Part 1 (2/2)
”You know I do, but it's not feasible right now. We've got thirty dates left on the calendar before we're done.” She didn't mention that they'd get only a few days off before they were due in the studio to record Kate's sixth alb.u.m. After that, it was back on the road for another tour. ”How am I supposed to get you out of all those obligations?”
”If anyone can do it, you can. I should've done this after I was sick. Instead, I went back too soon and collapsed in front of an arena full of people, giving the press enough fodder to last for weeks. I'm done, Jill.”
”For now or forever?”
”I don't know yet. For now, definitely. I'll let you know about forever after I've had a break.”
”There could be big trouble over this, bad press...”
Kate released a harsh laugh. ”What other kind is there where I'm concerned?” She reached for her sister's hand and held on tight. ”We're twenty-eight and twenty-nine years old, and we've spent the last five years working ourselves into early graves. We have millions in the bank, gorgeous homes that we pay people to keep clean for us, nice cars sitting unused in the garage, horses we pay people to ride for us, and five little brothers who are growing up far too fast and barely know us.”
Jill nibbled on her bottom lip, seeming stressed as she listened to Kate.
”You haven't had a real vacation since you graduated from law school and came to work for me. I haven't had one in so long, I think the last one was Christmas break of my senior year of high school. It's time to live a little. What good is all the money in the world if we never do anything fun? Don't you want to have fun, Jill?”
And there was something else Kate wanted to do, something she should've done a long time ago, but that was her secret and hers alone. It wasn't something she could share with anyone, even her sister and closest friend.
”Our work is fun,” Jill said. ”I enjoy it, and you do, too, when you're feeling well.”
”I haven't enjoyed it in a long time-long before I got sick.” Saying the words out loud was somehow freeing. ”I feel like I'm on a treadmill with every day exactly the same as the last. The only thing that changes is the city and the venue.”
”What about the band and the roadies and all the people your show employs?”
”We'll give the roadies and the tour people a nice severance package and pay the band to give us six months before they sign on with anyone else. You think they won't welcome some time at home with their families? Some of them have kids who barely recognize them on the rare occasion they're actually home.”
Jill nibbled on her thumbnail as she mulled it over. Her mind worked a mile a minute, which made her such an a.s.set to Kate. After several minutes of mulling and nail biting, Jill glanced at her sister. ”Let me see what I can do.”
d.a.m.n, it was good to be home, Kate thought as she took her horse, Thunder, on a slow gallop through the woods that ab.u.t.ted her home twenty minutes outside Nashville. At thirteen, Thunder was showing no signs of slowing down and hadn't lost his enthusiasm for outings with Kate.
”We'll be spending a lot more time together for the next little while, boy,” she said, stroking his neck as his hooves clomped along the well-worn path.
He nickered in response to her, as he always did, drawing a smile. She swore he was a human stuck in a horse's body, and the comfort of being with him filled her with joy.
As they often did when she rode Thunder, her thoughts strayed to the man who'd given her the horse after their ill-fated romance blew up in their faces. It was impossible, she'd discovered, to spend time with Thunder without thinking of Reid and the magical months they'd spent together.
Kate didn't believe in regrets. She was pragmatic enough by now to know that life could be incredibly sweet and just as incredibly painful. More than ten years had pa.s.sed since the last time she saw Reid, the awful day he flew her home to Rhode Island after her sister Maggie was badly injured.
But not a day had gone by that she hadn't thought of him, wondered where he was, what he was doing, if he was happy. One night, about six years ago, during a lonely moment on the road, she'd searched for him on the Internet and discovered he'd sold his business and left Nashville shortly after they broke up.
She'd been unable to find a single other reference to him online in the ensuing decade. It was like he'd dropped off the face of the earth, which was why she was about to ask something of her sister that she'd hoped to handle on her own.
Kate brought Thunder to a stop outside Jill's two-story post-and-beam house. She slid off his back and tied the lead to the railing. Rubbing her hand over his flank, Kate said, ”I won't be long, pal.”
His nicker and nuzzle made her laugh. Sometimes she felt like the horse she rarely saw these days knew her better than any of the people in her life, except for Jill, of course. Since they were young girls, Jill had known her better than anyone, which was why Kate was so certain her sister would balk at what Kate was about to ask of her. But she was determined to ask anyway.
She rapped lightly on the front door and stepped inside. ”h.e.l.lo?”
”In here,” Jill called from the kitchen.
Kate strolled into the kitchen, stopping short when she saw Jill dressed for business, bent over her laptop with papers strewn across the table. A steaming cup of tea sat ignored next to her. ”Okay, what part of vacation didn't you get?”
Jill glanced up at her. ”You might be on vacation, but I'm still trying to keep your a.s.s from getting sued.”
Kate glanced over her shoulder, pretending to look at her a.s.s.
”Stop being funny. It's no joke. Buddy is furious with you, and Ashton is, too.”
”What else is new?” Kate asked of Reid's son, who'd given her the cold shoulder every time she saw him over the last ten years. Since he was the chief counsel for Buddy as well as Buddy's superstar wife Taylor Jones and Long Road Records, their paths crossed more often than Kate would like.
”Regardless of his ongoing feud with you, he's also moving heaven and earth to prevent a slew of lawsuits.”
”He's not doing it for me. He's doing it for Buddy and the company.”
”Who cares why he's doing it? The end result will save you millions.”
Since Kate had been focusing on rest and relaxation since they got home two days ago, the last thing she wanted to hear about was the threat of lawsuits. ”Remember those jeans we bought in the Mall of America? You must still have them around here somewhere.”
”I still have them.”
”So you can only be productive in a power suit.”
”I have a meeting in the city in just over an hour.”
Kate helped herself to a diet soda. ”With who?”
”Ashton.”
Here's your chance, she thought, as a flutter of nerves invaded her belly. Just say it. ”So, um...”
Without looking up from what she was doing, Jill said, ”So um what?”
Kate dropped into a chair across from her sister.
Jill took off the gold-framed gla.s.ses she used for computer work and sat back in her chair. ”What's on your mind?”
”I was wondering... While you're with Ashton, um...”
”Will you spit it out? I'm on a schedule.”
”You're supposed to be on vacation.”
”Speak. Quickly.”
How to sum up years of longing and regret in one sentence?