Rough Country - Lauren Landish Page 0,122

can’t stop it from affecting me and that’s ruining me too.

Mama Louise doesn’t so much as slow down with her weed pulling. “Of course they did. The question is . . . why did you say they didn’t?”

I blink in confusion. “Wait, you knew I got an offer?”

She stops, her eyes boring into me. She’s always had kind eyes, blue and fringed with dark blonde lashes, but now, those eyes are looking at me as if I’m dumber than the tomato plants.

“Of course they’d want you. Your songs are amazing, poetry like nothing I’ve ever heard. You’ve got the voice of an angel” —I snort in disbelief, but she steamrolls over me— “mixed with the grit of the devil. It’s beautiful, Bobby. A gift.”

I let her compliments sink in. Most folks, I simply brush their praise off. But not hers. Mama Louise’s means something to me.

“Thanks.” That’s as far as I get for a long while as I search for the words to explain what happened. Mama Louise doesn’t rush me, as if she knows this is difficult for me.

Finally, the story comes.

I tell her how intimidating the office was, with a whole room full of people judging me. I tell her about the crowd at the Bar and how I won them over, which felt amazing. She smiles at that, nodding like ‘I told you so.’ I tell her about working with Miller and Rory, deeper stories than I told at the dinner table.

“Miller made me feel like I could really do something. I mean, I know I can sing. And I write all the time. But it was like with the tiniest push, it was all on a higher level. One I didn’t know I was capable of. What if there’s more that I’m capable of?” I wonder aloud, not meaning to say that last part.

“I’m sure there is. You can discover it yourself, though. Or book some time with this Miller fellow yourself if you want to. I’m sure he does private appointments. Everyone does for the right price. It only matters if it’s worth it to you.”

I mull that over for a second.

“They had conditions for the contract offer,” I tell Mama Louise.

She frowns. “What sort of conditions?”

This is the harder part, the confession about what I’ve done.

“Jeremy said I needed a band, and that was fine by me. Then he started talking about my image. They wanted to turn me into some sort of bad boy manwhore.”

“Man-what?” Mama Louise repeats, just shy of a shriek.

I nod, not willing to repeat the word in front of her. She might’ve not corrected my language once, but she’ll damn well do it if I say whore again. “Exactly what you’re thinking. They wanted me to be single . . . to break up with Willow.”

“And you said no.” Her voice is flat, not belying what she thinks about that, good or bad.

“I tried. Jeremy told me to think real hard before I answered either way. I told him no on Wednesday. It’s the right thing to do.”

“Well, I’ll say that I don’t know a thing about music, other than what I like to listen to on the radio. But I reckon those people do, so they might be right about the way to make the most of your voice. The question is . . . do you care what they say? Right or wrong, contract or not, what do you want, Bobby?”

I can’t answer that. I should be able to. It should be the easiest answer in the world—the contract that so many people, me included, dream of for so long. But on the other hand, I’ve never known love like this, and I’ve been searching my whole life. Some people search even longer than I have. And I won’t give that up lightly.

“You’re choosing Willow over the deal.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement.

“Yeah.” I am. She’s everything, way more important than this deal. And I’ll still have music, just not the big stadiums and bright lights. I can sing at Hank’s, and it’ll be enough. It always has been.

“You sure?” Mama Louise is giving me an out, telling me it’s okay to choose either way, but my decision has already been made. Now, it’s just time to live my happily ever after with it.

“I am.”

“Good,” she says with a smile. She seems . . . pleased? But that can’t be right. “You deserve to get what you want, Bobby. Lord knows, you kids have been

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