He had never understood the fans who practically stalked him online, commenting on every single photo the instant he posted it.
But he was starting to get it now.
Following Cody’s socials was a little frustrating because the kid almost never posted anything. But even looking at what he’d put up a few days ago brought Cash a smile.
The last picture was from a volunteer session at the local animal shelter. Cody had a gigantic golden retriever half on his lap and a big smile on his face. Cash could see that Bella was there too, though she was mostly out of the frame. Cody had hashtags that said #thisislove and #wishheweremine.
I could get him a dog,Cash thought to himself.
Then he thought about Bella’s tiny apartment andrealized something like that would have to wait until he could get the two of them into something a little bigger.
I need to make things better with her…
His timer went off in the kitchen, and he jogged in to check on the lasagna he’d started earlier.
It was kind of wild to have time to make lasagna. It had been years since he’d really cooked. He had a place in LA, but there was a live-in housekeeper there who did the cooking too.
He had forgotten how much he liked puttering around in the kitchen.
The plan was to invite Bella and Cody over for dinner, and maybe even to impress them with his domestic skills. He had kind of wrecked the kitchen along the way, but he had plenty of time to clean up.
Hopefully, seeing him make the effort would soften Bella’s heart toward him and she would finally tell him what he’d done wrong and how to fix it.
He grabbed his phone from the charger by the window, noticing that the whole screen was covered in notifications.
But before he had a chance to unlock it, he heard a familiar sound from outside—the bus-horn version of “La Cucaracha,” which could only mean one thing…
“What in the world?”he murmured to himself as he headed for the front door.“It can’t be them.”
But it was. The tour bus was parked out front, theCash Lawlogo emblazoned across the side along with a guitar and musical notes flowing out of it.
As he watched, the doors opened, and his bandmates piled out.
“Look at this place,” Hank said, shaking his head. “You weren’t kidding about being a real country boy.”
“It’s like a dang Christmas card,” Pete laughed. “Except the purple house. That’s all you.”
“Did you see all those cows?” Nigel asked, his baby-face looking amazed. “There have to be like a hundred of them.”
“Come on, city boys,” Aimee said. “Let’s go see Cash.”
“Hi, guys,” Cash said, still trying to wrap his mind around what was going on. “What are you doing here?”
“We have to talk,” Aimee said, pushing past him to walk right into the house.
The guys jogged up to follow her inside, and there was nothing for Cash to do but trail after them all with a goofy grin on his face. He hadn’t realized how much he’d been missing these guys until they were here.
“Man, this is nice,” Nigel yelled out from the dining room. “It smells good in here, too.”
“So, this is how the other half lives,” Hank said, waiting for Cash and clapping him on the back as he caught up.
“This is how I grew up,” Cash said with a smile, trying to see the wavy glass windows and old-fashioned wallpaper through his buddy’s eyes. “I mean the house was alotmore full of kids back then.”
“You’ll get there,” Hank said, winking at him.
When they joined the others in the kitchen, he saw Aimee studying the oven.
“What is that?” she asked.
