Make Me Yours, Cowboy

1KnoxKnox glanced at his phone as he headed into the glass-walled building that held his manager's office. Even though his publicist joked that he was a big enough star now that he didn't have to be on time, he still hated being late. The photo shoot his publicist had booked for him had run over, though, and he hadn't had time to head home and change before making the drive into downtown Austin for the meeting with Tripp.The receptionist looked up when he passed through the entry. Her eyes widened in recognition, and she said something into the phone before hanging up."Mr. Shepler, it's nice to see you again."Knox nodded. "Nice to see you again, Sienna.""You know my name?" Her hand went to her chest, and Knox could almost see the heart clouds float from her eyes to hover over her head."Of course. I know the names of everyone on my team." He'd learned long ago that it was just as easy to be nice to people as it was to be a dick. And being nice got him a hell of a lot further in life, especially with people like Sienna, who didn't expect it."Come on back. Mr. Sanchez is expecting you." Sienna rounded the edge of her desk and led him through the closed double doors to the inner sanctuary of Sanchez Management.Knox leaned forward to catch the door as she pushed through the doorway. He caught a whiff of something peppery as she passed. Her perfume made his nose itch, and he fought the urge to sneeze."There he is." Tripp Sanchez rose from his desk. "I'll take it from here, Sienna. Thank you."She nodded and cast a longing glance toward Knox. Unfortunately, he was used to it. Even though the girls in high school wouldn't give him a second look, now he had more women throwing themselves at him than he'd ever imagined. Young ones, women old enough to be his mama or even his grandmother. Women of every shape and size propositioned him on a regular basis.It's not like he wasn't ever tempted. He was a man, after all. Even though his heart had stopped working years ago, the rest of him still responded instinctively-sometimes embarrassingly-to a woman's advances.He turned his attention away from the receptionist and focused on his manager. Tripp held out his hand and Knox took it."How's my favorite client doing today?" Tripp asked as he pumped Knox's hand up and down."I don't know. Tell me who he is, and I'll find out." Knox was joking, but there was a kernel of truth to it. Tripp was one of those guys who changed his mind faster than the weather in Texas could swing from one extreme to the other."Still cracking bad jokes, I see." Tripp gestured for Knox to take a seat at one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Tell me, how are the songs for the new album coming?"Knox adjusted his cowboy hat as he leaned his back against the chair. "They're coming."So what if he hadn't actually written a single, solitary word yet? He had some ideas about what he wanted to write. He just hadn't carved out the time to make it happen. Turns out people had missed him while he'd been on tour over the past year and a half. His mother expected him to catch up with everyone while at home.Then there'd been Justin and Emmeline's wedding. It wasn't like he could have skipped that. He was just a little behind. With a little focus and some uninterrupted work time, he'd be able to come up with the material before the label needed it."I'm going to be honest with you here." Tripp eased into his chair. "The label's not sure about the direction you want to take the next album."Knox had been waiting for this. He knew the label had a vision for his career. One that sounded a whole lot more like a sugar-coated rhinestone cowboy than the gritty, raw songs Knox wanted to hear on radio station playlists around the world."What do you mean?" Playing dumb might get him enough info to figure out the angle the label was working.Tripp steepled his fingers under his chin. "I'm going to give it to you straight.""By all means." Knox crossed his cowboy boots at the ankles."The label wants more of what you did on the last album." Tripp had broached the subject before, but Knox had avoided it.The label wanted to turn him into the country-western version of a pop star. They'd even sent a stylist on tour with him who kept making gentle suggestions that he might want to cut his hair a certain way or wear a specific shirt that somehow found its way into his closet.Halfway through his tour, they'd changed his opening act from a guy with a voice like Hank Williams Jr. to a trio called the Strum Sisters. They sounded like a country-light version of Britney Spears and gyrated all over the stage in their matching glittered miniskirts. It took him two nights before he realized the women weren't really sisters. They just all wore the same long red wigs. It had fooled him from five feet away. He was pretty sure the public would never know the women weren't even related."What if I don't want to go in that direction?" Knox asked. He already knew the answer to that question as well. He'd used his first week at home to research attorneys."They can sue you for breach of contract." Tripp shrugged. "You get a bad rep for being a high-maintenance performer and possibly get blacklisted. I don't typically recommend that as a frontline strategy."Knox figured as much. "So what do you recommend?""If you want to make music at the level you've been working at, you need to play by their rules.""And that's your professional opinion?" Knox asked."You want to know what I think off the record?"Knox nodded.Tripp leaned forward. "Suck it up for another couple of years until you're so big even they can't touch you. Then you can do whatever the hell you want."Another couple of years. Knox had heard the same refrain for most of his career. No matter where he was or who he was working with, everyone's advice seemed to be the same. Give it another couple of years. Don't quit now. You might only be one more gig away from being discovered.Clearly the joke was on him. He'd been discovered, but the rules of the game hadn't changed with his success."What do you think?" Tripp's chair creaked as he leaned back and rested an alligator cowboy boot on his knee.Knox could almost taste the greed in the air. Tripp had stated his opinion. If Knox balked, he'd be on his own. Maybe there was room for a little bit of negotiation, though."If I give them more of what they want, can I have one single that's more in line with the direction I want to go in?" In the grand scheme of things, getting a say in one song was such a minor win. It probably didn't deserve to be classified as a victory at all. Surely the label wouldn't care as long as 99 percent of the album gave them their razzle-dazzle cowboy tunes.Tripp took in a breath so