Chapter 12 #2
“My pleasure.” She rubs my back and then leaves me alone with Yvonne. “Uh, I’ve never had a massage before.”
Yvonne rubs her hands together. “Oh, honey. You’re in for quite the treat then. Let’s get you ready and then leave the rest to me.”
Even though this is the last thing I expected coming into the salon this morning, I’m really grateful that Laney could read me so well. The only other person that’s ever been able to do that is Lennon.
And in that moment, I remember her words from earlier.
This is all happening for a reason—including my argument with Henley—which means I need to embrace what I’m supposed to learn from it, even if that means what I’m learning is that a man disappointing you is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to mean that you can’t stand up for yourself in the process.
***
The sound of a key turning in a lock startles me from my slumber. When I open my eyes and see Laney and Dilynne walk through the front door of Laney’s house, I push myself up from the couch and clear the sleepiness from my eyes.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Dilynne says as she holds up two bottles of wine in her hands. “Well, technically it’s the evening, which means drinking is acceptable, and Laney’s dad owns a winery, so you know this shit is good.”
Laughing, I clear the dryness from my throat. “I can’t believe I fell asleep.”
Laney walks over the couch and takes a seat next to me. “That’s the post massage drug running through you. It’s normal.”
“Yvonne is a magician. Now I understand why people get massages regularly.”
“Yup.”
“Thank you again for that gift. I didn’t realize how much I needed it.”
Laney studies me for a beat. “Women are good at ignoring our basic needs to take care of others. You’re taking care of a grown man and his baby right now. I’d say you earned it.”
The sound of a cork popping turns my attention to the kitchen.
Dilynne is shaking her hips to imaginary music as she tosses the cork in the trash, retrieves three wine glasses from a cupboard, and gives each of us a very generous pour.
“So, Laney told me you needed to vent about my brother, and I’m the perfect person to help you plot revenge, so let’s hear it.
What tool do I need to threaten him with? ”
I chuckle as she carries two of the glasses over to Laney and me just as my stomach rumbles. “Guess I’m hungry.”
“Pizza’s on the way,” Dilynne says. “Now spill.”
I catch them up to speed on last night’s events, focusing on how quickly Henley bolted from his own house and how he couldn’t even be bothered to answer my texts to let me know he was alive. When I get to this morning and what I said to him, Laney and Dilynne are both clapping in appreciation.
“First of all, I’m glad you weren’t afraid to stand up to him and tell him how wrong he was,” Laney says. “But second of all, I think there’s one key factor that you’re missing in all of this.”
“What?”
“With men, it’s more about actions and less about what they say. Henley’s lack of words tells me everything I need to know.”
My eyes move between them. “Am I missing something?”
Laney and Dilynne share a look before Dilynne speaks this time. “Nothing that isn’t right in front of your face. Remember, I told you that my brother has issues.”
I snort before taking a sip of my wine. “Yes, we’ve established that.”
“Henley is a man of few words anyway, but in my professional opinion, I think he’s scared,” Laney elaborates.
“Scared of what?”
“You,” Dilynne replies as if the answer is so simple.
“Me?”
“Yup.” Dilynne pops the p before taking a drink from her glass. “And let’s just say that I know this firsthand because my brother and I had a conversation about it.”
“Well, your brother scares me too,” I mumble in response.
Dilynne’s brows draw together. “You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but do you mind me asking why?”
Debating how much I should go into detail about everything that brought me to Blossom Peak, my gut tells me that Laney and Dilynne won’t judge me. “The last time jealousy got the best of me, I ended up in a situation with a man that sort of scarred me.”
“What do you mean?” Laney asks.
I stare down into the crisp, white wine as it moves in my glass, preparing myself to share the truth of why I needed to leave music behind for a while.
“The music industry is cutthroat. Social media has changed the game, but I never got much traction. Honestly, writing songs is where my true passion lies. I can sing as well, but the idea of having my life plastered to the world for others to judge and invade doesn’t appeal to me. ”
“Your voice is incredible though, Elodie. When you sang at The Charming Bull, I was blown away,” Dilynne replies.
“Thank you. Performing is fun, but I’m not sure that’s what I want anymore. I used to think it was.”
“You’re allowed to change your mind,” Laney interjects. “Hell, I’m the queen of changing my mind.”
Dilynne lifts her glass to her. “That you are.”
