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“I couldn’t then, but I can now,” he said.
“And what the hell, Mom? Is this why you left Dad?” Cody asked her. He sounded angry and resentful. I’d never heard Cody use anything but a kind voice when he addressed his mom. His attitude startled me.
Martha turned to her son, grinning. “Sweetheart, I didn’t leave your dad. Well, I did technically, but not in any other sense. I’m here now, and I’m not going back. If he still wants me, then he’ll have to move here, but that’s a conversation between your dad and me. This is about you and Emily—you, Gabe, Dustin, and Emily. It has nothing to do with me.”
Cody stopped walking, and I swear his face looked as if she’d just slapped him. “Mom, what are you saying?”
She reached out and rested her hand on his shoulder. “I’m saying you’re all adults… we’re all adults… and however we decide to live our lives is our decision. Not our parents or our siblings. It lies with each of us, and this decision lies with you. We get one life, so make it a good one, son.” Then she tossed me a quick grin and nod before she turned back around, slipped her arm through Tammy’s, and the once-estranged sisters headed off to the band’s waiting room, leaving the four of us standing backstage to figure things out on our own.
In that moment, with that simple gesture and her sharp words of wisdom to her son, I knew if any of them even remotely said anything that sounded like an apology, I’d be in their arms once again. This was my one chance at the life I wanted, and unless they were going to be complete idiots, they had me when I first spotted Cody’s face in the audience.
“I’ve been an asshole,” Cody began, walking in closer to me.
“A really big asshole,” Gabe added, coming in to surround me.
“Me too. A fucking stupid asshole. We’re here to tell you how sorry we are,” Dustin added, taking up the middle. I felt safe, loved, and sheltered from the storm of everyday life.
“I’m in love with everything about you,” Cody said. “The way your forehead wrinkles when you’re thinking about how to resolve a problem.”
“How your lips pull, and you get a slight dimple on your right cheek when you laugh,” Gabe said. “I love that.”
“How you smell when I’m this close to you,” Dustin said, giving me a rush of heat.
“How your lips feel on mine,” Gabe said, triggering my memory of us having sex.
“How you taste,” Cody said, his voice lower and almost a whisper. “I love you. I want to be with you. Always have, always will.”
My heart raced, and my fingers and toes tingled.
“Please forgive us. Please join us on tour. I’m fucking in love with you,” Dustin whispered in my ear.
“We’re in love with you, Emily. We’re so, so sorry,” Gabe added, smiling like he truly meant every word and was proud he’d been able to admit it.
I stood there for a moment, letting their apologies dangle out there, naked and vulnerable.
After another couple of beats, I said, “You hurt me. Y’all hurt me. Bad. How do I know Natalie or somebody like her might affect this crazy romance, and y’all leave me again? It would break me.”
“Because I finally grew up, and I know what I want, and what I want is you,” Cody said.
“Yeah… what he said,” Dustin added, with Gabe nodding in agreement, still grinning.
I gazed down at the cement floor, trying to hide the smile that threatened to give my emotions away. Damn it all, but I’d fallen in love with these three adorably handsome country crooners.
“And there it is,” Gabe teased, catching my smile. “I think we’re getting to her.”
I looked up at them, not holding back anymore. “Fine, but you were right, Gabe, about the magic of performing onstage. I want to be more than a back-up singer. I’ll do it for your tour, but this girl wants to break free on her own, and if I do, none of you can stand in my way. You have to promise that upfront. Now.”
Cody grinned and nodded. “We’re here to promote you with anything you want to do. The world is yours, Em. We’re just here for the ride.”
“Maybe a little more than that,” I teased, then I started singing Give A Little Love between raining kisses on each of them.
“Let’s get out of here,” Cody said, and in the next few minutes, fringed shirt and all, we piled into the back of their car, and Bill drove us back to my cabin.
“THIS IS GOING to be wild,” I said once we were standing in the small cabin bedroom I’d been calling home for the past week or so. I could hardly believe I was going through with the fantasy that had started only a few days ago.
“Ya’ think?” Cody said, as he unbuttoned my shirt, slipped it off my arms, and let it drop to the floor.
“I have to admit, I’m more nervous about all three of you at once than I ever thought I’d be,” I told them, as they tore off their own clothes and dropped their boots on the floor like something that was weighing them down.
