“Everything okay, Bluebird?”
With a heavy sigh she turns toward me. “I am so proud of you for tonight, for choosing this instead of the darkness. But I can’t stop thinking about someone else. Someone else I’m afraid will forever be lost in the dark if we don’t do something.”
“You got another man on the side, Lark? I gotta say, I didn’t see this coming.”
She shoves playfully at my chest. “Liam, Gav. I can’t stop thinking about Liam. About what he’s going through and how sad he must be and confused. Scared, probably.”
“Probably,” I agree. “But they’re keeping him away from Carl and that’s certainly a good thing.”
She wraps her arms around herself and I decide to wrap mine around her as well. “I know. I’m glad he isn’t with Carl. I just keep thinking I wish I’d had more time with him. More campouts, more cookies to make, more music lessons to give. I . . . I miss him.”
I squeeze her tightly. “I know you do, babe. And I get it. But a little boy like that, one who’s had a life like mine, he’s a lot of responsibility. Especially when you’re a twenty-year-old woman living on her own—busy with a band and a thriving music business.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” she bites out.
Color me surprised. “You don’t care about Leaving Amarillo or Over the Rainbow? Since when?”
She shakes her head and shrugs out of my grasp. I let my hands fall to my sides.
“I do care about the band and about my organization. That’s not what I mean. I just mean all the successful bands or businesses in the world won’t mean anything if I have to live my life knowing that little boy slipped through the cracks.”
I nod. “Like I did, right?”
She gives me a thin smile and watery eyes. “But don’t you get it? You turned out okay, because you found a family to care for you. Me, Dallas, Nana, and Papa. You had us. You found love. It’s why you’re surprisingly well-adjusted. Why you choose the light instead of the dark. But that’s why I’m worried. What if Liam doesn’t ever find that?”
“There are no guarantees in life,” I begin slowly, hoping a soothing tone will ease the blow of what I’m about to say. “There were none for us and there will be none for Liam. The best we can do is be there, be available to him in whatever capacity we can manage.”
“That’s not good enough,” she says shortly. “I’m sorry, but it’s not. Our paths crossed for a reason. I believe his path crossed with ours for a reason, too.”
“And you think that reason is . . .” She gives me a pointed look and I place my arms back around her and pull her to my chest. “You can’t save everyone, Bluebird. You can’t love everyone all better even if you try your hardest.”
“I don’t want to save everyone,” she says in a sexy pouty voice that turns me on at the most inopportune time. “Just you. And Liam. Is that so much to ask?”
“No, babe. It’s not. I just think it might be a bit more complicated, since Liam is a kid and—”
I’m interrupted by the vibrating of her phone in her pocket between us.
“Speaking of complicated. It’s our complicated blond attorney,” Dixie says dazedly while staring at the phone.
“Answer it. Maybe it’ll be good news for a change. Maybe she called to wish us luck tonight. Or maybe Carl reported me for violating the protection order.”
She takes a few steps to the side to answer and I can barely hear her over the noise coming through the back door someone has propped open.
I walk over to close it but Dallas’s head pops out before I can. “Guys. Get in here. Now. They’re announcing the winner.”
I glance over at Dixie, who holds one finger up signaling that we should wait while she continues her phone conversation.
“We’ll be in there in just a sec,” I tell Dallas.
“Hurry,” he huffs out on an exasperated breath. “They’re making the announcement like right now.”
I nod. “Got it. We’ll be right there.”