Haunted (18 page)

“No, nothing helped.” She set the bowl of
popcorn on the table before pulling her legs into her chest and resting her
chin on her knees. “Ricky wasn’t always miserable. He used to be a riot. In
fact, that’s what drew me to him, his sense of humor. He always made me laugh,
and back in high school, I was so driven, so determined to succeed, I often
took things too seriously.”

“Sounds like not much has changed,” he
teased, reaching for a handful of popcorn.

“Shut up!” She laughed as she smacked his
shoulder, sending a few kernels of popcorn flying.

“Hey!” He caught one just before it hit the
ground.

She rolled her eyes at his antics. “I like
that we can have fun just hanging out together. I had a great time in the
Keys.”

“I did too.” He sensed she wanted to say
more but was afraid of how he might react. “But…?”

“Do you really think about selling your
business and moving there?” She shifted her body so they were facing each
other.

“Sometimes.” But now that she was in his
life, Nashville felt like the place to be. “I think we all think about running
away sometimes, but in reality, extended vacations are more probable than an
early retirement.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that. I don’t
want you to go.”

He reached for her hand and kissed it.
“Think I could talk you into taking an extended vacation with me sometime? A
long weekend just wasn’t long enough.”

“I think that could be arranged.” She
looked at the clock on the digital box beneath his flat screen. “I guess I
should get home. It’s getting late, and I have an early rehearsal.”

Caleb didn’t want to smother her, but he
wanted to spend as much time as possible with her before they had to go their
separate ways. “Would you consider spending the night?”

She smiled, inching closer until he put his
arm around her. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“If you’re tired—”

“I’m not.” She looked up at him. “But if
you are—”

“I’m not.” He thought they both wanted to
cherish every moment. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck. “Are
you excited about the reunion tour?”

“Excited and nervous.” She wrapped her hand
around his forearm. “These are my idols. I grew up listening to them. I still
can’t believe I get to share a stage with them.”

“You’ve earned that right. They obviously
respect you as a musician, or they wouldn’t have asked you to join them on this
tour.” He loved her modesty, but he felt she didn’t give herself enough credit.

“I know.” She pressed her lips against his
arm. “It’s so crazy sometimes: sold-out concerts, awards, public appearances,
opportunities to appear onstage with country music icons… Sometimes I feel like
I’m living someone else’s life.”

“When did you decide you wanted to be a
singer?” He trailed his finger up and down her bare thigh. She’d borrowed a
T-shirt from him after they made love, and while it fell to mid-thigh, it was
still making it difficult for him to focus on anything else.

“Our neighbor bought me a guitar for my
birthday when I was about eight.” She laughed. “That was it for me. I was
hooked. We didn’t have extra money for me to take lessons because my sister was
a competitive dancer and that ate up the disposable income, so I taught myself
to play.”

Caleb knew she wouldn’t want his sympathy,
so he swallowed his comment about partiality. “How’d you manage that?”

“I’d check books out of the library, watch
videos, and practice every chance I got. I was lucky. It came naturally to me,
and my music teacher taught me how to read music.” She smiled. “Mrs. Ward could
tell how much I loved music, so she helped me whenever she could. It was nice
to have an adult to talk to. She really got me.”

“I’m sure she’d be proud of all that you’ve
accomplished.”

“She is. She sent me a letter not long
after I got my first record deal. She wanted me to know she believed in me and
was proud of me for following my dreams.”

“That’s nice. Did you write her back?”

“I did one better. I called and invited her
to a concert. We’ve been close ever since.”

Caleb wondered if Elle realized she’d built
an extended family who loved and respected her. Even though her biological and
adoptive families hadn’t been here for her, she had plenty of people who were.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, tilting
her head back to look at him.

He didn’t want to embarrass her, so he
said, “I was just thinking that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes
people come into our lives by chance, and later we figure out that it was for a
very important reason. They were meant to teach us a lesson.”

“That was definitely the case with Mrs.
Ward,” she said. “She was such a great mom. She invited me over to dinner
sometimes, and seeing her interact with her kids and husband made me realize I
wanted to be a part of a family like that someday.”

“You can be,” he said. “If that’s still
something you want?”

“Back then, I didn’t even think it was
possible to dream this big.”

At first he thought that was her way of
avoiding his question, but her glassy eyes gave away that she was considering
his question carefully.

“I couldn’t imagine being a musician who
earned a decent living, much less someone who earns an obscene amount of money
for strumming my guitar every night,” she said.

“We both know there’s a lot more than that
to what you do.” He slid her dark auburn hair through his fingers. “You’re a
master at writing music and touching people. That’s why you get paid an obscene
amount of money to do what you do. Not everyone has that gift.”

“I thought I was greedy to want more,” she
whispered. “I had this incredible career, house, cars… I made all this money.
How could I possibly ask for more when so many people don’t even have enough to
eat?”

“It’s not greedy to want someone to love
you, Elle. Everyone wants that.”

A tear glided down her cheek. “I’m scared.
I finally have everything I’ve ever wanted, and I’m afraid of losing it.”

“There’s one way to make sure that doesn’t
happen,” he said. He knew he was going out on a limb, but he would do anything
to assure her he wasn’t going anywhere.

“What’s that?”

“Marry me.”

She turned around slowly to look him in the
eye. “What did you say?”

“I asked you to marry me.” He’d imagined
that when he proposed he would be down on bended knee with a big ring and a
fancy speech prepared, but none of that seemed to matter. The only thing he
cared about was making Elle his wife.

