Chapter 26

26

T ex noticed that Abby's SUV wasn't in the driveway as he and Bryce pulled in. She didn't come home that night either. Her car wasn't there the next morning, and Bryce went to help Wade with the morning chores on the farm next door while Tex stayed secluded inside the farmhouse he'd been putting back together one textile at a time.

Things had gone swimmingly well in Nashville, and the celebrations he'd had with his brothers made him smile. A glance out the back window to the curing foundation of what would become the single most important thing he'd built on this ranch brought joy to his heart.

That recording studio would allow him to be the father he needed to be. Why couldn't Abby see that instead of all the traffic it would bring?

Why did he want to celebrate his good news with her—and only her?

He didn't care about the dinners in Nashville, the junk food binges, the card games with his brothers. They were fine. He enjoyed them. But all he'd been able to think about in Nashville with every victory he and the band had achieved was how he couldn't call Abby and tell her.

"Bryce first," he told himself as the boy came into view. He laughed with Wade, and Franny trotted ahead of the pair of them. "This has been so good for him." His son was a different person than he'd been when Tex had picked him up in April for Mav's wedding, and a completely different person than he'd been at the start of the summer.

"You have an album to make," he reminded himself next. "Perhaps after that…." He left the words there, looking next door though he couldn't see through timber and drywall. He sipped his coffee and heard Bryce outside before the door opened.

Franny bounded inside, her face bright and full of happiness and hope. Tex laughed and crouched down to scrub her face and throat. "Hey, girl. Did you help on the farm? Did you?"

"Dad," Bryce said, closing the door behind him. "Guess what Wade just told me?"

"What?"

"He knows of a horse auction in a couple of weeks that sells abused horses from around the west." He too wore joy and hope on his face. "Can we go? We can get some horses and start our rescue ranch."

Tex straightened, his mind buzzing at him not to kill this dream too quickly. "I thought we weren't going to get any animals until next spring," he said. "Then we don't have to go out in the dead of winter and take care of them." He picked up his coffee cup and took another sip. "It'll get mighty cold out there in the winter, son."

"I know," Bryce said. "Wade said he'd help me get the stables ready for winter."

Tex could see this wasn't going to die. "Do we have everything we need to take care of abused horses?"

"I'll do some research," Bryce said. "School doesn't start until Monday, and the auction's not until after Labor Day."

"Mm."

Bryce pulled out a box of cereal and then a bowl. He clanged around the kitchen, putting breakfast together for himself, and then he sat in his usual spot at the end of the dining room table. The seat that faced the front door and had a bird's eye view of the kitchen too. Behind him, he could've gone out the new sliding glass doors to the deck.

"I thought you wanted to be a country music star," Tex said, maintaining his ground in the kitchen.

Bryce had just stuffed his mouth full of sugary puffs, and he shrugged. "Maybe," he said around the cereal. He swallowed and added, "Let's see how this album goes first."

Tex nodded, the wisdom in his son inflating a balloon of pride in Tex's chest.

"What are you gonna do about Abby?" Bryce asked, immediately filling his mouth with more cereal.

"Uh, nothing?" Tex guessed. "There's nothing to do."

"Dad," Bryce said. "You like her so much."

"Yeah, I know I do." Tex lowered his head, wishing he'd put his cowboy hat on that morning. He hadn't left the house yet, and it hung by the back door. "But you know what? Mav said once that that doesn't matter. If she doesn't like me, then there's nothing to do. I can't make her fall in love with me. I can't force that on someone. I'm not going to beg her to be with me."

She'd always had strong reactions to Tex, and he knew that was what they were—reactions. She usually calmed down and got into her rational thoughts and came around. But sometimes she barely seemed like she liked him at all. Other times, Tex was sure they were meant for one another.

"Wade says she's been really unhappy since you guys broke up."

"Well, join the club," Tex said darkly. Movement caught his eye outside, and he saw a couple of men wearing toolbelts heading toward the foundation. "I'm going to go talk to the construction manager." He turned away from his son, grabbed his hat, and left the house.

