Outmatched in October (Spring River Valley Book 10) (10 page)

“Why so skittish? I don’t bite.”

“I was afraid something was wrong. I wasn’t expecting to be summoned so early.”

He raised a brow, concern wrinkling his features. “Did it seem like a summons? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.” He motioned for her to join him at the table, strewn with paperwork.

“You look pretty busy.”

“This is just the usual stuff, but here.” He pulled a sheaf of papers from one of the stacks and handed it to her. “Corporate faxed over your contracts this morning.”

“On a Saturday? Wow.” Her stomach dropped. She was hoping not to give him the bad news until her second performance was over. Then at least it would seem more like she’d given it a chance.

“They work half a day on Saturday, but the offices are closed on Monday, just like the
club. You’ll get used to it. Anyway, sit. Do you want coffee?”

“I’d love some
, but I shouldn’t. I’m going to grab some tea when I’m done here.”

“I can get you some tea
; it’s no problem—”

“No, let’s get this out of the way first. The contract…”

He sat, rolled up the sleeves of his black turtleneck and retrieved a pen from the briefcase that shared the seat with him. “I don’t expect you to sign it right now. Obviously you’ll want someone to look it over, but I wanted to go over some of the particulars. There are some clauses that are negotiable and some that aren’t. Let’s start with the ones that aren’t.”

* * * *

He could have called her. That would have made her easier to find, assuming she’d picked up the phone. But how could he expect her to when he’d ignored her call?

Owen stood on the corner of West 58
th
just a few steps from the entrance to Eclipse. The club wouldn’t be open for hours, but he’d wanted to see it. He’d thought about leaving a note for her, or calling back the number she’d called from last night, but he couldn’t bear the thought that she might be answering from Jacob Larsen’s bed.

That thought dimmed his resolve and made him feel just a little bit like a stalker. He’d driven all night to talk to someone he could have called on the phone.

He’d driven all night to get back the woman he’d been in love with for years. Tonight he’d be there at the club, and he’d listen to her sing, just like he should have last night.

A nearby coffee shop beckoned. He’d get something to eat, then look for a cheap hotel, someplace to take a shower and change into whatever passable outfit he could buy
to replace his small-town casual jeans and button-down shirt. The men’s shops around here would be expensive, but he needed to look good. He might not be able to compete with Armani Guy, but he had to try.

He was fishing for change for the parking meter when she appeared. She strolled out of the front door of the club and stood on the sidewalk, looking up and down the street like she wasn’t quite sure where she was going.

Wrapped in a tan sweater, her gorgeous legs encased in knee-high boots, her hair falling in soft waves around her face, she looked to him like a celebrity, dressed down for a stroll among the little people. She lifted the collar of the sweater up around her face before deciding on a direction and heading off down the street.

So she’d obviously been there all night. That realization became crystal clear a moment later when Jacob Larsen emerged from the club and took off after her.

Ten days later

Claudia stepped out of the rec center into the chilly autumn evening. Late October had brought the first frost of the season
. The trees in town had erupted in shades of brilliant orange, yellow, and red, and the crisp, woodsy scent of fireplaces filled the air. The aroma made her think of cups of hot cocoa, fleece blankets, and jack-o’-lanterns on every doorstep.

She loved the fall in Spring River Valley
, and she didn’t want to miss a minute of it.

Rather than go to her car, she pivoted on her heel and headed toward Hamm’s deli to pick up a turkey and cranberry wrap for a late dinner. She’d be eating alone again, since Lily would be out with Quinn, but she didn’t mind. She found
she liked having the apartment to herself now and secretly predicted she’d have to get used to it on a full-time basis soon enough. Lily and Quinn already spent every spare moment together. It made sense they’d eventually want to move into the same place, and Quinn didn’t have a roommate.

With the extra hours she was picking up working for Green Solutions, she’d be able to swing the rent all by herself, so it would all work out. At least something would.

“You didn’t leave.”

The achingly familiar voice stopped her in her tracks just before she rounded the corner
. Her heart seemed to ricochet between her lungs, its calm, steady beat suddenly erratic.

“No, I didn’t,” she responded without turning around. She hadn’t seen or spoken to Owen in
almost two weeks aside from a perfunctory text in which she officially quit the band. Taylor had been phoning her regularly and, she assumed, relayed her decision not to take the job in New York to Owen.

“What stopped you?”

She thought about that for a minute. She’d rehearsed so many responses to just such a question and still wasn’t sure which was correct. Ultimately, she decided to go with the most brutal of the many truths she’d uncovered during the days of self-analysis that had followed her one weekend at Eclipse. “Fear.”

Owen remained silent, prompting her to turn around. Seeing him hurt just as much as she’d suspected it would. He looked tired. The change of seasons always did that to him. Every year when the weather turned cold he spent a few days looking pale and drawn. She told herself this year was no different
, and his appearance had more to do with his innate intolerance to weather fluctuations than with her sudden absence from his life.

“Fear of failure or fear of success?” There was no challenge in his voice. He wasn’t baiting her; he was just curious. She’d asked herself the same question more than once
, and at least this was one answer she was finally sure about.

“Fear of never coming home again. Maybe you don’t feel the same way about this place, but this is home for me. I don’t want to live in the city, and I don’t want to spend half the year in Vegas or LA. I don’t
—”

“Vegas? What happened to New York?” He met her gaze now, brows raised.

