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Numb, Cassidy walked to the stage. It played out in her head in slow motion, one foot after the other. Her blood whooshed in her ears and shut out the ensuing calls and cheers.
She focused on climbing the makeshift metal stairs, grabbing onto Gramps’ steady hand as he helped her, and then getting to Molly.
“Hey, sweet girl.” She could barely breathe as she hugged the little girl.
“You wanna say something, Cassidy?” Molly jumped down, shoved away the chair she’d been standing on, and directed Cassidy on where to stand, facing the audience.
Cassidy stood frozen at the mic. Her lips wouldn’t move. Her eyes wouldn’t blink at the crush of people pressing closer to the stage and the hypnotizing flashes going off.
This used to be her home—the performing one—where she could release her hold on reality and drift away in dreams and make believe.
But it wasn’t happening tonight. Or ever again, she finally realized. This was no longer her life or what she wanted in it.
“Mighty... nice of y’all to stop by Honor’s Christmas festival.” Her voice shook, but not as bad as her legs did.
When had everything shifted? Was it hearing Keith Allen talking about her songwriting skills on the radio? Or the catchy hook she’d been working on? Or the loop of notes going around in her head she was dying to add to?
The process—from scribbling in her journal to strumming on her guitar—brought her a joy she’d never felt before.
Miss Peaches and Miss Clementine rose from the front row and helped Ryder with Molly as they descended.
Alone?
Drew rushed up and spoke. “Glad to see everyone turn out for the big announcement.”
She jabbed him with an elbow. Hard.
He coughed and pressed a hand to his gut.
Drew Nicholson might be some big shot with the music industry, but he wasn’t with her any longer.
“Why, bless your heart!” She smiled at the brilliant idea forming. “Listen, folks, Drew’s just donated ten thousand dollars to Honor’s schools for their new music program.”
“Wh-what?” He choked out. “Now, wait just a minute—”
“Oh, my bad. That’s twenty thousand and he’s going to name it The James McCall Music Program.” There you go, Daddy, you did make it big! It was fitting that the man who taught her how to play would forever be a part of teaching kids for ages to come. Her heart swelled with pride. “My, what a special Christmas present for the children, don’t y’all think?”
As the crowd cheered and whistled, Cassidy finally glanced at her ex manager’s red face. She held the mic away. “Call it the first step to your restitution, Drew. There’s more to come, you can bet the ranch on that.”
Now he went sickly pale. “This isn’t the way I pictured it—”
“And he promised the delivery of the instruments and funding will come next week. Isn’t that something?” With every word, Cassidy grew more confident.
He muttered and then took over the mic. “But the big announcement—well, two now—are even better. That’s right, folks. Cassidy’s song she wrote hit number one on the charts!”
Her head buzzed through the roar of cheers. There had been that one climbing steady for weeks now that she’d let the new country star have—sold to her label for a nice chunk of change and counting.
Funny how it was her songwriting abilities that had gotten that coveted spot. She’d done it! Not the way she’d figured, but she’d take this sweet victory all the same. She found and held Ryder’s hypnotic stare.
“Way to go, Cassidy,” he mouthed and then beamed bright.
That little hitch in her heart wasn’t from the win, no, it was from the way he looked at her with a wealth of love and pride.
Drew kept talking. “And Cassidy’s new album she’s working on will be out right after the new year.”
The heck it would!
“That’s what this little stunt—I mean, little stay—was all about.”
“Well, surprise, surprise. That’s news to me.” The nerve in her cheek tugged and she had a difficult time keeping the smile plastered on her face.
Cassidy had never broken a deal or a contract before, but she was about to in a very public way soon. Her team of expensive lawyers were working round the clock behind the scenes to find every legal trick in the book to nail Drew.
No one in Honor knew she was going to drop a big, fat lawsuit on his head come January. He didn’t even know yet, but from the looks of his, he suspected. He’d find out everything soon enough, though, and then it would hit—hard, fast, and ugly. She couldn’t subject Ryder and Molly to that crazy world.
The element of surprise at how deep and vast she was coming after him would floor Drew like it should. But she’d been hard-pressed not to speak out all ways possible.
Drew tapped his suit pocket and the crinkle of paper whisked over the mic. “Got the contract right here.”
Murmurs of delight swept through the townspeople and tourists alike.
Cassidy held on to her last shred of politeness. Just barely. “More like the legal papers for me to not go after you for stealing a bundle of my money.”
He turned pasty white. The crowd hushed. Reporters shoved forward, barking out questions like yapping little doggies.
