Buried Notes (Brothers of Rock #4) (18 page)

“You talked to Ben,” Becky said.
“That was fast.”

“Well, we wanted to explore our
options,” Rachael said. “We didn’t want to ignore you. Or have it be weird.”

“It feels weird right now,” Becky
said.

“It won’t in a second,” Deb added with
a smile.

“Why?” Becky asked.

“Well, first off, everything with
Mom’s insurance and securities will be split between you, me, and Timmy. As far
as the house goes, I want to give it to you.”

“Timmy agreed,” Deb said.

“A house? For me?”

“You need a house,” Rachael said.

Becky thought about being on the
road with Chasing Cross. A house wouldn’t prevent it but it certainly made
Plesent feel like a permanent home.

“There’s more,” Rachael said.

“More,” Becky whispered.

“Ben came up with a figure,” Deb
said. “For us to buy you out.”

“Buy me out?”

“Of the bakery,” Rachael said. “If
we’re going to do this, I want to do it the right way.”

“You’re buying me out?” Becky
asked.

“We both are,” Deb said. “I talked to
Timmy...”

“I talked to Paul,” Rachael said.

“I don’t want to cause problems
with our families,” Becky said.

“No, no,” Rachael said. “Listen.
Deb has a number. If you agree, Ben draws up the paperwork.” Rachael reached
across the table and took Becky’s hand. “I want you to be happy, Rebecca. You
deserve it. And I know this thing with Chris is hot and heavy.”

“It’s really serious,” Becky said.

“That’s good,” Rachael said.

“How do I know I won’t move into
Mom’s house and then want to be at the bakery?”

“If that happens, work for us,” Deb
said.

“Help us out,” Rachael said.

Becky smiled. It was almost
liberating. The ability to just come and go. Do whatever worked.

Deb took a piece of paper out of
her purse and gave it to Becky. When Becky unfolded the paper, she cried out
and stood up. She shook her head and folded the paper.

“This is too much,” Becky said.

“It’s fair,” Deb said. “You’ve made
the business what it is. Well, we all have. That’s based on the current value.”

“I can’t take that much,” Becky
said.

“If you don’t, you’re stuck as an
owner then,” Rachael said.

“I can’t believe this,” Becky said.

“This is what you want, right?”
Rachael asked.

Becky looked at her sister. At her
sister-in-law. She let it run through her mind one last time. She nodded. This
was what she wanted. She couldn’t live life without passion. Not anymore. No
more hiding. No more secrets. No more relying on time to do anything. All time
did was add up and lose value.

“Yes,” Becky whispered. “I love you
both for this.”

Becky couldn’t wait to share the
news with Chris.

(20)

Chris needed the most expensive
hotel room in he could find.

He had a plan.

He had signed the divorced papers
and he had a plan.

Chris parted with Chasing Cross
that morning, telling them he’d meet them in Virginia. Johnnie and Peter were
squabbling over Rick’s idea about the garage band idea. The look on Rick’s face
though told Chris that his idea was being turned into something he didn’t want
it to be. Personally, Chris loved the idea of being in an old garage just
writing music but he kept his mouth shut. He’d wait until there was a place to
be to do it, then worry about what the rest of the band thought or what the
label thought. Danny and Davey were already talking about what kind of amps and
guitars they would use for such an album. Something basic, something old
school, to pay tribute to what they used to play long before the giant tours,
private jets, and millions of fans. As he left, Peter followed him, hot on his
tail, wanting to know about
the
problem
.

That’s how Peter felt about Chris
and Becky’s marriage. Perhaps looking from the outside, it was a problem.
Chris’s head had a slight throb to it, thanks to that problem and the solution
he came up with the night before. If Chris had more time he would have messed
with Peter but he figured maybe he could do something nice for Peter for a
change. Give the man a chance to maybe relax on a day off.

“Peter, it’s done,” Chris had
whispered. “I signed the papers.”

And Chris had left it at that. Of
course, he had his own plan in place, one that nobody needed to get involved
with. There was only one other person that needed to be involved and she was in
North Carolina, waiting for him.

Chris had slept on the private
flight down to North Carolina. A quick nap, but enough to give him the energy
for what he needed to do with Becky. He called her and made plans to meet her
at the bakery.

When he showed up, he almost forgot
to put the car in park. Just seeing Becky out front made his heart race a
thousand miles an hour. He climbed from the car and ran to Becky. She ran to him
and they met, Becky lunging from her feet and into Chris’s arms. He held her
and smelled her, quickly noticing that she smelled way too good to be working
in the bakery.

“Did you get the day off?” Chris
asked.

“From work? Something like that.”

“What does that mean?”

“I have a surprise for you,” Becky
said.

“Is that so?”

“I’m out of the bakery, for good,
and I own a house.”

Chris opened his mouth but was
still trying to process what Becky had said.

“Is that a lot to take in?” she
giggled.