“The contract Jacob wanted me to sign wasn’t to just sing in one club. He has a dozen of them all over the country, and he rotates the talent around. I would have been expected to go to Las Vegas and California and Seattle and Miami for months at a time.”

He folded his arms over his chest and leaned back, mimicking a stance she knew she used too often. “Sounds awful.”

“To me it does. I’m sorry. I know I’m supposed to want fame and fortune because I can sing, but it all seemed very lonely to me. When I was in New York it was glamorous, and I won’t lie and say it wasn’t fun to be with those people for a little while, to be treated like a celebrity, but just in case you were wondering, I went to bed alone and I woke up alone, and all I could picture was doing that every day for the next five years. I know I wouldn’t be happy that way.”

“Five years isn’t that long.”

“I bet James would disagree.”

“That’s different, Claud. He’s been in
a war zone most of that time. It doesn’t compare.”

“No, you’re right. But a lot can change in five years
, and I’m sure he knows he’s not coming back to the same place he left. Things will have changed while he was gone, and he’ll have missed things, lost things. I don’t want to go away and find out the place I want to come back to is gone when I get there.”

He tilted his head to the side. “You stopped making sense halfway through that. What are you talking about?”

She sighed and whirled away, eating up the sidewalk with determined steps. He followed her at a run and grabbed her hand to stop her.

“Things change,” he said. “There’s nothing any of us can do to stop that.”

“I’m well aware. Everything has changed, whether I wanted it to or not.” He’d have to be a fool not to realize she was talking about things between them. All she’d wanted for so long was to be with him, and she’d never considered how much she’d be sacrificing. The place she wanted so much to preserve was already gone, because the friendship she cherished so much was missing from it.

“Going away and having things change while you’re gone is one thing, but isn’t having them fall apart around you while you’re right in the middle of them a lot worse?”

“Now
you’re
not making sense. What’s falling apart?”

“
Everything.” He scoffed and shook his head. “I was dumb enough to think for a second that everything was finally coming together with you and me. And then I blew it.”

“Yeah. You did.”

“Taylor wasted no time telling me what an inconsiderate bastard I was for not wanting you to leave. And he was right.”

“So you fixed that by trying to push me away.”

“You nailed it when you said I was an idiot.”

She clamped her lips shut to avoid cracking a smile. If she laughed now, she’d end up crying before she could get away.

He must have taken her silence as anger because he bowed his head. “I went to see you in New York.”

“You did? I never saw you. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were coming out of the club, early in the morning. I thought you’d spent the night, and it hurt. So I came back home.”

She shook her head. “You
are
an idiot. When you saw me, I was leaving for good. I’d just told Jacob I didn’t like the terms of the contract. I never even performed that night. Why didn’t you answer me when I called you? I wanted—”

“I’m sorry. I was trying to give you the space I thought you needed.”

“You almost made me do it. Knowing you wouldn’t be here for me when I came back almost made me want to stay there…but…”

“But what?”

“Why am I wrong for wanting what I already have? Why am I wrong for wanting you?”

“Because everybody here can see you deserve so much more.”

“More than what? Everybody thinks I deserve fame and money, but nobody seems to think I deserve to be happy without those things. I
love
it here.” She flung an arm out to gesture to the street. A couple of cars had gone by while they stood talking. This was heavy traffic for an evening in the center of town. No trucks, no neon lights, no sparkle, just the cool edge of winter on the wind, the smell of cookies from the bakery across the street, and a dog barking in the distance. No glitz, no glamour, but she loved it here, and she had no desire to leave. “I love it
here
! Right here. I want to make a life for myself
here
, not in New York or San Francisco or Chicago. I don’t want to live in Miami or Seattle. I want to live here, and I want to work at the rec center, and I want to shop for bargains at the club store and spend my Friday nights at Colette’s and save up to go to dinner at Landry’s, and I don’t want other people to decide what they think I need in order to be happy. That includes you, Owen DeWitt. Is that clear?”

He nodded, lips set in a thin, contrite line.

Then he went down on one knee.

*

Owen would have laughed at the expression of abject terror in Claudia’s eyes, except that he didn’t want her to think for one second he was joking around.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice
barely a strangled whisper.

“I’m proposing…that we try to make this work.”

Her mouth dropped open.

Now he smiled. He held his hand up to her
—empty—there was no ring. All he had to give her right now was his heart and his promise. “If this place is really what you want, then I have a shot. I’m no match for some rich club owner in New York City, but I promise you, I’ll do my best to make sure you never, ever wish you’d taken him up on his offer.”

Claudia grabbed his hand and pulled him up. She put her hands on his face like she had that night she’d invited him into her bed. “You were never competing with Jacob. You’ll never have to. I know you think what we have here isn’t always going to be enough for me, but that’s not true. I love you, Owen. Being with you is all I want
. It’s all I’ll regret losing.”

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. “I love you too. I should have told you sooner. I never wanted you to feel like you were stuck here.”

“I love being stuck here. This is where I belong, but only if you’re with me.”

He kissed her again, slowly, with promise. When he pulled back finally
, there were tears in her eyes. “You’re amazing. You could have anything. Why would you choose me?”

A tear slipped down her cheek
, and it only made her more beautiful. She kissed him once, twice, and he tasted the salt of that tear and the sweetness of cinnamon. “Because you’re the only one I want to make music with.”