bait he’d dug up, but she just jammed that earthworm onto the hook like it was nothing. “Damn, no hesitation there.”
“I told you I fished when I was a kid. Sometimes if we didn’t catch anything, there wasn’t any dinner, so we were pretty persistent.”
There had been a time when he had thought her childhood poverty was exaggerated, to make her story, her package, better for the country music scene. But then he’d heard her comforting her mother after yet another worthless man treated her poorly and took off, and he had seen how mature Jolene was. How maternal and matter-of-fact, resilient and creative. It was a sign of a woman who had grown up in the country, and who had grown up quickly. Poverty and an abusive parent did that.
“I can’t even imagine going hungry like that. It must have been hard.”
Her look was inquisitive. “Are you expressing sympathy for me?”
“Yes.” He dangled his feet over the dock and tipped his head back, wanting the sun on his skin. He hadn’t spent much time in the country as a kid and the backyard of their mansion had been manicured and tidy. The gardener had chewed him out when he’d taken it upon himself to pluck some lilies for his mother. As a result he’d never developed much of a taste for nature so his claims of being able to spank Jolene at hauling in fish was mostly bluster. He’d done fishing charters in the Keys, but not like this, just a pole and some bait. But he wasn’t about to admit that.
“Thank you,” she said, softly. “I guess everyone carries baggage around from childhood, it’s just made of different material. I know you had money, but it’s not a secret Buck liked to hit the bottle.”
Chance stiffened and forced himself to think before he spoke. This was uncharted territory for them. They had never discussed their childhoods, not in any way that was more than an anecdote here and there. They’d never dug. It seemed odd they would now, but hell, maybe with their relationship off the table they could focus on each other as people instead of the intensity of their feelings. “Buck was a lot of things, and yes, a drunk was one of them.”
“We have that in common.” Jolene swung her arm and dropped her line in the water with a perfect arch. “Was he a mean drunk? My daddy was.”
“No, I wouldn’t say that.” How to explain what he never spoke about? “He was friendly. Really friendly. Like every woman in his vicinity who was under sixty was a potential target for his, you know, friendliness. I saw him making out with lots of women, none of whom were my mother.” It shamed him to say that out loud. He didn’t want to slur his father’s memory, but it was the truth. “Buck was skeezy when he was drunk. He groped everything he could get a hand on.”
“I’m sorry.” Jolene’s hand reached over and squeezed his knee. “That’s a hell of a lot for a kid to see.”
“It’s fine. It’s got nothing to do with me now. My mother divorced him finally and now he’s dead and everyone remembers him as a great man and a wonderful songwriter. Which he was, both, when he was sober.”
“We can’t completely shake off our pasts.” She studied the water. “I’m still that dirty little girl, hustling for a meal, conning the church ladies into giving me an extra cupcake. I’m still conning people. They think I’m a star.”
Chance frowned. How could she believe that she wasn’t a star? She oozed stage presence. “You are a star.”
“I’m just a girl with a decent voice and big hair who was persistent enough to make people listen to her. And let’s get real, Chance. I was hovering on the edge of obscurity until you and I started writing together.”
He couldn’t believe it. She really thought that. That her success was some kind of dumb luck. “You’ve lost your mind. The reason you hit it big is because you have that sweet, silky voice, that somehow is big and yet approachable all at the same time. That’s you, too. You have that indefinable star quality, yet you’re still vulnerable. People relate to you. They like you.”
For a minute she didn’t say anything. He waited for her to argue with him. But she just turned and gave him a smile. “Did you like me?” she challenged.
“Yes,” he said solemnly and with sincerity. He