Wounded But Not Scarred (New Adult Rockers 2) (5 page)

I spend the next three days holed
up in my room working on music. I’m not sure if it’s because Blake and I are
going so strong, or that my life finally feels like it's falling into place,
but the music just pours out of me, and I realize I’m going to have more than
enough songs for my album.

I don’t see Blake all weekend, but
we talk a bit, and it seems the band is making progress and they were finally
able to come up with a new song to record.

The band and I are sharing time in
the studio throughout the week, and I have the first session on Monday. I
decide to give my mom a call before I head out to record.

“Hi Paige,” she answers on the
first ring.

“Hey Momma. I’m sorry I haven’t
checked in with you in a while.”

“I was beginning to think that you
forgot all about me.”

“Of course not!”

“Well, I hardly hear from you and I
haven’t seen you once since you moved.”

My mother was right; I hadn’t been
doing a very good job keeping in touch.

“I know, I know. You're right. What
if we plan to get together for one of the upcoming weekends?”

I can just picture my mom’s face
lighting up.

“I would love that. Are you singing
anywhere soon? I could come down and here you sing.”

“I’m actually not performing
anywhere right now. That was part of the reason I was calling you. I’m going
into the recording studio to cut my first album today.”

“Oh my goodness! That’s wonderful!
I can’t believe how fast that happened.”

“I know. They really sped up the
process, so it’s happening a lot faster than any of us had planned. So, I’m
kind of taking a break from singing while I’m working on the album. And then
Daddy is trying to send us out on another tour since the first one went so
well, and we want to promote our new albums of course.”

“That’s wonderful, honey. I have
been hearing your name come up more and more lately.”

It was a strange thing to start
hearing my name in the country music industry.

“How is your father?” she asks,
changing the subject.

“He’s actually doing really well.
He’s been home for a week now, and I have to say, Momma, this is the best I’ve
ever seen him.”

“That’s good. I’m glad he has you
there to help him.”

We spend a little bit more time
talking about Daddy’s recovery, and I know that Momma understands better than
anyone. I was always sad that Momma never remarried, but now I feel bad that my
daddy never did either.

My mom expertly changes the subject
to Blake once we finish talking about Daddy’s recovery. I know that my mom is
invested in my daddy’s recovery, mostly for my sake, but I'm always worried
that I might share too much with her. Then again, it was my momma who helped my
daddy and I reconnect.

“Blake is really great,” I can’t
help but say enthusiastically. “And I finally went over to see his parents the
other night.”

“Oh, the Evans! How are they? They
were such nice people,” she exclaims.

“They were just as nice as ever. I
was a little worried, given that Blake had been engaged before, and his parents
weren’t too thrilled that he dropped his ex-fiancé for another woman.”

“Did they like Savannah?” my mom
asks, shocked.

I'd already filled my mom in on some
of Savannah’s less appealing qualities.

“No,” I laugh, “they didn’t like
her one bit. I think they wish Blake had never gotten mixed up with her in the
first place. But they seemed a whole heck of a lot happier to have me there.
Except they did mention that Savannah’s family had been making some waves in
their social circles.”

Blake had said this to me in
passing, and then he seemed to regret saying it once it slipped out.

“What do you mean?” my mom’s voice
is sharp.

“Well,” I say, “her family is a
pretty big deal down here. I think they have a lot of political influence.”

“What’s their family name?”

I guess I never told my mother
Savannah’s last name.

“Devlin.”

My mom’s gasp is audible.

“Devlin?” she asks. “As in Scarlet
and Jeffrey Devlin?”

“Umm, I believe so.” I think those
names sound familiar.

“Oh well, honey, why didn’t you say
something?” my mom says in a knowing voice.

“What?” I demand, “Don’t tell me
you think that Blake should have stayed with that you-know-what.”

“Oh honey, don’t be foolish. I
would never say that Blake should have picked someone else over you. And if
that Savannah is anything like her mother, then I can’t believe Blake lasted
with her as long as he did. I grew up with Scarlet Devlin. Of course that’s her
married name now. She was Scarlet Prescott when I knew her.”

I swallow. I know of the Prescott
family.

“Scarlet and Jeffrey marrying was
the merging of two of the biggest families in Nashville. Scarlet was a nasty
thing in school. I think I remember hearing about her having a baby girl around
the same time I had you. I always tried to steer clear of them. You
don’t
want to be on their bad side.”

I sigh. “Well, it’s too late now.”

My mother tries to backtrack
because I guess she’s realized the same. “Well, don’t worry about it. You’re
right. Nothing you can do now. Hopefully they’ll try to find Savannah a more
suitable husband. I don’t think Blake would have been right for her anyway. I’m
sure they want a young man to go into the family business.”

I remember Blake saying how that
had been the plan all along. Savannah had loved his wild-child rocker side, but
it had always been understood that he would eventually join Jeffrey at work.

“Alright Momma. I’ve loved talking
to you but I gotta get going. Let’s talk in the next couple days and we can
plan something. I can come to Bristol for the weekend so I can see you and
Grandma.”

“Alright, dear. We’ll work
something out. I love you.”

“Love you too, Momma.”

I try not to worry too much about
what my mother said about the Devlin family as I head into the recording
studio.

My session in the studio ends up
going extremely well, and I’m pleasantly surprised to bump into Ben and Ryan,
the other band mates of Rust, on my way out.

“Hey!” I exclaim, hugging each of
them.

“Looking good, Paige,” Ryan flirts,
and I give him a playful push. Ryan is definitely the more aggressive of the
two guys, and he made it no secret when he tried to pursue me when I first
moved to Nashville.

