“I’m glad you finally realize who wears the pants in this relationship. Don’t forget, I’m also the holder of all your passwords as well.”
“That as well,” I said with a mock serious face. “I need you for entirely different reasons, though. Friendship being one of them, for sure. But you mentioned me fixing things with Bristol. You saw how she reacted when she saw me.”
“Yes. I did.”
“She nearly broke my nose, so she obviously wasn’t happy to see me.”
Lanny sighed. “Oh, men. What I saw was a woman who saw you and nearly ran into your arms. Her entire body practically vibrated from holding herself back.”
“What?” I asked, confused now more than ever.
“You might not have seen it, but I saw the way she looked at you. I saw the longing in her eyes before it turned to pure anger.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Behind the anger is a woman who is still very much in love with you,” Lanny added.
I snarled my lip up at her. “You saw all that in the one moment before she punched me?”
She nodded. “Indeed, I did.”
We stared at each other for the longest time before I busted out laughing. Lanny leaned back, folded her arms across her chest, and raised a perfectly arched brow. I hated when she did that to me.
“Laugh all you want, Anson. But a woman knows when another woman is in love. Trust me when I say that punch, although most assuredly done in anger, was thrown to hide her other feelings.”
I let her words settle around in my head for a moment. “Other feelings, huh?”
“Yes. So, my advice to you is this: make sure she doesn’t go on that date tonight.”
“And how do you propose I do that? I’m not really looking to have a black eye to go with my swollen nose.”
Her hand came up to her mouth to hide her chuckle.
“I know what you need to do.”
Lanny and I both turned to my grandmother.
Grams set the tray down and handed Lanny her tea then gave me my drink. “Grams, what do I need to do?” I asked. The desperation in my voice surprised me.
Grams sat down and smiled. “You don’t stop her from going on the date. You simply show up at the date.”
Lanny nodded. “Yes! You find out where she’s going, and you show up!” She turned to Grams. “Then what?”
I looked at Grams, clearly sucked right into this insane idea.
“Then, you and Lanny enjoy the evening together. Bristol won’t be able to think straight. Not only are you back in town, but you’ve brought your beautiful assistant out to dinner with you.”
Lanny’s cheeks went pink, and she waved off Grams as she said, “Stahhppp it!”
“Grams, are you saying I should make Bristol jealous? With Lanny?”
With that, Grams let out a roar of laughter. “Please. Bristol would see right through that. She knows Lanny is your assistant.”
“How does she know that?” I asked.
Grams looked around, as if looking for someone who might be listening. She motioned for me to move closer. I did and so did Lanny. I shot her a dirty look, and she shrugged.
“What? I’m emotionally invested in all of this. I want to hear too.”
I let out a frustrated sigh before I focused back on Grams.
She whispered, “Bristol makes everyone think she doesn’t care about your career. She does. She refuses to listen to your music, but she has a scrapbook of all of your accomplishments. And I’m fairly certain I saw her stalking you on Instapot.”
“Grams, you mean Instagram, not Instapot.” I laughed, but that little nugget of information took me by surprise.
“Oh my gosh. Wow, okay, how terribly romantic is that, though!” Lanny whispered. I turned to stare at her. The Texas air really was doing something strange to her.
Grams nodded. “I know. Mindy stumbled on it once and told me.”
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Grams had mentioned before that Bristol never listened to my songs. “Wait. She doesn’t listen to any of my songs?”
Grams shook her head. “None. And trust me, your mama and Emmie— she’s Bristol’s mama,” Grams said to Lanny, who nodded, “And Mindy too…we’ve all tried to get her to listen to them.”
“But they’re mostly all about her,” I stated.
She shrugged and leaned back in her chair as Lanny and I did the same.
Lanny asked, “How do you know she has a scrapbook of…”
“Shh! Lord, child. That is a secret, and I’m not supposed to know.”
Lanny leaned in and whisper-shouted, “How did Mindy find out she has a scrapbook?”
Grams gave a wicked smile and winked. “We have our ways, Sweetheart.”
“Teach me your ways, wise one!” Lanny declared.
I dropped back in my seat and groaned as I closed my eyes.
“These are going to be the best few weeks of my life!” I heard Lanny say.
Bristol
THE PALE PINK dress seemed all wrong as I stared at myself in the mirror. I took a picture with my phone and then opened Instagram.