Page 1

Chapter One

Jesse

Ten years ago

It was the biggest audience we’d ever played, by a lot. At least three hundred people were gathering past the makeshift gates that designate the performance area of the Louisa County Fair. Louisa County, which includes Foley, Texas as one of its many tiny towns, was known for having an outsized county fair every year. Bringing in musical acts from around Texas had always been a big draw for them.

Now my band was one of them.

Several hundred people were still milling around the fair, eating fried food and riding rickety rides, generally enjoying the somewhat cooler weather, at least as much as it could get under the southwest Texas sunshine. Some of them had ice cream or lemonade and were dressed like they were headed to the beach, while others seemed to have embraced the fall theme. Long sleeves, boots, even the occasional scarf. It was a weird smattering of people who seemed to be existing in entirely different weather patterns.

I didn’t care what they wore, though. Not if they were in my audience.

“How’s it look out there?” Kevin said from behind me.

I turned, grinning, and knew I didn’t need to say anything else. Kevin just shook his head and chuckled.

At one time, this band had been his. A garage thumper from Odessa,The Hitmenwere struggling to draw more than their close friends and family to shows. I happened to see them when they swung through town and played at Crockett’s bar without a lead singer, who had left for another band the night before.

I thought they were great and asked if they wanted to jam. Before the night was over, Kevin offered me the lead singer spot, and I agreed, as long as I could write new music and rewrite the vocals on their old stuff. He was more than happy to agree.

In the six months after that, we’d played shows every weekend, sometimes during the week, any time I could get away from the ranch. My free time didn’t exist anymore. I was either practicing or performing, and I literally couldn’t have been happier.

Now even the other members of the group thought of me as the leader of the band, not just the front man. The crowds had grown. People asked us about merch or to open for their own bands. We were becoming a local name. The boys knew what had changed, and I did too.

The difference was me.

Music had always been the only thing I wanted to do with my life. Ever since I was tiny and Dad handed me his old acoustic guitar, I was hooked. Learning how to play by ear, and the occasional lesson Dad was patient enough to handle giving me, I was crooning out old Hank Sr. tunes by the time I was eight, and by my teenage years was secretly listening toAlice in ChainsandPantera, wondering how I could mix their Texas-styled heavier sound with what I’d grown up listening to.

Now I had that chance, and I was taking full advantage of it.

“Hey, boys, you go on in five. Stacy will introduce you.”

I nodded toward the promoter, an ancient hippie from way back, sporting a Willie Nelson shirt I was positive was from atour he did in the early '70s. Greg, the promotor, was known by everyone by his more appropriate name: Green. Green always smelled like pot and always had his now thinning hair pulled back into a silver ponytail that rested over one shoulder.

“Thanks, Green,” I said. “We’ll be ready.”

“Rock and roll,” Green said, his ever-present smile widening. “Knock ‘em dead, boys.”

I glanced at Kevin, who was tuning his guitar for the final tweak, then to Mike, Rick, and Steve. Rick was banging on his thighs and chest in lieu of his drum set, which was already out on the stage, and Mike was absentmindedly fingering a tune on the bass guitar. Only Steve wasn’t tooling around with his instrument; instead, he was peeking through the curtain and taking massive swigs of a bottle of Jack.

“You good, Steve?” I asked.

“I’m all right,” he said. “Just looking for some strange out there.”

“We’re like fifty miles from home, Steve,” Mike said.

“But it’s a fair,” he said. “Lots of good-looking girls I don’t know. Couple of them around that chick Jesse’s dating.”

“She’s here?” I asked, peeking through the curtain. “Where?”

“Front row, bro. She just got here and elbowed her way up,” Steve said.

I saw her, shocked at myself at how excited I got. I’d known her for a long time, and yet something had changed in the last couple of weeks. Ever since her sister damn-near bullied me into a date. When I had dropped Tamara off at home, Charlotte was outside on the porch, and we found ourselves talking late into the night.

When I didn’t call Tamara back the next day, Charlotte found my number and called me to ask why. When I told her I was much more interested in her than her sister, things… changed.

We had to be secret, or else it would crush Tamara, but neither one of us was looking for something serious anyway. We just wanted to see each other, see where this went and have fun. That fun had turned into a lot of intense make-out sessions and the impression that things were going to go official really soon.