Tate (31 page)

“Yes. What’s the plan?” she asked.

“We’ve already told Tate’s family because we were afraid they might freak out. I’m not, but we’d like you to tell Audra that while you were here you overheard that I’m pregnant.”

“Pregnant.” Ami repeated the word.

“I’m not,” I said once more.

“Oh, that’ll be a good story for her to leak and you prove her wrong. How long do you want me to wait?”

“As soon as you’re ready. I just want this nonsense to stop,” I said, and heard the weight of my heart in my voice.

“Daniel thinks that this will be the leak that accomplishes that,” Tate said.

“I’ll call her later. Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Ami asked, apprehensively.

“I’m ready to move past this and be able to enjoy my life with Tate.”

“Me too,” he added.

“So, all I’m saying is that I overheard you say you’re pregnant, right?” I nodded and headed for the door, but quickly turned and came back to hug me.

“Who the hell was that?” Dion laughed, after she was gone.

“Hopefully our greatest ally,” Tate said.

Two days later, the next phase came to life. Daniel called Tate at 6:08 am. “Google ‘Maisie Morrow pregnant’,” I heard him tell Tate.

I pulled my tablet from the bedside table and did so as Tate listened to Daniel’s next plan. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes with more information,” he told Tate.

The Nashville Celebrity News was the first link to pop up. “Trapped”, the headline read, and I smiled. When Tate hung up he leaned closer to scan the article with me.

Maisie Morrow, wife of singing sensation Tate Morrow, has sealed the deal at last. The saying is that a baby changes everything, and this one certainly will. Tate’s gold-digger wife now has what she needs to trap him into the marriage she finagled, or financial means if it doesn’t last, with a baby that will tie her to the country star’s finances for the rest of her life. We understand the baby is due sometime in March, indicating that she was pregnant when they got hitched.

“Finagled?” Tate laughed.

“Oh my, I’ll need a pregnancy wardrobe next week based on this. I raised my nightie to expose my stomach. “Does it look like I’m getting fat?”

He pulled me closer and blew raspberries on my stomach. We roared with giggles.

“What now?” I asked her, finally.

“We’re going to wait for Audra.”

“Maisie, I have a confession.”

I smiled, looking at him. Somehow I knew what he was going to say. “I’m still on birth control.”

“Can we stop it?”

“Are you sure? You’ll be going back on the road soon, travel and…”

“Maisie, if it happens, it happens. When it does we’ll learn how to be a family in this business. People do it all the time.”

Chapter Fifteen

Tate

Daniel was at my place half an hour later. He installed an app on my phone to record calls. I knew it wouldn’t take long. Maisie made coffee and muffins as we waited.

An hour and a half passed. Finally, the call we’d been waiting for came through.

“I’ve had to wait to let all of this sink in!” she barked.

“What the hell are you all wound up about so early?” I asked, innocently.

“Maisie’s pregnancy! I should have known!”

“What the hell are you talking about? Maisie isn’t pregnant.”

“Nashville Celebrity News ran the story. It’s all over the news!” she shouted.

“I have no idea how this one got started. Here we friggin’ go again!” I said, in an exasperated voice. “This shit has to stop! Meet me at my office so we can figure out how to nip this one in the bud!” I told her in a barked tone. “Noon!”

“I’ll be there.”

When I hung up, Maisie dialed Ami’s number. “It’s out, Audra’s coming to Tate’s office at noon.”

“I’ll see you there,” she said.

“Ami, first of all, thank you,” Maisie said.

“I’m glad to help. What else?” she asked.

“Don’t be late,” Maisie replied, and I heard them both laugh.

Deidre was at the office when we arrived, along with Ami, and I saw Maisie smile. A few minutes later, Daniel entered with several law enforcement officers and a younger man we didn’t know.

“This is Grant Meers. We found his fingerprints throughout your house after the break-in. We finally tracked him down. When we showed him Audra’s photo he confirmed she paid him to do it. He also informs us that he was the one who called you the night the first story broke, and he’s the one that called in the press the night David was at your hotel. Audra paid him for that, too. He agreed to talk if we’d lessen the charges. Ready?” he asked and we all nodded our agreement.

Ten minutes later, the door opened abruptly, and Audra rushed in. When she saw Ami, Grant, and then the police, the look on her face showed alarm.

One of the police officers handed her the papers from her earlier arrest. There were also signed affidavits from several previous clients and statements of concern from clients she was currently representing. Their concerns were in regard to leaked information about their private lives that couldn’t be pinned to Audra yet, but that they wanted to explore further, now that they’d been enlightened.

