Page 3 of Forever Country (Forever Bluegrass #24)

A nnaleigh Astore never got tired of walking by the Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville.

She sighed as she soaked up every moment of peace before heading back to the office.

She loved her job, or, rather, she loved what she wished she could do with her job if her parents, who were also her bosses, would let her.

Astore Entertainment Agency sat on a stretch of streets collectively known as Music Row, where commercial buildings mixed with converted houses to form a neighborhood feel even though they were only a mile from Broadway.

Music Row was home to recording studios, songwriting houses, talent agencies, and anything related to the heart of country music.

Her parents, Mary Kathryn and Drew Astore ran the agency while grooming her older brother, Saxton, to take it over one day.

To them it was all about the money, not the music.

To her, it was about building a relationship with her clients and working to make the industry the best it could be.

She loved her family. She did. But she was so different from them.

She’d tried rebelling when she was a teenager, but instead of pushing her away from her family, her family tied her to them even more.

They cut off funding for tuition for the school of her choice and forced her to attend the “family college” they all graduated from after her first semester freshman year.

Annaleigh had tried to find the money to pay for her tuition on her own, but in the end, she couldn’t pull together a payment fast enough and was forced with having to decide to either drop out or transfer.

So, she transferred to the same school Saxton attended.

Instead of the big brother she wished she had, she had a brother who enforced every one of her parents’ edicts.

Saxton loved power and was all too happy to hold that power over Annaleigh.

She was being groomed to be the wife of a powerful industry player while Saxton was being groomed to take over the company.

Which player? Who knew? It had to be anyone with enough power to help elevate her family or whoever her parents were currently obsessed with.

Then, when her parents had forced her to go on dates with the men of their choosing, she had deliberately become the most boring date ever in the history of dating.

Eventually the dates dried up. It also didn’t matter that Saxton graduated with a C- average while she graduated with honors. The company would be Saxton’s.

Annaleigh smiled and waved to all the landscapers in front of the two-story Colonial Revival house they used as an office building as she made her way to the lobby from where she had parked her car down the street.

Inside there was a receptionist, a small elevator, and the stairs to the second floor.

She knew everyone who worked there and made sure to keep up to date with birthdays and life events not only of their employees, but also their families.

Annaleigh walked up the stairs, and when she opened the door, Maddie was there waiting for her.

Maddie Underwood was her assistant and one of her best friends.

Saxton had hired her two years ago because “she’s hot,” but Maddie had turned into one of Annaleigh’s most trusted friends after telling Saxton to stop his flirting or she’d cut off his balls and hang them from the ball hitch of her pickup for real life truck nuts.

Saxton called her a prude and Annaleigh had called her a friend.

“First, you got more flowers.” Maddie motioned to the vase of flowers on her desk outside of Annaleigh’s office.

“Is there a card this time?” Annaleigh asked looking at the flowers with suspicion.

“Nope. You know this is creepy, right?” Maddie didn’t pull punches, another reason they got along. With Maddie Annaleigh could be her real self.

“Really creepy.” The sound of shouting pulled her attention away from the flowers and down the hall to her father’s office.

“And your father is in one of his moods,” Maddie whispered as Annaleigh sighed.

The door opened and Neal Connor slammed the door behind him while calling her father every name in the book.

Neal shoved his cowboy hat on his head before looking up and sliding to a halt before running into Annaleigh.

“Sorry, Annaleigh,” he said, clearly flustered as he took off his hat.

“Sometimes I can’t believe the two of you are related. ”

“What happened?” Annaleigh asked as she saw her father and Saxton talking behind the windows of the office.

“Your father dropped me because of the poor sales of my last album—an album I didn’t want to do but he insisted twangy rap was the new thing. He just announced signing Earl Travis in my place.”

Annaleigh felt her heart sink. Neal’s first album had been a success.

In fact, it’s what got Neal nominated for Best New Artist of the Year.

She’d questioned her father why he was changing the music so much, but he told her that her job wasn’t to think but to look pretty and get more singers to sign with them.

Then to add insult to injury, her father picked up Neal’s rival.

Neal had accused Earl of copyright infringement on one of the Earl’s hit songs.

Neal had been right, it had been stolen, and Earl’s label forced Earl to add Neal as a writer to the song.

However, instead of an apology, Earl had blasted Neal for being a whiney bitch. “I am so sorry, Neal.”

Her father’s office door opened and her father stood glaring at her. “Annaleigh!”

“You deserve better than that asshole,” Neal snarled before he stormed from the office.

Annaleigh turned back to her father and trudged toward his office.

Once again, she found herself wondering why she was there.

She should pack up and leave. Start over somewhere else.

It was a dream, but only a dream. Her parents had friends in entertainment all over the country and—no question about it—they’d blackball their own daughter in a heartbeat if she didn’t toe the line.

