“She doesn’t always come first, Gabe. She’s going through a really rough time right now. What kind of friend would I be if I turned my back on her? I’m sorry, but I just can’t do it.”
“You should stay,” Nikki said as she ventured out of the bedroom wearing one of the band’s discarded T-shirts. Melanie’s face was streaked with tears, but Nikki’s was downright flooded. “I can go home by myself.”
Adam offered Nikki an encouraging smile, but she was too focused on Melanie to see it.
Gabe looked Nikki over from head to foot, his gaze pausing at her throat and cheek where colorful bruises marred her flesh. He sighed and turned his attention back to Melanie.
“When will I see you again?” Gabe asked her.
“Soon,” she said. “I promise.”
“If I wasn’t on tour, I’d follow you home and help you with this.”
“I know that,” she said, kissing his lips softly. “It’s one of the thousands of things about you that makes it so hard for me to leave.”
But she did leave. Packed up herself and her friend and headed back to Kansas.
Adam continued to toy with his new lyrics at the dining table until Gabe sank into the bench across from him after sending the two women off in a cab.
Gabe linked his hands on the table in front of him. “Why is it that we have willing women coming out of our ears, yet it’s so hard to convince the ones we actually want to stick around?”
Adam stiffened. Did he know that Madison had left him? Adam hadn’t mentioned it to anyone. It sure seemed as if Gabe were trying to commiserate, which meant he knew they had something to commiserate about. And maybe that was okay. Despite having people around him all day, he’d never felt more alone.
Adam shook his head. “No idea, but if you figure it out, be sure to let me know.”
Gabe’s eyes lifted and he met his gaze. “You too?”
Adam nodded curtly.
“What happened?”
He didn’t really want to talk about it, so he left out all the details. “She said she needs time to think things over. So she left.”
“Well, at least she doesn’t have a ball and chain for a best friend.”
“Don’t be too hard on Nikki,” Adam said. “She’s been through a lot. And not just this weekend. Her entire life.”
Gabe scrubbed his face with both hands and dropped forward to bang his forehead on the table. “I know. That’s why I feel like such an incredible ass for even thinking she should just. Go. Away.”
“She’s gone now,” Adam pointed out.
Gabe chuckled and lifted his head from the table. “That’s true, but unfortunately she took Mel with her.”
“She’ll be back,” Adam said, reaching across the table to slap Gabe in the upper arm. He wasn’t used to comforting people. It felt kind of weird, but he had to admit there was something appealing about it too. It made him feel good about himself, which was even weirder.
“I’m sure Madison will be back too,” Gabe said.
Adam wasn’t—wouldn’t she have at least texted him if she had any desire to ever see him again—but he nodded. “I hope you’re right.”
Adam went through the motions of preparing for the show, but his heart wasn’t in it. The stupid, aching organ was fixated on someone over 500 miles away in Dallas. His muse got off on his misery, however. He’d filled several more pages with lyrics between sound check and the call for places. And as soon as his guitar was in his hands backstage, he began fiddling with new riffs.
“Nice,” Owen said, mimicking Adam’s string of notes on his bass.
“Yeah, I like that,” Kellen said. He had completely missed sound check, but had arrived backstage moments ago.
“I assume your writer’s block is gone,” Kellen said with a bemused smile.
“Yep,” Adam said and left it at that. He wasn’t prepared to share the reasons why. He was trying very fucking hard to keep his mind off the cause of his sudden bout of inspiration. Or maybe it was his focused attempts to keep his thoughts from wandering that made him concentrate on writing lyrics and now, guitar riffs.
“Well, keep it up,” Kellen said, giving Adam’s back a hard smack. “Sounds great.”
The cellphone in Adam’s front pocket vibrated against his thigh. His heart skipped a beat. Please be Madison, he thought as he fished the phone from his jeans. His heart thudded faster as he recognized her name displayed across the screen. He accepted the call with a trembling finger and drew the phone to his ear.
“Madison?” he said breathlessly. “I’m so glad you called. I thought—”
“This isn’t Madison,” said someone who sounded a hell of a lot like Madison.
“What?”