“I don’t know what any of this means!” Audra barked.

“Ma’am, it means that we have enough to book you and charge you with the release of false information.

“That little bitch set me up!” she screamed, lunging at Ami, but the police held her back.

Daniel looked to Ami, who replied, “I only told you something I overheard. I didn’t tell you it was a fact, and I certainly didn’t tell you to spread it. I thought long and hard after all of this came to light, and started backtracking. The exaggerated stories of Nathan Kell and me had to come from somewhere. Since I confided in you, I think you had a part in that too – it kept me in the spotlight.”

Maisie hadn’t said a word. I saw her rocking back and forth from one foot to the other, watching Audra and Ami like a spectator at a tennis match. A moment later, Deidre nodded.

“Meg Carlisle of People Country is waiting for this story. You’ll finally be the one in the spotlight,” Maisie said with a calm, accomplished composure that left me grinning. “Pauline, Audrene, whatever the hell your name is, I hope you rot in hell.”

When the police exited the office building with Audra, news reporters from NCN and Channel 4 were waiting. There were cameras everywhere.

“Oopsie.” Maisie mimicked Dion’s comment from the day Ami was arrested. “I might have called and gave them a tip that something was going down at Tate’s office.”

If I could have captured the look on her face and sold it as ‘The Look of Satisfaction’, I’d be a gazillionaire. Her mood was something I’d never experienced.

‘What’s up with you?” I asked.

“Liberation. Freedom. A light at the end of the tunnel!” she replied with glee.

***

The revelations about Audra were big news. People Country released the story, and Maisie finally agreed to an interview with Candy Dickson at The AM Wake Up Call. It was her show - I just went along for the ride to see where she’d go. We arrived at the studios, ready to meet Candy for the show.

I watched as Candy set up the interview. “Good morning from Nashville. Thanks for joining us. We’re going to get right to a story that’s been hanging around for almost a year now. When country music star Tate Morrow came on the scene there was a lot of talk about this hot single cowboy from Oklahoma. The biggest newsworthy item at that time was who would catch the eye of this handsome man. Speculation, and the Nashville gossip mill, had a certain blonde as the most likely choice, but in his short time in the spotlight we’ve found Tate is his own man. He plays by his own rules, and Nashville seamstress Maisie Bolden caught his eye.

“As most of us know, because their relationship has been in the spotlight since Mr. Morrow told the red carpet crowd at The Academy of Country Music Awards last spring that Maisie was his girlfriend, they’ve been thrust into a frenzy of negative news items about their relationship, their marriage, Maisie’s family, and most recently the news of a new bundle of joy. There was a story a few days ago that brought some light to the situation and they’re here this morning to talk about the story that unfolded. Thank you for joining me, but mostly, thank you for allowing me to share your story.”

“Good morning,” Maisie said.

“Thanks, Candy,” I replied

“These stories have always seemed to me as a way to keep Maisie in a bad light. Now you say that the recent news of your manager Audra Davis was the backstory that kept everything in the spotlight. We’ve read that, along with the aid of Nashville police and state authorities, Ms. Davis was arrested for her part in this.”

In the background, pictures of Audra being carted away and the old news articles from the New York incident zoomed into focus.

“I’d like to set the record straight about Tate and I expecting. Not yet,” Maisie said with a smile. “Someday, but we concocted that story to draw Audra out, hoping she’d release one more news item. According to the article that published about my pregnancy, I should look like this by now.” She rose from the sofa and showed off a baby bump, and then reached under her blouse and pulled out the prosthetic “bump” to show the world.

“We believe Audra wanted fame so desperately that she thought Tate’s career was her ticket to fame. She had a multitude of other clients that she was representing right up to the moment of her arrest, but for some reason Tate was the star she thought she could manipulate.”

Maisie explained in detail how we set the scene to catch Audra. I watched as she spoke with such grace – a quality I so admired in her. Even through all we’d been through, she never lost her cool. 

“What about the stories of Ami Woodson and her latest hit, ‘Cinderella’, being about you?”

“They’re true. Ami and I have come to terms with what happened. We’ve closed that door and moved on. Moving on is what Tate and I have to focus on now. We have to get beyond this. I’ve learned to present myself as the person I’ve always been in my heart and find the good in a situation. I want to focus on our marriage. We’ve been on the defense for so long that we need time to enjoy being Mr. and Mrs. Tate Morrow.”

