Chapter Fourteen
E va started work in earnest the next day. The rental company delivered a cherry picker to the elevator site first thing, and she was finally able to inspect the condition of the weatherboards up close.
There were a few sections that were in worse shape than she’d hoped, but Heath had already put his building team at her disposal to affect any remedial work required. By the end of Friday, the rotten boards had been replaced and she was ready to start removing the old paint with a sandblaster. Again, the rental company delivered her equipment first thing Monday morning and she spent the day working her way down the structure.
It was hard, noisy, dirty work, and even though she wore the most effective protective gear available, she still went home feeling gritty at the end of the day. The next morning, she arrived at the site and stood with her head tilted back at the base of the elevator, marveling at the beautiful, big canvas she had to work with.
This was when shit started getting real, and it was her favorite part. Before she could start laying down the outline for her first portrait, she needed to prime the surface, so her next task would be to get two coats of a sturdy, all-weather paint primer onto the wall.
Walking back to the van, she unpacked her air compressor and spray gun and lugged it back to the cherry picker. Her phone pinged to let her know she’d received a message, and she saw it was from Casey, texting to ask how she felt about him bringing her lunch.
She felt very good about it and let him know as much, smiling when he sent her back a series of ridiculous emojis with love-heart eyes and puckered lips.
Putting her phone away, she moved on to fueling the generator and mixing thinners into the first of the buckets of primer, a necessary task to ensure the paint didn’t choke her spray gun. Then she lugged the first bucket into the cherry picker and finished linking the air compressor to the spray unit.
It was hot enough that she’d been avoiding pulling on her well-worn, paint-splattered work overalls until the last moment, but she finally did so before collecting her full-face respirator.
The generator rumbled to life immediately when she hit the go button, and she climbed into the cherry picker’s cage and engaged the motor. Slowly she rose through the air until she was mere feet from the top of the structure. Pulling the respirator down over her face, she plugged in her ear buds, and dialed up one of her favorite playlists.
Then she took aim with the spray gun and started laying down swathes of paint across the elevator wall, her movements slow, steady and practiced. By the time it was nearly twelve, she’d worked through more than thirty gallons of paint and half the wall was painted a mottled white.
She hit the button to lower the picker’s cage, pleased with her morning’s work. The warm breeze was a sweet and welcome relief after sweating under the respirator for hours and she ran a hand over her damp hair and rolled her shoulders. They’d be sore tonight, but that was par for the course when she was at this stage of a job.
She was just stepping out of the picker’s cage when the sound of an engine slowing made her look over her shoulder. She was expecting to see Casey, since it was close to lunchtime, but instead she saw a glossy black SUV roll into the parking area. Dane was behind the wheel, his face inscrutable behind a pair of sunglasses.
Well, shit.
She’d thought—hoped—he’d be long gone, since he’d lost the commission. But apparently he hadn’t been able to tear himself away without saying goodbye.
She turned her back and closed her eyes for a beat, reminding herself that he was the past and that there was nothing he could say that would hurt or harm her. Then she turned to face him, watching as he climbed out of the SUV.
He glanced at the wall briefly before walking toward her.
“Starting with a shitty spray job, I see,” he said. “For the record, I’d have your ass up there doing it again properly if this was my job.”
He was so obviously trying to make her second-guess herself and feel inadequate, she couldn’t repress a smile. There wasn’t anything she didn’t know about surface prep, and they both knew it.
“Did you want something?” she asked.
He seemed disconcerted by her smile and it took him a moment to find his groove again.
“I wanted to put you on notice—this is the last commission you’ll get from me, okay?” Dane said. “This makes us even. Whatever debt you think you’re owed is paid in full and if I find out you’re targeting another one of my projects, I’m coming after you with everything I’ve got.”
Eva stared at him, barely able to comprehend what she was hearing. Was he… Was he really trying to make it sound like he let her win this commission as a way of addressing her claims against him?
It was such an arrogant, twisted take on what had really happened that for a moment she didn’t know how to process it.
And then she did, and she burst out laughing.
“Consider me on notice,” she said.
What a delusional tool. She felt ashamed that she’d once admired him so much she’d put her own ambitions on hold for him.
He snatched off his sunglasses, the better to glare at her, she imagined, but it only made her laugh again.
