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now.”
    “And what about me? You don’t think I have troubles?”
    “I know you do, and I’m sorry. Come on,” he murmured, his voice soft. “I’ll take you back to the bus.”
    Once she was tucked away in her tiny room, she called Myra and poured her heart out. Hearing her friend’s voice made her long for home. When she ended the call, she stared out the bus window.
    Suddenly the summer seemed too long, and she felt more alone than she had since her grandpa’s death.

Take the fall,
Hit that wall,
Sometimes it’s all you’ve got.

The pain inside,
Rages like fire,
And there’s no extinguisher nearby.

You won’t break,
You won’t burn,
Don’t be afraid.

Take the fall.
    Rye Crenshaw’s Number One Hit, “Take the Fall”

Chapter 4
    A voiding Tory the next morning seemed to be the best approach, particularly after what Clayton had told him. He couldn’t blame her for feeling used, but he hated that she’d felt humiliated too.
    It was hard not to think about her and feel guilty with the bacon smell wafting through his closed door.
    Rye set his guitar on his lap, looked out the window, and studied the passing cornfields. He spied what looked like an invisible man racing through the tall green stalks, trying to outrun the bus. Rye knew the image wasn’t real, that it could be explained away by some physics thing, but he liked watching it.
    When his cell phone rang, he reached for it and his heart burst when he saw his sister’s number on the display. Thank God she’d finally called. He’d hoped she would find a way to defy Mama.
    “Amelia Ann. I’m so glad you called. I missed—”
    Crying and hiccupping was the only answer.
    “Rye, Daddy collapsed on the golf course this morning. He had a heart attack and needs a quadruple bypass. We’re all at the hospital.”
    His daddy? No way. He was as fit as a fiddle. “What happened?”
    “I don’t know! The doctor said he’s been working too hard. Mama said it was all the stress you put the family through with your business with the police, which is the meanest comment ever. I’m scared, Rye.” She started crying again. “I wish you could come home.”
    Home? His home was Dare River now or this tour bus. Not the place where he’d been born and raised. “Amelia Ann, you know I can’t. Mama’s made that very clear.”
    “I know. She was awful to me after Taylor Benint let it slip that I’d been in touch with you. I shouldn’t have told her. Mama threatened to disown me if I contacted you again, but I had to tell you about Daddy.” A ragged chain of sobs sounded on the line.
    His knuckles whitened on his guitar.
    “I don’t know if I can take it, Rye. Mama’s still planning to push me into some semi–arranged marriage, just like she did with Tammy. And now Daddy’s sick.”
    The pounding in his head crested to epic proportions, and his helplessness left a gaping hole in his chest. “Honey, you know I want to be there for you.” Only the threat of his Mama’s actions kept him from having Bill turn the bus toward his hometown in Mississippi. “Besides, I’m not sure Daddy would want me there anyway.” God knows, his presence might even harm his father’s recovery, given the fallout between them.
    “Rye, you know it wasn’t Daddy’s idea to disown you. That was all Mama.”
    What did it matter? The result had been permanent banishment. No one messed with a crème de la crème family like his and survived. And he’d done that when he chose country music over following in the footsteps of his male ancestors, all of whom had joined the family firm after graduating from Vanderbilt Law.
    “Well, he didn’t do anything to stop it,” he said.
    Her crying tinkled like a soft bell. “Oh, Rye.”
    “Please stop crying,” he whispered, his eyes tracking to the picture of them on his bureau right before he returned to Nashville after his last spring break in law school. It had been at a karaoke bar in Nashville where he’d met