“You two are close,” I commented, an observation I’d made ever since I’d first learned Parker and my dad knew one another.
“Yeah,” he answered absently.
He clearly needed a father figure. He’d suffered long enough without one, and I was happy that the person I had chosen to spend my life with got along with my dad. It was a necessity to me.
And even as I thought it, I realized that Parker still hadn’t met my mother. I wondered where in the world she was. She’d probably want to know that I was getting married. Hell, maybe she’d seen it in the news considering it was all over the tabloids.
Daughter of Rock Star Engaged to Guitarist of Flashing Light!
Gideon’s Girl All Grown Up
And my personal favorite: Price’s Princess Has Seen the Light… the Flashing Light!
Tabloids were right up my mother’s alley. Sometimes it was shocking even to me that we were related.
“He is the most respected man in this industry, Jimi. To me he was always this untouchable hero. He changed my life. And because of him, I met you. I will owe him a debt for the rest of my life for that.”
He glanced over at me and smiled that smile that I would never get tired of seeing. “And I will pay him back for that debt every single day by loving you, Jimi. Taking care of you, protecting you, and making you happy.”
“I think you just wrote your vows, Parker.”
He chuckled. “Your turn.”
“I’m not the writer here.”
“No, but you’re a smart and savvy woman who knows what she wants.”
My heart raced a little faster at his words. He was right, and savvy came with a lot of implications. For one, I still hadn’t had a chance to tell him about the email I saw come through on Barry’s computer. I was dying for his perspective.
I took a leap of faith.
“Speaking of knowing what I want…” I trailed off, unsure of how to continue.
His eyes were on the road, but he grinned.
“The old ball and chain, already telling me how things are going to be. Is this about the wedding?”
“If you ever call me the old ball and chain again, there won’t be a wedding,” I grumbled.
He laughed.
I took a sobering breath. “No. It’s not about the wedding.”
He glanced away from the road and over to me. We were getting close to my dad’s house. It wasn’t that long of a drive from my place.
“What’s it about?”
“It’s about an idea that you sparked in my mind. Something that made me realize that I want more out of my life than working in a record store.”
“Oh?” he asked, his curiosity clearly piqued.
“Yeah.”
“Well, what do you want to do?”
“I want to own it.” I blurted it out without thinking.
“Vintage?”
“Yes. My heart is yours, but a piece of my soul is in that store. And I can’t see it just go down in flames. But I know nothing about owning a store or running it. I don’t know if I have the qualifications to do something like that. But I have the money and the ideas and the passion.”
“What do you mean by seeing it go down?”
I stared out the window. It was hard to finally admit what I knew. “I was in Barry’s office. We were going over the schedule and he stepped out. I saw an email pop through from a lawyer about bankruptcy.”
“Bankruptcy?” he asked. His hand moved across the car to cover my own resting on my leg. “I thought the store was doing well.”
“So did I. And that’s what I mean when I say that I don’t know anything about running a store.”
We pulled into my dad’s driveway, and Parker put the car in park and cut the engine before looking over at me. Neither of us moved from our seats, but I looked over at him. I could see the wheels turning in his mind. He didn’t speak for several moments.
But then he did, and I was pretty sure that my life as I knew it would never be the same.
Because while I knew that he was the one meant for me, and while I knew that I was going to marry him, what he said next sealed every part of the commitment that I was already going to make. His next words showed me that not only were our hearts and our bodies connected, but our minds and our souls were connected. Forever.
He turned toward me in the car. I mirrored him.
“You know I attended Loyola University in Chicago, right?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t known that.
“I did. And I graduated with a degree in Business Management.”
My eyes grew wide as a smile played at his lips.
“I knew I wanted to go somewhere with my band, the one that your dad talked me out of, but I also knew that I needed something to fall back on in case it didn’t work. So I picked business. I had to choose a major, and business seemed like the smartest choice.”
“So you have some concept of what it takes to run a business.”
“I have more than a concept, Jimi.” He paused, and I wondered what the hell he meant. I didn’t have to wait long. “My senior internship involved working with a company who had their hands in a lot of different projects. One division bought companies near bankruptcy and turned them around to be profitable.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me?”
It literally could not have been more perfect.
All the pieces fell into place. Maybe it was a threat that had brought us together, but it was the huge ways that we were meant to be that would keep us together. Forever.
“We could do this. The two of us together. I want what you want.” He took both of my hands in his. “I want what’s going to make you happy.”
“You make me happy. Is this crazy?”
“Buying Vintage?”
I nodded.
“I’m shocked it’s going into bankruptcy, to be honest. It’s a great store and I think that together, we could work to make it lucrative. Is it crazy? Maybe. Could we do this together and make it work? Definitely.”
Everything was turning around. My life was on track. I was getting married to the man I loved. It was real, not some sham to keep Randy away from us. I was marrying an intelligent man who wanted what I wanted. He was going to help me buy Vintage, and together we were going to take on the challenge and make it prosper again. He’d teach me how to run a business, and I’d use my creativity and background of the music industry to make it soar. My mind was whirling with possibilities and excitement for everything that was in front of us.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had been so happy. It had to have been before Katie had died, and that had been…God, that had been over eight years earlier.
I should have known it was all too good to be true.
I should have known that something was lurking ahead, waiting to change everything.
But in the moment, I was too happy to consider that there was danger in our midst.
thirteen
Of the seven people at the dinner party aside from myself, somehow I was blessed with Jadyn sitting directly across from me. I glanced up at her and our eyes met, and I couldn’t help the frisson of fear that darted through my chest. I wasn’t sure where it came from, but I knew I didn’t like it. Parker was to my right, and I felt better with him near me.
We sat for dinner immediately after we arrived. Apparently they’d been planning to eat about twenty minutes earlier but decided to wait for the two of us. I hadn’t even been expecting to attend this little dinner party, but it was better than trying to pull something together from my own refrigerator.
“Feel good to be home?” Vanessa asked no one in particular. She was trying to make conversation over the icy silence floating between Jadyn and me.
“Feels better than sleeping on a bus,” my dad finally said.
Everyone concurred with that sentiment. I shrugged, and I caught Parker’s chuckle out of the corner of my eye.