“You think that this mural will be your moment of triumph, but all people are going to see is a copycat version of me and my work,” he said.
The nastiness of his words helped sober her and she considered him for a moment, trying to understand why he was so angry with her. She was the one who’d given him everything and put her own hopes and dreams aside, not him. She was the one who had worshiped at his altar and been so bitterly disappointed to realize their relationship was contingent on that worship. Yes, she’d effectively out-pitched him for a lucrative commission, but she knew what his work schedule was like. Her win wasn’t going to hurt him or his career.
“All I ever wanted was for you to respect me the same way that I respected you,” she said quietly. “I wanted you to care about my art and my happiness as much as you cared about your own. Was that really asking so much?”
Dane frowned. “Your failure to create is not on me. I didn’t make you do anything. You volunteered to work for me. You’re the one who took all the admin on—I never asked you to do that. So don’t go pretending you’re some kind of martyr now.”
She could hear the bafflement beneath his anger, and it dawned on her for the first time that he was genuinely incapable of putting himself in her shoes. From his point of view, they’d had a professional and romantic relationship that gave him everything he needed and wanted, and he was angry and confused that she had rocked the boat and asked for more and ultimately walked away when he failed to offer it.
She was the one who had let him down, not the other way round.
Amazing.
Maybe in years to come, he’d be able to extract his ego and his hurt from the situation and see their relationship differently, but she didn’t really care. They were over, and there was nothing he had to say that interested her.
What a joy that was to realize—she didn’t care about him.
What a sweet, blessed release.
She nodded as though she was agreeing with him. “Okay. Safe travels, Dane. Good luck with everything.”
Because, really, what else was there to say?
She pulled the respirator off her head and carried it over to the van. Dane followed, an angry presence at her back.
“You think this project is all you need to get to my level? You’re deluded,” he said.
She turned to face him, unruffled by his rage now she understood where it came from. God, she almost felt sorry for him.
“Dane, please just go. I don’t want to stand here throwing words at you. Haven’t you got better things to do? Go make art somewhere. Move on. Do things that make you happy. That’s what I’m doing.”
He stared at her as though she was speaking a language he didn’t understand. The sound of another car engine drew her gaze over his shoulder and she saw Casey’s pickup pull in beside the rented SUV.
She could see the wariness on Casey’s face and the alertness in his body as he got out of the truck and she smiled and waved to let him know she was just fine.
“Who’s this?” Dane asked. Then his chin lifted minutely as he recognized Casey. “Right, the cowboy from the bar the other night. You’ve been busy.”
“I totally have,” she said, unable to hold back her smile.
Casey came to a halt at her side, his eyes concerned as they scanned her face.
“All good here?” he asked, flicking Dane a cool look.
“Yep. Dane was just going.”
Dane eyed Casey as though he was thinking about pushing the issue, but then he simply shrugged a shoulder angrily and turned on his heel to march back to his SUV. Then he slammed the door like a three-year-old and tore out of the lot leaving a plume of dust behind him.
“Happy to chase him down if I need to,” Casey said, his eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the SUV speed up the highway.
“You don’t need to. I don’t give a single hoot what he thinks, does, believes, or says.”
She smiled to prove it, and Casey rewarded her with a slow smile in return.
“Good.”
She stood on tiptoes to hook her arm around his neck and pull him close for a kiss, savoring his taste and the feel of his body against her own.
“It is good. It’s very, very good. Now, what did you bring this starving woman for lunch?”
*
Sunday morning, Casey woke to find Eva kissing the back of his neck, her hand working a slow path over his hip toward his groin.
“Morning,” she whispered in his ear, and for the next little while she made him forget about everything except how good they were together. Afterward, they showered and headed for the kitchen, where Jed was parked at the table, reading the weekend paper.
“You know you can read that online now, right?” Eva teased him, automatically refilling his coffee cup before pouring coffees for the two of them. “No ink-stained fingers, no paper to recycle.”
“I like turning the pages. I’m old fashioned like that,” Jed said.
“You’re such a cowboy,” Eva said.
“Spoken like a true city slicker,” Jed retaliated.