A flirty giggle that made Chris’s
body ache for her.

“Care to explain?”

“I told Rachael and Deb everything.
They bought me out. I have to sign some paperwork and it’s done.”

Chris swallowed...
sign some paperwork and it’s done
...

“Are you taken care of?” Chris
asked.

“More than I could ever imagine.”

Chris was frozen. He had a big
surprise for Becky waiting back at the hotel but now it had suddenly turned
into something else. Perhaps the biggest surprise of both their lives. Judging
the history of their wild relationship, Chris actually looked forward to seeing
the look on Becky’s face when she saw the divorced papers signed. That sounded
horrible to say but there was so much more behind it. So much that Chris
couldn’t wait to experience.

“Come inside real quick,” Becky said.
“Then we can go.”

“I want to take you back to my
hotel,” Chris said. His hands slid down to Becky’s wrists and he held them.

“Calm down, rockstar,” Becky said.
“I’m going to need something to eat first.”

“It’s important we go to the
hotel,” Chris said. “We can get room service. It’s really expensive. And seeing
that you can afford this now...”

“Hush,” Becky said and broke one of
her hands from his grip. “I will never become someone who waves their money
around. Ever. I’m still going to help with the bakery, just not with all the
pressure. I’ll help with ideas and marketing, maybe, I don’t know. It just
feels good...”

Becky looked behind her and then
back to Chris. He couldn’t help but notice the way her ponytail swung around
and gently tapped her face for a split second. There was this beautiful aura of
innocence about Becky right then.

“It just feels good to be free,”
Becky whispered.

“Then be free with me right now,”
Chris said.

Becky turned and took Chris to the
bakery. When they were inside, Chris noticed the woman behind the counter and
pinpointed her to be Becky’s sister, Rachael.

“Well, well,” Rachael said. “If it
isn’t the big rockstar coming to town to sweep my sister away.”

“I’m just a regular person,” Chris
laughed.

“Hold on! I want to meet him!” Deb
called from the back.

Chris looked at Becky. Becky moved
closer to him, loving the attention.

A woman came out of the back with
smears of flour on her cheeks. She had dark brown eyes and looked nothing like
Becky or Rachael.

“This is my sister-in-law,” Becky
said. “Deb.”

“Nice to meet you,” Chris said. He
put his hand out and Deb showed her messy hands to him. “I don’t care.”

“Wow,” Deb whispered.

They shook hands and Rachael had to
break the handshake from Deb.

“You’re married, Deb,” Rachael
said. “To my brother.”

“I know that,” Deb said and started
to blush.

“We’re going out for a little
while,” Becky said. “If you need anything...”

“We’re fine here,” Rachael said.

“Plus, you don’t work here
anymore,” Deb teased.

“Don’t say it like that,” Becky said.

“Chris,” Rachael said. “Did you
ever meet our mother?”

Chris thought for a second that it
was a trick question or that maybe Rachael had taken her daggers out to goad
him into something.

“I... well, no,” Chris said.

“Here, what do you think? You’re
not from around here... is this... weird?”

Rachael reached down and then put a
picture on the counter. Chris stepped away from Becky and looked at the
picture. It was a picture of a woman - a mix between Rachael and Becky, but more
like Becky in another fifteen years - and she was holding some kind of blue
flower. It made her blue eyes jump out. They were Becky’s eyes. Or... Becky had
her mother’s eyes.

“She’s beautiful,” Chris said and
nodded.

“She really was,” Rachael said.

Chris looked at Rachael. “She still
is. She lives inside you and Becky. You two look like her. This is amazing.”

“I want to hang it up in here,”
Rachael said.

“She’s worried it’ll be weird to
have,” Becky said.

Chris looked around the bakery.
What the hell did he know about interior design? The closest he ever came to
designing something was when he was seventeen and put stickers on a guitar
case.

But he understood Rachael’s
concerns. The bakery was light colors. White. Off-white. A light beige accented
on the walls.

“It’ll look great,” he said, maybe
lying, he wasn’t sure. “You should hang it up.”

“Told you,” Becky said.

“He’ll agree with you because
you’re sleeping with him,” Rachael said.

Deb laughed. Chris looked back at
Becky. Now her cheeks were red.

“You’re going to sleep with me
tonight?” he asked.

“Not to be discussed in front of my
family,” Becky said. “Or the picture of Mom.”

They all shared a laugh then. Becky
took Chris’s hand and tugged at him, hinting to leave. She had been the one
that wanted him to come inside though and Chris enjoyed talking to her sister
and sister-in-law.

Once outside Chris led Becky to his
car and then asked her to take him to the best restaurant in town. Becky
obliged and before he could pull out of the spot, she slipped her hand into
his.

Yes
,
he thought.
This is what life is all about...

