Chapter Twenty-Four
· Adriana ·
We hadn’t spoken in three days. Not really. We had texted to keep each other in the loop, but things were clearly not okay.
People were talking about me again, but it was different. For the first time in years, my name didn’t automatically carry a note of disdain with it. I didn’t even have to tell Esra or Lucas what had happened in town, let alone Mom or Renee.
Renee tried to take me off the shift plan, but I told her I’d go crazy if I didn’t keep busy.
Mom brought me food every night, no matter how late I got home, in a thinly veiled attempt to check in on me.
As if I didn’t notice her walking through my entire house looking for Brooks, or the mysterious little Post-it notes with hearts doodled on them on my nightstand, bathroom mirror, and fridge.
It was so different from growing up and heating microwave meals and watching YouTube videos all afternoon when I got home from school.
She was acting more like a mom now than ever.
My little sibling would be so lucky to grow up with her.
Lucas was in the saloon every minute that he wasn’t working in the park. Esra had even taken some time off, giving Melly, her understudy, the chance to shine as Annie Lou. If I was working, she was sitting at the bar.
It was strange.
Being taken care of.
I didn’t have to paste on a smile and pretend that I was unbothered. They still showed up.
At least I had something to take my mind off the entire Brooks situation.
Jackie Armstrong had invited me to be on her podcast. It was one of those formats that had a video version that looked more like a late-night interview show, her behind a desk and her guest on the sofa, but the audio was uploaded as a podcast. Except the episode she’d asked me to be on was going to be a debut for a new format.
Her and four musicians in a roundtable talk.
She called it her Potluck but instead of food, everyone was supposed to bring one song to play.
It was going to be incredibly short notice. Jackie was open about needing someone to sub in for another singer who had dropped out, and in an industry where everyone tried to promise you the stars, I appreciated the honesty.
I didn’t have a song. Not one that I actually had the rights to. I was pretty sure Marble Audio just hadn’t come after me for the Rock’n a piano, a violin, and some other instruments took up the rest of the space.
Out of the four guests, I was definitely the most insignificant one, and the youngest one.
Jackie was putting me in a room with three other women who had redefined country music over the years.
Trixie Dalton, a seventy-year-old legend of the genre, who I’d met exactly twice, hugged me the second I stepped into the room, told me she missed me, and invited me to come to her house for dinner and cards on Sunday, and somehow eased all my worries by taking me by the hand and introducing me to everyone. As if we were old friends.
There was Helen Saint, front woman to The Midnight Saints, a band that had become a household name on the country charts over the last fifteen years.
And Georgia Fox, who had started out on a casting show and had since gotten the gold records to prove that reality TV can launch successful music careers.
Jackie herself was in her late forties, all soft features, warm brown skin, bouncy curls, and frilly clothes.
I’d watched her play up her softness in many interviews, just so people would underestimate her and spill the tea as if she wasn’t a reporter at all.
She recorded a short intro for the episode, announcing the title “Shaping Country Careers,” and my gut dropped again.
I had no career. I had nothing to shape.
As if sensing my anxiety, Trixie leaned sideways in her chair and patted my arm.
“Adriana, that brings my questions to you,” Jackie said, swiveling from Helen’s musings about being part of a band rather than going solo.
“I’ve never been in a band,” I said.
“I know, I know. This isn’t some sort of gossip show, and I promise this segue will be short, but you recently got engaged to a musician with an impressive career of his own.”
“I did,” I confirmed, my muscles tensing.
“And you two met by going on tour together a few years ago?”
She didn’t actually name him. Did she want me to name him? Paranoia suddenly clawed at my thoughts. What if the Greens had arranged all of this? What if I was only on this show so I could slip up and say something horrible and really ruin Brooks’s custody chances?
I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the media training we did with Jamie for this kind of questioning. “We actually met a couple of months before that, but the relationship was completely platonic until we reconnected a few months ago.”
“What I’m interested in is how that’s shaping your music.
I think we’ve all dated our fair share of other creatives.
For those of you who don’t know, I’m married to a brilliant novelist, Helen’s wife, Jessica, is an award-winning actress on The Cutthroat Murders, Georgia’s partner is fashion designer Olivero, and Trixie’s marriages to a songwriter, a photographer, and an actor were talked about for decades.
And I only speak for myself, but my husband is my biggest cheerleader.
He knows nothing about music, but he understands and supports my process.
” Jackie turned from podcaster to interviewer again and turned to me.
“I know you’re on a bit of a musical hiatus right now, Adriana, but has your songwriting process changed in this relationship? ”
“I’m not sure how to answer that.”
“Okay.” Jackie smiled. “Let me rephrase—”