She ignored them and focused on pinning her ex manager with a hard, fierce stare. “That’s a little more than I wanted to share with y’all right now.” If you want to go there, we can, Drew.
“Come on, Cass. No more jokes.” Drew tugged at his navy blue tie, loosening it from around his neck.
“How’s your pretty house sitting on a hundred acres, Drew? Yeah, the one you stole from me.”
Shocked gasps rippled through the area.
His mouth opened and then shut. He shook his head. “It was a bad investment for you. Me and the missus stepped in to help.”
The audacity! “Funny, when I made all the money.” Yep, should be on my stashed cell phone talking to my lawyers right now about how I tipped my hand. No matter, it felt darn good to expose the fraud.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Caleb weaving through the crowd.
“Well, lookee here, it’s my cuz, the sheriff.”
Drew jerked his head around to find Caleb approaching and then turned back to her, holding up his hands. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“Seems to me, you’re already in a big heap of some. Now, Drew. You are no longer my manager or my business partner or nothing. Got that?”
“You do that and you’ll never get another job in country music.”
A quiver shot through her at his threat. It could very well be true for all she knew. She teetered on saying the next. “Folks, do you think he’s right?”
There were plenty of boos and hisses.
“She’s got more talent then you’ll ever have.” Molly’s voice—so sweet and so confident—rang out.
“Thank you kindly, sweetheart.”
“A kid?” Drew brushed it off.
“My biggest fan.” She nodded to the good people of Honor and festivalgoers now rising to their feet and cheering her. “My fan club.” Cassidy teared up at the support.
A thought teased her mind. Why not?
“Goodbye, Drew. And you can tell that to the record label, too. No more jumping through their hoops. I can make music on my own.” She’d be flat broke, but she’d been that way before.
Whistles pierced the air, mostly from her band of cousins close by, Gramps to her right, young and old surrounding her, and Ryder holding Molly.
Cassidy just did the impossible. She’d made a huge leap off that star and now flew solo through the scary maze of never having her dream to hang onto again.
She was on her own. She was ready to make a new dream for herself. It was the best she’d felt in years!
“You coming, Cass?” Gramps entered the living room from his office with Sweet Potato by his side.
Days had sped by and still she didn’t leave the protection of the ranch. Holding her guitar as she sat in the armchair closest to the crackling fire in the hearth, she shook her head. “Nope. Lawyers want me to sit awhile, no more gabbing, if you know what I mean. And seems like the reporters will pounce the second I try to step foot off McCall land.”
“Been trying every chance they can get. Those pictures of you and Ryder and Molly at the festival sure fetched a pretty penny. Hounds looking for more.” He winked at her. “We’ve got this place buttoned-down tight, don’t you worry none.”
“So you know why I can’t go to help you all with Ryder’s house.” That weighed on her. The distance. The need to protect him and Molly. From me.
But every time she thought about how her cousins came together to finish Ryder’s house for his and Molly’s Christmas made her so dang proud to be a McCall.
“Yep. Don’t like that, but I understand.” He cleared his throat. “Haven’t changed your mind?”
She sighed, long and loud. “I appreciate the offer to stay here with the McCalls, but I’m going to pick up my crazy life back in Nashville. I’ve got to straighten up a few—well, a heck of a lot of—things and then head on to that voice therapist and vocal coach.”
Delaying anything wouldn’t help. She needed a professional opinion on if she ever had a chance to sing even for her own pleasure again.
The answer scared her—either way—because she’d be doing this on her own for the first time ever.
“Open invitation.” Gramps nodded and then moved along, his voice fading away as he went. “Oh, just so you know, you are expected at church for Christmas Eve. There’s this play the whole town is itching to see.”
Cassidy smiled, remembering the play and how Molly would be one of the shining stars in it.
Molly. Her chest hurt.
Ryder. Her heart ached as if she’d never have a normal heartbeat again without a searing pain slashing across it.
Turning her back on the two people she loved the most was the very best thing she could do for both of them.
Not so much herself...
Ryder guided Molly and her new pony around the corral. “Two hands, honey.”
“Okay, Daddy.” She sighed and put both hands on the saddle horn.
“You haven’t named her yet.” He swallowed hard at the downcast look on his precious daughter’s face—the perpetual look since the festival.
Santa had been anticlimactic after Cassidy’s toe-to-toe with her ex manager, who couldn’t convince Cass to change her mind, so he hightailed it out of town only to arrive back in Nashville and hit all the major entertainment shows with his crooked side of things.
