Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Juliet didn’t trust many people with her entire being.
In reality, she only trusted a single soul enough to allow them to lead her somewhere with a blindfold over her eyes. And that person was Darcy.
Even if it was in their own home. If Darcy had wanted to put the blindfold on her during sex… well, they could talk about it, but even then – that would put Juliet far more out of control than she usually was in that kind of situation.
But this wasn’t sex.
The only reason she was sure of it was that they were fully clothed and nowhere near their bedroom. They’d had sex a lot in the house not in their bedroom, but with the blindfold and the midday timing and the clothing of it all… she was pretty confident.
“Okay,” Darcy said, with far too much excitement not to make a deep suspicion ping through Juliet. “You can take it off now.”
Juliet pulled the blindfold off, and – well, she hadn’t known what to expect. Like, at all. But whatever her imagination could have mustered up, it wasn’t Shelby-freaking-Linwood, sitting at the island with a cup of coffee in front of her.
“Shelby…?” Confused – because they’d definitely never hosted Shelby in their home – Juliet darted her eyes to Darcy before returning to Shelby again, a small smile tugging on her lips.
Shelby Linwood smiled back. “Hi, hon.”
Juliet could only stare for several moments before she asked, “Ah, are we having a little brunch meeting or something?”
Shelby chuckled, sipping on her coffee. “Look, I told Darcy she was being dramatic.”
Juliet slowly turned toward her girlfriend, who looked positively radiant. Like she could barely contain herself.
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Darcy said, simply.
“You blindfolded me,” she pointed out.
“I didn’t want you to see and figure it all out.”
“We’re in our own home; what is the big surprise?”
Shelby gently cleared her throat. “While I’m not opposed to the coffee and the muffins y’all set out, I’m here specifically to discuss logistics for your album.
From what I’ve already heard, you two gals are looking for a quick turnaround time.
Which shouldn’t be too difficult, given I hear you’ve already recorded the majority of it yourselves. ”
That certainly didn’t alleviate any of the bafflement swarming through her, and everything inside of Juliet stilled. “Ah… our album,” she echoed, unsure if she was asking or simply stating.
Because what in the world did Shelby Linwood know about their album?!
“ The Whole Truth ,” Shelby informed her, as though Juliet didn’t know what their album was to be titled.
“Yeah, I… I mean – what?”
She looked at Darcy again, who looked so eager. It was the best word Juliet could think to describe the expression on her face, the way her cheeks flushed and her eyes were bright and expectant, focused on Juliet. Maybe there were even hearts in her eyes, too. Juliet thought she saw them.
“You arranged for our album to be produced by Shelby fucking Linwood ?”
“I did.” The pride was clear in Darcy’s voice.
“How long has this been happening?”
Because the reality was that Darcy was not usually one to keep secrets or squirrel away information. When she was impassioned, when she was excited by something, Juliet usually knew pretty quickly.
“Since the Grammys?” Darcy answered.
Juliet's mouth fell open. “You’ve been working on this since the Grammys? For over two weeks?”
Might not be a long time to some people, but – again – for Darcy to have kept this close-lipped… it was something. She honestly couldn’t help but be impressed.
“I wanted to make sure it was real before I told you.”
Shelby leaned forward. “She’s been very persistent.”
Juliet laughed softly, still trying to catch up. “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me in the least.”
Persistent. Stubborn. Two sides of the same coin, and they both described Darcy. She loved that.
Darcy scoffed in faked offense. “I was professional.”
Shelby raised an eyebrow. “Sweetheart, sent me two emails before breakfast.”
“That was just, you know, one morning.” Even so, Darcy shrugged, her cheeks blushing in a way they’d only do for someone like Shelby. “And I was excited.”
Juliet turned back to Shelby, that same excitement rising inside of her so swiftly, even though she tried desperately to push it down. Because she couldn’t let herself believe it if it wasn’t one hundred percent true. “You want to work with us? Really?”
“I do,” Shelby answered, simply.
Juliet’s chest tightened, her butterflies fluttering in her stomach. This was a dream. After the last couple of months, after trying so hard and needing to get on board with needing to self-produce their album…
“But – Honeyvine never works with established artists,” Juliet couldn’t help but state. Which was possibly stupid, because Shelby was sitting right in front of her, telling her that she wanted to work with them.
The entire reason Juliet had dismissed it as a possibility was because she didn’t think it was one.
