Chapter Sixteen
“Let’s play.” Nash looped the strap of his acoustic guitar around his neck and gave the instrument a quick tune up.
Erik stepped out on the stage of his theatre and took his seat at the piano. “Since when do you write the music Christine sings?”
“Since I finally got some inspiration.” At last, he put the words to the music he wrote for Petals.
“I want to sing it.” Music in hand, Christine waddled out behind her husband. “I want to do anything that doesn’t involve me lugging around another human for two seconds.”
Nash bit the side of his mouth to stop a laugh. Christine’s due date was nearing and her belly showed it.
“What if the music makes the baby come?” Erik got up and helped her over to the microphone stand.
Christine grabbed Erik’s collar and pulled him down until they were face to face. “Then boy or girl we are naming the baby Nashville and erecting a statue in his honor.”
“I’m down with that.” Nash saluted his friends.
Erik kissed his wife on the cheek and pried her hand off him. “How about we play Nash’s song?”
The three of them glanced at each other, communicating in that silent language all groups spoke right before they started. After an extended pause, Nash began to play the intro. He plucked away the intricate beginning on the strings, and flawless as always, Erik came in on the piano, adding a bit of his flourish that at one time made Spectre great.
Finally, Christine hit her mark and began to sing.
The song was reminiscent of some of the great 80s metal ballads. It told a story of magic and mystery, of longing and waiting, of uncertainty and restraint.
In essence, it told his story.
They played and his mind took off. He and Petals were due to meet yet again and he wanted her in a way he didn’t know possible, but what did he have to offer her? The appearance of Laura only brought everything into the light. Laura didn’t want him, didn’t think he was a hero who could fix anything, didn’t believe in him.
Petals. She was the exact opposite and he had nothing to give her, at least not in the real world.
Nothing except one thing.
The song ended.
They remained silent and let the music fade into the memories of the theatre.
“Oh.” Christine wiped a tear out of her eye. “It’s for her.” Her voice broke.
Erik cleared his throat. “We need to record this. We can perform it on Stage of Stars.”
“I can’t.” Nash shook his head. At his protest, he put the guitar aside and stood. He purposely took several steps, if one could call them that, across the stage without his cane. In truth, he limped like a pitiful failure. “I can’t.”
“Because she might see you?” Erik asked. “Because she might figure it out? Because she would know what happened?”
“You know the answer to that.” He balled his hand in a fist and turned toward his friend. “You know better than anyone why I can’t show her.” Even after all these years and even with his wife, the man still wore the mask covering the destroyed half of his face.
“It almost tore us apart,” Christine piped in. “Once he showed me, it only brought us closer together.”
“It’s different.” He sighed. Erik was a success in his own right and Christine needed him. On the other hand, Nash had nothing Petals could want. Once the soft place he offered her to land turned into a hard place she got herself stuck into, she would realize she was with a has-been and would leave.
“If you think about it, our situations are strikingly similar.” Erik stood.
“They are not even close.” Unsure of what to do, he paced across the stage and slid his hand into his pocket. His fingers grazed the one thing he had to offer Petals, and he pulled out an envelope that came for him two days ago.
He stopped and stared down at the rich stationery from Windsome Holdings, the company who owned the land he and Petals met on. “I got an offer on the Los Padres cottage.” For the first time, he said the words aloud.
“How fast did it take for you to tell them to go to hell?” his friend asked.
“I didn’t.” Nash took the document out of the envelope and for the millionth time read the amount they wanted to hand him for the land. Even splitting it with Stacy, he would have enough to make things happen, begin his life over.
“What?” Erik joined him.
He tilted the document in Erik’s direction.
“That land does not come cheap.” Erik bent down, after a pause he took the paper and held it close to his face. “Are you considering this?”
Christine wobbled over and put her hand over her mouth.
He knew what they were both thinking, it was the same thing everyone thought. Sell the land. Give up. Go live the life. Was that what his father wanted? When his father put the conditions on the land was he really telling Nash he couldn’t do it? Did he only want to give him a chance? Show him his limitations? What direction he should go?
He snatched the document away from Erik and took in the many zeros on the offer. “I haven’t even made love to her yet.”
“Aw.” Christine went to his side and gave him a hug. “It’s about her.”
“It is about her.” Erik stepped in front of him.
Increasingly, everything he did was about her. He answered with a shrug. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Maybe start by telling her who you are,” Erik said.
“I need to start by figuring out what to do with this offer.” At last, he met Erik’s eyes. “There’s only one person I would trust to give me advice.”
“You are a dreamer.” Erik shook his head. “When I bought the theatre, I tried to go see Upton. I was quickly shown the exit.”
“I have to try again.” Nash folded the paper and returned it to the envelope. “I don’t even know if I have a future with her. I only have a dream.”
“It’s like the song,” Christine whispered.
“Then I would say before you make a decision, before you upset the balance between Upton and the world, you go and find out what your future holds. Make love to her. Find out what she wants.” Erik returned to the piano. “Step into the real world.”
“Maybe I just need to step away.” Cane in hand, Nash walked, exit stage right.