Lies.
The entire fiasco and the drawn-out press coverage blared from all those tabloids at the general store in town and the grocery store every time he went to pick up something in Honor.
He drew Molly away, keeping her busy with the Christmas play rehearsals, schoolwork, and caving in and buying her the pony she’d been asking for the last six months.
The cool, crisp morning air had invigorated him after another night of tossing and turning. But his daughter’s sadness weighed on him.
Deep down to his bones, he missed Cassidy. Like an ache that would never go away.
Glancing up at Molly, he knew she felt the same way.
“Why?”
His heartbeat drummed behind his ribcage. She’d asked that every day for the last two weeks. “She’s trying to protect you. Us.”
“But... I love her, Daddy.”
Me, too. He choked up. “I know she loves you, too.”
“How? She never said. And she doesn’t want to be our Christmas bride.”
“It’s the way she looks at you.” And me.
“I thought she’d stay for us.”
That hit him square in the gut. What could he say? “She needs her dreams...”
Silence descended as he made another turn. The house came into sight. A well of gratefulness rushed through him at the way the McCalls and Laramies had come to help. Cassidy had asked, Gramps said. She’d do it herself, if she could.
More townspeople stopped by, even Clyde, to lend a hand. Somehow they knew this was important for him to give to his little girl—a place to raise her right. It had gone from nowhere near finished to almost done. He needed to tackle the inside work—floors, cabinets, paint, and lights to name just a few things.
Gazing at it now, as the morning sun bathed the one side, Ryder saw it differently. Three bedrooms, two full baths, the big kitchen and living room, but there was something missing...
Maybe it wasn’t a thing, but a person.
A home wasn’t a home without the people he loved.
He could barely breathe now, wondering if he had the guts to even try again.
But what if she didn’t want it or him?
Ryder begged and pleaded with another parent for a sleepover for Molly with one of her little school friends, arranged for Miss Peaches to take Molly two mornings, then got Jenny to fill in between her numerous jobs.
When all was said and done, Ryder worked day and night for four solid days, watching his friends from Honor come and go in shifts to assist him. Gramps had gathered the crew—calling in favors from near and far. Ryder could never thank the man enough.
He barely ate or stopped, knowing he had to get this done in record time. Adding on to his blueprints hadn’t helped one bit.
Spending chat time with Molly on the cell phone and hearing about her playtime was the only thing that halted him in his tracks. He missed her so much, but he was doing this for them—his little family.
Round the clock work was only temporary. He ached all over, especially his heart. But he feared that wouldn’t end any time soon, especially if he couldn’t get his plan in motion.
Hammering finally stopped, fresh paint glowed on the walls, hardwood floors gleamed, and every last screw and bolt was in place late at night two days before Christmas.
Alone, Ryder did a slow walkthrough, his boot steps echoing in the empty house, marveling at the finished product. He nudged open Molly’s door and smiled at the bright pink walls. She’d love this.
He swallowed past the lump in his throat.
“I promised you, Naddie. I’d build Molly a home—one she could laugh and play in, one she could grow up in, one where she would be safe and secure. I did it. Well, it took nearly all of Honor, but we did it.”
Somehow, he knew she was smiling now.
“About time, right? That tiny, drafty old house wasn’t fit for my foster folks, never mind a pregnant woman, and then our little girl.”
His voice bounced off the walls in the empty house.
“One promise down. A few more to go.” Some he’d never know until Molly was a young woman—raising her to be a good, kind person. He was still working on that.
But the last promise Nadine had dragged out of him nagged at Ryder.
Find her. Show her how much you love her. Promise me that, Ryder. You’ve given me all I’ve ever wanted. Now, I want the same for you. You deserve love.
Sometimes a girl like Cassidy wanted more. Naddie knew that, so why did she insist on Ryder finding Cassidy again and asking for another chance. “Well, Naddie, sometimes that’s not enough.”
Why not? Why can’t love be enough?
He’d been wondering that ever since Cassidy—the love of his life—had turned down his proposal and sent him away years ago.
Turning, he walked back down the hallway past the living room and to the room he’d refashioned the last two days. He stared at the windowless room, arranging the equipment in his head.
The small music studio had been a lightning flash of brilliance as he guided Molly’s new pony with her in the saddle. Cassidy could write here, even produce. Now, doubts crowded in Ryder’s mind.
“Cass, honey, we can do this. We can have it all. If you’ll just let me in.”
And that was the problem; everything hinged on her...
