Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
“ T his ain’t no honky-tonk,” Ethan said when Ang finally came in through the dressing room door with his name on it.
Sure, it was just printed on a piece of paper in a frame where you slid in a fresh sheet with every new performer, but he’d never had his name on a dressing room door before in any form.
So far this trip, it had been on dang near all of ‘em, and every venue a little bigger than the one before.
But none had been what this one was. “This a full-blown concert hall, Ang.”
“Not a very big one, though,” Angelo said. Then he waggled a finger. “Not yet .” He closed the dressing room door behind him and took a look around inside, nodding in approval.
“Looks big to me,” Ethan said.
“Meh, three-thousand, give or take. You ready? They sent me to tell you two minutes, and it’s already been one.”
“Three thousand ?”
Someone knocked, then a voice called, “Ready for you on stage, Mr. Brand. Sold-out crowd.”
Ang pulled out his phone tapped a button, and said, “Note to self. Three-k sold out. Upsize the venues.”
“I need a minute,” Ethan said.
Ang frowned at him, then shrugged and opened the door, revealing an eager-looking young man standing on the other side.
“He needs a minute,” Ang said, and closed the door while the kid was going, “What? What?” and trying to look around him at Ethan.
Ethan sat on a chair that was too small in front of a mirror that was too big and reached for his phone.
It played a guitar riff just as he put his hand on it and Lily’s pretty face lit up the screen. His smile was so wide, he thought she could probably hear it. “I was just gonna call you,” he said by way of greeting.
“Aren’t you about to go on?” she asked. “Don’t let me make you late. I just wanted to say ‘break a leg.’”
“Thanks. I have a minute.” He slid a look at Ang, and Ang read it perfectly, held up two palms, and exited the room. Ethan returned to his call. “Lil, this is…it’s not a bar. It’s a concert hall.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“You sent me your itinerary. I looked it up. It has three-thousand forty-five seats.”
“They said it’s sold out.”
“Oh, Ethan that’s wonderful!”
“My knees are knockin’.”
She laughed softly and the sound of it made him laugh too. Then she said, “Nobody’s gonna see that, though. They’re gonna see a big, strong, broad-shouldered, handsome-as-hell cowboy with more confidence than he could hold in a ten-gallon hat.”
“I wish you were here,” he said, and then he couldn’t believe he’d said it. It had just come out. They hadn’t talked. He’d left her. And they hadn’t really talked.
He was an idiot. What if he lost her? What if she decided he wasn’t worth all the trouble?
“I’d be there if I could,” she said.
“How’s Two Lilies goin’?”
“Great. I even have a surprise for you in progress. But you’re late to the stage,” she said. “Get out there and do your job. We can talk more later, okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
“You’ve got this, Ethan. You’re amazing, you know.”
She disconnected before he could say anything back.
Ethan heaved a heavy sigh, set his phone down, and picked up his guitar.
When he opened the door, Angelo was standing in front of it, fists on his hips in a “none shall pass” stance.
The young man on the other side of Ang had peach-fuzz whiskers in uneven patches his mom probably nagged him to shave.
The kid said, “Phew.” Didn’t make the sound, actually said the word, “Phew. Let’s go.” Then he turned and led the way to the stage, and a disembodied voice said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Ethan Brand.”
He walked out there to the loudest applause he’d ever received. He couldn’t even hear his bootsteps cross the stage to the mic. He looked out into the spotlight’s glare, gave a wave, and said, “Thanks, friends. I ‘preciate that.” And then he didn’t know what else to do, so he just started playing.
As soon as his pick crossed the strings, he fell into the music and left his nerves behind.
Everybody in the Brand clan had gone out to one or more of Ethan’s shows.
He left their names with the crew at every venue.
Hers, too, and she hoped he understood why she couldn’t get away.
If he didn’t already, he sure would when he got home, because the Two Lilies Honky-Tonk was going to be amazing.
Lily walked through the place after nearly everyone else had gone home. It was her favorite part of the day, walking through alone, admiring the progress. Even if she wasn’t quite alone tonight.
The walls were freshly painted in color blocks of green, white, and red.
Their wall sockets naked, wires sprouting from some.
The wide doorway into the addition was untrimmed, but the color was in place.
She could hardly wait to apply the border she had planned.
She would stencil it herself, a line from one of Ethan’s song’s, she just hadn’t decided which one.
