Page 43 of Break the Barrier

Licking her lips, she clasps her fingers together in her lap. “Well, I want to play on Friday.”

I lift a brow. “You’re always allowed to play.”

“I know, but I have a request.”

“What’s that?”

“An open mic night run by me. I want to play still,” she reassures quickly. “But I also want to open the door up for more local musicians to get a minute to play.”

“Oh.” I sit back and think over it. “I’m not sure another event is something we can fully take on.”

“I’ll run the whole thing. I’ll handle the advertising, the setup, the schedule, tear down, everything.”

I take in her nervous posture and smile at her. “Juniper, youcan do whatever you want. You’re twenty-three, and you have a stake in this business.”

“I know, I just…” She trails off, and I wait patiently. “I don’t know what it is, but I feel like getting your permission gives me the green light.”

I lifted my brows at her, shocked that she was telling me that. “You don’t need my permission,” I start. “But if you feel like asking for it, consider it granted.”

A breath releases from her, and she smiles. “Okay, great. I’ll get it set up then.”

“Perfect.” I smile at her, and then a thought occurs. “Oh, did you talk to Phee?”

“Yeah.” She frowns. “She seems homesick.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Let’s keep her in the loop. Liven up the family group chat too, and maybe Tori will respond.”

June sighs. “When do we get to start worrying about her?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. We’ll give it another day, and hopefully she’ll respond to some memes or something.”

If Tori loved anything, it was to laugh.

Juniper leaves me, and I continue working until I can’t stand the computer screen any longer and head back out into the fray. Something in me hopes that Logan would make a surprise stop, but that was silly to hope when he should be at home in bed.

16

logan

I was prettysure I was going to murder my baby brother.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that he’s here to help me out. But the problem is he isalwayshere helping.

It’s been three days since I was released from the hospital, and being stuck at home, unable to work or do basically anything, was going to make me insane.

I had to look out the window longingly at the frame of the garage I am building, knowing I couldn’t go out there and work on it.

I also knew that those frisky young horses I was working with were just building up the energy and orneriness to torture me with when I went back to work next week.

CT assured me he and Stetson were keeping them exercised, and that eased my nerves a little, but I felt guilty that other people were taking on my work for me.

Like driving Lue to school. Because of the concussion, I am not supposed to drive until I get cleared when I go to the doctornext week. So, Mom and Stetson were taking turns getting her to and from school and rehearsal.

And I was stuck.

“Honestly, man, there’s nothing good on TV when it’s not football season.”

“Maybe you need a hobby,” I comment, glaring at my arm. Then glaring makes my head hurt, so I have to stop myself from continuing to hate the thing that got me into this mess.