“You can’t be serious.”

He tried to dodge the missile she’d aimed
at his heart. “Why not?”

“We haven’t known each other long enough.”

“I’ve known you long enough to know that I
love you, that I’ve never met anyone like you, and no matter how long or far I
look, I never will again.”

Her mouth opened and closed before she
said, “But this is crazy.”

“Is it?” He had no interest in coercing her
into something she wasn’t ready for, but he didn’t want her to turn him down
because of what other people would think.

“Isn’t it?” she asked, her arched eyebrows
drawn together in confusion. “People don’t really do stuff like this, do they?
Get engaged after just a few weeks?”

His lips twitched in amusement. “I doubt
we’d be the first ones in history.”

“You really want to marry me?” She sounded
shocked and awed. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” He leaned in to kiss her. “But
I don’t want your answer right now. I want you to be sure. Take all the time
you need to think about it, okay?”

“Okay.” Wrapping her arms around his neck,
she smiled. “But I don’t think it’ll take me all that long to decide.”

***

Elle felt like she was walking on air the
next day at rehearsal. Caleb had asked her to marry him, and she could hardly
wait to tell him her answer. Since she’d arrived before her band, she stood in
the back of the studio and listened to Ty McCall sing a duet with his
sister-in-law, Nikki Spencer McCall.

“They’re quite a pair, aren’t they?” Tori
Warner asked, coming up beside Elle.

Elle had met the superstar several times,
but she still felt a little tongue-tied in her presence. Tori had more country
music awards than any other female recording artist in history, and it was
still difficult for Elle to believe they were breathing the same air.

“They’re amazing,” Elle agreed. “I love
this song.”

“Me too. I was really happy to hear you
were coming out on tour with us, Elle. I love Clint, but it’s kind of fun to
know the girls will out-number the boys this time.” She winked. “With egos as
big as Ty and Trey’s, we’ll have to keep them in line.”

Elle knew Tori was just kidding. Ty and
Trey were as hard-working and down to earth as anyone she’d ever met. “It was a
huge honor to be invited.” A flush crept up her neck when she admitted, “I
still can’t believe it. I grew up listening to you guys… Being a part of
something like this is a little surreal.”

Tori threw her head back, and her laughter
rang out, yet the singers occupying the stage didn’t miss a beat. “Now I feel
really old.”

“I didn’t mean…”
Nice, you’ve offended
one of your idols.

Wrapping her arm around Elle’s waist, Tori
giggled. “I’m just teasing you.” When her arm fell away she looked serious.
“You’ve earned the right to be here. We wouldn’t have asked you otherwise.”

“I appreciate that,” Elle said. She
suspected she had said or done something to warrant a lecture, because Tori’s
voice had taken the same tone Mrs. Ward always had when Elle’s focus wasn’t on
the lesson.

“This is a tough business, Elle. You know
that as well as I do. It’s damn near impossible to make it, so when you do,
you’ve got to own it. You can’t doubt yourself, not even for a second, because
if you do, the next big thing will come along, and you’ll just be a distant
memory.”

Elle thought about that while Ty and
Nikki’s voices washed over her. She’d always wanted to be a singer who touched
the masses, but now that she was, she hadn’t taken the time to appreciate or
celebrate her success. Like the scared little girl who’d been afraid her
adoptive parents might change their minds about wanting her, a part of her
still feared her fans may change their minds about loving her music. Then she
would be right back where she started.

“I needed to hear that,” Elle said when Ty
and Nikki took a break. “Especially from you. You’ve been where I am. You get
it.” Though she doubted the uber-confident Tori Warner had ever doubted
herself.

“I do get it.” Tori led her to a row of
chairs in the back of the room, away from the crew. “There will always be
people trying to get in your way or tear you down. Especially our friends in
the press. You can’t let them get inside your head, hon.”

“Don’t I know it. You know Donny from
Nashville
Stars
? He hates my guts. He’d love nothing more than to watch me go down in
flames.”

Tori smiled. “I’ve known Donny a long time.
His bark is worse than his bite. He’s really not a bad guy. If you toss the odd
exclusive his way now and again, he’ll back off.”

“If you say so,” Elle said, thinking Donny
had never struck her as the kind of guy she could reason with.

Tori looked hesitant as she said, “There’s
something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about since the first time we met,
but I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Elle dipped her head, wondering if the rest
of the world could spot her insecurity as easily as Tori had.

Tori reached for Elle’s hand, a smile
warming her face. “You took home two of the big awards this year. Your last two
albums have gone double platinum. It’s okay to step back and just revel in your
success for a while.”

“What do you mean?” Surely Tori wasn’t
suggesting she take a hiatus from music? That would be like locking herself in
a closet with no light. Music was the light of her life, her reason for waking
up. Or at least it had been until she met Caleb.

“I read about you and Caleb. I’ve met him a
few times, through Drake. He seems like a great guy.”

“He is.” Elle tried to stop her smile from
splitting her face, yet she knew her love for him must be written all over her.
She laughed self-consciously. “I’ve never felt this way before. He makes me so
happy.”

“I can see that.” Tori fixed her gaze on
the gold flip-flop sliding on and off her foot as though she was looking for
the right words.

“If you want to say something, just say it,
Tori.”

“I know how important your career is to
you, but don’t let it take over your life.”

“Take over my life?” Elle laughed, though a
tinge of sadness creeped into the hollow sound. “Music
is
my life.”