The Girl He Used To Love

Dean had run away while she’d spent the last decade trying to make amends to a ghost. Now he was back and talking about making her brother a star. That was not happening. Sawyer didn’t want to be a country music star. He was happy here, content to keep their father’s farm running, like she was.

“What time does your brother usually get up?” Dean must have read her mind.

“Sawyer’s already up. There are always chores to be done around here.” Faith figured pointing out how much work her brother had to do would help discourage Dean from pursuing his crazy idea to lure Sawyer to Nashville.

“Oh, I was going to ask him for a lift to my car. I figure the sooner I get that tire fixed, the sooner I can get out of here.”

The sooner the better, as far as Faith was concerned. No reason to delay the inevitable. “If you help me deliver these cookies, I’ll get you to your car faster than a jackrabbit on a date.”

Dean snorted a laugh. “See? Sweet and sassy,” he said with a shake of his head. “I missed you.”

His confession seemed to shock them both. All the air left Faith’s lungs and it was almost impossible to breathe more in. Dean’s face flushed red and he stood to place his empty milk glass in the sink.

Faith couldn’t believe how much three little words could affect her. He obviously didn’t mean it the way she wanted him to. She knew all too well what it was like to really miss someone. Faith missed her mother and now her father on a daily basis. She missed Addison so much it hurt. She could even admit to missing Dean, but he hated her. He had said as much the last time they had stood in this kitchen together.

“I’ll go get changed and then I’ll take you up on your offer,” he said, making his escape.

Faith could finally breathe again. She had often wished for just one more day with all of those people she missed. Now, standing in the kitchen with her stomach in knots, she realized one day would never be enough. Not when she had once wanted forever.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_159f63f4-f4bd-5858-abf7-dd3665acc1c8)

“THANKS FOR WASHING my clothes. I assume that was you,” Dean said, returning to the kitchen, ready to go.

“You’re welcome,” she replied as the oven buzzer went off. Effortlessly, Faith grabbed the fresh batch of cookies, set the baking tray on an empty cooling rack and went back to stacking cookies in travel containers. The woman had done this a time or two. She was in a zone.

Sleep was not something Faith apparently indulged in very often. How else could she have closed up the bar, done laundry and baked a hundred cookies all before eight in the morning? If this was normal for her, her work ethic rivaled Dean’s.

She placed a bowl of uncooked rice in front of him. “I also dried your phone.”

Dean fished it out. “In rice?”

“It’s a little life hack I learned from my friend Josie. Her daughter has ruined more than one phone in her short fifteen years.”

Dean powered up his device and silently rejoiced when it came to life. Work was his life and had been since he’d graduated from college. Hired straight out of school as a member of the Artist Development team at one of the biggest record labels in country music, Dean’s first job had been to nurture new talent and help them slowly build their careers with a string of album releases.

He’d been good at it, too, which was why his firing had come as such a shock. Apparently, product—not artist—development had become the company’s focus. Forget about supporting the creative side of an act. Sell, sell, sell.

It had made Dean furious and even more determined to prove the big guys had it all wrong. Using every penny he had saved and then some, he’d teamed up with his best friend and started an independent label with a focus on finding a balance between fostering creativity and making a profit. Grace Note Records was supposed to be the solution to all that was wrong with the music business. Dean still had high hopes. Landon not so much.

“Did it work?” Faith asked.

He had three missed calls from Landon and one from Boone Williams. “It did. Thanks again.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m going to make a couple calls while you finish up.”

Faith pressed a lid on one of her containers. “I’ll be ready in about ten minutes.”

“Perfect.” Dean headed back to the front room for some privacy and dialed Landon.

“You are alive!”

Dean chuckled. “Of course, I’m alive. My car got a flat in the middle of a downpour. My phone got soaked and I had to spend the night in some rinky-dink town outside of Nashville.”

“Are you back? Because you have got to do something about Boone. I’m not talking to him anymore.”

Landon Gilman and Dean had met in a business class at Belmont University and struck up an easy friendship. They both shared a love of music and had spent countless weekends at the local dive bars listening to all the undiscovered talent Nashville had to offer. While Dean’s parents had fully supported his choice to study Music Business, Landon’s parents had pushed him into accounting.

After graduation, the two had remained close friends. When Dean lost his job, Landon had been the one who planted the idea that maybe he could do this on his own. It hadn’t taken much convincing to get Landon to quit his mundane auditing job and invest in the company. It had all been too easy. Until now.

Dean took a seat on the couch. Bad news should always be delivered to someone sitting down. “What’s the matter now?”

“He’s refusing to meet with Piper. Said there’s nothing we can say to change his mind, and if we push, he’s going to blow.”

Piper Starling was young, talented and the world’s biggest Boone Williams fan. She had a passion for country music and had been lighting up the charts since signing with Grace Note.

Piper also had a father/manager who imagined her to be the next Taylor Swift. Dean had a feeling that her dad was pushing her to write her own songs and try to cross over to pop music. He also feared that meant they were going to start looking for a bigger record company as soon as she fulfilled her contract with Grace Note.

Dean had hoped that a collaboration with Boone would encourage her to stay and reignite Boone’s creativity. It would solve many of Dean’s problems. He forgot that Boone never made anything easy.

“I’ll talk to him,” Dean promised. “He’ll come around once he sees that it’s in his best interest to cooperate.”

“Cooperation isn’t in that man’s vocabulary, Dean. And Heath Starling is not happy either, by the way.”

Of course he wasn’t. Dean scratched at the back of his neck. “I’ll handle it.”

“You better, because I threw in the towel last night.” Every time Landon said something like that, Dean’s blood pressure rose to an unhealthy level. Landon had been rethinking his decision to leave the security of a boring life as an accountant thanks to their constant issues with Boone. Dean needed Landon if Grace Note was going to survive.

“I’ll text you when I get everyone on the same page. I still have to fix my tire, but I should be home by this afternoon,” Dean informed him just as Sawyer strolled in the front door, whistling away. “And I have good news. I promise. Don’t go job searching on LinkedIn again.”

“The only good news that’s going to keep me from looking elsewhere is that you’ve found another way to recoup the money we’ve invested in Boone so we can drop him.”

Sawyer might be just that. “I’ll talk to you when I get back in the city.” Dean hung up and went to the kitchen, where Sawyer had been headed.

“I’ll pick some up after I drop off these cookies,” Faith said to her brother. She smacked his hand as he reached for a cookie. “Everything needs to be perfect. Don’t cut any corners, because the people at NETA will notice, and you know how important this is.”

“I know, and I’ll get it all done before the visit next week. I promise.” Sawyer held his hand out. “Can I please have a cookie now, boss?”

Faith set one cookie on his waiting palm. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

Dean’s guilt resurfaced and so did his grief as he watched brother and sister sharing a moment. Would Addison have needed him? Would they have remained close?

“You could if you stopped doing everything for everyone else in this town,” Sawyer said before devouring his cookie in two bites.

Sawyer stepped to the right and Faith noticed Dean standing in the doorway. “Are you ready to go?”

Dean pushed his feelings back into their hiding place. This was business, he told himself. Plain and simple. Sawyer was talented and could help get Grace Note out of the red. It wasn’t personal. Faith wasn’t Dean’s problem, anyway.

“Ready when you are.”

* * *