Page 94 of Freeing the Wild
I flex my fist out then meet Wade’s eyes.I shake my head.I’m probably fucked for this.
“Well, I know Haden here well enough to know that in the eight years he’s been on my ranch, he’s never once lost his temper, soyoumust have given him a reason.”
Everything in me tenses with the way Wade immediately defends me.I’m not used to having people stick up for me so easily.
“You’re completely out of line, Dax,” Cassie says in a tone I haven’t heard her use before.“How dare you come to my family’s home and be so disrespectful?”
“Well, I’m leaving now anyway.I wouldn’t stick around here if you paid me.Cassie, I’ll be at the Motor Court.It’s the only goddamn hotel in this town.If you want to keep your career from going down the drain, you need to take the plunge and get back onstage.He isn’t gonna look after you.”Dax points to me and my fists clench with those words.They sting.It’s something my father would say.
I watch as Dax gets into his shiny car and slams the door.Cassie turns to face me as he skids down the driveway.She shakes her head, her eyes full of turmoil as she heads into the cabin.Ivy follows after, still holding Billi.
“What the hell am I waking up to?”Wade asks me.
I run a hand through my hair.“He was about to call her a slut.”
Wade sets his jaw and looks back to the cabin.“I would’ve hit him too.But that in there …” He points toward Stardust.“That’s for you to fix.No matter how she feels, she has to leave.You got yourself into a real shitshow here and Itoldyou not to get involved.What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking … I think I love her,” I admit, looking back at her cabin.For a moment, neither of us says anything.
“She lives on the road, Haden.How do you think this could ever work?”
I blow out a breath.“I don’t know, man; I just know I wish she didn’t have to leave.”
I glance at her cabin again.
“Not right now,” Wade says, reading my mind.“Give her a little time to cool off.And you need to calm down too.Look, Haden.In my experience, if these things are meant to be, they have a way of working themselves out.Now I’m gonna go in there, help Ivy and then get back to eating breakfast.”
He starts walking toward Cassie’s front door, but Ivy comes out before he can climb one step.
She looks directly at me.
“She wants to be alone right now.Just give her an hour.She needs to sort some things out.”
“What’s there to sort out?That guy was a prick.”And she wasn’t going to tell me she was leaving, again.
“I hear you.But this is her career, Haden.Her life.She’ll never let it go.”
I nod.Finally—finally—it hits me.This is real.Cassie is leaving.
“Sorry to have caused this drama so early in the morning,” I say to Wade.And then I turn and head to my cabin, not even glancing back at hers as the truth settles somewhere deep within me.Whatever I thought Cassie and I had, whatever her dreams are about giving up performing onstage and writing music full-time, this simple life will never be enough to compete with the greatness she’s destined for.And I’m the fool who didn’t see that right from the start.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Cassie
“You all set?”Ivy asks, standing beside my mama as I zip my suitcase up tight and pull my notebook out from under the table.I look around at the near-empty cabin and choke back the tears I’ve been holding in all day.
“I think so.”
“I mean, are you all set to go back to it, Cass?”my sister says, a worried expression on her face.“Is this what you really want?”
“I don’t have a choice,” I tell her.Because it’s true.Going back on the road is not up for negotiation.I’m an independent artist, but if I don’t finish this album, all the time and money spent to record it up to now will be out the window.The producer we’re working with is booked months in advance and he only works out of this Nashville studio, which is highly sought-after.
“You’ve been so happy here, baby.”Mama sniffs, using a Kleenex to blow her nose.
“And this is way harder than I thought it would be,” I tell them.“I have been happy but it’s also been … a fantasy.”
There’s nothing left for me to do now but say goodbye to the man that has my heart.I’m not even mad at him for hittingDax.Dax deserved it.He knows it too; he apologized multiple times when I finally called him earlier.I’m mad withmyselffor falling completely in love with this man the moment I met him.For allowing myself to get close to him during my time here when I had no idea what could come of it.And, as much as I want it to be, all my talk of writing full-time—and the dreams I have of settling down—isn’t realistic rightnow.I have to make it through my performing commitments first.Only then can I start to think about explaining to Dax that I want to shift gears.
