Wounded But Not Scarred (New Adult Rockers 2) (4 page)

“Eating lots of veggies?” I ask.

“Oh, yeah. I’m on this whole new
diet. I never really paid attention to what I put in my body before, but now I
know that I need to fuel it properly.”

I take a long swig of the Fresca
and nod.

“That’s great, Kenny, really.”

“So, I hear Rust is getting into
the recording studio in the next week,” he says, switching conversation to
business.

“Yeah, Liam did a bang up job
working that out.”

“He sure did. You guys been coming
up with new songs?”

“Of course.”

“I saw the list of the old ones
that you’re recording, and I think you made all the right choices.”

We need to record eleven songs all
together, and we've picked seven from our repertoire, and we’re hustling to add
four more. Actually, we already had three that we were certain of, but we were
still fumbling for the final song. I’m glad Kenny had approved so far.

“I want to get these records out,
and then I want to follow up with a tour. Preferably before the holidays.” He
slices a knife through a strange looking orange vegetable.

I don’t get a chance to respond
before Paige suddenly enters the room, and she looks stunning.

She’s dressed in a simple gray
skirt with a ruffled hem, and a slim, sleeveless silk pink blouse with beading
at the neckline. She's curled her hair a bit and pinned the sides back. She’s
wearing silver sandals, and minimal jewelry and the look is demure and elegant.

“Wow,” I manage to say.

“Do I look okay? I didn’t want to
overdo it, but I didn’t want to dress down either.”

“No. You look great.”

“Paige, honey, you look beautiful,”
Kenny agrees, beaming at his daughter.

“Alright, if you guys say so,” she
says, though she still looks nervous.

I’ve also dressed up a bit for my
parents, ditching my jeans and t-shirts for linen khakis and a blue polo shirt.
I haven’t missed Paige checking me out or the little smirk that plays on her
lips.

I even shaved my three-day-old
stubble; my mother should be happy.

“Ready?” I ask, getting down from
the counter.

“Yep,” she says, but I’m not
convinced.

“Relax,” I urge, giving her a peck
on the cheek and leading her towards the door.

“Bye Daddy!” she calls, “See you
later.”

“Have fun!” he replies, waving us
out the door.

I help Paige into the truck and I
watch her nervously smooth down her hair and fiddle with her pink clutch.

“Paige, these are my parents.
Relax.”

I get behind the wheel and we start
the twenty-minute journey to my childhood house.

“What if they think I’m some tramp
that stole you away from Savannah?” she frets.

“They are not going to think that.
Don’t be ridiculous. The worst thing they could think is that we got together
too fast and I behaved badly with Savannah. I even mentioned to my mother how
Savannah tried to torment you, so she’s fully aware that you had no part in any
of this.”

“But I did play a part,” Paige
insists, “If I hadn’t moved back to town, you and Savannah would never have
broken up.”

I give Paige a dubious look.
“C’mon, Paige. It never would have worked. One way or the other, things would
have fallen apart. I wasn’t really happy with her. I was just going through the
motions.”

“Yeah, her slutty sex-skill
motions,” Paige mutters under her breath, and I cringe.

Maybe I shouldn’t have confided in
Paige that it was mostly about the sex with Savannah. But I had said that while
trying to explain to Paige that she and I shared so much more than I had ever
shared with Savannah. And truthfully, sex with Paige was a thousand times
better.

We arrive at my parents, and I
gently guide Paige to the door. I ring the doorbell and my mother answers.

“Mrs. Evans,” Paige smiles, “It’s
so nice to see you again.”

“Oh, sweetheart, don’t be formal,”
my mother laughs, “Come here and give me a hug.”

Paige breaks into a huge smile and
embraces my mother.

“It’s so good to see you, Paige.”
My mother pulls away and looks at her. “My goodness, you look exactly the same,
only even more pretty than I remember.”

Paige blushes.

“Come on in and say hi to Blake’s
daddy.” She takes Paige by the arm and leads her down the hall to the kitchen.
Paige turns around to look at me and grins, looking happier than ever.

“Paige Lawson!” I hear my dad boom,
and I walk in to see him giving her a big hug. “How nice it is to see you around
this house again! Why, it feels like yesterday when I would see your bike
leaning up against the garage and you and Blake splashing around in the pool.”

My mother laughs. “You always
headed home once I got home from work.”

Paige giggles nervously. “I didn’t
want to be a bother,” she admits, “and I always had to get home to have dinner
with my Daddy.”

“How is your father?” my mom asks.
I know she’s aware of the fact that he went back to rehab.

“He’s doing really well, thank you.
Healthier than ever now.”

My mom reaches over and squeezes
Paige’s hand. “We are just so glad to see you back here in Nashville,” she says
warmly.

Well, for all my mom’s complaints
about me being lousy to Savannah, she sure seems happy to see Paige. I should
have known. My parents always loved Paige. They had just been giving me a hard
time, when they were probably secretly delighted all along that Paige and I
were back together.

“Come on in to the living room and
sit down,” my mother says, beckoning Paige to the living room. “Let’s catch
up.”

Paige smiles and follows my mother.

“Can I get you something to drink?”
my dad asks her. “Wine, soda, water?”