Casey slotted bread into the toaster and propped a hip against the counter to wait for it to brown. Sunday was the one day none of them got up early, and he and Eva were due at the McGregors’ for a barbecue lunch later in the day. He was looking forward to what would essentially be their first real public outing as a couple, looking forward to letting the world know he was with her and she was with him.
She’d been working long hours since winning the commission, leaving for the site the moment it got light and not coming home until dusk was threatening. He’d always been impressed by her tenacity and creativity, but over the past week he’d learned her capacity for work was truly astonishing. She might come home with sore shoulders and arms each night, but it didn’t stop her from attacking each day with renewed vigor and enthusiasm.
It was a genuine honor to pay witness to her passion and craft, and even though she hadn’t yet finished painting in the threadbare outline of her triptych, he already knew it was going to be a breathtaking piece of artwork. His woman was a genius, and he freaking loved it.
Now, he smiled as he listened to her tease his brother, enjoying the way she looked in her skinny jeans and plain white T-shirt. She’d been talking about needing a haircut, but he liked the way her hair stood up in messy spikes when she ran her fingers through it.
Hell, who was he kidding? He liked everything about her, from her sassy mouth to her ballsy attitude to her sexy body, and he still couldn’t believe she was his.
But she was, and it was the best thing to happen to him in a long time. Maybe even forever.
Despite Andie and Heath insisting they not bring anything to lunch, they drove into town to buy more Dalton’s cider and some locally brewed pale ale before heading over to the McGregors’ place near Riverbend Park.
Eva let out an audible gasp as they came around the corner in the drive and she got her first look at their house.
“Good Lord.”
“Pretty impressive, huh?” Casey said, admiring the jutting roofline of the wood and stone house. Built to take advantage of views over the town, it featured huge windows and sprawled luxuriously across the hillside.
“I’m suddenly really glad I didn’t wear my cut-off jeans,” Eva said.
“No one would have minded. The McGregors aren’t like that,” Casey said.
Heath had been a few years ahead of him at school, but he’d played football with him and Andie’s brother, Beau Bennett, back in the day. Back then, Heath had been one of the poorest kids in school, living in a one-bedroom apartment with his father.
Clearly, times had changed.
There were several other cars parked in front of the house and they were just getting out of the car when Lily Bennett appeared around the side of the house.
“Andie said to come straight around the back, since we’re all set up out here,” she said.
“Who is that?” Eva whispered to him as they collected the drinks from the bed of the truck. “She’s goddamned stunning.”
“That’s Lily, Andie’s sister-in-law. She’s married to Beau, Andie’s brother.”
“Was she a Victoria’s Secret model in a former life?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Casey said, amused.
With her unusual purple-brown eyes and long brown hair, Lily was attractive, there was no denying that, but she didn’t do half as much for him as the blond force of nature by his side.
“Lily, this is Eva. Eva, Lily,” he said as they joined the other woman.
“Great to meet you, Eva. Andie has been raving about your work for weeks,” Lily said.
“Dear God, how tedious for you. Please don’t hate me on sight,” Eva joked.
Lily laughed as she led them around the side of the house. “Deal. Hope you guys like trout, because the boys went fishing first thing and came back with a cooler full.”
“You know I’m from LA, right?” Eva said. “The only fresh thing I’m used to is pollution.”
Andie stood from where she was sitting at a long, rough-hewn dining table when she saw them, coming forward to kiss them hello. A wooden pergola soared over the table, the deep green leaves of a grape vine wrapping its beams to create a lush green frame. Large flagstones were underfoot, while Heath and Beau stood at an impressive-looking grill that had been built into the side of the house.
“Great to see you both,” Andie said, frowning slightly when Eva offered her the cider. “You guys. I said not to bring anything.”
“No one ever means that,” Lily scoffed.
“Well, I did,” Andie said. She waved a hand at the long benches either side of the table. “Make yourselves at home. The boys are just heating up the grill. Food shouldn’t be long.”
Eva slipped into conversation with Lily, and Casey drifted over to the grill to hang with Beau and Heath, quickly getting sucked into a discussion about football. Pretty soon there was fish and steak on the grill and Andie was ferrying various salads to the table. Casey went to help and it wasn’t long before they were all sitting down around the big table.
“Eva, I have a confession to make,” Andie said as she passed the bowl of potato salad off to her left. “I really, really wanted you to win the commission after your first presentation and I had to recuse myself from the final vote.”