Shelby had started Honeyvine Records over five years ago, and she picked up small artists, usually women, who were trying to get traction in country, folk, Americana.
But she’d been clear about the purpose of her label not being some big conglomerate; her target musicians weren’t big names.
Shelby had taken artists nobody knew, and she’d given them room to become artists instead of products.
“Darcy?” Shelby nodded to her, eyebrows lifted. “Why don’t you share the very impassioned speech?” She gestured for Juliet to turn her attention back to Darcy. “She makes a great case.”
Juliet wasn’t surprised by that; Darcy could be very convincing.
“While I know that I’m not really a new artist, and you definitely aren’t–” Darcy cut herself off, shaking her head.
“I mean, if we want to get technical , re-forming We, The Romantics is turning it into a new group. So… new.” She waved her hands in the air.
“But I know that isn’t really what you mean, by new artists.
Yes, we have name recognition. We are definitely not artists Honeyvine would typically work with. But… working with us would be new.”
Darcy shrugged heavily, looking between Juliet and Shelby.
Like she was selling Shelby on it all over again, her heart in her voice.
“Because right now, we aren’t getting any takers.
Maybe, one day, when things die down, a different label will pick us up?
But for now, we’re on our own. And it’s entirely because we came out.
No one wants to take the risk on us. And doing that is something different.
It is sending a statement. We, especially you, Juliet, have worked so fucking hard .
And you’ve done everything you were supposed to do, and you succeeded.
Having these doors slammed in our faces…
it isn’t how this should go. It’s not right. ”
There was that passion Darcy was so known for. Juliet loved it.
“I know you’ve had to come around to the idea of us releasing something ourselves. I know you’ve gotten on board with it because you’ve had to. But I also know that’s not what you want .”
And Darcy was right. Juliet had only ever known traditional success. Producing their own album felt like the biggest step backwards. It felt like abject failure.
“If there’s ever anything I can do to make your dreams come true, Juliet, I’m going to do it,” Darcy somewhat paraphrased Juliet’s words back to her.
If Juliet hadn’t already been so in love with Darcy, she would have fallen right now. And it would be irreversible.
Her breathing felt a little choppy, and she – somehow – had forgotten that Shelby was in the room with them until she gently cleared her throat.
“I created Honeyvine because I wanted to bet on musicians when no one else thought they were worth the risk. And right now, I’d like to bet on you two. I’ve heard enough of the samples Darcy’s sent me to know that what you’ve been working on is going to be something worth the world hearing.”
Was she living in a dream?
“Now, sit.” Shelby directed. “Get your own coffee. Let’s talk.”
Shelby stayed for over an hour, and by the time she left, Juliet felt like she was on Cloud Nine.
They were going to handle engineering, mastering, and distribution. Setting up a tour – not as big as Juliet was used to, Shelby had forewarned – as if Juliet could care about that.
They got to retain full creative control.
All because: I’ve thought you two sounded like magic together years ago when the world already loved you both. But I have the suspicion you’re going to do something even better when you’re building something you love, together.
Juliet stood there, staring at the closed door for several moments after Shelby left. Then she slowly turned toward Darcy, who was standing a few feet back, a hesitant smile on her lips.
Emotion whipped through her so violently she almost couldn’t breathe. “You…”
“I wanted you to have something that makes you feel good.”
Juliet swiftly closed the distance between them, tugging Darcy against her as she surged up to kiss her. Hard and demanding, holding Darcy’s perfectly curvy body against her own.
Darcy made a surprised sound into her mouth before melting into the kiss, giving right into Juliet’s demand.
She didn’t stop kissing her, not even when she felt lightheaded. From both what had just transpired and from the desire that was already starting to throb through her body. She felt… everything. And she felt it for Darcy, and she wanted to express it now .
She felt Darcy laughing against her lips. “Baby–”
“No,” Juliet growled, tugging Darcy’s bottom lip between her teeth, greedily taking in Darcy’s groan.
With her hands on Darcy’s hips, she walked her backwards, and she only broke their kiss to bring her mouth to Darcy’s neck. Running her lips over the soft skin, feeling Darcy’s breath hitch.
“You’ve been making secret business meetings with Shelby Linwood,” she murmured against Darcy’s neck, before nipping her teeth in sharply.
Darcy whimpered against her ear. “I – I have.”