Never in my life have I been the guy that stands against the wall and watches everyone. It’s never been in my personality to sit back and observe. Front and center is how I like things, except that isn’t who I am now.

At this moment, I’m observing. I’m paying attention to the way my former in-laws dote on Willow. I can’t remember the last time the McCalls came around. It was probably right about the time I won my first Grammy, long after they wrote Iris off as a teenage mother.

When we—you bet I went with her—told her parents that she was pregnant I expected them to be pissed. Hell, my parents were livid but told me to man up and make sure Iris and our unborn baby were taken care of. What I didn’t count on was her parents kicking her out of the house. They didn’t even give her a chance to pack before her daddy’s boot went right up her ass as she walked out of their house. I caught her before she could hit the ground and took her promptly home. My parents opened their door wide for Iris and never cast any judgment on her for being pregnant or on me for knocking her up.

Yet, her parents are in mourning, and they’re making sure every single person around them knows that they’ve lost their daughter. The very same one they hadn’t spoken to unless it was to borrow money, since she was eighteen.

I hadn’t wanted to tell them, but my moral compass forced me to make the call that I dreaded more than anything. On the phone, they acted like they had no idea who I was, but once they arrived in Los Angeles, they expected the star treatment, demanding that a limo picks them up and that they stay in the best six, not five, star hotel money could buy. Too bad they don’t have any money, and I knew this would fall onto me. I was tempted to be a dick, but Barbara told me to suck it up for three days, and once the funeral and reception were over, the Austins could go back to pretending the McCalls never existed. Easier said than done. They wasted no time filling Willow’s head with lies about how it was because of my fame that they’ve been kept apart.

My parents are across the room from them, and every so often I can see my mother throwing daggers at my ex-mother-in-law. The whole situation is comical since my mother is the nicest person you will ever meet. She even smiles when people tell her they don’t like a new song of mine.

Barbara nudges me and hands me a fresh bottle of water. I want something harder, but not in front of my girls and definitely not in front of the in-laws. The last thing I need is for them to get any notion that I’m not a fit parent. It doesn’t matter that they’ve been absent since before Stormy was born; they wouldn’t hesitate to take me court for custody.

“It was a beautiful service,” Barbara says.

“It was. Stormy spoke very well in front of everyone.”

My eyes catch Stormy as she carries a tray of food over to my parents. Even though we have caterers here to do that, she’s been trying to keep busy. Anything she can do to stay away from the McCalls without coming off rude.

“Stormy and I had a long talk this morning while she was getting ready.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask, lifting the plastic bottle to my lips, wishing it were anything else but water.

“Have you thought about what you’re going to do, Levi? With the girls?”

“What do you mean?” I turn and look at her. She looks like she has the weight of the world weighing on her shoulders right now.

Barbara sighs and offers me a sweet smile. “Stormy has been trying to make a name for herself here with her dancing, and she has a couple of auditions coming up that she doesn’t want to pass up. If you take the girls back to Nashville…” She doesn’t need to finish her sentence for me to understand what she’s saying.

I raise the bottle once more to quench my thirst. It’s not nearly as strong as I need it to be to numb out everything that I’m feeling right now. Returning to Nashville is high on my priority list. It’s important to me, but may not be to my girls. The natural course of life has them dropping everything for me since I’m their sole provider, but Barbara is right about Stormy and the life she has been building. It was Iris who enticed her to come here for a career, and I can’t take that away from her.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she says.

“Doubt it,” I reply as casually as possible. Nashville is my home. It’s where I’m comfortable, although it has been nice to be here and not have the paparazzi hounding me. For the most part, they don’t have any idea who I am. My music and the LA music scene don’t exactly mix. There have been a few times that we’ve attempted to have a concert here, but the ticket sales were so measly that the promoter pulled the plug and sent me outside the city to perform.

We thought for sure the media would hound the shit out of us once Iris’s death was made public and prepared for it. I had nightmares of what the headline would be, but some potential divorce was overshadowing the untimely death of my former spouse. Truthfully, I was okay with that. The less exposure for the girls, the better I felt.

That’s not to say there haven’t been an article or two or the occasional photographer hanging around. The last time I looked outside one was talking to the security guard that we have stationed out front. That wasn’t my idea, but Barbara’s. She wanted to be prepared for whatever the media threw at us.