They share a laugh before I continue. “Well, this girl I was friends with who was also trying to start her career got discovered by this manager. His name was Liam, and as soon as I saw the attention she was getting, something in me snapped.”
Dilynne leans forward in her chair. “Did you kill her and make it look like an accident? Are we harboring a fugitive?”
“Dilynne!” Laney chastises her.
“No, nothing like that,” I quickly reply, trying to defend myself. “And if I were, I never would have agreed to care for your niece, that’s for damn sure.”
Dilynne visibly relaxes and she leans back into the couch. “Okay, good. Just wanted to make sure.”
Laney glares at her best friend. “You seriously scare me sometimes.”
“Trust me. I scare myself.” Motioning with her wine glass, Dilynne says to me, “Continue, please.”
“Anyway, I saw what she had and wanted it. It wasn’t fair to me that I’d been working longer than her to get a record label to give me a chance, so I made a point to approach Liam at one of her shows, and we hit it off.
It started with a few ‘business dinners,’ as he liked to call them.
He offered to listen to my demo tape and I was vibrating with excitement.
Finally, it felt like someone was willing to take a chance on me.
That’s all I wanted anyway, someone to give me the opportunity to leave a mark with my songs like I wanted. ”
Laney winces. “I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like what happens next.”
“I already have a torture plan in place. Pliers are great for extracting teeth,” Dilynne adds.
“And you thought Elodie would be the one that could attempt murder,” Laney mumbles before looking back at me. “Continue, please.”
Sighing, I say, “He invited me to the production studio so we could talk and told me that he wanted to record one of my songs. But when I got in there, he tried to…”
“Son of a bitch,” Dilynne says as she launches from the couch.
“Did he…” Laney begins to ask the question I rush to answer.
“No, thank God. I pushed him off, kicked him in the balls, and then ran out of his office. Turns out, he didn’t care about my talent, he just wanted to sleep with me.”
“So you left L.A.?” Laney asks.
“Not at first. I kept trying to submit more songs and demos, but then at one studio, I overheard the office staff talking about how I would sleep around to get ahead, and that’s when I put two and two together.”
“Liam told everyone that you did,” Dilynne finishes for me.
I nod, feeling the tears build for the third time in the past twenty-four hours. “When I heard that, I had to leave. I couldn’t believe that all of my talent would mean nothing going forward because of one man…”
“Oh, I fucking believe it,” Dilynne grates out, drinking from her wine glass.
Laney meets my gaze. “Dilynne knows a thing or two about men and what they’re willing to do when their egos are bruised.”
The sound of the doorbell interrupts our conversation. Laney rushes to answer it, intercepting the pizza and moving toward the kitchen, placing a few slices on plates for all of us. Dilynne refills our wine glasses, and then we reconvene in the living room.
“Elodie, I’m so sorry that you had to go through that,” Laney says after taking a bite of her pizza.
“Thank you.”
“So back to the jealousy thing,” Dilynne says, a look of determination on her face. “How does that apply to my brother? Just so you know, my brother would never force himself on a woman, and if he did, I would castrate him for the greater good of womankind.”
“If you’re wondering, yes she is always this murdery,” Laney says, leaning forward in her chair while flashing me a wink.
“But I feel like we’re still missing something,” Dilynne continues.
Bracing myself to admit the truth, I inhale deeply and blow out my breath.
“Last night, when he told me how he likes to chase adrenaline now by chasing women, and then he announced he was going out with Warren…” I swallow roughly.
“Well, I instantly became jealous. I hated the idea of him being with someone else, and that’s when I realized, I have a serious problem. ”
Laney and Dilynne glance at each other, but their faces don’t move besides the motion of their eyes. No twitch in their lips, no indication of what they’re thinking whatsoever.
And before they can respond, my phone rings on the couch beside me. Henley’s name flashes across the screen, but I know I’m not ready to talk to him, so I ignore it.
“Sorry,” I say when I look back up and see Dilynne clearly thinking heavily, her brows pinched and her lips twisted in thought.
“No problem, but I get where you’re coming from. And is that interaction with Liam why you freaked out at the bar the other night?”
I nod. “Yeah.” My phone rings again and when I see that it’s Henley once more, my pulse spikes. “It’s your brother again.”
“He’s probably freaking out having to take care of Remy on his own,” Dilynne says with a roll of her eyes. “Just keep ignoring him.”