The blare of a horn snapped Jesse out of her thoughts. The black Tahoe stopped mere feet from turning her into roadkill, and she hurried the rest of the way to reach the sidewalk. Keeping her head down, she hustled around to the back of the auditorium.

Jesse hadn’t slept much, nodding off shortly before dawn, only to have a disturbing dream that involved a furious Ash damning her to hell before storming into the ether where she couldn’t reach him. Dream Jesse had tried running after him but couldn’t seem to move, as if her legs had been buried in thick mud.

She’d awoken calling his name and found herself alone on top of the penguin comforter. Two weeks was all she would get. Two weeks of being happier than she could have hoped, and by the weekend Jesse would be alone again.

There was a special place in hell for people like Dennis Kohlman, but his eternal damnation did little to ease the agony of letting Ash go.

Halfway up the historic curving staircase that led to the backstage entrance, Jesse heard a familiar voice call her name.

“Jesse, wait!” Of course he’d send her as his messenger. Turning, she waited for Taylor without giving a single step. When the blonde ducked under the alcove, she said, “I need to talk to you.”

“Dennis couldn’t be bothered to come do this himself?” Jesse snarled.

“That’s why I’m here. To let you know that Dennis won’t be hurting you anymore.”

The words didn’t penetrate. “What did you say?”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I had no idea what he was really like.”

Knees failing, Jesse took a seat on the step behind her and spread the garment bag across her lap. “Don’t mess with me, Taylor.”

Her former duet partner sat down as well. “I’m not, I swear. A reporter called me this morning wanting me to corroborate a story that Dennis gave him. He said that you’d bullied me while we were together and had been abusive to everyone we worked with.”

“I never bullied anyone!” Jesse defended.

“I know, and that’s what I told him.” Crossing her arms over her legs, Taylor stared at her boots. “I screwed up, Jesse. Bad. But I’m doing my best to make it up to you. That call made me suspicious, so I did some digging and found out that Dennis was the source of those horrible rumors about you.”

“I could have told you that,” she said, still annoyed with the former beauty queen. “I assumed it was the two of you together, and then Dennis admitted as much when he cornered me yesterday.”

“He said I was in on it?”

Jesse thought back to the confession. “Not in so many words, but what else was I supposed to think? You ditched me over a text message and within days the rumors started.”

Her Kentucky accent was thick as Taylor held a hand over her heart. “Jesse, I swear on my Jessamine County crown that I had nothing to do with any of this.”

Reluctant to trust, she stared straight ahead. “None of this changes what he’s done. Or what he plans to do next.”

“That’s not true. When I learned the truth, I confronted him and insisted that he take it all back.”

Oh, to be as naive as this poor woman. “This isn’t name-calling on the playground, Taylor. He can’t take it back. Dennis has destroyed my reputation, and he’s going to destroy Ash’s if I don’t do what he wants, which is basically kill my own career.”

Another artist entered the alcove, and Jesse fell silent. The two women rose and parted to let the new arrivals pass. “Sorry,” Taylor said. “We didn’t mean to be in the way.”

“Aren’t you the Honkytonk Daisies?” the brunette asked. “Are y’all getting back together?”

“We were,” Jesse replied. “And no, we aren’t.”

The woman and her companion looked to Taylor.

“We’re just having a chat,” she said with an innocent smile.

This was why Jesse couldn’t hate her former partner. Taylor was like a newborn babe dropped into a pit of vipers when it came to this business. Which was why Dennis had so easily manipulated her. If Jesse had been honest with her former partner about that first meeting with sleazeball Dennis, this all might have been avoided. Which meant Jesse was at least partially to blame.

Still. Their friendship should have been strong enough to keep Taylor from wandering off, damn it.

The new arrivals continued into the building, and Jesse dragged Taylor out of the alcove and away from the entrance. “As I was saying, your manager is going to tell the tabloids that Ash and I were fooling around behind Ryan’s back.”

“Were you?” she asked, eyes wide.

“No,” Jesse answered, stomping her foot. “But I can’t risk Ash’s name being dragged through the mud like that.”

Taylor patted her arm with little concern. “I didn’t think you were. And like I said, you don’t have to worry about Dennis anymore. He’s out of our hair for good.”

“Our hair?” she repeated. “What does that mean?”

