Love Songs Read Free Page B

OX’s career. No one was going to forget that.
    “Have you ever seen her show?”
    “That reality show? Are you kidding me? Why rot my brain?”
    Even though she agreed with him, she just couldn’t help herself. “Well, see, when they interview Patricia Little she’s always in front of her fireplace. And on her mantel she has all of these family pictures.” She began stirring her eggs again. “I’m not sure what the point of the family pictures are. I mean, none of the kids are hers. She doesn’t talk nice about any of them anyway.”
    “Clara, you’re not making much sense.”
    No, she wasn’t. “Warner Wright is one of Patricia Little’s stepchildren.”
    Randy stopped chewing and just stared at her. Then he swallowed hard. “The man who wants you to sing his songs is the stepson of the woman who took down the OX and ruined his career?”
    “In all fairness he’s her ex-step-son.”
    “Not sure that’s comforting.”
    Clara set down her fork again. “I don’t think he has anything to do with her. I mean wouldn’t he have mentioned it?”
    Randy shrugged.
    Clara thought about the song and about the man. Her family had secrets too—scandal even. But nothing compared to that of Patricia Little’s drama.
    She pulled her phone out of her pocket and began searching for information.
    “What are you doing?” Randy choked out.
    “Looking for information. Why is his picture still in her house? How long ago was she married to his dad?”
    “Why does this matter?”
    “I don’t know. I like him.”
    “Why?”
    Clara looked up at him and smiled. “He’s just my type right?”
    Randy laughed. “You’re a mess.”
    Clara searched for Patricia Little’s husband with the last name of Wright. Lewis Wright had been her second husband. “Oh, God.”
    “What? Did he ruin someone’s career too?”
    She looked up at him. Tears were welling in her eyes. “His father committed suicide.”
    “Damn.”
    “That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.”
    “You know what I hear in all this? He has baggage.”
    “I have baggage.”
    Randy wiped his mouth with his napkin and then threw it at her. “Clara Keller has no baggage.”
    She bit down on her lip. He was right. She might come from the most eclectic family ever assembled, but her life had been squeaky clean. The only drama that had ever come about in her life was her mother’s cancer, which she beat, and most recently the admission that her brother’s fiancée was actually the baby her aunt had given up for adoption. Okay, when she thought about it, that did sound like some television drama. Though it just wasn’t that way. Her family wasn’t that way. The only person who was having a hard time dealing with her brother Ed’s fiancée was her cousin Tyler. But even he understood it, even if he did find it hard to deal with.
    “Do you think I’m crazy to want to help him?”
    “Yes.”
    She dropped her shoulders. “That was a very definite answer.”
    “You like to perform. You like to be on stage at the theater. He’s asking you to record.”
    “So.”
    “So, that’s not what you’ve wanted all this time.”
    He was right. It sucked to have a best friend who knew you so well.
    “It’s not like he wants me to be the talent for his songs. He just wants me to be the voice on the demo.”
    Randy shook his head. “You’re going to fall for this guy and you’re going to get hurt.”
    “I am not.”
    “Not what? Going to fall or get hurt?”
    She didn’t like how this conversation was going and worse she didn’t like that she couldn’t answer him.
    Perhaps she needed to get to know him better. After all, she knew nothing except for what Patricia Little told the whole world on her trashy reality show.
    Tomorrow, after the show, she’d get to know Warner Wright, but for now she needed to convince Randy to buy her breakfast. She had just realized she’d used all her money on Starbucks.
     

Chapter Three
     
    Only in Nashville could a