Page 25 of To Bring You Back
“What Drew said is still true. You’ve carried this too long.”
She didn’t argue, but she couldn’t bring herself to signal agreement. If God had forgiven her like Gannon promised, why did she still feel so ashamed? Why was her life so difficult that she had to sell the bass to fix her house?
That wasn’t the picture of God’s forgiveness. He didn’t want her prayers, and He didn’t want her music.
She stood and clutched the handles on the instrument case.
“Let me help.” Tegan rose, steadied the top, and navigated with her down the stairs. They loaded the instrument into the back of Tegan’s SUV. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“I’ve got it from here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” But as she got behind the wheel, her heart pounded and her breath went shallow. With shaking hands, she shifted into reverse and took the trip to the music store one block at a time.
Once she’d parked and wrestled the bass inside, business mode took over. She went through the motions, told the man behind the counter why she’d come.
He laid his glasses on the paperwork he’d been reviewing. “I remember you having the bass serviced here. Getting something new?”
“I haven’t been playing, and unfortunately, I’m a little short on cash.”
“Ah. Well.” He scratched his chin and came out from behind the counter. “I wish you’d called first. We don’t go through many basses here. Most students rent one of the school district’s instruments.”
“Oh.” She looked over the case, remembering each curve of the bass underneath. “It’s in excellent shape. Maybe a school would buy it.”
He wobbled his head with doubt. “I could make some calls, but if we bought it to resell, we could only give about a thousand for it.”
“It’s worth twice that. At least.” Would one thousand dollars even cover the cost of the painter?
“But who knows how long it’d sit in our inventory, and we have to have a margin on it. You might do better taking it to a larger city. I can give you the name of a shop in Green Bay.”
Since selling the bass for so little was out of the question, she numbly accepted the slip of paper he offered her.
“Call before you make the drive. Mention me and that your service has been done by the same luthier they use. Hopefully they can make a better offer.” He seemed to assess her and then the bass. “Can I carry it back out for you?”
She shook her head and lifted the weight.
The neighborhood association had given her ninety days, and a couple of weeks had passed since she’d received the letter. As drained as she felt by this trip, once she slumped back in the driver’s seat, she forced herself to call the other shop.
The salesperson took a message and promised someone would be in touch on Monday, but the girl’s tone hit the point home: her most valuable possession wasn’t the commodity she’d hoped.
At the sound of giggling,Gannon rose from the couch and went to the foyer. Matt had caught an evening flight and then driven up from Green Bay. Gannon and John had expected him hours ago. As the night progressed, their theories about the condition he’d arrive in had grown grim.
The laughter bubbled from two blond women. Or girls. They wore enough makeup that they might be seventeen-year-olds hoping to look older. Their clothes were as skimpy as the women wore in the clubs Matt frequented in LA, but they weren’t the same designer quality. He’d found these two somewhere else.
“You waited up for me?” Matt laid his hand over his chest as if flattered. Alcohol wafted off his breath. He had no luggage, but one of the girls lowered a leather duffle bag to the stone floor. Had he let her carry his bag for him?
“We’re not here to entertain guests, Matt.”
“I wasn’t planning to share anyway.” He drew the women closer, eliciting more giggles. Matt’s clothes hung off him. With his sallow complexion and the circles under his eyes, he couldn’t have picked up women this attractive without the help of his role in Awestruck, which meant the women knew who Matt and Gannon were. As if the staring and the coy smiles hadn’t already confirmed that.
“They need to leave. Send them back with the car.”
“I got a rental. It doesn’t drive itself.”
Gannon brushed past them and opened the door. A bright red supercar glittered under the lights of the carport, though a car service had been scheduled to pick Matt up from the airport. “You’re lucky you didn’t wrap that around a tree.”
One of the women whispered something in Matt’s ear.
