open my door and slid into the driver’s seat. “Do you want to get dinner together? It might be one of my last chances before you’re a superstar.”
While Stella’s tour bus wouldn’t arrive from Atlanta until Friday, she’d quietly slip into town tomorrow afternoon to try to avoid the paparazzi. She wanted a lowkey night out with her friends and team, which of course included Troy. It would be a fabulous opportunity, and I hoped he could find a moment to sweet talk Stella into mentoring him.
“I could do dinner,” he said. “You want to pick me up? It might give you and my mom a chance to talk.”
Was he kidding? “You just said she needs time. It doesn’t sound like she’s ready to talk.”
“No,” he said, “but . . . she’ll come around. Trust me.”
I hoped he was right.
Friday morning, Charlotte was surprisingly helpful, offering to help me sift through contracts so I could find the information I was looking for, allowing me to go on to the next thing on my never-ending to-do list. Stella’s concert was tomorrow, and I wanted all my ducks in a row so I didn’t have to work tonight or tomorrow.
I could focus entirely on Troy.
He hadn’t texted me yet to tell me how the evening with Stella had gone last night, but Ardy had looked haggard when he’d arrived at the office, mumbling about him being too old to be this tired.
Once he was tucked away in his office, I smiled at Charlotte. “Late night?”
She nodded. “I heard from Becca the bar stayed open an extra hour.”
Meaning if Ardy and Troy had stayed to the end, it’d been three or four in the morning. I glanced at the clock on her computer screen, which read nine-forty, and sucked up the impatient urge to text my boyfriend and potentially wake him up. He had a huge day tomorrow and needed all the sleep he could get.
Charlotte scrolled through the contract she had pulled up, highlighting the clause I was looking for.
“Awesome, thanks.” I straightened to go back to my office, but hesitated. “Hey, can I ask you something? Do you like working here?”
She looked up at me with confusion. “Sure.”
My question had been too broad. “I guess what I’m asking is, if you could do whatever you wanted, would you be here working for your dad?”
Watching what Troy had gone through with his mother gave me new perspective. Maybe Charlotte disliked her job and I hadn’t been fair to her. Ardy had a dominating presence, and it wasn’t a stretch to assume he’d encouraged her to work at the business he’d built and ran.
She sat back in her chair and considered my question critically, and then her eyes turned sad. “No.” She made a face. “I mean, maybe? It’s like, when my dad said I was going to get to work at Warbler, I got all excited. I grew up surrounded by music, and I always expected it’d be a part of me.”
I tilted my head in question.
She pivoted in her chair to better face me. “So, I thought I was going to get,” she searched for the right word, “rock n’ roll.” She gestured to the contract on her computer screen. “Instead, I got this. This . . . is not rock n’ roll.”
My laugh was gentle. “No, it’s not.”
“I’m sure it’s not news to you, but I suck at paperwork, and I don’t like doing things I’m not good at.”
There was a twinge inside me because I could absolutely relate. Who would enjoy doing something that made them feel inferior? “Have you told your dad this?”
Charlotte’s pretty face skewed. “I don’t think he’s going to want me to keep working here if I say I don’t like it.”
“I don’t know, your dad’s a smart guy. He might have some ideas that are a better fit for you.” Plus, he loved his daughter. He’d do all he could to make her happy.
Her expression was skeptical at first, but I watched the wheels turning behind her eyes as she began to consider what I’d said.
Her phone was lying face-up on her desk, so when the notification with Troy’s name popped up on the lock screen, my eye went straight to it. “What’s that?”
She picked up her phone and looked embarrassed. “I, um . . . set an alert on Troy’s name.”
Except for Ardy, no one at Warbler knew Troy and I were dating. We’d decided to hold off on revealing it until after