“Really?” Eva said, surprise on her face.
“You were so good, and I could see how much you wanted it. I may have been a little annoying about advocating for you.” Andie slid a sideways look at Heath, who just laughed and shook his head. “But it didn’t matter anyway, because the decision was a no-brainer after we saw your full proposal.”
“Well, that’s very nice to hear, thank you. I’ll take this memory out and polish it next time I’m having a bad day,” Eva said.
Beau was busy opening a bottle of wine, pouring glasses for everyone, but when he came to Andie she smiled and shook her head.
“Wine always makes me sleepy in the middle of the day,” she said.
Casey was aware of Heath shooting his wife a quick look from the end of the table but didn’t think much of it until Lily piped up.
“You have to have some—this is that Australian pinot gris I was telling you about that we discovered,” Lily said, grabbing Andie’s glass and passing it to Beau to fill. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve been doing wine all wrong since we found this.”
She gave the glass back to Andie, an expectant look on her face, and there was a short pause as everyone waited for Andie to take a sip. But Andie just looked at the wine, a bemused look on her face, before turning to Heath.
“Told you it would be too hard to keep this a secret,” she said.
He shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
Lily was wide-eyed by now, her gaze shooting between the two of them. “You are not. Tell me you are not,” she said excitedly.
“I’m pregnant,” Andie said. “We only found out this week, and it’s very early days, only seven weeks, so we weren’t going to tell people for a little bit yet.”
“Oh, guys, that’s so great,” Lily said, wrapping her arms around the other woman.
Casey watched Eva offer Heath and Andie her congratulations and it hit him that if things went right between them, this could be them in a few years’ time.
He waited to feel freaked out by the idea—it hadn’t even been a month, after all—but it never happened. It might still be early days for him and Eva, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind where he wanted their relationship to go: all the way.
He’d never felt this way about another woman before, never felt so sure about his own feelings and what he wanted.
It was a warm, breezy day, and it was no hardship to sit under the McGregors’ pergola and eat good food with nice people, the radio playing in the background. They collectively decided to pause before tackling dessert, and Eva turned on the bench seat so she could rest her back against his chest, explaining she needed to concentrate on digesting so she could fit more food in. He savored the warmth and weight of her body against his as he opened another bottle of cider and decided he’d definitely had worse days.
Then Eva jerked upright in his arms, twisting to face him.
“Casey. It’s your song. Oh my God, they’re playing your song .”
She leapt off the seat then, racing across to crank up the volume on the radio. Sure enough, he recognized the sexy, grinding beat of “Song for Eva.”
“Is this The Whiskey Shots?” Heath asked, eyebrows raised. “I didn’t realize you guys had an album out.”
“We don’t. KUPR have got a competition on, so we entered,” Casey explained distractedly.
“Shh, I’m listening,” Andie said, flapping her hands to indicate they should all pipe down.
Eva glanced at him, clearly thrilled. “How cool is this?”
Casey took a long swallow of his cider and tried not to let his sudden nervousness show. It had been one thing to agree with Eva that the song could go public, but he hadn’t given much thought to their song getting radio play. Rory had told him it would only happen if they were selected as one of the finalists, and that they’d be notified beforehand. As far as he knew, that hadn’t happened, so it wasn’t as though he’d had a chance to prepare himself for this moment.
He jiggled his knee beneath the table, trying to not be too obvious as he watched people’s reactions to the song. When he was up on stage performing, the audience response was immediate and obvious, but this was a completely new experience for him and he wasn’t sure if he was into it or not.
Heath was smiling and nodding along with the beat, and Beau’s head was tilted slightly as he listened to the lyrics. Lily was grinning, and Andie kept lifting her eyebrows in response to the lyrics, her fingers tapping the table.
Finally the song faded out and was replaced by the announcer.
“That was The Whiskey Shots, favorite sons of Marietta, singing ‘Song For Eva.’ The Shots are finalists in KUPR’s Undiscovered competition and I’m sure none of you are going to forget that song in a hurry. You’ll be hearing from the rest of our finalists over the next hour, so stay tuned for more.”
Lily and Andie exchanged a look when they heard the title of the song, then Lily pretended to fan herself and they both laughed.
