40
Bar M on a Friday afternoon is exactly where I want to be. The lodge buzzes with life as guests order drinks and take them into the cantina or to their cabins. I sit at the back of the large living space, strumming my guitar.
This summer feels like I’ve been testing all the ways I can exist. Playing in the lodge, working in a bakery. Exploring every part of the future I want to build—my own label, my music. All of it feels possible. That night in Silver Springs unleashed something in me. I’ve been given the freedom to move, to choose, and it feels so easy.
I know in my bones that I will somehow make a beautiful life for myself, no matter what the world throws at me.
Especially with Ford. I showed him my truth, my scars, and in return, he loved me more.
I’m all in—heart first, fearless.
For the next thirty minutes, I play covers of familiar country songs. People stand around and listen before tossing dollar bills in my guitar case. They clap or sing along, their smiles showing they enjoy the music. But there’s no mob. I’m just a nobody girl playing her guitar. And I love it.
The set ends and I pack up before heading toward the bar. Fallon is perched on a stool while Ruby wipes down the bar.
“Thanks,” I say when Ruby slides me a glass of ice water.
“The guests love the live music.” Blue eyes bright, she looks at me hopefully. “Is it here to stay?”
I flush.
It’s been a week since Ford’s I love you , and we’ve been caught in a perpetual state of bliss. We’ve spent most of our time making plans or having sex or planning to have sex.
I feel delirious. Like I’ve won the lottery. Like nothing is real.
But it is real.
We’re real.
I trust Ford with my life. My heart. But more importantly, my future.
Our future.
Before I can answer, Fallon swivels to face me. “It has to be. Did you see the paper?” She nudges a copy of the Billings Gazette my way.
Country Music Star Reese Austin Spotted with Baseball Legend Ford Montgomery
I smile. The best headline I’ve ever seen.
“I don’t know about the music,” I say. “But I’m here to stay.”
Ruby squeals.
Fallon’s hazel eyes scan the photo of me and Ford, fingers laced, leaving the bar. He has a protective arm out, blocking me from the crowd, and I’m gazing up at him like he’s every star in the sky.
“Fuck, they’re too cute.” Fallon slams back her beer. “I’m lighting my house on fire.”
“You hear from the boys?” I ask, glancing out casting my eye to the window. Big, black clouds hover ominously. Storm of the Century, the papers are calling it. Ford and his brothers took a trip to Elk River to lay sandbags before the incoming storm.
Ruby shakes her strawberry blonde head and starts cleaning empty glasses, her pretty face tight with worry. “Charlie said we might have to close early for the season.”
Fallon hops off her barstool. “Beer for the road?”
Ruby hesitates. “Don’t you have practice?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t drink and operate heavy machinery,” I suggest gently.
Fallon’s eyes get a sad, faraway look to them.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Fine.” She jerks her chin toward the door. “Anyone want to tell me who the creeper is?”
I follow her shrewd gaze.
Then I see him.
Gavin.
My stomach plummets as he stalks toward me, an expression of fury on his face.
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” I whisper, suddenly wishing Ford were here.
Ruby tosses a panicky glance at me. Her phone is in her hands. “Should we get help?”
“No.” I swallow, taking a step toward Gavin. “I’ll handle it.”
I think about picking up my guitar and taking a swing at him, but I remember Bosko’s words of warning. Play it cool. Lead him on. Lie.
Gavin meets me in the center of the lodge. For one long second, I don’t know what to say. To think. Then I start with the obvious.
“What’re you doing here?”
Gavin runs his eyes over me. “I’m here because you’re avoiding my calls. Avoiding business that needs to be done.”
I sigh. “I wasn’t avoiding you, Gavin, I was…” I shake my head, too exhausted to get into it. “It’s my break. I’m taking a break.”
“Enough with the fucking act, Reese.” He’s so close I can feel his breath. “You’re lying to me. You’re not planning to come back.”
I nearly take a step back. There’s something different about him. The look on Gavin’s face is cold, bordering on desperate. His dark gray suit is rumpled and red sand clings to the sides of his loafers. None of the polish I’ve come to expect from Gavin Cross.
