Jacob's Ladder: Gabe (Jacob's Ladder #1)

“Honestly, it’s never been this bad. Ever.”

“Do you think it’s the pressure from the label that’s blocking you?”

“It shouldn’t be. It’s not like I haven’t had them on my back before.”

“I don’t mind having a little talk with them and telling them to get off our back.”

Eli and I chuckled. “Easy, killer,” I warned.

“No offense, little sis, but I hardly think we would choose you if we were going to turn the dogs on the suits at the label. You’re way more Chihuahua than pit bull,” Eli said.

Abby swept her hands to her hips. “I can be intimidating when I want to be.”

“Riiight,” Eli and I replied in unison.

Rolling her eyes, Abby huffed, “Whatever.” When she started to pour my lemonade, she sniffed and then recoiled slightly. “Do I smell vodka?”

“Yes, Mother, you do.”

“It’s barely noon, Gabe.”

“I needed a little pick-me-up this morning.”

“More than a pick-me-up, you need to take a shower,” Eli quipped.

“Bite me.”

“Did you even sleep last night?” Abby questioned softly as she handed me back my glass.

“Christ, by the way you two talk, I must look like I could get a job on as a walker on The Walking Dead.”

Abby shook her head, sending her blonde ponytail swishing back and forth. The sight of her swinging hair reminded me of when she was a kid. What are you playing, Gabe? Will you teach me how to play it? When she peered up at me with her big blue eyes, I could never tell her no. She was spoiled endlessly by all of us, but I always had a special place in Abby’s heart.

Although she had initially started college to become a nurse, there was never any doubt as to the musical talent Abby possessed. She was belting out tunes with an impressive vocal range before she started school. “I never said you looked bad.”

“You alluded to it.”

Eli grinned. “I stand by my shower comment. You stink, not to mention you look like some of the fans we see at those all-weekend rock fests.”

As I shot Eli the bird, Abby said, “I’m seriously concerned about how you slept.”

“Fine. I slept here and there.” Whatever sleep I’d gotten hadn’t been very restful. Although I’d been set up in the very lavish converted barn, I’d ended up sleeping in the hammock out in the yard. For some reason, I thought it would be romantic to sleep out under the stars, thus enabling me to pen a love song. I’d done the same thing back at home on my apartment balcony, but the only thing I’d achieved by the end of both nights was a host of mosquito bites.

Dropping down in the seat beside me, Abby sighed. “I just wish I could do something to help.”

“You want to write with me?”

Abby wrinkled her nose. “I’ve only written songs with Jake. I’m not quite sure how I’d write love songs with my brother.”

I laughed. “Well, I sure as hell didn’t mean for us to write a duet.”

“What about Micah? Do you think he could help?”

Abby was referring to our older brother. Along with Eli and me, Micah had been one of the founding members of Jacob’s Ladder. Six years ago, he’d left the band to get married and go to seminary. Now he was working as a youth pastor at a church out in Seattle and had two kids of his own.

I shook my head. “He’s busy with his own life now. Besides, the last time I wrote songs with Micah, the band had a different direction.”

“That’s true. Back before I came on the scene,” Abby mused.

Once upon a time, my brothers and I had been Christian rockers. Shocking, huh? When Micah left the band, our new label was interested in us taking a different direction and delving more into our country sound. We’d always been far more Chris Stapleton and Florida Georgia Line type praise music than Creed. They also wanted us to have a female lead singer like Lady Antebellum, and we didn’t have to look too far when it came to recruiting. After auditioning for the label, Abby left nursing school and officially became a member of Jacob’s Ladder. The rest was history.

“We could always buy our music,” Eli suggested.

“Hell fucking no,” I practically growled before Abby had a chance to reply.

“Chill out, Gabe. It’s not like I was suggesting we sacrifice a virgin on stage. Lots of bands purchase their songs.”

“It’s not who we are. We’ve always been about the music and the lyrics.” It was more about the fact that it wasn’t who I was. For as long as I could remember, part of my identity had been wrapped up in songwriting. It wasn’t even the fact that I’d won two CMAs for songwriter of the year. It was that it was the one area where I would always outshine Eli; it was a talent with which he couldn’t compete.

Eli gave me a knowing look. “That’s true, but at the end of the day, it’s not worth giving yourself a nervous breakdown over.”

“Or becoming an alcoholic,” Abby chimed in.

I rolled my eyes. “I had one drink, for fuck’s sake. If I were an alcoholic, I would have drained the entire bottle.”

The sound of a vehicle tearing down the gravel road thankfully interrupted our conversation, and I didn’t have to look to see who it was. I knew it was the one and only Jake Slater, lead singer of Runaway Train and my brother-in-law. Besides, I knew it wasn’t a stranger since only those who knew the code for the security gate would get down the road to Jake and Abby’s farm, and as far as I knew, they weren’t expecting any more guests for the weekend.

After he’d become a mega star, Jake had been forced to secure the hundred-acre property that had been in his family for over a century. While he and Abby had a place in Atlanta, their true home was the sprawling colonial farmhouse where Jake had grown up. Besides the nostalgia of his childhood, it was special to Jake because it had been a favorite of his late mother, Susan, who had passed away of cancer right after Jake and Abby started dating. Besides my brothers, I’d never known a man who was as close to his mother as Jake.

Although most celebrities would probably hire a security guard to sit in a tower to patrol the property, Jake merely enlisted a security company to watch over it from afar. The main reason he did that was all the locals in the small town of Ball Ground, Georgia, loved and respected him and his family enough to watch out for any crazies who might come by to say hello. He also wanted to keep things as normal as possible, especially after the twins came along. He and Abby were both insistent that they wouldn’t grow up in a vacuum.

The Jeep carrying Jake and his twins careened around to the back of the house. As soon as he threw the gear into park, my dark-haired nephew and niece came barreling out of the back. “Mama! Mama!” they cried.