Chapter 4

CHAPTER

FOUR

T race Young paced while his son’s line rang. He couldn’t look at Ev, and his pulse thundered through his chest at the memory of the video he’d been shown. “He’s not picking up.”

“It’s early in Nashville still,” Ev said from where she sat on the couch with their three kids.

“It’s ten there,” Trace said, trying hard not to growl. He wasn’t upset with Ev. He wasn’t upset with Harry. He just needed to know his son was okay after falling on top of luggage at a baggage carousel in the Nashville airport.

He’d been surrounded by people. They’d all been touching him. He’d called for help a couple of times.

Luke and Mav had shown up this morning with the video, and Trace hadn’t been able to see the end of it. He had no idea where Harry was, if he was okay, or how he’d gotten off that moving belt with all the bags .

“This is Harry,” his son’s voice chirped, and Trace pulled the phone away from his ear to end the call. He immediately dialed again, because his nerves would not let this go.

“I might have to go to Nashville,” he said to Ev.

His beautiful wife looked up and nodded at him. “We can all go,” she said. “Baby, take a breath.”

Trace did what she said as the line started to ring again. His chest inflated, and he held the lungful of air for a moment before releasing it.

“Daddy,” Harry said.

Pure relief streamed through Trace, and the last of his air sounded like a gasp. “There you are.”

Harry said nothing, and that spoke volumes. He didn’t even try to do what Bryce did and say he was fine. That everything was okay. That it was nothing.

“Harry,” Trace said, trying to find the right words. “Your uncles came over and showed us a video in the Nashville airport. And I just need to know you’re okay.” He tapped the speaker button so Ev could hear too.

His son had flown to Nashville four days ago. Four days. The incident had clearly happened upon his arrival, and Trace had heard nothing from him since.

“I don’t know,” Harry whispered. “I haven’t left the apartment.” He took a big breath, and Trace just wanted to wrap his little boy in his arms and tell him everything would be all right.

The ground had just become unstable under Trace’s feet, and he sank onto a barstool. “You’ve got food? ”

“I order everything in,” Harry said. “I’m—I don’t know what I am, Daddy. I’m scared.”

“Tell me what happened.” Trace tried to speak slowly, but his heart and mind raced. “They cut off the end of the video. Did someone come help you?”

“Two guys from the airline,” he said. “They got everyone back and someone pushed the emergency stop button on the conveyor belt.” Harry hardly sounded like himself, and Trace’s heart broke into a million tiny pieces.

“My driver arrived, and he hauled me off the belt. We got my bag and got out of there.”

“Are you hurt?”

“My shoulder was kind of hurting for a day or so,” Harry said. “It’s fine now. I don’t know. I just feel so stupid.”

“You can’t travel alone anymore,” Trace said.

Harry scoffed, but it wasn’t in disbelief. More like angry agreement. “I feel like an idiot. Who needs a bodyguard everywhere they go?”

“You do,” Trace said, watching as Ev nodded. “And it’s not a bodyguard. You need an assistant. Someone who can create the buffer around you. Someone who can get your baggage for you while you wait at security. Someone to get your groceries and do all that kind of stuff.”

Harry said nothing, and Trace could just imagine him shaking his head, a deep, dark fire burning in his deep, dark eyes.

“Can Ev and I come see you?”

“You don’t need to do that,” Harry said. “Uncle Morris will be here in a few days. ”

“Does he know about this?” It usually took more time for news to travel to the wilds of Coral Canyon, Wyoming, but Morris stayed pretty plugged in to whatever was happening with Harry.

“I haven’t told him,” Harry muttered.

“I’m going to take that as a no,” Trace said, his eyes locked on Ev’s. “What about your mother?”

“I haven’t told anyone,” Harry said. “You’re the first to call me.”

“Son.” Trace didn’t know what to say next. He didn’t know what to do. God hadn’t provided a manual for how to deal with his mega-celebrity son.

Be gentle came into his mind. But be firm.

How was he supposed to be gentle and firm at the same time?

He took a breath, pleading with the Lord for the right thing to say. When Trace opened his mouth, he said, “Ev and I are going to bring the kids for the weekend. Okay?”

“Okay,” Harry said, and the fact that he didn’t argue told Trace a whole lot too.

“I’m going to help you find an assistant,” Trace said.

“I feel so dumb,” Harry whispered.

“This is not on you,” Trace said. “Those women, they….” They were everywhere, that was what. They’d cornered Harry, and he’d had nowhere to go.

“You’re a big celebrity now,” Trace said. “We’ll get you an assistant, and everything will work out.”

“Okay.” Harry sniffed, and Trace had to tell himself it was because Harry had caught a little cold, not because he was crying. He couldn’t stand the thought of his boy, all alone in Nashville, crying in an apartment he hadn’t left in four days.

“I think you should call your mom,” he said. “Tell her about this, so she doesn’t have to see it and worry.”

“All right,” Harry said.

“And we’ll see you in a couple of days,” Trace said. He had connections in Nashville, as did Morris, Otis, Luke, and Tex, and they could find someone for Harry. They absolutely could. “Would you like me to put it on the family text?”

Harry sighed, and Trace recognized the irritation mixed with exhaustion. “You know what? I will. Then I can say what I need to say.”

“Okay,” Trace said. He paused, not sure what his son needed to hear the most. “I love you so much,” he said. “Ev and I will do anything for you. You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “I know.”

“I can’t even tell you how scared I was when I saw that video,” Trace said, letting his own emotion creep into his voice. He shook his head, but his throat only tightened. “Please don’t put us through that again. Call us. We’re here, and you don’t have to be scared or embarrassed about anything in front of us.”

Harry sniffed again, and this time it definitely was a sniffle. “Daddy, I’m not cut out for this.”

“Come home,” he said instantly. The house was too small for Harry, and they all knew it. But he could stay with Bryce until he found his own place. Tex would move the recording studio if he had to.

“We’re talking to the label next week,” Harry said. “Kassie and Reggie are getting married down here. I’m gonna stay through that.”

“And then?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Trace nodded and watched as Ev stood up with Avery, who whined and cried in her arms. She was definitely their fussiest child, and nothing about the past few months since she’d been born had been easy. Ev had some serious postpartum depression she was fighting, and Trace seemed to have forgotten how to take care of an infant.

He stood too and went to take Avery from his wife. He handed her his phone and she said, “Harry, we love you.”

“Love you too, Ev.”

Trace bounced Avery in his arms, tucking her blanket tighter around her. “Sh sh sh,” he soothed while Ev told Harry he didn’t have to be embarrassed by what had happened.

“The comments we saw were supporting you,” she said. “Telling others to back off and give celebrities their space. That you’re people too.”

“Yeah,” Harry said.

Trace watched his baby girl’s eyelids drift closed only to open again. Oh, she was fighting her morning nap hard, but he’d get her to sleep, and then he’d get airplane tickets booked for him and his family to go be exactly where they needed to be .

At Harry’s side.

Please, Lord, protect him until I can get there.

Trace had prayed this exact prayer over a dozen years ago, when he’d learned his ex-wife had dropped off Harry at his parents’ condo. He’d gotten to Coral Canyon as quickly as he could, and he’d kept Harry under the safety of his wing since then.

He reminded himself that Harry was strong. He was a grown man now. He’d been living on his own for years.

But sometimes, a boy still needed his father, and Trace simply begged God to please, please protect him until I can get there.