of the Craftsman-style home I’d grown up in. The single-story house had floors slanting in the kitchen that almost matched the angled roofline of my childhood bedroom. The room had been added on to the house a century ago, and I’d barely been able to stand up straight in it once I’d turned sixteen. No matter how old and beat-up the house was, it was still home.
The wheels had hardly come to a stop before the front door opened, and Cassidy emerged onto the porch. I’d hardly had a chance to look at her before Mom was barreling out of the back and jogging up the stairs. Mom froze on the top step, her mouth falling open, and my body stilled, taking in my sister.
Cassidy shared my tawny, thick mane of hair, and she was almost as tall as me, but whereas I had bulk, she was long limbs and no meat. Now, she looked like she was barely able to keep her center of gravity because her belly was sticking straight out from her almost too-thin frame.
