Chapter 11
Being at Heartstrings was the perfect end to this day, to this week, to get my head back on right. Being around the mingling crowd and live music untangled all my nerves and seemed to straighten out my thoughts a bit.
My family and our business may be my priority, but music was my passion and there was nowhere else I’d rather be on a Friday night than surrounded by it with my guys.
“Are you playing anything today?” Patrick asked after taking a sip of his Diet Coke and placing it on a nearby table. Nodding toward the stage and simultaneously flipping his dark hair out of his face, he leaned over and took his shot at the pool table, sinking two balls before missing his third.
“Yeah, I think I will,” I answered while Garrett went in for his shot and missed.
The beer was hitting the spot and loosening me up, and I knew that strumming my fingers on the guitar or picking up my harmonica would only make this feeling better.
“You want to join me?” I asked Garrett while we watched Patrick sink the eight-ball.
“Yeah, may as well,” he responded, rolling his eyes. “Not like I’m winning any looks from the ladies by losing games over here.” Although Patrick and I had lost interest in the one-night stands, Garrett was still a force to be reckoned with.
We had been playing music together since we were kids.
We’d make up songs on our guitars that eventually Melody would make up lyrics to, spinning around the house with her bright red hair and long skirts trailing behind her.
It was hard to not make music part of your being when you grew up around it.
My parents played and sang, my grandparents played and sang, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my great-grandparents had, too.
Heartstrings was the heart and soul of our little town.
We made our way up to the bar to put our names on the set list and grabbed another drink when a slender hand slipped her grip around my forearm, her long nails sending an unwelcome chill down my spine.
“Calvin! What a surprise to see you here!” Valerie squealed from the seat beside me.
It really wasn’t a surprise to see me here, considering I came almost every Friday.
Her friends gave me polite smiles. It was like they knew Valerie was overstepping, but they weren’t brave enough to say anything to her.
I noticed Blaire was with her, not looking nearly as torn up as Carter had at work today while she laughed with her friends.
“Hello, ladies, hope you’re enjoying your evening.” I tried to turn and end the conversation, but Valerie’s grip on my arm only tightened.
“What are you doing afterward? Maybe you wouldn’t mind walking me home? You know how I feel about the dark and all that,” Valerie said while batting her eyelashes like she was straight out of a cartoon.
“Sorry, Valerie, my man here has plans tonight,” Garrett cut in.
“Hot date night kind of plans. And definitely won’t be available to walk you home.
Let me show you where the phone is, though, in case you’d like to call a cab later.
” He threw his arm around Valerie’s shoulder and forced her to let go of me, leading her to the doorway where the vintage phone booth sat.
I didn’t miss the daggers Valerie’s eyes shot my way, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t grateful for Garrett’s interference.
“Her persistence will get her somewhere someday.” Patrick chuckled from beside me.
There was absolutely no denying that sentiment. “You want to join us up there tonight?”
Patrick didn’t play any instruments, but he had an incredible singing voice.
Unfortunately, almost no one in our small town had had the privilege of hearing it.
I wasn’t sure if he was uncomfortable or if he doubted his abilities, but if there was a chance music could make him feel the same way it made me feel, I wanted him to have that.
“No way, man. You know I don’t like being in front of all these people.”
“But you’re good. Better than good. They don’t even know the talent that’s right in front of them.” I wanted to build my friends up, I wanted them to “chase their happy,” just like my mom had told me to do. Why was it so easy for me to want it for them but not claim it for myself?
Patrick just shook his head and took a swig of his Diet Coke in response.
“Well, now that that’s dealt with, you ready?” Garrett returned to the bar with a big goofy smile on his face.
“What did you do?” Patrick and I asked at the same time. We knew him better than to think that mischievous look was for nothing.
“Nothing!” he said as he threw his hands up in the air in surrender. “I just, maybe, sort of, told Valerie that even though her shit may not stink, the pile of cow dung she stepped in on the way in here definitely did.”
I dropped my head into my hands but couldn’t stop the shake of my shoulders as I laughed. That was something we could always count on him for.
“She didn’t, did she?” Patrick looked mortified.
“Nope,” Garrett said with a pop of the p. “But she doesn’t need to know that.”
The laughter between us continued while Garrett and I got ourselves set up on the makeshift stage. He picked up the guitar and I grabbed my harmonica out of my pocket as we locked eyes. Words didn’t even need to be shared between us when he strummed that first note and I started singing.
The feeling of euphoria washed over me, the same way it always did, as we finished up our set and headed to some seats at the bar.
Tabitha held the mic in her hand and commanded the stage, just like she ran her business here at Heartstrings: flawlessly. “What an incredible performance by our very own Hart brothers! How lucky we are to have such exceptional talent that we get to witness every Friday night here in Love?”
The small crowd cheered as loud as a full sports stadium. If you ever felt alone, just go to a small town and see how much love there is to share.
“Now, how about we give it up for the third part of that trio, Melody Hart!”
I looked around to find Melody, surprised she was here and didn’t come join Garrett and me up on stage. As I looked around the bar, it wasn’t Melody who caught my eye, though.
It was Stella. She was here.
She had traded in her leggings and hoodie that seemed to be her protective uniform over the last few days for a floral long sleeve sundress that flowed around her legs like the canola fields swayed in the summer breeze.
Her long dark hair was done in loose curls and moved with her as she laughed with Olivia.
She laughed.
It stole my breath to see her genuine happiness and only made me a little jealous that I wasn’t the reason for it. But to see her so happy eased a part of me that the music didn’t quite reach.
Her red-painted lips parted to take a sip of her drink, and when she looked up her gaze connected with mine.
It was like everything else in the room stopped and all I saw was her.
I thought she was gorgeous that very first night I saw her trembling in bed, but seeing her now—with clear eyes, bright skin, and a smile on her face—threatened to stop my heart completely and send me to an early grave.
“I’m going to need to get a bucket to catch all your drool, man.” Garrett’s laugh disrupted my focus on the masterpiece across the bar, and I turned to glare at him, which only made him and Patrick laugh harder.
“I don’t know what to do,” I hissed at them. This feeling was so strange to me. I had never felt such an attraction toward someone, not in this kind of way. She was like the world’s strongest magnet and my eyes were powerless to her pull.
The laughter quieted, but the humour never left the guys’ faces.
“So, go talk to her. No woman in their right mind is going to turn you down,” Garrett assured me.
But it wasn’t that. I didn’t just want her for a night.
I had seen her sad eyes, I had seen her scared eyes, and now I was seeing glimpses of her happy eyes.
But I also wanted to memorize the look of her sleepy eyes when she just woke up in the morning.
Her focused eyes as she read one of those books she grabbed from the library.
The glazed over haze in her eyes after I made her come apart by—
I shook my head before the thought got me in trouble in a packed bar.
“You wait too long and you might miss your shot…looks like Carter is eyeing her up, too.” Patrick motioned to the other end of the bar where Carter was sitting.
I hadn’t even noticed he was here. After a few beers, he sure didn’t look as rough as he did today at work, but there was still a shadow in his eyes as he put down his beer and flexed his hand, only making the ink that lay there even more prominent under the bar’s low hanging lights.
He glared over to where Blaire was still sitting with Valerie, and then his eyes locked on Stella as he downed the rest of his drink.
Oh, hell no. I was not about to let Stella become a rebound for whatever mess of a situation that would be.