deep that his shoulders lifted at least two inches. "I don't know what they'll say. They're behind you all the way, but I know they'll want to make sure whatever you put on this album is a solid fit with where they want to take this.""Yeah, of course.""It's that important to you?" Tripp asked. His eyes softened. But Knox wasn't about to mistake the look for Tripp having a moment of remorse. The man had suckered Knox in, probably knowing full well that he'd never be able to play the kind of music he wanted to once a label got ahold of him."You know it is." Knox cocked his head and ran his gaze over the gramophone-shaped awards lining the shelves. He'd hoped to have at least one of those on his mantel by now, but singing the watered-down crap he'd been forced to over the past couple of years would never earn him that kind of recognition."Let me see what I can do." Tripp rose from his chair, his lips spread into one of his wide gotcha-exactly-where-I-want-you smiles."Thanks, man." Knox stood. Even without Tripp wearing his cowboy hat, Knox towered a good six inches over his manager. "I appreciate it.""Though"-Tripp tapped his chin with his finger-"I bet they'd be a lot more willing to negotiate if they knew for a fact you were on the right track with the other songs."Knox bet they would, too. "It's my top priority right now. I should have something to you soon.""Great. You get me a song they'll go bananas over, and I'll make the ask." Tripp grinned like he'd just done Knox the biggest favor known to man.Arguing any further would be a waste of time and energy. With a knot of defeat tightening deep in his chest, Knox clasped his manager's hand in a grip tight enough to make the man wince. "You'll have something soon.""Fantastic." Tripp released his hand and headed to the door. "Sienna will show you out. I'll be looking forward to hearing what you come up with.""You and me both," Knox muttered under his breath. When the office door closed behind him, he let out a huge exhale and adjusted the angle of his cowboy hat. It was time to get to work.2ClaudiaClaudia wiped down the counter and tossed the rag in the sink. This time of year, they didn't get too many tourists at the beachside bar on Paradise Island. Except for the lack of tips, she didn't mind the off-season. It gave her a chance to slow down and try to relax. Nowadays, that meant losing herself in a good book or visiting the wild horse sanctuary where she'd been volunteering on her days off."I'm heading out," she yelled, loud enough for her boss to hear her, even through his closed office door.The door creaked open. "Hey, hold up a minute. I want to talk to you about something," Chick said.Claudia shoved her arms through the sleeves of her jacket while she waited for him to make his way down the stairs. "What's up?"Chick pulled out a barstool and gestured for her to do the same. "What did we bring in today?"Claudia angled the report she'd pulled from the register toward him, wishing there were at least another zero stacked before the decimal."Damn." Chick swiped his hand across his brow. "We need to figure out a way to pull people in."She put her hand over his where it rested on the bar. "You say that every year. The winter months are hard, but come mid-March, this place will be busting at the seams with tourists.""It feels different this year." Chick gazed up at her, worry reflected in his watery brown eyes. "I've been thinking about that offer the hotel chain made me for my stretch of sand-""Don't you dare." Claudia lifted her hand and slapped it back down on top of his."Wouldn't be my preference, but times have been a little tough lately.""What about fixing up the bungalows and renting them out to tourists? We talked about doing that a while back. You'd make a killing.""You mean besides the one you've been living in?" Chick eyed her over the top frame of his glasses."Well, naturally." When she'd shown up at Chick's bar four years ago, he'd offered her a job waiting tables that included room and board in one of the run-down beachside bungalows he'd bought along with the property. She'd fixed it up over the years, but there were several more just like it. Chick had never had the time to do much with them before, but if he needed to generate more income, that would be the best place to start."How much do you think it would take to get them ready for tourists?" he asked.In her head, she ticked through a list of things that would need to be addressed. Besides the decorative touches, they all needed the plumbing and electricity checked out. "I don't know. Maybe a few grand each, plus the cost of new furniture.""We could do the painting ourselves," Chick mumbled. "What's Antonio's bar bill sitting at right now?"Claudia got up to check the ledger she kept under the bar. "He's around three hundred as of last night." The handyman was a regular in the off-season. "Are you going to let him work it off in trade?"Chick gave her a warm smile. "You know how this twisted old mind works.""I'm pretty sure he'll go for it. Like you said, it's the slow season, so his business has been down, too." She flipped the ledger closed and studied Chick from across the bar. "You're not really thinking about selling, are you?"A Cowboy in Paradise was legendary-at least to the several thousand tourists who flocked to Paradise Island each year. Not nearly as popular as South Padre Island, and not nearly as populated as Corpus Christi, Paradise was a well-kept secret and the perfect place for someone to leave the rest of the world behind and maybe even become someone new."I'd be lying if I told you the thought hasn't crossed my mind. Don't get me wrong, I love it here, but at some point, I might want to retire." Chick's bony shoulders rose and fell under the pearl-button western shirt."Running A Cowboy in Paradise is your retirement, remember?" Claudia joked.Chick shook his head. "Just because I retired from bull riding half a lifetime ago doesn't mean I don't get to retire again."She set her elbow down on the bar and cupped her chin in her palm. "So, you're like a cat with nine lives? Only you get to keep retiring as many times as you want?""Maybe. I kind of like that idea." The way his lips split and his eyes lit up was reward enough.She'd always have a soft spot for Chick Darville. He'd saved her four years ago. No telling where she'd be if he hadn't taken her in, given her a job, and offered her a place to stay. When she'd arrived on Paradise Island, she'd been at the end of the line. Literally. She'd gotten in her shiny SUV and driven as far and as fast from Minneapolis as her all-weather tires could take her. She might have ended up in the Gulf if she hadn't stopped at a motel and heard someone talking about Paradise Island.