She took two steps towards her truck, but then turned back. “You know I love you, right?”
He nodded. He did know that. It just wasn’t the love he’d started feeling for her three years ago.
“I do. And you know I love you, right?”
He wasn’t sure if she knew that he was in love with her, but they’d always loved each other.
She nodded. “I do.”
Then she turned and walked away.
And Fletcher let her go.
1
Fletcher Landry’s life was about to change. Forever. Irrevocably. He was never going to be the same.
This was going to be the worst day of his life.
And his grandmother was throwing a party for the occasion.
Not only that, but she had threatened to cut him off from her gumbo for two weeks if he didn’t show up.
So now he was sitting at a huge table at the back of her bar with the rest of his family, bracing for the moment when everything went to hell.
At least there was lots of food. There was always lots of food when his grandmother was in charge. There wasn’t much that her jambalaya couldn’t make better.
It was a small comfort.
“Shut up! It’s starting,” his grandmother told the group.
Ellie Landry, the matriarch of the family, pointed the remote at each of the televisions in the bar, turning the volume up to he-couldn’t-ignore-this-if-he-tried level.
Fletcher groaned. Not only was this whole event going to suck, but he was going to watch it on television, with his whole family gathered round, with the volume set to blaring.
And he was going to have to listen to Jason Young sing as a warm-up.
Jason Young was the hottest rising country music star in Nashville. But he wasn’t from Nashville. He was from Bad, Louisiana, the town just up the bayou from Fletcher’s hometown of Autre. Fletcher had known him since they’d played football against one another as pee-wees. Jason was good-looking (according to others), talented (also according to others), and charming (to people who didn’t know him very well). And did things like giving to charity and visiting sick kids in the hospital.
Fletcher hated the guy.
Because Jason had also been dating Fletcher’s best friend, Jordan, since they’d been fifteen. Which meant that Fletcher had hated Jason since they’d been about fifteen and a half, and Fletcher had realized Jordan was going to keep dating him.
At first it had been fine. Fletcher had liked seeing Jordan happy and it seemed that Jason treated her well. Of course, Fletcher threatening to end his life if he didn’t might’ve had something to do with that. It hadn’t hurt, either, that he’d been backed up by his cousins Mitch, Josh, and Owen. All of whom also had no trouble getting a little bloody for the right cause.
They all would have considered Jordan the right cause.
But then Jordan had actually fallen in love with Jason and told Fletcher all about it with a sweet smile on her lips and a dreamy look in her eyes.
He’d started to hate Jason then.
He hadn’t stopped since.
Jason did three numbers and the family all ate in relative silence. There was never total silence when it came to the Landry family, but when there was food involved it was a little better. And the way Ellie had the TVs turned up, it was difficult to make conversation. Thank God. It was maybe the first time he’d been grateful that his grandmother was a huge fan of Jason’s.
Because he was sure that his family, specifically his twin brothers, Zeke and Zander, would be monitoring his reactions to Jason and whatever he had up his sleeve tonight. Not having to talk while he struggled to hide his reactions would be great.
The thing that made the whole situation even worse, was that Jason was actually pretty good. Fletcher would never buy an album and he would continue to turn the radio away from any of Jason’s songs, but it wasn’t like his ears were bleeding or anything.
“Vegas, wow, that’s fun,” Tori, the wife of one of Fletcher’s cousins, said. “I’ll bet Jordan’s having a good time.”
Jason was performing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Yeah, he was doing very well in his career.
The fucker.
“Shhh!” Ellie told her. Everyone’s eyes widened. Tori never got snapped at. She was sweet and kind and patient. And pregnant with Ellie’s first great-grandchild. She’d basically been treated like a princess since she’d moved here and like a queen since she’d shared the baby news.
But Ellie really was a big Jason fan. And the rumor was that he had something big planned for his live show tonight.
The further rumor was that he planned to propose to Jordan. On stage.
Fletcher pushed his plate away. Not even jambalaya could make that feel good.
Jason moved to the microphone, grinning into the camera. He had a room full of fans at that casino as well.
“Hey, everybody, thanks for coming out tonight!”
The crowd roared.
His grin widened.
Fletcher sighed.
“This past year and a half or so has been pretty crazy for me. All my dreams seem to be coming true and there are some really important people who have been a part of that.”
He thanked his manager, his parents, and a couple of people Fletcher didn’t know. Then he said, “But there is one very special person who’s been here with me from the beginning and who I have a very special question for tonight.”
The crowd went crazy. Ellie gasped and grabbed her husband Leo’s arm. The women at the table sat a little straighter.
Fletcher rolled his eyes.
This was where things were really going to start to suck.
The noise in the casino was incredible and Leo reached for one of the remotes to turn the volume down. Ellie slapped his hand, but thankfully he managed to reduce it by a few notches.
“Yeah,” Jason said grinning. “I hope she feels the same way about it. Now I just need her to come out here with me.”
The camera swiveled and focused on a beautiful blonde who had just stepped out from backstage.
It was Jordan. Kind of.
Fletcher’s chest tightened and his heart thumped hard against his breastbone. He’d know that face anywhere, of course, but a lot of people who knew Jordan would be shocked to see her tonight.
Jordan was a tomboy. A natural beauty. A girl who wore lip gloss on Saturday nights. Maybe. If she remembered. The first time she’d ever tried to use mascara, she’d ended up with an eye infection. The most she’d ever done with her hair was having her girlfriends curl it for prom and she’d bitched all night long about her head aching from the bobby pins.
She was most at home in denim and bare feet and she had a perpetually sun-kissed glow to her skin and a smattering of freckles across her nose from being outside all the time.
The woman who was walking across the Las Vegas stage in three-inch heels looked nothing like his best friend. She wore a form-fitting sparkly black dress and had her hair swept up in a fancy twist. She had heavy eye makeup on and lipstick.
The only thing that looked slightly familiar was the denim jacket she wore over her dress. But even that was studded with rhinestones that caught the spotlight and sparkled.
“Daaay-um,” Zeke said appreciatively. “Jordan’s got great legs. And other stuff.”
Fletcher ignored him. Zeke said shit like that to him about Jordan all the time. But he’d seen her legs a million times. Bare. Long. Tanned. The girl was from Louisiana. She didn’t wear a lot of clothes a lot of the year.