Page 86 of A Country Kind Of Love

“Oh, right,” Jesse scoffs. “Erm... Charlie borrowed it.” Jesse won’t make eye contact with her.

“Huh.”

“What?”Jesse asks.

“You don’t even play that guitar, but you let Charlie borrow it? You must reallytrust him.”

He taps at the buckle on his belt. “Yeah.”

“Jesse... you’re being weird.”

“I’m not.” He rubsat his neck.

“What’s really happened tothe guitar?”

“I... sold it.”

“What? Why?” Peyton shrieks. “If you’re struggling for money I can try to pay more.”

“No, it’s not that.” Jesse shakes his head.

“Whatis it then?”

“You trusted me, and um... well I... ah... just want to do a good job.” He shrugs.

“Okay, I’m notfollowing.”

“I gave it to the event organiser at the Bluebird in exchange for your slot tonight.”

The silence lingers; she can’t comprehend his words.

“Why would you do that, Jesse? What were you thinking? You love that guitar.”

“It’s just a guitar,” he says. It was a guitar that could pay their rent for three monthsif not more.

“I can’t let you do that, Jesse.”

“It’s already done.” He grabs his wallet from the kitchen counter. “Are you ready to go?”

Peyton throws her arms around his shoulders. The hug reminds her of her seven-year-old self trying to embrace the large yellow punching bags at the local play centre. Her arms don’t fit comfortably all the way around, and she tiptoes to get a good grip, but she makes it work.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t sweat it.” Jesse smiles softly.

“That’s the nicest, most selfless thing anyone has ever done for me.”

“I believe in you. Plus, it’s a win-win for me. I’ll buy it back when you sell a million records.”

“Platinum, huh? You have high expectations.” Peyton laughs.

Jesse points at the vinyl for Shania Twain–Come on Over.“That’ll be you one day.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but that album has gone platinum more than twenty times.” It is arguably the greatest country album ever. Peyton was brought up to worship Shania. In their house Shania was the queen. If she didn’t hear “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” blasting from the stereo system every Sunday morning during her mom’s freak cleaning rampage then something was wrong.

“Dream big.” Jesse smirks. “Let’s hit the road. I have another surprise for you.”

“Another one?” Peyton eyes him suspiciously.