Page 13 of Protecting Hailey

“Hailey, baby, come listen to this.”

She waved me over, and I stood behind her and watched as she worked her magic.

She pressed play, and I nodded along to the rhythm. “I like it. I wrote down some lyrics this morning. I think this will work.”

She hummed back the melody to me. It was perfect.

I hugged her from behind, and she grabbed my arms and squeezed. “How are you? I heard you got messed up at JJ’s.”

I sighed. “Yeah, but I’m fine. Just a little sore.”

“You’re a tough one, baby. A lot of people don’t know that about you.” She swiveled in her chair to look at me, but her gaze snapped to my left.

Pulling her sunglasses down to the bridge of her nose, she stared at Christian. “Now, who is this?”

She hadn’t asked in a pissed-off way, as I would have expected. Tessa didn’t like anyone trespassing in her studio. She was quite territorial about her sounds and trusted no one. But with Christian, she didn’t seem to mind.

In fact, judging by the way she licked her lips, she welcomed his presence in her space.

I cleared my throat at the heightened level of sexual tension in the room. “Tessa, this is my new bodyguard, Christian. Christian, this is my producer, Tessa.”

Christian nodded, and Tessa licked her lips again, giving Christian a single nod back. Only hers seemed more like an invitation.

“So, should we try this out with some of my new lyrics?”

Reluctantly, Tessa swiveled back and stared at the notebook I laid on the table. For a few minutes, she tapped a finger to her lips and nodded her head to a rhythm that none of us could hear. Then she swiveled her chair to face her keyboard. She played the riff again, this time adding new notes to the melody line.

Yes, that was hot. I sang my lyrics aloud acapella, adding new lines that popped into my head as I went.

“Ooh, baby, that’s good. Write that shit down.”

I laughed and scribbled the words inside the notebook as quickly as I could.”

We vibed like that for a while; me feeding off the music, and Tessa feeding off of me until we had a chorus and three verses.

A couple of hours later, we were working on the bridge when my manager, Frankie, walked in. “Hailey, good to see you, Hun. How are you feeling?”

“I’m goo—”

“That’s great, really great. Now, listen. We got a call from the producers of The Harriet King Show and they had a cancellation and want you to fill in.”

Frankie clapped his hands and then placed them on his hips, waiting for my response.

“That’s, uh, that’s great. When is it?”

He ran a hand through his disheveled, dirty blonde hair and turned away from my gaze. “It’s tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow?” I repeated. “No, that’s impossible. I can’t do it.”

I listed all the reasons why. “Tessa and I are busy working on the next album. I haven’t trained my vocals for a live performance in weeks, and I don’t know which song I’m doing or rehearsed any dance moves to perform in front of a live audience. I’m not ready.”

“You’re ready, sweetheart. You’ve got this.”

I stared at him incredulously. “You saying I’m ready doesn’t make it true. It doesn’t even make me feel better. What would make me feel better would be if I had time to prepare for my debut performance on the largest talk show in America right now.”

He put his hands on my arms and squeezed. “That’s right, it’s the largest show, and we can’t say no, Hailey. They might never invite you back if you refuse.”

I closed my eyes and groaned. Was he right? Was I blowing my shot? I might offend the producers if I turned down the opportunity. I didn’t have a good excuse, like being on tour or out of town. I hated being unprepared, but I didn’t want to regret this.

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