“This is her sister, Kennedy. Look, Adam, I don’t like you. Well, I don’t really know you, but I don’t like who my sister has become since she started dating you. She’s changed and not for the better.”
“Why are you calling me?” He could only think that Madison had been too chicken to tear him to shreds and had asked her sister to do it. And could she have picked a worse time? He had to be on the stage in a few minutes. Madison knew that.
“There’s been an accident.”
Something kicked him in the gut and knocked the wind from him. “What?”
“Madison was thrown from her horse. She hit her head and is completely incoherent, except she keeps calling your name. I decided to leave my personal feelings concerning your unhealthy relationship aside and ask you to come to the hospital. Maybe you can reach her. She doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
A strange feeling of calm settled over him. He could be there for Madison. He would be there for her. As far as he was concerned, nothing could stop him. Not even her. He lifted his guitar strap over his head, set the instrument on a stand, and headed for the exit. “Where is she?” he asked her sister.
“Baylor Medical Center.”
“I’m on my way,” he said.
Chapter Seventeen
“Adam?” Madison whispered for the thousandth time that night, but this time he actually answered.
“I’m here.” A strong hand squeezed her fingers.
She pried her eyes open, her thoughts hazy from all the pain medication they were pumping into her vein through an IV. Or maybe it was the concussion. At least she knew what a concussion was now. She’d never been more terrified than when they’d been trying to explain her injuries to her and none of the words made any sense. Nothing had made any sense. Nothing except for Adam. Her feelings for him had been the only thing she’d been sure of since Ginger had tossed her. Maybe even before that rather painful moment.
“Is it really you?” she asked. Maybe she was hallucinating again. She was sure she’d seen her grandmother earlier, standing by her bed, but that was ridiculous. Nana had been dead for years.
“It’s me,” Adam said, leaning over her and stroking her hair from her face so he could drop a tender kiss on her forehead. “I got here as fast as I could.”
“What time is it?” Through the window, she could see it was dark outside, but she had no idea how many hours had passed since she’d been brought out of surgery. She tried to pull her body upright to search for a clock, but due to the weight of the huge cast on her arm and the traction device holding the pins in her shoulder in place, she couldn’t manage more than the tightening of her abs.
“Around five, I think,” he said.
“In the morning?” She searched his face, noting the lines of fatigue around his eyes.
“Yeah.”
“Did I lose an entire day?”
He shook his head. “No, I drove all night.” He glanced over his shoulder at the open door. “I’m not sure how long I can stay. They didn’t want me in here disturbing your rest, but after driving all night, I wasn’t about to listen.” He grinned crookedly and stroked her cheek. “I’m sure security is on the way to toss me out.”
“You always have been a troublemaker,” she said, her hea
rt full to bursting because he’d come—driven all night—to be there for her. She never expected him to go to such lengths for her, to be so selfless. She was glad so many people were wrong about him and the she was an excellent judge of character.
“Can’t help it,” he said, cracking his knuckles. “It’s how I roll.”
She laughed and then groaned as her side protested. If not for the pain medication, she knew that simple laugh would have brought her to tears. The doctor had determined that her ribs weren’t broken, merely bruised, but they sure as hell felt broken.
“So what’s the damage?” Adam asked. “Your sister rushed me in here without telling me much.”
The traitorous bitch, was Madison’s first thought. “You talked to her?”
“Briefly. She’s the one who called me and told me you needed me here.”
“Oh.” Well, Madison was still pissed at Kennedy, but maybe eventually they could mend their damaged relationship. Maybe.
Madison tossed her blanket aside with her uninjured arm, and he gasped.
“Broken radius and ulna, sprained elbow, dislocated shoulder,” she said, pointing to her right arm. “I tried to catch my fall. That was a mistake.”
“I thought you were good at riding horses.”
“I am good at riding horses,” she said defensively. “My horse was spooked. By a snake.”
Adam shook his head as if he were angry with her. “Why’d you take your horse near a snake? Don’t you remember what that fortune-teller in New Orleans said?”
She shook her head in disbelief. “I didn’t mean to take her near a snake. It was hiding . . .” The fortune-teller’s words echoed through her mind.
“In the grass?”
She nodded. “It doesn’t matter. I had to go for a ride.” She smiled. “I was looking for you.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry, I found you.”
