24. 24
Hayes
Now
A nnabelle and the girls trail behind my truck in their SUV as we make our way out of Nashville toward my ranch for a long weekend.
I’ll be staying longer, through Christmas, since Rowdy, Bailey, Josh, and James will meet us up here on Christmas Eve.
Annabelle and the girls will stay for lunch to meet everyone properly before heading back to Nashville that afternoon.
Annabelle wants to have one last Christmas at their house before she moves.
Plus, I think she’s nervous about celebrating a major holiday with me.
Especially after that stupid gossip blog posted photos of me with the girls at their school. I’m pissed about the photographs, but at least Grace and Claire’s faces were blurred out. I would have lost my shit otherwise.
As a celebrity, it’s an unfortunate reality that I’ll make the headlines, but I was livid that Annabelle's children got pulled into it. Luckily, Char, the label’s PR firm, and Outlaw’s attorneys are on top of the situation and working behind the scenes to put out any fires.
I’m grateful we’re escaping the city for a few days, so that we can all unplug from electronics, tune out the tabloids, and get some peace.
The farther our caravan drives out of Nashville, the colder the temperature drops.
I’ll be keeping a close eye on the weather.
The last few days have been unseasonably cold with some precipitation.
Snow on Christmas isn’t unheard of, but it is rare.
We usually don't see snow up here before January.
However, snow flurries and ice are in the forecast for the upcoming days.
Before too long, we pull off the busy highway and begin the trek down the empty, patched-up county road that brings us to the entrance of the ranch.
Surrounded by swaths of tall trees on both sides, there isn’t much to see until we turn the corner and the familiar timber and black wrought-iron gate comes into view.
Outlaw’s Retreat.
I hit the clicker, and the large gate swings open.
I swear, as soon as my truck crosses the threshold of my property, my blood pressure drops, and my breathing slows as a sense of tranquility washes over me.
Snapping off my radio, I roll down my window so I can breathe in the fresh pine-scented air and listen to the sounds of nature.
Glancing in my rearview mirror, I spot a big smile on Annabelle’s face as her head swivels from side-to-side taking in the scenery.
If heaven were a place on earth, it’d be right here. Especially now that my girls are visiting with me .
I’ve taken the past few days to reconcile myself with the idea of loving Annabelle.
Once I wrapped my head around it, it wasn’t hard to accept.
And the more comfortable I became with that notion, the more easily I started picturing my future to include not just Annabelle, but Grace and Claire, too.
My life, and my heart, which once felt barren and empty, now feel full and rich.
A vibrancy exists within me, and I know that Annabelle, Grace, and Claire are the reasons for it.
The words I love you have lingered on my tongue, ready to be spoken aloud at any moment. But I don't want to say them at any moment. I want to say them at the right moment. The perfect moment. So, I'll wait patiently for that moment to arise.
We drive another minute and then we crest a hill, and the view opens up to rolling verdant meadows, distant snow-capped mountains, and an endless canopy of blue-gray sky dotted with clouds.
Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the expansive ranch property is comprised of five houses of varying sizes, a bunkhouse, horse stables and corrals, numerous outbuildings and sheds to house equipment, and an old school red barn with white trim.
The first house we pass is the caretaker’s house.
I have a married couple, Pete and Phyllis, who live here full-time and take care of most things, though we always hire outside help during the busy times of the year.
Past their house is the bunkhouse, large and utilitarian, but perfect to house temporary ranch workers.
Then we pass three smaller cabins. On the outside, the rustic log cabins blend in with their surroundings, but on the inside, the cabins gleam.
Hardwood floors, open floor plans, luxury finishes, vaulted ceilings, and stunning views of the rolling farmland and mountains in the background.
I had these cabins built for the band, so we could all stay out here without living on top of one another .
Rowdy and Bailey stay in one, Josh and James in another, and Jane and Charlotte stay in the third one.
Well, they used to stay there. After Jane and I broke up, it was the push Jane needed to move to New York City to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional party planner.
