CHAPTER NINETEEN
HERE WE GO
The next two days passed in a whirlwind blur of interviews and photo shoots. Devin was in his element, and he barely gave the brothers time to breathe, which, fortunately, helped keep Grady from going completely crazy with wanting to be with Arabella. He’d spoken to her briefly and shared a few text messages the night of the concert, but he still had no idea where she’d gone. . . .
Until the next night, when he was sitting up in bed, thinking, and, just like that, the answer came to him. He had to be right.
“Well, damn.” Grady slapped his hand on the hotel bed, making Oliver sit up straight.
“What the hell, dude?” He shoved his fingers through his hair. “It’s three o’clock in the morning and we’ve got an interview to do at ten. We’re all gonna look like shit and say stupid shit if we don’t get some rest.” He punched his pillow and laid back down.
“Oh, come on, how can you sleep with Jesse snoring like a damned locomotive, anyway?”
“Would you asshats shut the hell up?” Jimmy grumbled from the other bed. “I’d finally fallen asleep. Or maybe my brain shut down from listening to Jesse. And he just farted.”
Jesse snored away in blissful slumber.
“I warned you when he switched to bourbon after dinner he’d snore,” Oliver said in a raspy whisper. “Oh, but did anyone listen? Well, you’re sure as hell listening now. To that!”
“I wasn’t cussing about Jesse snoring,” Grady said. “I just realized, like a dumb shit, where I think Arabella headed after the concert. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.”
“Where?” Jimmy asked in a more alert tone.
“I’d bet anything she’s at her grandmother’s house.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going all the way to Cincinnati without knowing for sure,” Oliver said.
“I’ll call her mom and ask if my hunch is right. I hope she still has the same cell number. If not, I bet she still has a landline. If not, I can give her dad a call.”
“And you think Mindy will tell you if Arabella doesn’t want you to know she’s there?” Jimmy asked. “I can’t imagine her mother doing that.”
Jesse mumbled something in his sleep and then continued snoring.
“Jimmy, for the love of God, give him another shove,” Grady pleaded. “Well, I’m going to give it a shot. I think I’ll be able to tell by the tone of her voice.”
“So you have a superpower?” Jimmy asked.
“I have lots of superpowers,” Grady said.
Jimmy shifted to his side and looked at Grady in the dim light. “Do you think you should just give Arabella some space?” he asked in a low voice. “She only asked for a few days, Grady. Look at all that’s happened to her in a short span of time. I think she just had a moment, that’s all. I mean, what happened after the concert was way beyond what any of us expected. I wish now that we could have searched for her. Somehow gotten her to the RV with us.”
“Yeah. Why didn’t I do that?”
“We were bombarded. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. Maybe let her take a break instead of chasing after her. Let some of this stuff sink in.”
Grady considered the advice for a moment. “No,” he said. “I couldn’t chase after her the last time she ran out because I was in the middle of a world tour. Now I have the freedom to do it. And we’re not kids anymore. I’m not going to let her slip away again. She overthinks things, and I want to be there to just talk.”
“I get that,” Jimmy said. “It’s not often we get a second chance at love.”
“You’re right.”
“Damn, I’d be happy with a first chance,” Jimmy said with a low chuckle. “All my dates seem to end in disaster. They either want to date me because of Heartbeat or they’re intimidated by the fame, which is silly,” Jimmy said. “And the concert isn’t going to help that problem. Once this is over, I plan on spending more time on my balcony writing songs and staying out of the limelight. But Arabella has always been different. She doesn’t fit into either of those two categories. She never did.”
“I think Jimmy’s got a point, and I think you’re right too, Grady,” Oliver said. “You should go after her rather than wait for her to come back if she doesn’t come home soon. But,” he continued, “don’t forget I’m heading to Nashville in a couple of weeks to set up studio time and hire some musicians for the EP. We need to keep this train rolling while the publicity is still hot.”
“I won’t forget—not that you’d let me,” Grady said. “Jimmy, I know you’re going to start working on some new songs, but will you stay on top of things at the foundation while I try to get my girl back home?”
“No problem. And Jesse can handle the music shop by himself while Oliver gets things going in the studio. And we can nominate him for anything else since he’s sleeping and can’t protest.”
Grady chuckled. “Kinda like when we got him to do dish duty because he was the last one to come in when Mom called us for supper.”
“Yeah,” Jimmy said. “Hey, it was his own fault.”
Oliver groaned. “Okay, good, now that we’ve got all that settled in the middle of the night instead of in the morning like normal people, can we go back to sleep? Please?” Oliver pleaded.
