Page 15 of Sweet Music (Sugarville Grove #7)

CASH

C ash pulled up in front of his parents’ house, knowing it was getting late for a farmer’s hours, and that he’d now gone a day and a half without sleep.

He was tempted to just go on to the purple house and call it a night.

Mom hadn’t just made up the bed and aired the place out.

She had obviously washed all his clothes too.

He might be wearing his old, ripped jeans and t-shirts from high school, but it was good to know he could stay.

There had even been a brand-new toothbrush waiting for him in the bathroom.

He could be in bed in ten minutes if he just went to his own place after dropping Dad’s truck off.

Instead, he found himself jogging up the front steps and opening the front door, too excited about his time with Cody to really consider going to bed before he talked to his parents.

“ Shoes ,” Mom called out quietly from the back of the house .

He smiled as he kicked off his boots and shrugged out of his coat before padding back to see them.

The creak of the hardwoods sounded like home. And Dad had obviously made dinner—there was a rich scent in the air that promised there would be leftovers with some kind of tomato sauce for lunch tomorrow.

In the dim light, he didn’t feel the accusing smiles of his family in the photos as much when he passed them in the hall. It wasn’t that they weren’t friendly—those were the happiest pictures in the world. But Cash knew Cody should be up on that wall, himself too, really.

Why haven’t I been around more?

He hated seeing more silver in Mom’s hair and the slight stoop in Dad’s back. If he were here all the time, he would never notice those things. The changes would be imperceptible.

“It’s so good you stopped by before bed,” Mom said warmly when he joined them in the kitchen. “Can I fix you a cup of tea?”

She and Dad were having theirs in beautiful mugs Mom had made herself. But he only knew about the pottery because of Tag’s wife Charlotte’s social media posts. He hadn’t been here when his brothers took a more active role on the farm, allowing Mom some free time to find a hobby she loved.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I’ll head out in a second. Just wanted to say hi.”

“Of course,” Dad said, nodding like he could patiently wait all night for Cash to spit out how the meeting had gone.

It would have been impressive, except that Cash knew them too well. From the tension in Mom’s smile and the tap of Dad’s thumb on the table, he could tell that it was all they could do not to jump across the table and shake the information out of him.

“It went well,” he said right away.

“Oh, Charles,” Mom said, her eyes already misty.

“Thank you for the lemon squares,” he told her. “His aunt was kind of nervous about the meeting too, and she burned his after-school snack. So it was great to have a really nice treat as an icebreaker.”

“That’s nice,” Mom said, looking pleased. “Did he like them?”

“He loved them,” Cash said, grabbing her hands to squeeze them. “And he liked the other stuff too. We even jammed a little.”

“That’s great, son,” Dad said, smiling with twinkling eyes.

“They’re good people,” Cash said. “But I think I offended Bella when I told her I wanted to help out financially. She said they were fine in a way that… well, I can tell it made her mad that I brought it up. But I should have been providing for him all this time. That’s what she should be mad about. ”

“She probably doesn’t like to talk about those things in front of the boy,” Mom suggested. “Try again when it’s just the two of you.”

“No, I waited until Cody was brushing his teeth,” Cash said. “I think I hurt her pride.”

“She works hard and takes good care of that boy,” Dad said. “She’s got every right to hold her head up high.”

“She runs a tight ship at the library too,” Mom agreed with a fond smile. “She’s such a modest little thing, but she’s got her volunteers organized like clockwork, and when she reads to the kids, you’d be amazed at how funny she is. Elizabeth loves her.”

Elizabeth was his brother West’s little girl. She had to be five years old by now. Time passed so quickly…

“I guess I’ll try again when she knows me better,” Cash said. “Though, it’s the funniest thing, I felt at home with her right away. Her reaction to the money thing was a surprise because I thought we were reading each other really well all night, trying to help Cody get through it together.”

“You’ll get there,” Dad said. “Just let it be for now. She knows you want to help. Maybe next time offer something specific.”

Cash almost blurted out that he’d offered a house and a car, but he thought the better of it and bit his tongue.

His parents knew he was doing well. He’d offered to help them out plenty of times, in general, or for something like new roofing for the houses and barns.

Each time, they told him they were grateful but doing fine.

Maybe Bella was more like family than he gave her credit for.

There was nothing wrong with having some pride in taking care of yourself.

His siblings were the same way. Aside from some occasional gifts for the kids, they always turned away his offers.

Still, he wondered how they would all feel if they knew exactly how much he was worth. Sometimes it made him feel uncomfortable himself. It almost seemed immoral to be paid so much to do something he loved and would have done for free anyway.

He soothed some of that discomfort by giving a whole lot of it to charity, and spending as little as possible on himself.

He usually just focused on the music and tried to ignore the money except to read the statements he got from the finance guy every month.

Aimee had convinced him that he’d better keep an eye on those, no matter how much he trusted his guy.

Thinking of Aimee made him a little afraid to see how many messages he had right now. He’d been off the grid all night, and she worked too hard to have him ignoring her calls and messages.

“I guess I’d better head to bed,” he told his parents as he moved to get up. “Thank you for everything.”

“Wait,” Mom said softly.

“Yeah?” he asked, sitting back down.

“Be careful, son,” she said. Her blue eyes were troubled.

“Of course,” he told her. “I know Cody has been through a lot already. I won’t be careless with his feelings.”

“Oh, I know you won’t do that,” she told him with a sad smile. “I’m talking about your own feelings. You’ve always had such an open heart. And you’re an impulsively good person.”

“I’m impulsive all right,” he said, sighing and thinking about how Cody had come to be in the first place.

“That’s not always a bad thing, son,” Dad said, leaning across the table to pat Cash’s arm.