Now, Char often spends holidays and vacations with her little sister in the Big Apple.
Following a sharp turn in the road, I slow the truck to a crawl; the sounds of tires crunching over the gravel road fill the cab. Around the bend is the main house. My home away from home, the place where I come to escape the rigors of Nashville and the demands of a successful musical career.
It’s sprawling and picturesque, the original roughhewn wood farmhouse having been added on to several times over the past hundred years, with fields stretching out in every direction.
The house is two stories and has a large wrap-around porch with plenty of rocking chairs.
In the back there’s a pool, hot tub, and fire pit.
It’s too cold for swimming, but I imagine the fire pit will get some use during this visit.
Before I even have the truck shifted into park, the girls pop out of Annabelle’s SUV like puppies spilling out of an open gate, with excited squeals, infectious giggles, and moving as fast as their little legs can carry them.
They’ve only just arrived, and they’re already breathing new life into the place.
Eyeing the wide-open side yard, I can envision a tire swing hanging from the limbs of that old oak tree. Hell, maybe I’ll even have a giant playscape built for them.
“Everything okay? You look like you’re solving quadratic equations over there.” Annabelle teases as she opens the back hatch of her SUV. “Hey, did you know quadratic comes from the Latin word quadratus, which means square? ”
“Nope, can’t say that I did.” My lips twitch. “And to answer your first question, I’ve never been better, Jeopardy. Never better.” Tumbling out of my truck, I walk over to where she stands and help her carry her bags into the house. “Follow me and I’ll show you to your rooms.”
The house has five bedrooms, so in theory, everyone will get his or her own room. However, I plan on wrangling Annabelle into my bed, if possible.
It may not be possible. Grace is a smart little bugger.
More than once, I’ve caught her scrutinizing how I behave around her mother.
She watches us with unfiltered curiosity, like she suspects there’s something going on between Annabelle and me.
Rather than being upset at the possibility, Grace seems more focused on simply figuring out what’s happening.
Putting the pieces together to solve the mystery.
Throughout our afternoon of horseback riding and fishing down at the pond and our evening spent making dinner together in the kitchen, I’ve been careful about how I treat Annabelle.
No longing glances or touches under the table.
It’s been fucking torture keeping my eyes—and hands—off Annabelle all day.
But as soon as Annabelle closes the door to Grace’s bedroom after tucking her in, I pounce. For the ten or so hours that the girls will sleep, Annabelle is all mine.
With my hands on her waist, I push her down the hallway, my boots heavy on the wood floor. She stares at me wide-eyed, biting her lower lip. “Hayes,” she hisses, her gaze darting to the doors of the rooms the girls are sleeping in .
“Yeah, baby?”
“Be quiet!”
“It’s not me I’m worried about.” Arching a brow, I whisper teasingly, “If memory serves, you were pretty loud.”
She socks me in the gut, not hard enough to hurt, just hard enough to make her point. I chuckle, loving how it feels to get under her skin.
When I steer her around the corner, I push her against the wall, bracketing her body with mine and nuzzling her neck.
With my hands on her jaw, I angle her face upwards and capture her lips, forceful and punishing.
She gasps at the urgency with which I kiss her, but damn, I’ve been waiting all fucking day for this kiss.
After a moment of hesitation, her arms slide up my neck as she returns my ministrations with equal fervor.
Pulling back, I look down at her in my arms as happiness fills my body.
Lowering my head, I gently kiss her satiny, soft lips once.
Twice. Three times. Annabelle tugs my mouth down to meet hers a fourth time, and this time, she slowly licks my bottom lip and slants her mouth across mine, pulling me in deeper.
My hands drift down her back and come to rest on her shapely hips. My thumbs sneak under her shirt, grazing her silky skin with my guitar-calloused fingertips. Her mouth twists as we kiss, a giggle escaping.
“Hayes, you can’t tickle me when we’re making out!”
Cradling her cheeks, I stare into her beguiling eyes. “Come on, there’s something I want to show you.”
“Your bedroom?” She suggests with a coy smile.