Page 7 of Sweet Music (Sugarville Grove #7)

BELLA

S ixteen years ago…

Eighteen-year-old Bella stood in a packed auditorium in Burlington. Bodies pressed in from every direction, and she was pretty sure someone had just splashed a drink down onto her from the balcony above.

But she was too hypnotized by the man onstage to care. The music had everyone cheering, dancing, and howling their approval at him. His fingers flashed across the strings of his guitar and too-long dark hair flopped in his eyes as he sang into the mic.

The whole experience was pure foot-tapping, laugh-out-loud fun.

But Bella couldn’t quite lose herself in the moment. The singer’s dark gaze was just so intense that she couldn’t tear her own eyes away from him as he scanned the crowd. There was just something about him…

His dark eyes landed on her cousin, Harper, plenty of times.

Not that Bella could blame him.

Harper was four years older than she was, and absolutely stunning—always had been.

Harper’s tall, elegant form never failed to attract attention wherever they went.

Lately, Harper had started wearing faded band t-shirts, ripped jeans, and motorcycle boots, and the contrast with her fairytale beauty somehow made her seem even more feminine and lovely.

But Harper never gave it a second thought.

Instead of dating around, she had gotten engaged to her high school sweetheart, the pretty little diamond glittering on her finger leaving Bella in awe the first time she showed it to her.

And Harper had seemed so happy. Of course, that was before Buddy decided to completely vanish just a week before this concert, when Harper found out he’d been cheating on her.

Even though her cousin swore that she was okay, and it was Buddy’s loss, Bella thought maybe Harper was throwing herself into the music even more than usual tonight, in an attempt to help herself forget.

For the concert, Harper had borrowed Bella’s old County All-Stars Orchestra t-shirt to wear.

Bella knew she was mostly wearing it ironically, but she was honestly blown away that the shirt could look so good.

Harper certainly filled it out better than Bella ever did.

The All-Stars Orchestra logo stretched across her chest, and the color perfectly set off her cousin’s auburn hair and bright green eyes.

Bella still couldn’t believe she was spending the whole weekend with her older cousin.

Harper had a job and her own apartment now, right in the cool part of the city.

It meant she could finally go to the concerts of all those bands she had followed online.

Her apartment was close enough that they had walked to this one.

And tonight wasn’t just any old show.

Cash Law had broken out in a big way last year with his new twist on the rockabilly sound. He’d spent this year opening for a bigger band, but it was obvious that by this time next year, he’d be headlining his own tour.

But tonight, he’d come home for a single performance here in Burlington, and he’d chosen to perform here at a small, historic theater that was struggling to pay the bills, instead of a bigger venue.

The sold-out event and merch sales were going to have a big impact on the theater’s bottom line.

Especially since Cash had agreed to donate the ticket and merch sales on the condition that he be allowed to bring in five local indie bands to open for him, doing sets of just a few songs each.

There was even word going around that his manager was there to scout for talent. Bella guessed that one or more of the openers tonight would be invited along on that big tour that was certainly in Cash Law’s near future.

It was the kind of generous move that Bella would have expected from a fellow Vermonter.

And Cash wasn’t just a Vermonter, he was literally from tiny Sugarville Grove, just like her.

His parents and siblings still lived in town.

She saw them at all the town events, and bought ice cream from their little shop.

Maybe that was the reason for the connection she felt to the man. He was a few years older, so their paths hadn’t really crossed as kids. By the time she got to high school, he had just graduated, leaving behind a reputation for being talented, kind, and according to the upperclassmen, dreamy.

And now it seemed like the rest of the world agreed with that.

The song ended with a drum flourish. Cash glanced up at his audience, his fingers teasing at the strings of his guitar in an upbeat flutter that melted into the opening riff of his most popular song.

The entire crowd seemed to sizzle and boil over with excitement.

“Yes,” Harper screamed loudly enough for Bella to hear her over the roar that filled the theater.

Bella laughed and danced with her cousin, and suddenly she felt beautiful too, swept away by the music into a better, more graceful version of herself. She wished they could do this every single night, forever.

Too soon, the song was over, and Cash and his band were waving goodbye. There was no encore, but as people began filing out, one of the guards on the sides of the stage approached, waving them toward him.

“What did we do?” Bella asked worriedly.

“He’s inviting us to go backstage,” Harper said, sounding awed. “I can’t believe it. Come on.”

She grabbed Bella’s hand and suddenly the Cinderella feeling was gone, and Bella felt like her regular self—awkward and shy, not the kind of girl who met rock stars backstage.

“I… I don’t feel well,” she said, stopping in place.

“What are you talking about?” Harper demanded, spinning back to her.

“I can’t,” Bella said. “I just… I want to get some sleep. You should go. ”

“Really?” Harper asked. “Why don’t you just come say hi? You’ll be able to tell your grandkids you saw him.”

“I just can’t,” Bella said, feeling miserable about it.

How was she supposed to tell beautiful, effortlessly cool Harper that she wasn’t the type of person who belonged hanging out with musicians?

Sure, she loved the music, but she was just plain, boring Bella.

“But you totally should. I can just meet you back at your place.”

