Facing the Music Read Free

in the audience. Everyone got a good laugh out of her pathetic relationship track record.
    Ivy tried to be a good sport about the whole thing. It was better she made fun of herself before others had the chance. She really needed to come up with a new source of inspiration for her songs. And maybe try to find a relationship that would last longer than an oil change.
    “You were funny slapping that actor at the beginning. You haven’t really slept with him, have you?”
    “Dotty!” Miss Francine exclaimed again.
    “No, Miss Dotty. I think his wife would have something to say about that. And since she’s an action star with a black belt who does her own stunts, I’m keeping my distance.”
    Sarah came forward and gave her another big hug. “You go get some rest. I know traveling can be so exhausting. I’ll make sure Daddy doesn’t pester you to go fishing, but you know he wants to take you out on the new bass boat you got him for his birthday.” She pressed a kiss against Ivy’s forehead. “Don’t be a stranger, baby.”
    “I won’t, Mama. Thanks for letting me use the cabin while I’m here. See y’all later,” Ivy called out to the room, wincing as she heard that word slip through her lips.
    A chorus of good-byes sounded as the ladies waved and returned to their grooming procedures. Ivy turned and headed for the door, looking both ways for anyone she didn’t want to run into. Nowhere in town was safe. There were Chamberlains everywhere, including the bakery next door, where Blake’s sister Maddie worked.
    The coast was clear. As she stepped out of the shop and onto the sidewalk, she heard the loud voice of Miss Dotty behind her.
    “What the hell is Greek yogurt, anyway? Is regular old yogurt not good enough for the Greeks?”

    “I don’t know if this is going to work, Kevin,” Ivy grumbled into her cell phone as she drove down the winding road that led to Willow Lake.
    Before he worked with Ivy, Kevin had put no fewer than seven singers on the top of the charts. He had an ear for singles, a brain for management, and a level personality that could counteract even the biggest divas in the music business. Rarely, if ever, did one of his artists disagree with him. But she had only been in Rosewood for an hour and she just knew he had to be off the mark this time. Everyone missteps now and then. This could be his bad idea of the decade. She could forgive him this one time.
    “You need the good press, Ivy. Your fans love you. They always have. They’ve cheered for you through every relationship, hoping you’ll find the one. But this whole thing with Sterling has been blown way out of proportion. Public opinion has turned on you. You tried to slaughter a sacred calf and the focus has shifted away from your music and your talent. But we can fix it, and Rosewood is your best chance.”
    Ivy sighed and turned off the main highway to the lakefront drive, cursing the day she decided to go out with Sterling Marshall. She had toured with his boy band, Perfect Harmony, the previous summer. Every teenage girl in America was begging her parents for tickets to the show. Sterling was after her from the beginning, and eventually, she gave in to him. He wasn’t exactly her type—too young, too clean-cut Tiger Beat for the bad-boy angst she craved. At least, that’s what she’d thought. Despite his flawless smile and dreamy pictures on every teen magazine cover, Sterling was bad news.
    For one thing, he was a skeevy little tweaker with a heroin problem, but no one knew about that. He was also an ass when he was sober, prone to lashing out physically at anyone in his path. His every indiscretion was swept under the rug by his commando management team. Dating him exposed her to the gritty truth they kept hidden. He’d been in rehab twice. He was arrested at least three times for assault and possession. He had to wear long sleeves on tour and have his track marks Photoshopped in pictures. But by the time his public