Feels Like Home (Southern Bride 5)

The fact that she’d just dropped the name of my upcoming single had me smiling like a damn fool.

“This is perfect,” I said. “Remember the single I sang at my last concert? The title’s ‘Memory Lane.’”

Lanny snapped her fingers and then called out, “Yes! Bristol this is a great idea!”

I nodded and held out my hand to Bristol. “Let’s go.”

She looked scared to death suddenly. “Well, wait. I’ve been working all day. I don’t even have any makeup on!”

Lanny scoffed then said, “Girl, I can do your makeup. I used to work for a pretty popular pop singer who used to sing country.”

Mindy hit Lanny on the shoulder. Hard enough that it took her off balance.

“Taylor Swift?” Bristol and Mindy both asked at once.

Lanny shrugged. “I’m not allowed to say. Legal stuff and all.”

Mindy turned to Bristol. “I bet it was Taylor Swift.”

“Girls, I think you should probably get a move on,” Brad said.

“My house is right next door. Let me close up, and we can move over there,” Bristol said.

Thirty minutes later, Bristol walked out in a jumper with one of my tour hats on and a ponytail sticking out. Zeus bounced along next to her. My damn dog had fallen head over heels in love with Bristol too.

“Where did you get the hat from?” I asked.

Mindy tilted her head as she placed her hand on her hip. “That’s what I asked her too.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Bristol said as she unplugged her phone that had been charging.

“You look beautiful in it,” I said as I leaned down and kissed her.

Mindy sighed. “Oh, to be in love.”

Lanny and Brad both looked at her then down at her little pregnancy bump.

Mindy clearly noticed because she laughed. “I’m getting divorced. My husband cheated on me, and I actually think I’m in love with another man, so my life is perfect.”

“Oh my gawd, what?!” Bristol said.

Lanny clearly saw the conversation taking a turn toward more delays.

“Okay, ladies, let’s save that bombshell for after the video.”

Bristol and I leaned against the tree where I’d first kissed her. Those brown eyes of hers looked up at me, and she smiled.

“How can you smile right now?” I asked. “Are you not upset?”

“How can I not smile when you’re looking at me like that, Anson?”

I lifted my hand and brushed a piece of her hair that had fallen from the baseball cap behind her ear.

Then I sang part of a song I had written a year or so ago.

“She’s my only home.

The only home I’ve known.

She blankets me from inside out…”

Her eyes filled with tears, and I kissed her cheeks and kept singing.

“With a love I call my own.

I keep it hidden,

So deep inside…to make sure her love stays mine.”

I raised my hand, rubbed my thumb across her lips, and whispered, “She’s only ever mine.”

She lifted up, and when her hat hit mine as she tried to kiss me, we both laughed.

I removed our hats and dropped them to the ground. Cupping her face in my hands, I smiled.

“Do you have any idea how happy you make me?”

She shook her head. “I think you should show me.”

“Are we done with the video?”

“I think so,” she replied, a dreamy look in her eyes.

“Good, because I plan to take you back to my truck, and then we’re fooling around in the backseat.”

“I think Lanny is going to want me to edit and upload this.”

I sighed. “Fine, let’s get it done so I can make you come.”

She hit me on the chest. “Anson Meyer! Anyone could hear you if they walked by.”

I winked and smacked her on the ass. We sat down against the tree and Bristol moved around on her phone like a pro as she edited the video and then uploaded it to Instagram.

“I’m going to do an intro video first, and since we’re sitting here at the tree, I think we should go live. People already know you’re in town. Are you okay with that?”

“Sure,” I said as I handed her back the baseball cap. She slipped it on and pulled her ponytail through the back.

With a deep breath in, she pulled up her Instagram stories and bit into her lip as she stared at the button to hit LIVE.

“Hey, Bri. Look at me.”

She turned and looked at me.

“We don’t have to do this. We can simply ignore it.”

“No, I want to do this. It’s just…we’ve only been back together for a little over a week, and I feel like the world is going to come crashing in on us. I’m not afraid to share you, please know that. And I’m not afraid of what people are going to say.”

“What are you afraid of then?”

Her eyes filled with tears, and I could tell she was fighting to hold them back. “Of losing you again. Of not fitting into your life in Nashville.”