Panic spirals in me, but I choke it down. Force a bright smile. “Of course, I am. What are you talking about?”
“You’re not that good of an actress, Reese.” He catches me by the arm, digging his fingertips into my biceps. “You think I’m going to let you go when I worked so hard to get you?”
I shake my head. “Get me? What do you mean?” He’s not making sense.
“It’s my job to watch you, Reese. To take care of you.”
“No. All you want to do is control me.”
“I control you because it’s my job. I protect you.”
“Bullshit,” I hiss. Fuck this man’s attempts to make me feel guilty. “You’ve never protected me in your life. You need to leave, Gavin. Now.”
He tightens his grip. “This is what you choose to do with your free time? Singing shit songs and dressing like a fucking whore?” His gaze darkens as it lands on Ford’s necklace around my throat. He reaches for it, but a spray of water arcs across the room. Gavin swears and drops my arm as it drenches his face.
“Get your fucking hands off her,” Fallon shouts, leaning over the bar, soda nozzle in her hand like a pistol. Ruby talks fast on her phone as Fallon turns the water on the guests who have filed out of the cantina, cell phones recording everything. “You too, assholes. Mind your fucking business.”
Not wanting to cause more of a scene in front of the guests, I weave through the couches and push through the front door. The sight of the ranch calms me.
For a brief second.
And then Gavin’s stepping into my space and boxing me against the wall of the lodge. Nausea swims in my belly as he gets close.
“You little bitch,” he snarls, his voice hot with anger. “You think you can walk away from me?”
“Go home, Gavin,” I say calmly. “Go back to LA, and if you’re lucky, I’ll come back. Maybe I’ll make you some money.”
I can’t resist the dig. The gaslighting. Like he’s done to me all these years.
“Fuck you, Reese.” I gasp when he grabs both my wrists. Sweat beads his hairline. “Now stop talking. You’re coming with me.”
I shake my head. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He squeezes my wrists, and it’s like I can feel that blade all over again.
Images flash in my mind. Gavin shouting at me before a show. Forcing me to go on stage two weeks after my suicide attempt. Never letting me have my own life. Telling me I wasn’t pretty or skinny enough. Using me for my money, my body, my voice.
“Why? Because you’re in love?” His growl jerks me back to the present. “Because you sang ‘Delta Dawn’ once in a bar and now you don’t need me?”
My mind spins. He saw me. He was here.
He releases my wrists, and his hands land on my throat, squeezing.
I twist away, trying to break his hold on me. “Gavin. You’re hurting me—” The air around me becomes foggy. My breaths come faster and faster.
“Hurting you? What about me ?Now it’s the principle. The fucking gall. You leave me? When I made you?”
“Stop,” I beg, gulping air. “Stop.”
He moves closer. The grip on his control thinning. His eyes raging and wild. “You’re not free until I say you’re free, Reese.”
“Take your fucking hands off her. Now.”
I go weak at the sight of Ford.
He’s here. Of course he’s here.
Ford and his brothers are climbing out of their trucks. Fists clenched. Mutinous fury on their rugged faces.
Gavin’s hands fall away from my neck, but he doesn’t step away from me, still boxes me in against the side of the lodge. “This is a conversation between me and my client.”
I almost laugh. Gavin has no idea what’s coming.
Ruby and Fallon burst out of the lodge. There’s a knife in Fallon’s hand, and a wine bottle held like a baseball bat in Ruby’s.
Ford stalks our way, like a Gavin-destroying missile destined for destruction. “Doesn’t look like a conversation,” he snarls. “Not when you have hands on my girl.”
Anger flashes in Gavin’s eyes. “She’s not yours. She’s mine.”
An icy shiver goes down my spine.
That muscle in Ford’s jaw is working overtime. “Back the fuck up. Now.”
Gavin’s face turns bright red. “You don’t know anything about this. Stay out of it.”