Everyone had gone except Willow, who’d been sticking to her like glue ever since Ethan had left.
Everyone got nervous when they’d learned the dead man’s driver had returned from wherever he’d been, and was once again working for the Silvers—big brother Nathan this time.
But they hadn’t heard a word from the fentanyl king.
His younger brother’s death had been ruled an accident, and apparently the young driver hadn’t told him any different.
Willow was sitting at the bar with a long-neck bottle of beer, not in uniform, so not on duty. Her hair was loose and long, and every contractor and employee in and out of there was halfway in love with her. She seemed genuinely oblivious to it, though.
As Lily recalled it, even Gringo used to lift his head a little when Willow walked past his table, his sombrero tilting up enough to expose his usually hidden eyes.
She walked into the addition, which had slabside walls she and Ethan had picked out over a phone call one night.
She called him as often as she could think of a reason.
And since they were in business together, reasons abounded.
She even called him when a text would’ve done.
She felt his absence as profoundly as a black hole where her heart should be. Not just emptiness, but a vacuum.
They never talked about anything, though. Well, they talked about everything, but nothing real. Nothing deep. Nothing about what the heck they were to each other.
“One more week,” she whispered. It echoed in the vast emptiness of the new space.
The stage was up but covered in tarps to protect it.
She’d seen it, though. Gleaming wood surface, plugs and outlets, lights hidden within the flooring.
The wiring was still a mad tangle at the back of the stage, “One more week.”
“Think it’ll be ready?” Willow had come in, too. She was standing in the archway, still holding that beer.
“There’s not that much left, really. I…I did something, Will, and I’m dying to show somebody, but I need a vow of secrecy.”
“Secrecy from my cousin?”
“I know, family first, but?—”
“I’m in. Tell!”
Lily took Willow by the hand and quick-stepped back through the dining room, past the stairs, then around the bar and into the kitchen.
“I already saw the new cooler,” Willow said.
“Not that.” Lily opened the basement door, flipped on the light switch and led the way down. “Leave your beer.”
She heard the tap of the bottle meeting a nearby countertop, then Willow came behind her. At the bottom of the stairs there was the same basement as before, but it had a section walled off, with another door in its center.
“This wasn’t here before, was it?” Willow said. “How the hell have you had a crew down here without me knowin’ it?”
“Why would you notice a crew moving in and out of the kitchen?” Lily shrugged. “Besides, your focus has been on watching me.”
Willow shrugged. “Ethan asked me to. He’d be here doin’ it himself if you’d have let me tell him that driver was back in the picture.”
“The driver hasn’t talked. Maybe he’s afraid he’ll be blamed.”
“If he wasn’t fixin’ to talk, he wouldn’t’ve come back,” Willow said.
“If he’d talked, the brother would be here lookin’ for that brown Buick. But he hasn’t so much as shown his face in this town.”
“That we know of.”
“You worry too much, Will. But I sure do appreciate you lookin’ out for me. And keepin’ the driver’s return to yourself. Ethan’s on a roll. He doesn’t need anything tripping him up in the middle of it.” She took a deep breath. “You ready?”
“Ready, but I might’ve already guessed.”
Lily opened the door. A light came on when she did, and they stepped into a recording studio. The walls were lined in gray soundproof padding. There were microphone stands suspended from the ceiling, and one wall had a wide pane of glass with the control booth behind it, just no controls yet.
“Holy…this is a recording studio.”
Lily nodded fast.
“And Ethan doesn’t know about it?”
“Only the crew knows about it. And Samwell Burdick, the general contractor. He hooked me up with this company that does them exclusively and came with great references from some big names. Isn’t it great?”
“Wow.”
“I was looking into what studios with comparable setups charge for time, and it’s a lot,” Lily said. She’d been dying to share this plan with someone. “So not only can Ethan use it when he’s in town, but it can be an extra revenue stream when he’s not. And a perk for our guest performers!”
Willow’s brows furrowed. “You are good at this.”
“I kind of am, aren’t I?”
“Not ‘kind of’.” She looked around the room, nodding. “This is amazing. This is gonna floor him.”
“I hope so. I did financial cartwheels to make room for it in the budget.”
“You did great. Not that I’d know if you didn’t, but it sure looks good to me.”
“I hope so.” They went back out and headed upstairs. “I’ve been second-guessing it ever since they started work,” Lily said.
“Why? What could possibly be the downside?”