“I’m glad to have this leg of the tour behind us so that Maisie and I can focus on our future,” I added.

“Tate, speaking of your tour, the numbers are raising eyebrows everywhere. Sales, sold out shows - your popularity through all of this has thrust you into the ranks of your hero, Garth Brooks, as well as the country legends that you pay homage to. What are your plans going forward?” Candy asked.

“I’m not thinking about that right now. We have some ideas in the works, but my greatest desire is for Maisie and me to start our life together.”

“A man in love,” Candy said.

“With an incredible woman. I can’t help but think that she could have had enough of all of this, and Audra would have accomplished what she set out to do, but Maisie stood strong.”

“With your help,” Maisie added.

“A woman in love,” Candy said, with a smile.

“I believe it’s that thing where you think you’re content with life the way it is. Everything is running smoothly, you’re not looking for anything from anyone. I wanted to create amazing dresses…”

“You have certainly done that,” Candy interjected.

“I have, but I didn’t know what I was missing until Tate walked into my life. He opened my eyes to things I believed I’d never see or experience again.”

“We’re ready to start a family, build our life,” I told her, and the smile on Maisie’s face was joyful. It showed me pleasure and satisfaction, contentment and bliss, just in the curve of her lips.

“So,” Candy teased, “we may be seeing the ‘Tate and Maisie are pregnant’ headline again with a positive spin in the future?”

“Hopefully,” I beamed.

***

Maisie and I made a quick trip south. I got some recording time in on the ‘Maisie Songs’ project. I loved working with Andy; he pushed me to think outside the boxes I tried to put myself in. “Do what you do, Tate. Don’t be a follower. You’ve been singing these songs with your own spin for years,” he’d tell me.

I had plenty of material from the covers that I’d sung to Maisie opening my shows the past year.
Short Red Dress
would be one of two new songs on the album, and I had another one I wanted to talk to Andy about.

One evening, Maisie stayed behind to call Dion. I decided to bypass the early award events to focus on Maisie, but she still had some designs to finish up.

“Everything is coming along great,” Andy said. “I love the new song.”

“I have one more that I’ve been thinking about. I’ve been playing with and I’d like to add it, but I want to surprise Maisie,” I told him.

“I’m listening,” Andy told me.

“
Timeless
,” I said and grinned.

“Priceless!” he yelled with a big laugh.

“I’ve been playing with it for a while. My dream is to see Maisie swoon the way she did when you sang it to her,” I chuckled.

“Get in that booth and let’s hear what’ya got,” Marco said.

We’re timeless

We’re unaffected by change

We’re eternal

A love for all time

A secret

A treasure

We’re timeless

We’re unaffected by change

We’re eternal

A gift

It’s eternal

It’s ageless

We’re timeless

We’re unaffected by change

We’re eternal

It’s us

There’s no beginning

There can be no end

We’re timeless

We’re unaffected by change

We’re eternal

“I’ve seen how she looks at you,” Marco said with a grin. “She’ll swoon.”

***

We kept our first Christmas ours by going to Blowing Rock. The renovations on the ground level were complete, downstairs was still a work in progress, but the workers had taken the holidays off. Maisie had been busy for the last week with decorating ideas and gathering things to take with us, as well as finishing dress designs for clients. We’d be there for two weeks. I couldn’t wait to have her all to myself.

When we arrived, it was snowing. The builder was waiting for us with the keys. Maisie stood in awe as we waited for him to open the door. Inside, she wandered toward the kitchen. She swept her hands across the granite countertops as she admired the new kitchen. We made our way through the cabin to see everything.

When we reached the bedroom, Maisie squealed. The only thing I’d taken the liberty of doing without her knowledge was having a king sized bed delivered. We’d pick out furniture later. Deidre had sheets and towels delivered so we’d be able to stay overnight.

Finally, we made our way to the deck to have a look. A light dusting of snow covered the ground, and the creek banks were lined with it.

“Oh, Tate,” she sighed. “It’s all so beautiful.”

After the builder departed, we quickly unpacked the things we’d brought with us and did some more snooping. The construction crew left us with plenty of firewood to get started. I lit a fire in the fireplace and waited as she inspected and nested in the kitchen.

We made sandwiches and sat on the floor to eat. “One work thing. I want you to think about it, and then I won’t talk about anything to do with Tate Morrow the singer again until we get back to Nashville. I’ve been doing some thinking about Deidre’s place in my career.”