“Dad, did you really need to let Neal go and sign Earl? We’re going into award season and Neal’s been working on a new album that’s going to be great. He’s shared some of it with me. Then to sign Earl?”

“You’re too soft, Annaleigh,” her father said, looking in the mirror and fixing a piece of his salt and pepper hair that had dared fall out of place.

Her father might have a cowboy hat hanging on the back of his door and he might wear a pair of boots with his suit, but he wasn’t a cowboy.

No, his dad bod was all fake tan and expensive food.

He’d never done anything cowboy-like in his life.

Not that Annaleigh had either. She’d never been allowed to.

The point being, he of all people shouldn’t be calling her soft.

“You need to be more like Benton if you want to marry the right man. They need someone to run their house and not put up with the maid’s tears.”

Annaleigh opened her mouth to finally tell her father what she thought when Benton Proctor strode into the office with a big smile on his face. “Did I hear my name?”

Benton was everything her parents wanted for Annaleigh.

He was handsome, cutthroat, made tons of money, would help Saxton run the business, and came from the right family.

Benton’s dark blond hair and blue eyes set her mother running straight to the bridal stores.

However, Benton was exactly like her father and brother—an arrogant ass.

There wasn’t a chance in hell she’d marry him.

“Bro, we golfing this weekend?” Saxton asked, slapping Benton on the shoulder and ignoring her as they talked golf.

“Dad, you need to reconsider letting Neal go. He has so much potential. With the right producer—”

“Annaleigh,” her father said, cutting her off. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about this. Benton, don’t you think she looks beautiful today?”

“She sure does, Drew,” Benton said, giving her a wink. “Good enough to take home to Mom.”

His mother was very active in Nashville society. Yet another reason Annaleigh’s mom wanted her to marry Benton if nothing better came along.

“I have a meeting.” Annaleigh didn’t bother to respond to his flirting. She never did.

“Your charity cases need to bring in money or I’m cutting them,” her father called out as Annaleigh hurried from the room. She was used to the threat and she knew it was a real one. Her mentoring program for young artists would be cut the second her parents could marry her off.

Maddie was waiting for her in the conference room with three new up-and-coming singers and their parents.

Maddie tried to hide her worried look, but the question was clear in her eyes.

Annaleigh put on a fake smile and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that was becoming an all-too-common feeling.

“Thank you so much for joining me today. I can’t wait to teach you about the industry. Each of you has such potential and I want to make sure you know the ins and outs of the industry you’re going to take by storm.”

The singers were all under the age of eighteen.

They were all making names for themselves on the internet and they were all being courted by agents and record companies.

The difference between these three and the countless other teenagers was their parents.

Their parents had found the free course Annaleigh offered once a month for up-and-coming singers.

It taught them the ins and outs of business, what to look for in record companies, what a good agent should do for you, and what a bad agent would do for you.

At the end of the day, sure, she hoped they decided to sign with her, but at least she was educating them to make good decisions.

This time, two of the singers signed with her at the end of the meeting.

The third decided to sign with another agent, but only after Annaleigh verified they were a good choice.

Eventually, these young singers would be the next generation of music.

She hoped to nurture them and help them grow roots so when the storm of popularity hit, they’d be grounded and know how to handle it.

The trouble was her father didn’t see this as an investment in the future.

He saw this as a waste of time since there were no immediate results.

It didn’t matter that several of her clients had gone on to perform on television and sign record deals—they were small deals, not big splashy ones.

However, they were still teenagers. Not everyone hit it big their first year.

But, as her father demonstrated with Neal, he only gave them one shot or he dumped them.

“Thank you for doing this,” the mother of one of the singers told her as they began to walk out. “I feel safe having you look out for my baby. No one has told us the truth since her song went viral until you.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll take good care of her and of you. Maddie will give you my number and you can call me anytime you have any questions.”

Maddie walked out with the families and Annaleigh headed to the sanctuary of her office. She had several singers who were up-and-coming and some who were on the cusp of hitting it big.

“Hey, pretty girl. Want to have lunch?” Benton asked, popping his head into her office.

“Can’t. Sorry,” Annaleigh answered, holding up her leftovers from last night. “I brought lunch and plan to work while I eat. I have a full schedule today.”

“Don’t worry. A man will come in and save you from all this work,” he winked.

“I don’t mind the work, Benton. I like what I do.” Why didn’t anyone believe her when she said this? She loved helping singers grow. She loved being by their side as they made their dreams come true. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to make some calls.”

“It’s cute you like your little job. I’ll see you tonight, pretty girl.” Benton gave her a wink and strode off down the hall. Tonight was a gala or some such thing and she had no intentions of going just to be paraded about as if she were a horse up for sale.

Annaleigh picked up her phone and placed her first call. She was determined to get her client on stage at the Opry.