Beau eyed his wife with an amused expression on his face.
“Don’t go getting any ideas, babe. I don’t have a musical bone in my body, so there will not be a ‘Song for Lily’ anytime soon,” he said.
Everyone laughed, and Casey felt Eva’s hand slide onto his thigh, the subtle pressure signaling he should stop jiggling his leg. He looked at her and she leaned close so only he could hear.
“Relax. That was amazing. I’m so proud of you,” she said.
He smiled faintly, warmed by her support, and made an effort to chill.
“Awesome song, Casey,” Heath said. “I think you boys are going to have a hit on your hands.”
“Might be hard to do that when we haven’t released it as a single,” Casey said.
“You should get it out there, then,” Andie encouraged. “I would download it for sure.”
Lily nodded agreement, and Eva nudged him with her elbow.
“You guys should get onto it right away, make the most of the promo from the radio station to raise your profile.”
“I guess we should,” Casey said.
The Shots had talked casually about recording some songs so they could sell them online, but they’d never gotten further than talking. Their focus had always been on the music, on writing songs. and playing live. But maybe they were being stupid, not making their songs available for download. None of the other Shots were raking it in through their day jobs, so any money they might generate from sales would certainly be welcomed by all of them. It would certainly come in handy for Casey—he could throw it into the pot to help improve the ranch’s financial position.
“So, did you know you guys were finalists?” Lily asked.
Casey shook his head. “They were supposed to let us know, but I guess something must have gotten lost in the translation.”
“So that was the first you knew of it?” Lily asked, eyebrows raised.
“That’s right.”
She laughed. “You have an amazing poker face. You must have been freaking out just now.”
“A little bit,” he admitted.
They all laughed, and Heath went inside to bring out a decadent-looking red velvet cake for dessert. By the time they’d moved on to coffee, it was heading toward late afternoon and Casey figured they were close to wearing out their welcome.
They said goodbye to Lily and Beau then collected their jackets and sunglasses before following Heath and Andie through their house, walking through an impressive kitchen and an even more impressive living room before they reached the front door.
“Let’s do this again,” Andie said, kissing them both goodbye on the doorstep. “I had a great time.”
“Me, too,” Eva said. “Thanks so much for inviting us.”
“Let us know when that single of yours goes live, Casey,” Heath said, shaking hands.
“Will do,” he said.
The pickup’s seats were warm from the sun and he wound the windows down as they started down the drive.
“Oh my God, Casey,” Eva said, twisting in her seat to face him. “I have been trying to keep a lid on this ever since your song came on, but I have to do it now.”
Dropping her head back, she gave an excited, joyful squeal and he couldn’t help but laugh.
“How excited are you on a scale of one to ten?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Six? Seven?”
“Are you kidding me? I’m at eleven and it’s not even my song. How can you be so cool about it?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m still processing,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting anything, obviously, so it’s kind of a shock.”
“A great shock. I was dying to listen to the other finalists but I didn’t want to be rude. None of them will be as good as the Shots, though, I guarantee it.”
He glanced across at her. “Not sure you’re the most objective judge.”
“I don’t need to be objective to know you’re going to win,” she said.
He frowned, her words giving substance to the unacknowledged worry that had been sitting in his gut ever since he’d realized the Shots were finalists a couple of hours ago. He’d entered the radio competition because the other guys wanted to, and he’d done so expecting their entry to be lost in a sea of competition. Not because he underrated the Shots, but because he was realistic—life was not a feel-good movie or inspirational meme. Shit happened, and only rarely did dreams make it off the launching pad to fly high.
So he hadn’t anticipated the band being finalists, and he definitely hadn’t thought about them winning.
Eva caught his hand in hers and gave it a supportive squeeze. He glanced at her, noting how flushed and happy she was for him. He wondered what she’d say if he told her he didn’t want the Shots to win, that he dreaded it, in fact.
He was pretty sure she wouldn’t get it. She’d driven across four state lines to follow her dreams. She wouldn’t understand why it made him sweaty just to think about it.
Because even though the band had agreed they were only entering the competition for the chance at some recording time and the cash prize, Casey wasn’t stupid. If new opportunities came out of this, he knew the other guys would be hungry for it.
And he had no idea what he would do if and when that happened.