Read Time Out Online

Authors: Cheryl Douglas

Tags: #series, #next generation, #nashville nights, #cheryl douglas, #country music, #cowboy, #celebrity, #rich

Time Out

BOOK: Time Out
8.47Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

 

 

Time Out

Book Six in the
Nashville Nights Next Generation Series

 

 

 

 

Cheryl Douglas

 

 

Copyright © by Cheryl
Douglas

Smashwords Edition

 

All rights reserved. No
part of this book may be reproduced, including photocopying,
graphic, electronic, mechanical, taping, recording, sharing, or by
any information retrieval system without the express written
permission of the author and / or publisher. Exceptions include
brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

 

Persons, places and
other entities represented in this book are deemed to be
fictitious. They are not intended to represent actual places or
entities currently or previously in existence or any person living
or dead. This work is the product of the author’s imagination.

 

Smashwords
License agreement

 

This ebook is
for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or
given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook
with another person, please purchase any additional copy for each
reader. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it
was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to
Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting
the hard work of this author.

 

 

Any and all inquiries
to the author of this book should be directed to:
[email protected]

Time Out © 2013 Cheryl
Douglas

 

 

Nashville Nights
Family Tree

 

 

 

The Turners

Trey and Sierra
Turner -
Nashville Nights, Book One, Shameless

Jared and Elaine
Turner
- Trey’s parents

Alisa Turner
-
Next Generation, Book One, High Stakes

 

The Coopers

Josh and Lexi
Cooper
- Nashville Nights, Book Two, Fearless

Jay and
Victoria
- Josh and Ashley’s son and daughter-in-law /
Nashville Nights, Book Seven, Hopeless

Mike and Tori
Cooper
- Josh and Ashley’s son and daughter-in-law / Nashville
Nights, Book Eight, Careless

Aiden Cooper –
Josh and Lexi’s son / Next Generation, Book Two, Trade Off

Brianna Cooper

Josh and Lexi’s daughter / Next Generation, Book Three, Game
On

Ava Cooper –
Jay and Victoria’s daughter / Next Generation, Book Eight, Blown
Away

 

The Spencers

Luc and Marisa
Spencer
– Nashville Nights, Book Three, Ruthless

Nikki Spencer

Luc’s daughter / Nashville Nights, Book Five, Relentless

Ryan Spencer

Luc and Marisa’s son / Next Generation, Book Three, Game On

Evan Spencer –
Lun and Marisa’s son / Next Generation, Book Four, Burn Out

 

The McCalls

Ty and Avery McCall

Nashville Nights, Book Four, Reckless

Anna McCall –
Ty and Avery’s daughter / Next Generation, Book Five, Fast
Track

Nick McCall –
Ty and Avery’s son / Next Generation, Book Six, Time Out

J.T. McCall –
J.T. and Derek’s brother / Nashville Nights, Book Five,
Relentless

Nikki Spencer –
McCall –
J.T.’s wife / Nashville Nights, Book Five,
Relentless

Lauren McCall -
J.T. and Nikki’s daughter / Next Generation, Book Seven, Face
Value

Derek McCall –
J.T. and Derek’s brother / Nashville Nights, Book Six,
Heartless

Ashley McCall –
Derek’s wife, Jay and Mike Cooper’s mother / Nashville Nights, Book
Six, Heartless

Book Six – Time
Out

 

 

Rancher, Nick
McCall, loves the simple life. Wide open spaces, clean country air,
and sweet down-home girls. But when his mother asks him to
entertain their new house guest, a TV personality with a penchant
for bad boys, he’s wondering if it might be time to add a little
spice to his life.

Megan Moore
moved from Los Angeles to Nashville to accept a job on a country
music network, but she misses dating movie stars and riding around
in limousines. She promises her new agent, Avery McCall, she’ll
stick it out for the remainder of her one year contract, but she
intends to be on the first plane back home a minute after her
contract expires.

Nick knows
Megan’s only in Nashville for a short time, but that doesn’t mean
they can’t have a good time.

 

 

Table of
Contents

 

Chapter
One

Chapter
Two

Chapter
Three

Chapter
Four

Chapter
Five

Chapter
Six

Chapter
Seven

Chapter
Eight

Chapter
Nine

Chapter
Ten

Chapter
Eleven

Chapter
Twelve

Chapter
Thirteen

Chapter
Fourteen

Chapter
Fifteen

Chapter
Sixteen

Chapter
Seventeen

About the
Author

Coming
Soon

Chapter
One

 

Megan Moore raised a
trembling fist to the heavy wood door and paused, her hand in
mid-air.
Could she go through with it?
Did she have the
courage to face a father she feared may prefer to forget she
existed?

A year ago, she
would have said she didn’t need him, but then her mother died, and
she found herself alone in the city she’d once called home. Her
hometown felt filled with predators hoping to move in for the kill
as soon as she let down her guard.

Straightening
her shoulders, she reminded herself he couldn’t say or do anything
to hurt her more than he already had. No matter how painful to
hear, she needed to know why he’d mailed her mother a check every
month, yet failed to acknowledge her birthday with so much as a
phone call.

