9. Knox
KNOX
Cookie Making with Mama Moon
Crisp · Clear skies
Supper: Meatloaf · Oven Roasted Potatoes Buttered Corn · Fresh Sourdough bread from Mama Moon’s starter
Iwoke up to my ankle throbbing like a bass drum and a knock at the door.
I’d fallen asleep with Madeleine still next to me, but somewhere in the night she must have slipped out and gone to her own cabin.
I reached out to the spot where her head had indented the pillow to prove to myself that she had truly been here with me, kissing me senseless, then falling asleep curled into my side.
“Yeah, who is it?” I asked, voice like gravel.
“It’s Luci. Madeleine sent me. Can I come in?”
I sat up, rubbing my eyes. “Hang on.” Gingerly, I got out of bed, making sure to keep weight off the injured ankle, and hopped to the door on one foot. I managed to open it to see Luci standing there, a knit of concern in her brow, and what looked like a medical bag in her hand.
She gave me one of her sweet smiles. “Hey, tough guy. Let me see what you’ve done to yourself.”
I hopped back to the bed and sat with both legs hanging over the side.
She knelt on the floor, lifted my foot into her lap and started working her fingers around the joint, watching my face instead of the ankle. “Hurt?”
I winced and drew in a breath. “Yep. Pretty bad, actually.”
She kept working. “It’s a sprain. Grade two, maybe.
Ice it, elevate it, stay off it as much as you can.
It’ll be fine in a couple weeks if you baby it for a while.
” She reached in her bag for a wrap and started winding it around my ankle.
“You can walk on it, but you cannot skate or sled or do anything that could potentially injure it further, though. I’m sorry. ”
“This mean I get to skip the cooking lessons?”
“No, you can participate, but you’ll have to do it seated.” She tucked the end of the wrap in and gave me a level look. “I made a call to Doctor Moon in town and he’s going to send out a pair of crutches and a bag to put over your foot for when you shower. He’s the town doctor.”
“How many Moons are there?” I asked, feeling grumpy at the thought of having to use crutches for the rest of the month. How was I supposed to dance with Madeleine if I couldn’t put weight on my left foot?
Dancing? Where had that thought come from?
“Five, I think,” Luci said.
“Five what?”
“Moon brothers.”
“Oh, right.”
There was another knock on the door. We’d left it unlatched, so Rhett poked his head through without Luci having to get up off the floor.
“Is there a fallen soldier in here?” He came all the way into the room, carrying a pair of crutches and a bag of baked goods that smelled of butter and cinnamon.
“Finley asked me to bring these crutches over, courtesy of Doctor Moon. And I brought you some breakfast.”
“Thanks, man,” I said.
“How’s our patient looking?” Rhett asked.
“He’s fine. Just a sprained ankle.” Luci stood. “But he has to behave himself for the next few weeks. We want him upright for your next gig.”
“This sucks,” I said under my breath.
They both looked at me with surprised expressions, as if they hadn’t expected a grown man to dislike being hobbled for the holidays.
Hobbled for the Holidays. Might be a good title for a Christmas song. I tucked that one away for later.
“Okay, I’m off to breakfast,” Luci said. “Rhett, you might want to stay and help him get to the bathroom. And if he decides to shower, make sure you guys take the wrapping off his ankle. We don’t have a plastic bag yet to cover it. And the water shouldn’t be too hot or it’ll worsen the swelling.”
“Yes, doctor,” Rhett said.
“That’s right, I’m a doctor, not just Jack’s little sister,” Luci said, smiling.
“I’ll look after him,” Rhett said.
“Thanks, Luci,” I said.
“No worries. It’s what I do.” Luci packed up her bag and left the two of us alone.
“Hand me those,” I said, pointing to the crutches. “And you don’t have to help me in the bathroom.”
“Thank God.”
I used the crutches to get me across the room. They did their job. I was able to get in and out without putting any weight on my left ankle.
Rhett was still in my cabin when I came out. He’d made coffee, put scones on a plate, and was waiting for me at the small table.
“Thanks for this,” I said, carefully sitting in the other hardback chair across from him.
“No problem,” Rhett said.
I took a sip of coffee, only to look up to see Rhett’s gaze fixed upon me.
“What?” I asked.
“I saw Madeleine leaving your cabin at four in the morning,” Rhett said. “Which makes me wonder—what are you doing?”