Harper glanced over at the guard again and then back at Bella.

“Sure,” Harper said, nodding and giving her a sympathetic gaze. “I’ll try and get an autograph for you, Bella.”

The next thing she knew, Harper was tossing her the apartment keys, then jogging over to the guard.

Bella walked back to the apartment feeling even more geeky and awkward than ever.

It was one thing to be a nerd in high school, but she was eighteen now, a college student. Surely she should have come out of her shell at this point, especially when it came to something she loved as much as music.

Bella walked back to the apartment with even the hustle and bustle of the city around her feeling quiet after the intensity of the show. When she got back to the apartment, she showered and put on pajamas.

When Harper wasn’t back after about an hour, Bella decided to distract herself by cleaning the apartment, something she had been itching to do since she arrived anyway. Harper was obviously busy with her work and concert-going, so she didn’t have time to make the place look homey.

Before too long, the whole place was sparkling, and there was still no sign of Harper. So Bella grabbed a book and curled up on the sofa to wait.

She woke up at some point later, with her cousin leaning over her, looking happy and worried at the same time.

“Harper?” Bella whispered, sitting up. “When did you get home?”

“Just now,” Harper said. “I did something… I’m not sure about.”

“Oh wow,” Bella said, reaching for her best friend in the world. “Come on, tell me about it.”

Harper allowed herself to be dragged to the couch.

“I guess Cash is kind of a player,” Harper murmured, snuggling into Bella’s side. “When I first got back there, he just grabbed me and pulled me into his dressing room. He said he’d been waiting forever for me to show up.”

“Whoa,” Bella said. “I guess he was looking at you a lot from onstage.”

“After that, there was a lot of chaos backstage with everyone coming and going and loading stuff in and out and asking him questions,” Harper said. “Before I knew it, we were getting in his car and going to this fancy hotel.”

“Oh,” Bella breathed, realizing where this story was going. “You went with him?”

“He kept talking about our connection,” Harper said. “He said it about half a dozen times. And you know, you saw him. He’s… magnetic.”

Bella figured any red-blooded woman would be hypnotized by the man himself, let alone if he started talking like that.

“Did you guys…?” Bella didn’t quite dare to ask.

“It all happened so fast,” Harper said softly.

“And I guess I drifted off after. When I woke up, he was looking down at me. And he told me that he wanted to write a song about me, but he wasn’t good enough yet.

And then he just looked at me, like he expected me to say something.

I mean, what does that even mean? We never laid eyes on each other before, why would he write a song about me, Bella?

It made me feel sick inside when I realized he probably just spouts these lines to every girl he brings backstage.

And when I didn’t say anything back, he got this look on his face, this look of like…

regret, but worse, like he was almost horrified. ”

Bella thought her heart would stop. Her mind raced as she looked right through her poor cousin.

“Yeah,” Harper said. “Yeah, it was just exactly like that. Do you think he might have a drug problem? Everyone says Cash Law is clean as a whistle, but the whole thing was just so weird. I took off immediately, obviously, and practically ran all the way back here…”

A knock on her office door dragged Bella’s mind back to the present.

“Bella,” Lois said sternly, opening the door and marching in without waiting for her to answer. “I need to talk to you.”

Lois Abraham was the sweetest lady. Bella had never seen this stern expression on her face, or heard her voice so steely.

“Oh, Lois,” Bella said. “I’m so sorry about the books and raising my voice like that.”

“Who cares about that stuff?” Lois said dismissively. “I’m here about your boy. If that’s his father out there, then you have no right to send him away.”

“You… you know?” Bella asked, suddenly too surprised to hold onto her anger.

“It’s that video, sweetheart,” Lois said, a little more gently. “It spread like wildfire, and everyone’s saying that you can see he’s Cash’s boy the minute he starts playing. Are you telling me it’s not true?”

Bella was sorely tempted to lie, but she knew it would be wrong.

“No,” she whispered. “I’m not saying that.”

“Then things are going to change for Cody in a hurry,” Lois said, her voice a little softer now, with sympathy.

“Oh…” It was all Bella could say as the earlier events of the day rearranged themselves in her mind.

“I think it’s best if you set up a time for Cash to talk with Cody,” Lois said gently. “But you should be there too, of course.”

“That man out there has never been there for Cody,” Bella said, snapping out of her own amazement. “Not once. And he wasn’t there for Harper when she raised him all by herself either. I won’t let Cody get his heart trampled on by that reckless jerk. He’s already done enough damage.”

“It’s admirable that you want to protect the boy,” Lois said carefully.

“But you need to put away that mama bear energy . This isn’t about your feelings, or even your cousin’s.

This is about Cody and what he wants. He’s a young man now, and he should be allowed to make his own decision about meeting his father. ”

“Oh,” Bella said again, slumping back down in her chair.

She hated the idea, of course. Because she knew that her vulnerable nephew, who was finally starting to get used to his new life, was definitely going to want to meet his father.

And Cash was definitely going to charm him and disappear, leaving Cody more broken than ever.

But there was no point arguing about it, because Lois was one hundred percent right.

“It’s Cody’s choice,” Bella echoed softly, nodding and trying to steel herself against everything that was about to come next.