With a twinkle in her eye, the dumb-like-a-fox beauty queen revealed a wicked streak. “Let’s just say, I have photographic evidence of a certain deficiency that Dennis Kohlman wouldn’t want shared.”

She had what?

“You know what I mean, right?” she said.

Jesse didn’t at first, and then hope blossomed as the meaning became clear. “Are you saying he’s . . .” Jesse wiggled her little finger.

“Could fit through a keyhole,” Taylor confirmed. “I checked with his other three clients, and he sent them the same pictures.”

“All of his clients are women?”

“Nope.”

Jesse was a love-is-love person, but country music in general hadn’t quite reached total enlightenment on that subject. “Did you threaten to share the pictures?”

Taylor snorted. “You best believe it. What he did to you was over the line, Jesse.”

“What he did to us,” she corrected. “Does this mean you’re looking for a new manager?”

“I am. Do you think Silas might take me back?”

Spotting the sweet old man coming their way, Jesse nodded in his direction. “I don’t know, but here’s your chance to find out.”

“Are my eyes deceiving me, or are my girls back together?” Silas asked, the thin wisps atop his head dancing in the breeze.

“Not in an official capacity,” Jesse replied, “but Taylor has something she’d like to ask you.”

The tall blonde looked ready to run, but she stood her ground. “I’m so sorry, Silas. I never should have left you like I did. Neither of you. Can ever forgive me?”

His round face grew serious as ice-blue eyes darted from Taylor to Jesse and back. “Do you have any idea what you put this poor girl through? What we had to do to make up the ground you yanked out from under her?”

Jesse hadn’t expected Silas’s response to be quite so harsh.

“I know,” Taylor replied, standing up to her mistakes. “I was stupid and reckless, and I don’t blame you one bit if you never want to speak to me again. But I really am sorry for the hurt I caused.”

Softening, the old man relented. “All right, then. Come to my office on Monday and we’ll talk.” To Jesse, he said, “I got you that meeting with Clay for eleven tomorrow morning, but we need to make it quick because he can only give us fifteen minutes. What is this about anyway?”

Realizing that her life wasn’t about to crash and burn, Jesse nearly whooped with joy. “Holy crap. This means I don’t need that meeting after all.”

“What meeting?” Taylor asked.

In response, Jesse threw her arms around her former partner, nearly dropping her garment bag in the process. “You’re completely forgiven.”

Taylor blushed, a bright smile revealing perfect pearly-whites. “Does this mean we can be friends again?”

“It sure does.”

“What’s going?” Ash asked as he joined them. “Someone said they saw the Honkytonk Daisies out here, and I assumed they were hallucinating.”

Without offering a reply, Jesse bolted into his arms, not caring when the cargo she’d worked so hard to keep off her ground landed at his feet. The bag would protect the dress. Hopefully. She kissed him with all the relief running through her before pulling back to breathlessly say, “I love you, Ashland Shepherd. I love you more than anything in this world, and you’re never getting rid of me.”

Holding her nearly a foot off the ground, her soulmate flashed a sexy grin that rocked her to the core. “Is that a marriage proposal, Rheingold?”

“You bet your cute butt it is. What do you say?”

He lowered her to her feet as the grin faded into a look of wonder. “Yes, ma’am. The sooner the better.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ash asked for the third time.

While changing into her performance dress, Jesse had rattled off the story of Dennis Kohlman and his evil threats from the day before.

“I told you. I was going to eventually.”

“After you caved to the asshole. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking of you.”

Ash would have hated being dragged through a media frenzy, but he’d have done it if it meant keeping Jesse by his side. “I never would have let you go through with it.”

“None of that matters now.” There was a rustling sound before she said, “Okay, you can turn around.”

Jesse had forced him to keep his back to her while she’d changed, insisting that she wanted the dress to be a surprise. Ash spun around, and the breath left his body. Before him stood a tiny cloud of emerald-green perfection, and the image triggered a memory.

“Is that . . .”

She nodded. “The dress I wore to homecoming two months before the accident.” Glancing down, she twirled her hips, and the long skirt swayed around her legs. When she looked up, tears were in her eyes. “Tommy helped me pick it out, and it was the last dance we all attended together.”