“Water would be lovely, thank you,”
Paige says, moving into the living room and sitting down next to my mother on
the couch.

“Now, tell me what you’ve been up
to besides capturing my son’s heart again?” my mother says, but she’s smiling.

Paige frowns. “I’m really sorry
about that,” she says earnestly, “I never expected this to happen. I know he
was engaged, and we tried really hard to resist our feelings.”

“Oh, sweetie, pish,” my mother
laughs, “You don’t have to explain anything to me. That Savannah was a tramp!”

Paige covers her mouth and giggles.

“Blake should have known better
than to get involved with her anyway. Of course, it’s caused a few hiccups in
our social circle,” she says, shooting me a look, “but we dealt with it. And
it’s no wonder he couldn’t resist you. You’re just as sweet as ever.”

Paige seems somewhat mollified and
they start talking about Paige’s return to Nashville and what she’s been doing
since arriving.

I step into the kitchen with my
father.

“Well for all the crap you and Mom
gave me, you both seem happy to see Paige,” I say in a low voice.

My dad lets out a quiet laugh. “Of
course we’re happy to see Paige. Your momma is just upset about pissing off the
Devlins. You had to go and get yourself engaged to one of the most prominent
families in Nashville.” He pauses. “They’re out for blood,” he says darkly.

“Huh?”

My dad looks at me, and then shakes
his head. “Never mind. It’s not important.”

“The hell it is. What do you mean
they are
out for blood
?”

“We’ll talk another time, son. Let
it go for now. Paige is a breath of fresh air. And such a lady. She’s the kind
of girl you should end up with.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Is it serious?”

“Yeah, it is.”

My dad nods. “Good. You don’t want
to let a girl like Paige get away.”

“I know. I already lost her once.”

My dad’s quiet for a moment. “How
is she handling all that?” he asks carefully.

I sigh. “It was thirteen years ago,
but it still haunts her.” I look over at Paige who is laughing and talking with
my mom. It makes me feel damn good inside to see them getting along. “But she’s
come a hell of a long way,” I tell my dad.

He’s looking over at my mom and
Paige too. “Sure seems like it,” he agrees. “And ain’t that one pretty
picture?”

It is one pretty picture, as my dad
puts it. In all the years I was with Savannah, never had she and my mother gotten
along like this. And Paige had only been inside the house for five minutes now.

I look over and smile at Blake as
we drive home from his parents’ house.

He grins back at me and shakes his
head.

“All that worrying for nothing,
huh?” he teases.

“You told me yourself that they
weren’t happy about things,” I point out.

“I did,” he reasons, “I didn’t
realize they were just basically giving me a hard time.” He shakes his head
again. “They both love you.”

“Good,” I say with satisfaction,
“because I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

Blake squeezes my hand and I change
the subject.

“Do you have to work with the band
tomorrow?”

He frowns and nods. “We need one
more song and we’re struggling.”

Rust goes into the studio next week
too, and they're cutting eleven tracks. I'm going to put twelve tracks on my
album, but three of those will be duets with Blake. We're going to cover
Need
You Now
, from Lady Antebellum because we had such success with it on tour
and we're also going to lay down two original tracks. One of which is currently
being written for us, and the other one is supposed to be written by the two of
us.

I don’t want to push Blake on
writing our one song, because I know he's stressed out about Rust’s song at the
moment.

As always, Blake has an uncanny
ability to read my mind.

“I know we need to do a song, too,”
he says, “I just need to get my head together with the band.”

“It’s okay, really. I know this is
stressful with us being pushed into the studio so soon, and having all this
pressure to get two good albums out.”

Blake nods. “Your dad mentioned
that he wants to do another tour before Christmas.”

I bite my lip. “I know. That’s a
lot of pressure. Especially since these albums probably won’t make it out until
October.”

Blake nods in agreement.

We are doing something almost
unheard of by rushing these albums like this. Most albums are planned for
months and months, and we're doing two in a matter of weeks. I understand that
my dad wants to strike while the iron's hot, but it sure puts a lot of pressure
on us.

“Me and the guys are going to work
together tomorrow and all weekend,” Blake speaks up. “Maybe we can get together
during the week - in between our own sessions or after.”

“Sure. We’ll make it work.” I say.

We pull up at my daddy’s house,
Blake cuts the engine and pulls me across the seat and into his lap.

“I love you,” he whispers, brushing
away a strand of my hair and kissing me.

“Mmmm,” I sigh, kissing him back,
and pressing my body to him.

His mouth becomes more frantic, and
I meet his urgency as I feel my insides heat up.

Blake chuckles nervously and pushes
me away. “I don’t know if Kenny is watching but we certainly don’t want to give
your dad a show.”

That snaps me out of it.

“No, we don’t,” I say.

I give him a light peck on the
cheek, and crawl back to my side before pushing the door open.

“Thanks for taking me home to see your
parents, I feel so much better now. I couldn’t have asked for a better night.”

“I couldn’t ask for a better
girlfriend,” he counters.

“Love you baby!” I call as I head
into the house.

The house is dark and quiet, and I
think I can hear the TV in my daddy’s room. I don’t disturb him, and instead
make my way back to my room. I work on some music for a bit to unwind and then
finally go to bed, knowing that I’ve got work to do on my own album over the
next couple days.