Read Online Bluestone Song by MJ Fredrick - Free Book Online Page A

folded hands. She almost couldn’t make the
acceptance leave her mouth. “I appreciate the offer, but I can’t
pay you.”
    Trinity’s face brightened. “I don’t need you
to. Like I said, I need the practice.”
    Beth jabbed a thumb in Leo’s direction.
“Don’t you have a wedding you should be planning?”
    Trinity waved a dismissive hand. “It’s not
like it’s going to be a grand wedding or anything. Very simple. And
it will just be while your sister’s in school, right? She’ll take
over after that?”
    Beth resisted the urge to close her eyes. One
more reason she didn’t ask for help. She didn’t want others to know
how irresponsible Linda could be. “I’ll talk to her.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” Trinity said. “I’ll
talk to her.”
    That would make Linda so happy, a stranger
talking to her about her responsibilities. “I don’t know if this is
such a good idea.”
    “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t want to,”
Trinity said, placing a cool white hand on Beth’s wrist.
“Seriously. I would have offered before, but I just got out for
summer vacation. I have time on my hands. Let me do this,
Beth.”
    Right. Trinity was the counselor at the
elementary school. Beth wished that made her feel better about
accepting help, but all it did was make her feel more
vulnerable.
    “I’ll talk to Linda,” Beth said again, and
turned to get back to work.
    Maddox had come in then, and chaos had
reigned for the next few hours. She hadn’t even seen Dale in the
crowd. Her head pounded with her own thoughts and the music of the
man who kept her emotions tumbling.
    But she’d brought home three times the money
she usually did.
    Had she made a mistake leaving Quinn’s for
the casino? No, of course she hadn’t. Maddox would be moving on
soon. It was nice to see how he was bringing people to town,
bringing people into Quinn’s. All of Bluestone seemed busier,
happier. But would it last?
     
    Maddox stood on the deck of the lake house
he’d rented and looked out over Bluestone Lake. The fifth-wheel was
nice, but he wanted something roomier. Something more permanent.
Stairs led from the deck to a green lawn that met up with the
lapping waves. A dock extended a bit beyond that, into water deep
enough for the fishing boat he’d rented. Behind him, the lake house
boasted a master bedroom with its own access to the deck, a
glassed-in shower, a claw-foot tub, a state-of-the-art kitchen, and
a loft. The whole front of the place was glass, and the rest was
log.
    A perfect place to spend the summer.
    Except—was he really ready to stay here all
summer? He had the big show on the Fourth of July in Texas, and a
few smaller venues out west. But this place pulled at him, wanted
to hold him here.
    Beth pulled at him. Maybe if he had a place
to stay, to make his home, she’d let him get close once again.
She’d let him into her life, though from where he stood, this
seemed like the worst time to try, with her distracted by money and
jobs and her nephew. And there was the doctor boyfriend, who wasn’t
much of a boyfriend, if you asked Maddox. The man could be making
her life easier, and where was he? He was probably a better man
than Maddox, minding his own business the way Beth liked it, but
that wasn’t love.
    He didn’t know if what he felt was, either.
The fact that he hadn’t been in a relationship since he’d quit
drinking scared the hell out of him. And the one he’d been in
before that, with Jessie, who had her own personal self-destruct
button, had been hell on earth. The possibility for mistakes was
enormous. But if he didn’t try, he’d never know. He hadn’t even
wanted to try before he saw Beth again.
    He hadn’t been to an AA meeting in a while.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to seek one out up here—he always worried
about his privacy. But maybe he should call his sponsor. Anthony
was about fifteen years older than him, eight years sober, and had
survived the darkest days with his marriage