Grabbing a tissue from the box on the counter, Ash dabbed at her cheeks. “You look even more beautiful than you did that day.”

Jesse took the tissue from his hand. “I had to have the waist expanded a little. I’m going carb-free after the holidays.”

Ash swept her into his arms. “You’re perfect just the way you are.” After kissing the tip of her nose, he said, “Were you really going to leave me?”

Slender fingers toyed with the button on his dress shirt. “I didn’t want to, but I would have to protect your privacy.” With an earnest expression, Jesse wrapped her arms around his torso. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, Ash.”

“How about this. I walked away from you when I thought it was the right thing to do. And you almost walked away from me when you thought the same thing. Can we just agree here and now to never, ever walk away from each other again?”

“I can wholeheartedly agree to that.”

Their lips met, and Ash had barely had enough before a knock sounded at the door.

“Who is it?” Jesse called, making no move to step out of his embrace.

“Kathleen Shepherd. I’ve been told my son is in there.”

The pair stared at each other with a combination of shock and awe.

“Does she know we’re together?” Jesse whispered.

That was a call Ash had forgotten to make. “I’m guessing she does now.” Setting her away from him, he reached for the doorknob, but Jesse grabbed his arm and swiped at his mouth with her tissue.

“You have my lipstick all over you.” Ash grabbed a clean tissue and finished the job, giving a quick check in the mirror before turning to Jesse. “Better?”

She giggled and used her thumb to clean one more spot along his bottom lip. “Now you’re good.”

“What’s going on in there?” Mom called through the door.

“Nothing,” Ash said as he whisked the door open and found two people instead of one looming outside. “Who is this?” he asked of the older man with the dark mustache standing beside his mother. He looked like a cross between Sam Elliot and Ernest Tubb, and he was standing entirely too close to Ash’s mother.

“Neville O’Brien, meet my son, Ash Shepherd.”

The stranger extended a hand, and Ash accepted out of habit.

“Nice to meet you, son. Your mom has told me a lot about you.”

“Then you’re one up on me.” He turned to the statuesque woman who’d raised him. “You want to tell me something?”

Eyes that matched his own glared at the tiny woman behind him. “Do you want to tell me something? Why are you in here with the Rheingold girl?”

“You know her name, and you need to start using it since Jesse and I are getting married.” His new fiancée choked, and Ash knew he wasn’t handling this well, but the stranger in their midst was throwing him off. “Now who’s the guy?”

“I guess we’ve both been keeping a secret,” she replied. “Neville is my boyfriend. We’ve been together for a few months now, and I wanted him to see my boy at work.”

Ash had made sure his mother had two tickets to the show, but he’d expected her to bring one of the workers from the daycare center, not a boyfriend.

“A few months? When were you going to tell me?”

“The show starts in five,” called a stagehand down the hall. “All non-performers need to exit the backstage area now.”

“We have to go,” Mom said. “I’ll expect an explanation after the show.”

“That goes for both of us,” he said as Jesse pulled him farther into the room. “Did you see that? My mother has a boyfriend. Women her age do not have boyfriends.”

“Ash, she isn’t even fifty years old.”

“That’s no excuse.”

Sliding a loose lock off his forehead, Jesse said, “Maybe she’s as happy as we are. You want her to be happy, don’t you?”

Of course, he did. But that wasn’t the point. “She’s never needed a boyfriend before.”

Tugging on his lapels, she pulled him down for a quick kiss. “I love you, but you’re being unreasonable.”

Maybe he was, but his mother had never introduced him to a boyfriend before. She’d dated when he was younger, but she never brought the guys home, at least not when Ash had been there. Then again, he’d spent a lot of nights over at the Rheingold house as a kid.

“What if it was your mom showing off a new guy?”

“That would be uncomfortable considering she’s still married to my father, and they do everything together.” With a hand on his back, Jesse pushed him toward the doorway. “Go check on the kids before they think you got lost, and when this shindig is over, you can help me get out of this dress. Again,” she added with a grin.

Temporarily forgetting his mother’s revelation, Ash leaned down for one more kiss. “I can do that. Have I mentioned that you look beautiful?”

“Thank you. Now off you go.”

Ash ran a hand over her hip one last time before following the order. On his way to the kids, he muttered, “A boyfriend. That’s going to take some getting used to.”