“Doing?” I cursed silently. Why was he awake at four?
“C’mon, Knox. Madeleine?”
“She helped me back to my cabin. That’s it.”
“I saw the two of you at the bottom of the hill, all tangled up like a pretzel. Since when were you so friendly with the woman you supposedly despise?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then tell me what it’s like.”
I didn’t answer.
“Knox.” His jaw tensed “You realize what you’re doing? How stupid this is?”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“You sure about that?” Rhett asked.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about. My business is my business.”
“Not when it comes to the band. This is family. And you don’t mess with family.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I glared at him.
“Doesn’t seem you do, what with her sneaking out of your cabin looking disheveled.”
I turned away from his scrutinizing gaze to look outside. The sky was steely gray, but yesterday’s snowfall had left the ranch covered in white.
“She may seem tough to you,” Rhett said softly. “But she bleeds just like the rest of us.”
“Your point?” My voice was as cold as the wintry day outside.
“You have absolutely no right to be messing with her. Is this some kind of Knox thing?”
I bristled. What did that mean? “Knox thing?”
“You know, where you just do whatever you want and refuse to answer to anyone for it. You’re careless.
You know that. With hearts and feelings and anything you see as weakness.
You’ve been attacking her for ten years and now suddenly she’s in your bed.
The whole thing stinks, man. You better watch yourself or you’re going to cause a rift that might be impossible to fix.
” He shook his head, blue eyes glittering.
“Seriously, what are you doing? Trying to break down her defenses to prove a point?”
“What point would that be?” I asked.
“That even Madeleine Price will bend to your will. Is that the game you’re playing?”
Fury rose in me, hot and swift. “What are you talking about? I’m not playing a game.”
“She’s our publicist. She’s in every part of our lives.
She’s Ivy’s best friend, for heaven’s sake.
And when you discard her, she’ll still have to sit across a table from you and be fine about it, because that’s what she does.
She’ll suck it up—just like she’s done for ten years—as you sit across the room and insult her for doing her job.
” He looked at me hard. “Or what if she leaves and we lose her? This whole thing we built comes apart, because you got bored in Montana.”
Something in me snapped.
“Bored?” I said.
“You heard me.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s do this.” I set my coffee mug down so hard it slopped. “How about you, Rhett? What kind of game have you been playing with me?”
“Pardon me?”
“I spent ten years thinking Madeleine was a soulless shark who only cared about making us fit into whatever model Nashville thought we should be. Turns out, you lied to me. You’ve been lying to me for ten years.
Blake told me yesterday during my interview that Madeleine put her whole career on the table to get us that tour.
She risked her relationship with Wyatt Black to make sure it happened.
As we were. No changes. She went to bat for the exact thing you all told me I was crazy to care about, and you never said a word.
You let me look like the bad guy—coming after Madeleine—when you knew the truth all along.
We owe it all to her. Why would you keep that from me? ”
Rhett hung his head. “Not as simple as all that.”
“Seems pretty simple to me. You knew. All of it. And you sat next to me for ten years while I called that woman every ugly name in the book and you never—” My voice cracked. “You let me think the worst about her. Why? Why would you do that?”
“Because she made me promise never to tell you or the others.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know it doesn’t!” Rhett sprang up out of the chair, dragging a hand down his face.
“You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t laid awake on a hundred tour buses listening to you tear into her and wanted to bash your teeth in?
” He turned around. “She made me promise. And I may be a lot of things, but, when I make a promise to a woman, I keep it.”
My chest felt heavy, like an elephant’s foot was holding me down.
“Why didn’t she want us to know?” I asked, speaking through a clenched jaw.
“She didn’t want any of you to feel like you owed her anything.
” Rhett’s voice was raw. “She told me it was important that Jack and the rest of you thought you did it on your own. She thought if you knew the truth, you’d start to doubt yourselves.
Start thinking strings were pulled instead of earning it on their own.
She thought it would break you—especially you—if you thought success had come because of what she did instead of your talent and hard work.
She wanted you to walk out on that stage thinking you’d earned it—because you had.
And she’d rather every one of you hate her than jeopardize what she believed to be your true destinies.
” He shook his head slowly. “So I kept my promise to a woman who deserved my respect. Who had earned my respect.”
“Why did you tell the truth to Blake then?”
He didn’t say anything. Logs shifted in the grate, sending sparks up like a small fireworks show. My ankle throbbed.