“Blake should be here any minute,”
Ben says, smiling at me.

“Oh, good. I’d like to see him
before I head out. He said you guys had a great weekend working on your music.”

“Yeah, we finally nailed a sweet
tune,” Ben says, grinning. “Your dad and the label are serious about getting us
all out there again.” He lowers his voice, “Though honestly, I think the real
money-maker is going to be your songs with Blake.”

“Stop,” I say, feeling
uncomfortable. I definitely don’t want to take away from the band.

Ben shrugs and Ryan nods in
agreement.

“It is what it is,” Ben says,
“People love male and female duos. And now that you guys are dating,” he shakes
his head with envy, “That shit will
sell
.”

Just then Blake walks in and I
can’t help notice how damn sexy he is. I could never tire of looking at him.
His hair is messy and disheveled, like he just finished running his hands
through it, and he’s got a bit of stubble. I’m sure he hasn’t shaved since we
had dinner at his parents’. He’s wearing black jeans and a white and gray Rust
t-shirt, that’s ripped just enough to make it look good.

“Hey handsome,” Ryan teases and
Blake flips him off.

“Hey baby,” Blake says, pulling me
in for a kiss. “This is a nice surprise. How was your session?”

“It went really well. I’ll get out
of your hair though. I just wanted to say hi before heading out.”

He kisses me again, and this time I
push him away, embarrassed.

“Blake,” I admonish, “your friends
are right here.”

“They don’t mind,” he jokes.

“No, we don’t,” Ryan pipes up.

“Whatever,” I laugh. “You guys are
nuts.”

I give Blake one more kiss and tell
him to call me later. I wave goodbye to Ben and Ryan.

Just as I get in my car, my phone
goes off. I look at the caller ID and see that it’s Becky from my dad’s office.

“Hey Becky,” I say, answering the
phone.

Becky and I have sort of become
friends. I say sort of because I’m not used to having girlfriends. After my
dad’s friends attacked me, I lost touch with all of my Nashville girlfriends,
and I slowly lost all of my Bristol friends, too. It was just too hard to try
and have relationships with anyone.

I never realized how lonely I had
been until I started trying to make friends in Nashville. Not that I had tried
all that hard. Between starting up a romance with Blake again, rebuilding my
relationship with my father, and trying to kick start my music career, I didn’t
have a whole lot of time for friends. But Becky and I had hit it off the first
time that we met, and it was easy to talk to her.

“Hey, Paige! I’m glad I caught you!
I was wondering if you had any time to swing by the office this afternoon and
sign some papers. I’m sorry for the short notice and I’m sorry for the rushed
phone call. I’d love to know how you’re doing, too.” She sighs. “Things are
really hectic here.”

“Is everything alright?”

“Yes, it’s fine, and don’t worry,
you’re dad is doing great. It’s just that after a nice, quiet week last week,
we’re kicking things up into full gear and this place is a madhouse now. There
are some documents concerning your album that need signatures.”

Poor Becky. She could handle just
about anything, but she sounded beyond frazzled over the phone.

“I’m actually out right now, so I can
swing by now and sign it, if that will work.”

“Oh my gosh! That would be great!
Thank you, thank you, thank you Paige! You’re amazing!”

“It’s fine, really.” I pause. “How
swamped are you? Do you want to try and get an early dinner?”

“Actually, I would love to do that.
If you don’t mind waiting around for maybe a half hour or so. I just need to
tie up a few loose ends here, but I definitely need to end this crazy work
day.”

“Sure! Not a problem! I should be
there in about twenty minutes.” I say.

We hang up and I’m actually excited
to grab dinner with Becky. She always makes me laugh, and I somehow always feel
better after we’ve hung out.

I get to the office and make my way
up to my dad’s floor. Becky is bustling behind her desk, pulling papers out of
her printer and scanning her emails at the same time.

“Hey,” I say, dropping my purse
down at a nearby table and smiling.

“Hi!” she says breathlessly, hurrying
over with a file folder.

Becky looks great as always,
dressed in an emerald green tunic dress that perfectly accents her bright red
hair. She opens up the folder and pulls out a few papers while brandishing a
pen from behind her ear.

“So, here are the papers. Take a
look over them, make sure everything sounds fine and then sign the areas I
marked with a highlighter.”

“Thanks.”

She shoots me an apologetic look.
“I just need to wrap up a few things around here, and then I’ll be ready to
go.”

“Becky, it’s fine,” I insist,
shooing her away. “Do what you need to. I’ll go through these, and then I’ve
got some things I can work on.”

She nods and hurries down the hall.

I take my time going through the
papers, but most of them are pretty standard, saying things like ‘I assure that
my original songs are truly my original songs’ and ‘I agree to promote the
album as dictated by the label.’ I rifle through the papers and then sign them
all.

I haven’t seen Becky appear again,
but I’m not in any hurry. It’s only four-thirty. My studio session had been
scheduled somewhat late today, but tomorrow I have to be in the studio by nine
in the morning. I send Blake a quick text about getting together in between our
sessions tomorrow so we can work on our own song.

After texting Blake back, I sift
through my emails, but they're mostly junk. When you don’t have much of a
social life, you don’t get many non-spammy emails. I pull up my calendar to
look for a free weekend to visit my mom, and decide that the following weekend
will work best. I send her a quick email and then see Becky making her way
towards me.

“All finished,” she chirps. “Let me
just get my things together and then we can get on our way.”

“I didn’t even check. Is my dad
here?”

“He’s actually been tied up in a
meeting for most of the afternoon.” She looks at her watch. “I think he’s still
going to be a while.”