He touched her temple with gentle fingertips. “Are you sure your head is okay?”
“No worse than it was before,” she assured him.
“Your sister said you have a concussion.”
“I do. But I’m feeling much better. Especially now that you’re here.”
He smiled, holding her gaze for a long moment. When his eyes became shiny with tears, he diverted his attention to the bandage on her shoulder. “What’s under here?” he asked, running a finger along the tape.
“That’s for my fractured collarbone. They had to screw the pieces to a metal plate.”
“Ouch.” He took in her body from head to toe and then met her eyes. “You’re in an awfully good mood for someone so broken,” he observed.
“I feel less broken now than I did when I left you.”
He let out a shaky breath. “You do?”
She nodded, reaching out to him with her good arm. “You came.”
“Of course I came. Jesus, Madison, you could have died. Why do you have to be so fucking reckless?”
Despite her damaged ribs, she laughed until her belly ached. “Me? You’re the reckless one.”
“Then I’m a bad influence on you. I’m going to end up getting you killed.”
She didn’t care about anything but him being there. “Are you going to kiss me, or what?” she asked.
“May I?”
She lifted an eyebrow at him. “You’ve never felt inclined to ask before.”
“Yeah, well, I’m trying not to be an asshole here. I’m doing my best to change for you.”
Now she was really confused. Even more than she’d been when her brains had been scrambled.
“Change?” she blurted. “Why would you change for me?”
“Because . . .” He lowered his gaze and rubbed a finger along the solid length of her cast. “You’re so good and I’m, I’m not.”
“I don’t want you to change, Adam,” she said. “I happen to love everything about you.”
“Then why did you leave?”
“Because it’s scary to love someone as much as I love you. And I couldn’t figure out why you encouraging the insanity between us was activating my fight or flight response. So I chose flight. But I should have chosen fight. I’m choosing fight now, Adam. I’ll fight for you. I won’t run again.”
His gray eyes lifted, and he met her gaze. “She never fought for me.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
“I’m not your mother.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
“And I will fight for you, Adam. I will. I promise you that.”
He stared into her eyes and then dipped his head slightly. “I believe you,” he said. “But maybe you should wait to fight until you’ve healed a bit. Though one good whack with this cast would take out a charging bull.” He touched the plaster gingerly, as if afraid touching it would hurt her.
“I love you,” she said and swallowed the lump of nervousness in her throat. Was she really going to do this? What if he’d changed his mind? “Adam?”
He lifted his head, and she was surprised to see his eyes brimming with tears.
“I love you too,” he said.
She nodded, her own vision swimming. “If you still want to marry me, I . . . I accept your proposal.”
He again looked her over. “I don’t know, Madison,” he said. “I’m not sure you’ll ever be able to give me a proper hand job again.”
She lifted a spare pillow and hit him with it, grateful she was feeling no pain. “The doctor says I should recover completely with rest and physical therapy. You’ll get plenty of spectacular hand jobs.”
“If you’re sure.”
She nodded and stared at his pocket expectantly.
“I’m not asking you yet,” he told her.
“You’re not?” The disappointment of his words crushed her chest. “It’s the whole ‘in sickness and in health’ thing, isn’t it? I promise I’ll be back to normal in no time.” Six to eight weeks wasn’t so long when they had the rest of their lives to spend together.
“That’s not it. I think I’d like to meet your family first. See what kind of crazy I’d be marrying into.”
“My family? What about your family?” She’d talked to his dad on the phone and found him to be as difficult to reach as his son had been.
He laughed. “You already know my family is crazy. And your sister seems pretty cool. Maybe I could win her over if we got to know each other.”
As much as she loved her family, she was still angry with Kennedy. She didn’t care if she ever approved of Adam. Screw her. “She’s not as cool as you think she is. I found out who ratted on us to my boss,” she said.
“Not—”
“Yeah, it was Kennedy.”
Adam’s eyes widened. “Your sister? Why would she do that? I know she doesn’t like me, but I thought you two were close.”
“I thought so too.”
She fumed silently for a moment, her jaw aching with tension. “You know, I was always taught to turn the other cheek and passively accept my fate. To take the path of least resistance.”