“I know you don’t want to stay here, Levi.”

“Our home is in Nashville.”

“And their home is here. You need to think about what’s best for them.”

Barbara leaves me with those parting words and heads over to my parents, no doubt telling them about our little conversation. Barbara and my mother are like best friends and often gang up on me. It’s horrible, but thankfully my father is usually in my corner, except I don’t know if he would be in this situation.

I don’t know if I’d be able to survive here, especially in this house. There is too much Iris everywhere I look. This was her town, her dreams that had nothing to do with me. Unfortunately, her dreams webbed right into our girls, and now I’m faced with being the bad guy by wanting to take it all away from them and head back to Tennessee. It’s the smart thing to do, get them acclimated back where we are going to live.

When Stormy disappears down the hall, I use this to my advantage. It’s clear that she’s been more open with Barbara than she has me and if something is going on or bothering her we need to discuss it.

I knock softly on her door before turning the knob. Stormy is sitting on her bed with tears in her eyes. My feet move swiftly until I’m sitting beside her and her head in nestled into the crook of my neck. Her arms are instantly wrapped around me. I can’t imagine what she’s feeling right now.

“It’s going to be okay, Stormy.”

She shakes her head. I get that she doesn’t think so, but she has to know that I’m going to do everything I can to make things better for her and her sister. I can’t bring their mama back, but I can make sure that they know how much I love them.

“I’m so mad at her,” Stormy mumbles into my shoulder.

I start to open my mouth to tell her that I am too, but I think better of it. I’m mad at her for entirely different reasons than Stormy is. I’ve been angry with Iris for years because of her selfishness, but I would never wish this upon her.

“I am so sorry, baby girl.”

“Why did she have to get into that car?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been asking myself the same question since…” I don’t want to say since I had to identify her mother’s body, so I trail off and hug her tighter and let her cry. Both Stormy and Willow will have questions about their mother’s death that I won’t be able to answer. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to figure the way Iris’s mind works.

“She always messes everything up.”

Hearing Stormy say that about her mother really makes me pause. Did I make the wrong decision when I let the girls move here to live with her? I thought I was making the right choice for Stormy so she could follow her dream, but there’s a lingering thought in the back of my mind that is telling me I made the worst mistake possible. Maybe I should’ve put my foot down when Iris started hinting that Stormy should move to California. Second-guessing isn’t going to get me anywhere, though.

“We need to talk about what we’re going to do. You, Willow, and me.”

“About where we’re going to live?” she asks.

“Yeah. I know you have things going on here, but our home is in Nashville.”

“I know, but--”

I pull away so I can look my daughter in the eyes. She needs to see that I’m sincere with what I’m about to say. “No buts, Stormy. Our home is in Nashville, but we’ll stay in L.A. until you finish the school year. Barb told me that you have some auditions coming up and either I’ll go with you, Memaw will, or Barb. But once school is over we go back to Nashville. I know you want to dance. There are schools there that are just as good, and if not, I’ll hire someone to teach you.”

Stormy doesn’t say anything. She nods and wipes away her tears. Again, I find myself internally asking why Iris got into that car the other night. If she had just taken a taxi home, I wouldn’t have a disappointed daughter sitting next to me, or a house full of people pretending to mourn someone they really didn’t know. It doesn’t matter how many times I ask the same question; the answer will always be out of reach. No one will ever know what was going on with Iris when she got into that car.

“When are Pawpaw and Memaw going home?”

“Pawpaw is heading back at the end of the week so he can take care of the ranch. Memaw is staying until we kick her out.”

“And the other ones?” There is no mistaking the tone of her voice or the look on her face. She doesn’t care for her other grandparents, not that I could ever blame her or tell her to feel otherwise. It’s not like they know who the girls are, other than what they’ve gotten off my website. Unless Iris was in touch with them recently, but even if she were, I think she would’ve told me. We may have been divorced, but that didn’t mean we didn’t talk. Plus, she was still close with my mother, and I can’t fathom that Iris would make an effort with her own mama.

I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees and sigh. “Their hotel stay ends tomorrow. After that, I want to act like I don’t know what they’re going to do, but the truth is, I’m scared of not knowing where they are.” The McCalls scare me. It’s always about money with them, and I have a feeling they’re going to do anything they can to exploit the passing of Levi Austin’s ex-wife.