He looked at Abby's for as long as it took him to get down the steps, little stabs of regret and disappointment over their broken relationship hitting him in different spots in his lungs. The punctures didn't make breathing any easier, especially now that he'd returned to this higher elevation.

"Morning," he called as he got closer to the barn. "Are we framing soon?"

"We're checking," the manager said, and he smiled at Tex. "You're back."

Tex reached him, smiling too. "Yep," he said. "Got in last night." He surveyed the concrete foundation. "And I got approved to record here by my label, so I need this done as soon as possible." He looked at Joel and his partner Cameron, who'd bent over the corner of the concrete. "How fast can you guys do it?"

"Depending on what we find today, I'd say it shouldn't take that long," Joel said. "There's no plumbing. You want two rooms, the whole thing soundproofed, and finished."

"Electrical is extremely important," Tex said. "And I am thinking of putting in a bathroom." Otherwise, everyone would have to use the house. Which he could handle.

"Well, plumbing is a different story. We didn't plumb it or prepare it for plumbing."

"But electrical is fine."

"Definitely," he said, turning in a circle back to the house. "It's what? Two hundred yards? I bet your septic tank is somewhere close to the house. And it's downhill from here. We could plumb it." He looked at Tex, his eyebrows up.

"Let me talk to the boys," he said. "How much time does that add?"

"Oh, not much," Joel said. "Another couple of days, and we have to dig up your yard."

Tex didn't need to talk to anyone. He didn't have a life manager anymore. This was his ranch, and his recording studio, and he said, "I want a simple bathroom in it then. Nothing fancy. A sink and a toilet."

"Let's look at the plans," Joel said, setting down his bag of tools and plucking a clipboard from the top of it.

Tex focused on the task, the Wyoming wind trying to steal away the floorplans as he and Joel looked at them. When the rain started to fall, Tex said, "Let's get inside."

Cameron pulled the tarp back over the cement, and the three of them ran for the house. Tex was still soaking wet by the time he found shelter, and he offered the two men coffee. Joel said yes and sat at the table, got out his tablet, and started to sketch in the bathroom he and Tex had just talked about.

Five minutes later, after Tex had changed his shirt and returned to the kitchen, Joel had the new floorplan done. He slid the tablet toward Tex, and asked, "What do you think? Does that still give you the space you need for your equipment?"

Tex picked up the tablet and looked at it. Joel had not only added in a bathroom in the front corner of the studio, he'd also added a foyer. "Wow," he said.

"It's an entryway," he said. "Sounds like you boys might be recording in the winter, and this'll give you a place for your boots, hats, coats." He pointed to the entryway, which spanned the front of the barn, where the entrance sat.

"Then," he said. "The bathroom is off that. Takes up the same width as the entryway, and everything else is the same."

"It pushes everything back four feet," Tex said, catching the number on the screen. "That's perfect."

"More privacy for the recording too," Cameron said, standing next to Tex and peering at the plan. "Anyone coming in and out isn't really in the studio until they go through the door."

"Right," Joel said.

"It's amazing." Tex handed the tablet to Bryce, who'd just come in from the porch. "What were you doin' out there?"

"Bailey left for Montana today," he said. "She stopped by to say good-bye." He held the tablet and looked at it. "What's this?"

"New floorplan for the studio," he said. "These boys think it'll be done by…Halloween?" He looked at Joel, who nodded.

"Way before Halloween," he said.

"I can get Tom out here to dig the plumbing tomorrow," Cameron said, looking up from his phone. "Should I?"

"Yes," Joel and Tex said together. He walked away from the conversation and looked out the big glass doors to the tarp-covered foundation.

"Thank you, Lord," he whispered, a thread off peace and comfort moving through him. Building this studio was the absolute right thing to do, because Tex wanted to stay right here in Coral Canyon with his son.

And Abby , he thought, and the discontentment that had been his constant companion these past several days perked up again. He had to do something about her.

But what?