She rang the
doorbell and waited, taking the time to survey the grounds. The
house was modest, but she wasn’t surprised. Manny Moore hadn’t
topped the country music charts in decades. He was the old guard,
and the big record labels had gradually eased those artists out in
favor of the younger cross-over artists who appealed to a larger
demographic of fans.

A lovely,
middle-aged brunette answered the door with a warm smile. “Can I
help you?”

Megan slipped
her professional mask in place, pretending she was in front of a
camera about to face a national audience to deliver the day’s
entertainment news. “I’m looking for Manny Moore.”

The woman
seemed to frown, yet her brows remained immobile. Megan almost
smiled. That was par for the course in L.A., yet in Nashville, she
suspected it wasn’t as common.

“You look
familiar. Have we met?” she asked.

“No, ma’am.”
The woman was without a doubt her step-mother. The mother of her
half-sisters. “I’m Manny’s…” She couldn’t say the word daughter,
not when he’d never been a father to her in any sense of the word.
“I’m Gloria Barnem’s daughter.”

“Oh.” She
pressed a manicured hand to the open neckline of her designer
blouse. “Of course, that’s where I’ve seen you: on TV.”

“That’s right.
I was on Celebrity Flash,” Megan said.

“What are you
doing in Nashville?”

“I’ve accepted
a job offer. I’ve moved here to host a show about country music,
interviewing artists, following their tours, album releases, that
sort of thing.” Megan didn’t know why she was sharing her plans
with the woman. She didn’t owe her an explanation. “Manny. Is he
home?”

“Um…” She
looked down the hall as though she was trying to come up with a
plausible excuse to buy her husband some time.

“I won’t take
up too much of his time, Mrs. Moore.”

“It’s okay,
darlin’. I’ll handle this.” Manny Moore walked up to stand behind
his wife, looking every bit the aging hillbilly.

Megan wasn’t
surprised he’d been hovering, listening silently to their
conversation. She’d always pegged him for a coward. Evidently she
was right.

His eyes, so
much like hers, were hard as steel when he looked at her. “What can
I do for you?”

Curling her
hands into fists at her sides, Megan said, “I’d just like a moment
of your time, if that’s not too much to ask?”

He had the
audacity to snicker. “You’ve already taken hundreds of thousands of
dollars from me. I haven’t got any money left, if that’s what
you’re after.”

Megan’s stomach
turned over as the egg white omelet she’d forced down almost came
back. “I can assure you, I don’t need your money. I only want some
answers from you.”

His wife
glanced at the slim diamond watch on her wrist. “The kids will be
home from school soon, Manny. Just talk to her for a few minutes so
she can be on her way.”

Megan tried to
tamp down her hurt over being dismissed so easily. She wasn’t
surprised to learn she was Manny’s dirty little secret. She’d
always suspected as much.

“Fine,” he
said, stepping away from the door with a gusty sigh. “Come in.”

Stepping past
him, Megan tried to ignore the stab of longing when she caught a
whiff of his cigar. Her mother had told her he loved to smoke
cigars, and he’d held one in nearly every publicity shot Megan had
ever seen. The little girl in her harbored a fantasy of being held
in her daddy’s arms, inhaling the scent of cigar smoke, as he told
her he loved her and was sorry he hadn’t been the father she
deserved.

“So why the
hell did you move to Nashville? Seemed to me you had a good thing
goin’ in L.A.,” Manny stated.

Megan had loved
her job as an on-air entertainment correspondent, but an
ill-advised relationship with her producer had turned her world
upside down. “I needed a change of pace. Since my mother died…” Her
eyes traveled the length of the mantle. Framed photos of two girls
crowded the narrow space, showing gap-toothed grins, dance
recitals, graduation pictures, and time spent with their father.
Something Megan would never have.

Manny said,
“Like my wife said, our girls are gonna be home soon, and I’d just
as soon you be gone.”

She faced him
and saw a shadow of the man who used to fill stadiums. He was
nearing seventy, and parenting two teenage daughters was taking its
toll. His hair was silver and receding, his face was weathered, and
his shoulders slumped. She still saw a hint of the image of the
much younger man she’d kept on her nightstand when she was a little
girl.

“I just have
one question for you… why?” Megan asked.

He was silent
so long, she thought he may refuse to answer or pretend he didn’t
understand.

Finally, he
said, “I never loved your mother, Megan. I’m sorry if that sounds
harsh, but I had just started makin’ a name for myself in country
music. I’d paid my dues, and it was finally my time to shine. I
didn’t want a woman or kid holdin’ me back.”

Manny’s wife
hovered in the doorway.

“Why did you
get involved with my mother then? Why did you even risk getting her
pregnant?”

“I asked her to
terminate the pregnancy.”

BOOK: Time Out
8.47Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Bronze Horseman by Simons, Paullina
Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
Delilah by Shelia M. Goss
Where the Shadow Falls by Gillian Galbraith
Dirty Work by Chelle Bliss, Brenda Rothert
The Burning Shadow by Michelle Paver