Chris had something that finally
went beyond the stage. The everything in his life totally complete. He figured
he would have had more time to contemplate how perfect the night was going to
be, thinking a nice, expensive restaurant would have taken them well beyond the
small borders of Plesent, North Carolina, but when Becky told Chris to pull
into what looked like a mix between a diner and a bar, he wasn’t sure how to
tell her he wanted to take her someplace bigger, fancier. The king of his place
that would make her feel like a princess the entire time. But Becky smiled at
him, reading his thoughts, and Chris knew he’d have the rest of his life to
make Becky feel like a princess. Day after day.

“Trust me,” Becky said. “This place
is amazing.”

“De’s?” he asked.

“No, there’s another ‘e’ in there.
It burned out a couple years ago. Dee just left it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Chris, nothing will top this meal.
Trust me.”

Chris couldn’t say no to Becky.
Just being near her was all that mattered. Well, that and getting her back to
the hotel.

**

“Yeah, nothing could top this
meal,” Chris said.

Becky smiled as he leaned back and
touched his stomach. The plates before them were mostly empty with just
leftover scraps of what had to be one of the greatest dinners Becky could
remember. It had been a while since she came to Dee’s and actually sat down and
ate. Normally, if Rachael or Deb were able to sneak away from their husbands
and lives, they’d come to the bar, have a few too many beers (which in Rachael
and Deb’s cases was only two...) and then call for a ride home.

But to be there, sitting across
from Chris, it was just perfect.

Everyone tried their hardest not to
stare at Becky and Chris. Some people recognized Chris. He handled it
professionally, talking, laughing, shaking hands. From Becky’s angle she could
understand just how much Chris loved his career, his life, and his fans. That
kind of passion was something Becky just didn’t have for the bakery business,
which was why she was out of it.

After the table was cleaned and Dee
herself came out of the kitchen to give her condolences about Becky’s mother -
and to meet the hunk of a rockstar in town - Chris insisted that they leave.
From the second they were together, Chris wanted to get to his hotel room. At
first, Becky thought it was because he had a wild urge to satisfy. Which Becky
had too. Sure, it had only been a couple days, but Becky couldn’t help how she
felt or what she wanted. But now, the way Chris kept saying it, something else
had to be going on.

Becky was intrigued, but not as
intrigued as when she received a text message from Rachael.

First off, Rachael never sent text
messages. Ever. She always called. Even when Becky convinced her to get a new
phone to bring her up to date with cell phone technology, Rachael still never
sent text messages. She made calls. She checked her email. She checked the
weather. Well worth the technology for sure.

Second off, the text message was strange...

need
2 talk, Now.

“Everything okay?” Chris asked.

“I don’t know,” Becky said.
“Rachael sent me a text. She never texts.”

“Something wrong?”

Becky showed Chris her phone.

“Why don’t you go call her? I’ll be
right out after I pay for everything.”

“I’ll get half of this,” Becky
said.

“No, you won’t.”

Chris smiled.

Becky stood and hurried from the
restaurant. As she did, she text Rachael back, knowing it was pointless to do,
but she had become suddenly nervous.

Is
everything okay?

She called Rachael before Rachael
could text her back.

“Hey, Rachael, it’s me. What’s
wrong?”

“Uh, Rebecca, where are you?”

“I’m at Dee’s. With Chris.”

“Glad I assumed that,” Rachael
said.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“I have a problem... did Chris say
anything to you? Are you... okay right now?”

“I’m fine. What’s wrong?”

“Your lawyer just came in,” Rachael
said. “Picked up an order of cookies and bread for his mother. She’s over in
Hill Pine Nursing... well, that doesn’t matter.”

“Tell me what matters.”

“What matters is that he said he
hopes you’re doing good. That it’s hard to go through a divorce at anytime.”

“That’s because of the papers,”
Becky said.

“No. He said the papers were signed
by Chris. Chris’s lawyers called him and said  you and Chris talked everything
out. That... it’s done, Rebecca. Done.”

Becky froze. A chill crawled up and
down her neck.

“I don’t understand,” Becky said.

“I’m coming to get you,” Rachael
said.

Becky saw Chris walk out of the
restaurant. He saw her and smiled. He looked so eager. He wanted to get to the
hotel, didn’t he?

Why?

So he could tell her it was finally
over?

No.

That didn’t make sense.

“I have to go,” Becky said and
ended the call.

“Everything okay?” Chris asked.

As he reached for Becky, she jumped
back.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Did you sign the papers?” Becky
asked.

“The papers? What? What happened?”

“Did you sign them?”

Chris swallowed.

That was the answer Becky had
feared.

“You’re an asshole,” she said and
walked away.

Chris ran after. “Whoa, wait a
second. What happened?”

“Do you think I’m an idiot, Chris?
What did you do this for? Why all this?”

“Why what?”

“My lawyer was just in the bakery,”
Becky said. “He said you signed the papers. That your lawyers called and said
we took care of everything.”