Ford sneers. “I know you’re a piece of shit who’s taken advantage of her. I know you’ve made her feel like she doesn’t deserve to be here. I know you’ve hurt her.” His amber eyes flick to me, silently telling me it’ll all be okay. “Last chance,” he warns, striding forward. “Get away from her.”
“Fuck you.”
“Wrong answer,” Ford drawls.
Charlie lets out a sharp whistle and tosses a set of keys to Fallon. She promptly locks the lodge’s door, keeping the guests inside.
A big sigh from Davis. “Keep it quick.” His voice is ominous, resigned.
Then, without warning, Ford hits Gavin in the face. I scream as his head snaps back.
Wyatt grabs my arm, pulling me away from the scene.
“You stupid fuck,” Ford hisses. Grabbing Gavin by the neck, he bounces his face into the side of the lodge. There’s the sound of bone on bone as Ford hits him again. Blood spurts from Gavin’s mouth. Lost in a haze of raw, animalistic rage, Ford hits him again, and again.
I should be horrified, but I’m not. No one has ever fought for me in my life. It only has me falling even deeper in love with him.
“Ford.” Davis clasps his shoulder. Worry swims in his dark eyes. “You gotta stop, brother. Now.”
One last punch, then Ford straightens up, wiping the blood from his knuckles on his jeans.
Gavin crumples to the ground and crawls away from Ford like the coward he is.
Thunder rumbles in the sky, but it’s dwarfed by Ford, saying, “You come near her again, I’ll kill you.”
The next thing I know, Ford wraps me in his arms, pulling me to him. “He hurt you?”
I shake my head, clutching at his warm, steady presence. “No.”
Gavin stumbles to his feet. Blood trickles down his chin. “You’re crazy, Reese. You’ll always be crazy.”
“I’m not crazy,” I seethe. Hard as I try, I can’t keep it in anymore. Anger swirls inside me, the black hole suddenly a living, breathing thing. “I know what you did, Gavin. I know everything. All these years, you were drugging me. Taking my money.”
Ford curls me closer in his arms, but his dark gaze stays glued to Gavin. A shudder rolls through my body. “I have the original contract.” Gavin pales. “It expires on my birthday.” I laugh dryly. “I am not going back with you. We’re done.”
The truth freezes him for only a moment. His face changes. So cold, so still, I shiver.
“I have leverage Reese, remember that.” Teeth bared, he says, “Muirwood. Your suicide attempt.”
Someone sucks in a breath. Who, I can’t tell.
I blink back tears, embarrassed. But I shouldn’t be. A hand lands on my shoulder. Ruby. Another one. Fallon. My eyes sting at the kindness, the understanding. It means so much. It means everything.
“You can’t make me go back.” My voice wobbles.
“I could put that tidbit about you in the papers. It would make a pretty story.” He smiles, thinking he has me.
But he doesn’t.
Be brave, Reese. Be brave. Only it’s not my mother’s voice anymore.
It’s mine.
“So tell it then,” I say, calling his bluff. “Tell my story, Gavin. And I’ll tell yours.” I stand tall. “You don’t get a goddamn thing anymore. Not one more piece of me. Or my money. You won’t see a single dime.”
Gavin takes a step toward me.
Instantly, the brothers stand shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking me and Ford. Tears sting my eyes. These big angry cowboys willing to go to battle for me.
“You’re going to regret this, Reese. I told you once, you don’t leave me.”
At his words, fear lodges itself in my throat. I turn my face into Ford’s chest.
His voice is a powerful rumble as he says, “Breathe in her direction again,and I end you, you hear me?”
Gavin laughs, a manic sound that sends a chill up my spine. “Be careful, Reese. I will finish what you started.”
“Stay off my ranch,” Charlie orders, stepping forward. “You come back, we ain’t talking.”
After a last glance at me, Gavin turns on his heel and heads toward the road.
“You okay?” Ford asks, framing my face in his hands. “Birdie?”
“No,” I say, trembling. “I’m not.
The gravity of what I’ve just done hits quick.
I told Gavin everything.
My hands fist in Ford’s shirt. “We have to call Bosko and get my money,” I growl. “Now.”