“Right, you need your beauty sleep, pretty boy,” Grady said, and gave his brother a teasing shove.
“I’m already beautiful,” Oliver said with a loud yawn. “Jimmy, make Jesse stop!”
“Jesse! Knock it off.” Jimmy gave Jesse a hard shove that nearly sent him tumbling over the edge of the bed.
“What the hell?” Jesse grumbled. The snoring stopped and they all sighed with relief.
But then Jesse started up again a minute later, making Grady laugh.
“Dude, this isn’t funny,” Oliver said. “I’m getting earplugs. I saw some in the bathroom. If the hotel weren’t full I’d get a damned separate room.”
“Earplugs won’t drown that shit out,” Jimmy said. “I want the earplugs. I’m the one sleeping with him. How did that happen, anyway? I had to spend nine months sleeping with him in the womb. He probably took up more than his share of the room like he’s doing right now. He’s sprawled in the middle of the damned bed.”
Grady laughed. “Shove the earplugs up Jesse’s nose.”
“Okay,” Jimmy said.
“No, he’ll breathe through his mouth and get a sore throat,” Oliver argued.
“I was only kidding,” Grady said, but his grin stayed in place. He’d forgotten how much fun it was to travel with his brothers. This felt like old times, only better. The anxious feeling that had been haunting him had lifted. He was going to go find Arabella and bring her back to Sea Breeze, where she belonged. Because she loved him. And she adored his crazy brothers. And the beach house had been built just for her. And the night of the concert had sucked for them, but that was over.
Why wouldn’t she want to come back? He wasn’t about to give up on the woman he loved.
As Grady tried to drift off to sleep, Arabella’s image filled his head. As keyed up as he was, his brain refused to give in to fatigue. He knew he might have bags under his eyes during the interview, but still sleep eluded him.
Grady wondered what he could say to Arabella’s mom to ensure she’d let him know if Arabella was in Cincinnati? It had been so many years since he’d seen Mindy, but he remembered her as being bubbly and friendly. Still, she wouldn’t give away her daughter’s whereabouts without a good reason.
Grady yawned and was nearly asleep when the answer slid into his head like a slick dance move. His heart pounded and he was once again wide-awake. He stared at the shadows dancing on the wall from the streetlights outside, waiting for the doubts to butt their way in, but excitement and determination erupted like confetti in his head and love filled his heart.
“Yes!” he said softly, embracing his answer. Luckily, he failed to wake Oliver, or he might have gotten shoved off the bed and booted into the hallway.
Sleep could wait. Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough. Glancing at the red digits on the alarm clock, he saw that it was nearly four thirty and sighed. He wanted to wake his brothers and talk to them, share his excitement, but he refrained. Barely.
Grady created a mental list of things he needed to do to put his plan into action. He had a lot to get done. After the interview, he planned to head to Tiffany’s. Surely a little blue box would have some persuasive power. He wanted to pick up his cell phone and start looking at selections, but he didn’t want the light to wake anyone. And he really should try to get some sleep. . . .
Grady felt a nervous tingle of anticipation. In truth, he’d never given much thought to marriage, since he’d never gotten that far in a relationship after Arabella left him. But recently, after he’d found Arabella with the pregnancy test in her hand, at odd times he’d wonder, what would it would feel like to be a father? To hold his own child in his arms? He’d even had a couple of dreams about it that felt real, but when he’d awoken he hadn’t mentioned it to Arabella, not wanting to upset her with the tender subject. But he didn’t let his thoughts drift to the past. He’d closed that door firmly. All he cared about was the future, and he hoped his future with Arabella included starting a family.
Grady knew one thing for sure. He had a good father as an example to follow. He couldn’t imagine a better father than Jack Heart. In the innocence of childhood, he hadn’t begun to imagine that his parents could die. His father’s booming laughter, his deep voice, echoed in his head. Jack and Susan Heart had been nurturing, encouraging, and demonstrative in their constant show of love. A lump formed in his throat, and he wished that his parents had stayed around long enough to see grandchildren. But knowing how quickly life can be snuffed out, he suddenly knew that he didn’t want to wait one more day to ask Arabella York to marry him. She might have only been back in his life for a few months, but she’d never really left his thoughts. He didn’t want her to just live with him. He wanted her to be his wife. Just the solid thought of calling her his wife made him smile into the darkness.
And what better place to propose that at her granny York’s house? He knew in his gut that was where she’d gone, but he had to make sure. If not, he’d search until he found her.