“You should just be prepared that this could be tricky with Cody,” Mom said. “You’ll probably take one step forward and two steps back. He’s a teen, mostly grown, and he isn’t used to having you around.”

“Or the idea that you’re just a regular human being,” Dad pointed out. “Olivia tells us that he mentioned to one of the boys at school that you were his dad when they asked if the comments on that video were true.”

Olivia was Tag’s oldest. She would be sixteen now, so just a year past Cody in school. It was nice to think his cousin was already looking out for him, though he hoped that all of this wasn’t making things too awkward for her.

“If he thinks of you as a larger-than-life celebrity, he might not expect you to make mistakes,” Mom was saying. “And you will, believe you me. If there’s one thing that happens to every parent, it’s getting blindsided by something and falling down on the job.”

“Happens to us all,” Dad chuckled. “Most important thing is to be honest about it, and get right back up on the horse.”

“I don’t think that ever happened to you two,” Cash laughed.

“Oh no?” Mom asked. “What about the time I forgot I signed up to bring all the cupcakes for the summer camp party?”

“That doesn’t count,” Cash chuckled. “We made up for it with barrels of ice cream.”

“It’s pure luck that we make ice cream on this farm and had enough for all those children,” Mom said, clearly still feeling something about that long-ago mistake.

“At least that was innocent,” Dad put in, with a haunted look in his eyes. “Remember the time I sent Tripp to his room without supper for stealing the tractor, and wouldn’t let him say a word for himself?”

“When it was Tag the whole time,” Cash said, still awed at the memory. “But to be fair, that was really surprising for Tag, and exactly like something Tripp would do.”

“He had done it the week before,” Mom said. “He took one of the dogs down to the pond for a bath.”

Cash couldn’t help laughing at the thought of it. Somehow, both Tripp and Chewbacca had come back muddier than they’d left.

“Still,” Dad said, shaking his head sadly. “I didn’t listen.”

“But you raised good kids,” Cash reminded him. “Tag broke and confessed before dinner was served. And Tripp got double dessert that night.”

“Double dessert,” Dad said fondly, nodding. “I forgot that part.”

“Anyway, you two were great parents,” Cash said. “And here you are, still on the job. But I see your point. I’ll try not to be too hard on him, or myself.”

“Atta’ boy,” Dad said.

“Sleep well, son,” Mom told him. “You’ve earned it.”

He bent to kiss her forehead before heading down the hallway to pull on his boots and coat.

When he stepped outside, it was hard not to notice the sense of peace on the snowy farm. There was nothing out there with him but the hush of the cold breeze and the sight of the mountains against a sky of twinkling stars.

He walked slowly to his own house, feeling grateful again that his parents had kept it for him all these years. It was good to know he had a place to land with family all around him.

What if I lived here all year? What if Cody came to live with me?

But he couldn’t really consider that. Cash Law as an entity was too big, and too many other people earned a living through him for Cash to just disappear into obscurity.

Plus, Cody already lived with his aunt, who he had known all his life. It would be wrong to change that.

Unless…

Her face was in his mind again—that shy, luminous smile, and the way he felt easy with her from the moment he walked in.

Understandably, she didn’t really trust him. He knew that, and he knew why. It would take time to earn her confidence. But he felt comfortable with her anyway, in a way that he hadn’t with new people ever since he’d become Cash Law.

And then there was that moment…

When he’d put his hand over hers, he’d felt a wave of emotion that made him see stars. He hadn’t felt that way since…

Don’t think about it.

Thank goodness she had snatched her hand away and they had moved past it. He definitely didn’t need to complicate things with Cody by having moments with his guardian .

He jogged up the steps of his house, kicking off the snow on the porch, and went inside.

As he got ready for bed, he couldn’t help thinking about the town snowball fight on Saturday.

He would have loved something like that as a kid.

Hopefully, Cody would really want him to come.

Maybe the kid just wanted to play with his friends.

Cash would have to really pay attention and back off if he got a sense that Cody didn’t want him joining in.

On his way to his room, he finally slid his phone out of his pocket.

There were so many messages and missed calls, and it normally would have twisted his stomach to see it. Somehow though, being back in this place and meeting his son had given him perspective on what was most important to him.

He sat on the edge of the bed as he navigated to his chat with Aimee and typed out a quick message.

just finally checking my phone

haven’t slept yet so no time to catch up on earlier messages until tomorrow

you got my message to cancel the late show, right?

He sort of wondered if maybe she had given up and gone to bed. But three dots appeared instantly.

aimee

yes, late show was canceled

He waited for her to light into him. He knew it couldn’t have been easy for her to cancel with a major network on the day of his appearance. He had surely burned some bridges for himself, and maybe for Aimee too.

But she left it at that, and he congratulated himself for about the millionth time on having the most ethical manager in show business.

thank you, you know i appreciate you

aimee

did you get to see him?

He smiled, feeling happy to have someone else to share the news with.

i did, we even jammed together, he’s amazing

aimee

then you’re doing the right thing

don’t check messages until tomorrow, get some sleep

and when you do check, keep your son at the front of your mind

So that meant there would be some bad stuff waiting for him tomorrow. He wasn’t sure if it had to do with canceling his appearance, or backlash from having a child he hadn’t acknowledged, or both. Aimee had mentioned putting together some kind of press release.

shoot, aimee, i’m really sorry. it didn’t hit me until right now that we didn’t even take a picture

aimee:

that means you two really were bonding, i’m happy for you!

enjoy it, cash, the other stuff can wait

He signed off and climbed into bed, amazed that he was able to place the phone on the table and ignore everything else that was on it.

The rest of the world could wait until morning. But it was still hard to sleep as he replayed every moment in Bella’s little apartment over and over in his head.