Amy Vastine - Catch A Fallen Star

He hung up and slid his phone into his back pocket. The knot in his stomach stayed tied tight. Boone could perform in front of thousands without an ounce of fear, but his daughter made him more anxious than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

His nerves eased and gave way to his anger. He was a grown man groveling for a minute of his child’s attention. It was pathetic. There was no way he could keep this up. What was the point of leaving message after message if she wanted nothing to do with him? This was all her mother’s fault.

Maybe the best thing to do was to give Emmy what she wanted. Maybe he should leave her alone. That would sure make his ex happy. But that was as good a reason as any not to give up. He wouldn’t decide today.

The lack of space inside the trailer was giving him a headache. Boone pushed the door open, and it almost knocked Faith over. The woman jumped back.

“Sorry about that,” he said, stepping out and taking a deep gulp of fresh air.

Faith ran a hand through her thick brown hair. “Getting out of the way is one of my many talents, thanks to years of working with horses. You only have to get kicked once to know you don’t want it to happen again.”

“What can I do for you, Miss Faith?”

“I’m here to invite you to dinner again. My fiancé hasn’t had much success getting you to accept, so I’m here to personally invite you.”

“That’s mighty kind of you, but I just got back from the grocery store with plenty of food.”

The sun sat low in the sky, hovering over the Airstream like a giant egg yolk. Faith squinted up at him. “You’ve been staying on my property for four days. I understand you’re a private man, but when someone graciously opens their doors for you and you make excuses not to come in, it feels a bit like a personal rebuff.”

Boone’s mother would have slapped the back of his head for being so rude. It had been so easy to say no to Dean, he hadn’t thought about the message he had sent to the actual hostess.

“I never intended to offend you. I’m not very good company, that’s all. I was trying to spare you the trouble.”

“It’s no trouble,” she said surely. “We’ll see you in an hour for dinner.”

He watched her walk away, not giving him any chance to decline her invitation this time. He appreciated her straightforwardness, though. Sharing one meal couldn’t be that bad, as long as Dean didn’t bring up getting in the recording studio. Boone would need to set clear ground rules, and number one was no business talk at the dinner table.

* * *

BOONE TUGGED THE collar of his button-down shirt. Dinner attire wasn’t specified, so he went with a dress shirt and jeans—the best of both worlds. Knocking on the door, he prayed this get-together wasn’t a bad idea.

“Come on in,” Dean said, pushing open the screen door for his guest. “Whatever Faith is cooking smells so good, you’ll regret not taking us up on this offer earlier.”

“Your fiancée’s definitely more persuasive than you are. You might want to consider hiring her to make all your deals from now on.”

Dean laughed as he led Boone inside. “No one knows how hard it is to say no to that woman more than I do.”

Faith came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on the pink apron tied around her waist. “Glad you could make it, Boone. Can I get you something to drink?”

A whiskey on the rocks would be nice. It had been hard not to think about how a drink would taste since he held the wine bottle in his hands. He could feel the burn and missed the way it would make his head fuzzy. It muted the feelings that often felt too big to carry around sober.

“Thank you, but I’m fine.”

“We have sweet tea,” she offered with a smile.

Not exactly what he needed to quench this thirst. “Maybe with dinner.”

A chocolate Lab flew down the stairs, followed by a young man whistling like today was nothing but a good day. “Well, I’ll be,” he said as he hit the last step. “I can’t believe Boone Williams is standing in my living room.”

“Our living room,” Faith corrected him. “Boone, this is my brother, Sawyer.”

“Sawyer’s new to the label,” Dean said. “He’s got a hit single out right now, so we had him start recording his debut album this week, which is why you haven’t seen him around. You remember what those days were like.”

The two men shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Dean’s future brother-in-law reminded Boone of a younger version of himself—cool, confident and completely unaware of how the business wouldn’t think twice about chewing him up and spitting him out.

“If you wanted to drop in and take a listen one of these days, I’m sure Sawyer wouldn’t mind.” Boone hadn’t even been in the house five minutes and Dean had set another trap to get him in the studio.

“Mind?” Sawyer echoed. “I’d be honored.”

“We’ll see,” Boone replied halfheartedly.

“What did I say about no Grace Note talk during dinner?” Faith asked Dean.

Dean wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her temple. “I’m not eating dinner yet, so this doesn’t count. But I promise to be good the rest of the evening.”

Their display of affection, although small, still caused Boone’s chest to tighten. There had been a time in his marriage when he’d held Sara like that, when they had actually cared about one another. Sometimes it seemed unbelievable that what they’d had could have unraveled so thoroughly.

“Well, I was about to tell you dinner’s ready,” Faith said. “Why don’t you show our guest to the dining room?”

Just as they started to move, there was a knock at the front door. Sawyer hung back to answer it. Boone was pulling his chair out when he heard a familiar voice. Ruby wanted to know where she could find Boone, and it was clear her daughter wasn’t as good at keeping secrets as he had hoped. Ruby didn’t sound like she was there to thank him for keeping Violet out of jail.

“Is that Ruby?” Dean asked.

“You guys have a back door I can use?” Boone asked, pushing his chair back in.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything. That woman’s got problems. Problems I don’t need.”

Dean didn’t look convinced. “Faith’s clients are like family. I wouldn’t say anything like that in front of her.”

“You wouldn’t say what in front of me?” Faith asked, carrying in a steaming casserole dish.

Dean and Boone exchanged a look, but they were saved by Sawyer.

“Ruby Wynn is outside. She says she needs a minute with Boone.”

“Ruby wants to talk to Boone?” Faith set the food on the table and wiped her bangs from her face. “Do you need a midwife for something?”

The only thing Boone needed was a way out of this, but there was no way to avoid this confrontation. He could run back to his trailer and call it a night, but now that he not only smelled dinner but also could see it, there was no way he was missing out on this meal.

“I’m kidding,” Faith said. “You probably don’t even know what she does for a living. She’s not a fan, is she?”

“They met the other day when Violet was here,” Dean explained. “I don’t think she knew who Boone was.”

Boone shot Dean a look. He didn’t need to be reminded. “I’ll be right back.”

Ruby had her back to the door as she leaned over the porch railing. She righted herself and spun around at the sound of the creaky screen door.

“Porch spying again?” he asked, knowing it would get a rise out of her.

He could certainly see that fire in her eyes. “I thought we had an agreement.”

“Yet here you are keeping me from the delicious dinner that’s waiting for me inside.”