Love Songs and Lullabies
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Amy Vastine
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18,4K
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23
Chapter One
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I’m pregnant?”
Piper Starling felt like she’d stepped outside her body. Her stomach rolled. The walls of the exam room inside Nashville General Hospital’s ER began to close in. This could not be happening.
“Miss Starling—” The doctor took a seat on the stool beside the exam table.
“You must be mistaken.” Piper tried to control the shakiness of her voice and hang on to the single shred of hope from which she dangled. “I’m here because I twisted my ankle. I’m waiting for an X-ray, not a pregnancy test.”
She had bumped into Sawyer Stratton onstage while setting up for rehearsal and twisted it. High heels and poor balance did not mix well.
The doctor scratched at his closely cropped gray beard and gave her a sympathetic smile. “I know why you came in, Piper. I think perhaps my nurse failed to mention a pregnancy test is part of the routine bloodwork we perform here in the ER.”
Piper crinkled the paper covering the exam table in her fists. Pregnant. This made the possibility of a broken ankle seem like nothing. She could barely absorb what the doctor was saying as he went on about soft-tissue damage and the necessity of prenatal vitamins and a more balanced lifestyle going forward.
A sharp knock on the door made Piper jump. Before the doctor could get to his feet, her father pushed it open. Piper’s heart flew into overdrive. She might be a grown woman, but her father’s opinion of her was still the most important thing in her life.
“Ah, so a doctor finally did show up.” Heath Starling handed Piper the bottle of water he had gotten her and began his rant. “We’ve been here for almost two hours. Are you here to take her to get this X-ray? You do know who my daughter is, right?”
“I know who your daughter is, sir.” The doctor rose and offered his hand. “I’m Dr. Michaels.”
Her father had no time for niceties. “We’re on a tight schedule today. If her ankle is broken, we have to know so we can make adjustments sooner than later. Why do hospitals have to be so inefficient?”
The doctor was about to respond when Piper slid off the table and gingerly put some weight on her foot. “No X-ray, Dad. I’m fine. The doctor was just explaining to me that he’s sure it’s a sprain and not broken.”
“Shouldn’t we check to make sure?” The concern in his voice made her feel guilty for not being completely honest, but all Piper wanted was to get out of here before someone let her current condition slip.
“It would hurt a lot more if it was broken. As long as I rest it, I should be fine for the awards show.”
She wished she could tell her dad the truth. What she wouldn’t give to hear him reassure her that everything would be fine, but she knew there was no chance of that happening. An out-of-wedlock pregnancy with a man her father had convinced her was the wrong choice had the potential to ruin everything.
Thankfully, Heath was not a fan of hospitals. “Great! Then we’ll make it to the radio interview after all,” he said.
“I’ll get the discharge paperwork together,” Dr. Michaels said. “I’ll have some instructions and recommendations for follow-up put in there for you, Piper. Good luck...with everything.”
Piper needed more than luck. She needed someone to come in and tell the doctor that the lab had made a terrible mistake.
How could this have happened? Until now, every move she’d made had been perfectly orchestrated. Her image was vital to her success, which was why she always did as she was told. Her father constantly emphasized how one misstep could ruin a career. Say or do the wrong thing and the world would know about it instantly, thanks to social media and smartphones. And for some reason, the public was always on the lookout for their idol’s fatal flaw.
Piper struggled to stop herself from trembling. A few months ago, she had fallen for Sawyer and his soulful brown eyes. She had let him woo her with his clever quips and gentle touch, but what she felt wasn’t real. She’d been tricked into thinking she was in love by the intense emotions that writing music together pulled out of her.
Thankfully, her dad had helped get her head out of the clouds without even knowing how serious things had become between her and Sawyer. It was the wrong time for Piper to invest in a romantic relationship given her current career goals. Of course, being someone’s mother could rock her career in a whole different way.
A nurse came in to wrap her ankle before they wheeled her outside to the car. Her father put a hand on her forehead.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You look a little peaked.”
“I’m fine. Just worried about how to cover this up so people don’t notice tonight.”
“Piper, no one is going to give you grief about twisting your ankle,” her father promised. “I think the fans will forgive you for getting knocked over by that idiot.”
Would everyone forgive her for getting knocked up by him, though? She wasn’t so sure. Piper’s heart ached as much as her stomach.
* * *
THE K104 STUDIOS were in the heart of downtown Nashville. Piper’s ankle throbbed but was still the least of her problems. Her assistant, Lana, offered her a hand out of the limo.
“After your radio interview, you have about an hour and a half before you need to get to hair and makeup,” Lana said as they made their way inside. “Your dinner reservations with Dean and his fiancée are at five. Luckily, the restaurant is near the Bridgestone Arena since the best time to get the most red carpet exposure is around six thirty.”
The thought of being on display all night made Piper want to cry. Surely someone would know she was carrying around the secret of all secrets. She placed a hand on her stomach. Did she already have a baby bump? It was way too early for that. She was being paranoid. Pregnant and paranoid. The tension in her shoulders increased tenfold.
A representative from the radio station met them in the lobby. The young woman was tall and slender. She pushed her horn-rimmed glasses up her nose. “Piper Starling, welcome to K104! We’re so excited to have you and Sawyer here.”
Sawyer’s here?
Piper felt her cheeks flush. She’d known she would have to face him tonight but had hoped the few hours she had before then would help her figure out what to do. She had to tell him. Not that he’d be very excited. When she had told him they couldn’t be together, he had accused her of caring more about her career than the people in her life. But quickly after that, he had acted like it was a relief they weren’t going to be a couple. She glanced at her father, who apparently hadn’t expected Sawyer Stratton to be there, either, given the way he scowled at Lana before dialing someone on his phone.
“You made it!” Dean Presley, the head of Grace Note Records, turned the corner. He pulled Piper in for a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay. We can deal with a sprain, right? A sprain won’t hurt the tour, and I have a very good feeling everyone will want to see Piper Starling live after hearing you tonight.”
Piper wasn’t nominated for a Country Artist Award this year but had two proudly displayed at home on her mantel. She was here to promote the new album she’d written over the summer with Sawyer’s help. He may have been a newbie to the country music scene, but he was also an excellent songwriter. Piper had spent too many years singing other people’s music and it had been Sawyer’s job to teach her how to write her own.
Tonight’s performance would be crucial in setting the stage for her break into mainstream pop music. The new album had great crossover potential thanks to Sawyer’s help. Of course, all of that was in jeopardy now. Her stomach rolled and her head ached.
Heath slipped his phone back in his pocket. “This is your doing, Dean? Hasn’t my daughter shared the headlines with this boy enough? She’s a platinum recording artist while he just released his first album.”
“Together, the two of them are magic. Their song’s success is proof of that. The more we showcase them together, the better for both of them. I think Nashville deserves a preview of Sawyer and Piper before the rest of America hears them at the CAAs.”
Her chest constricted at the thought of Dean’s disappointment as well as her father’s when they learned she had ruined her perfect image. She trusted Dean’s business sense and knew he believed in her, even if his trust had been misplaced. Keeping the facade up as long as possible, until she could figure out how to break the news to everyone, was her only option. There had to be a way to save her career from disaster.
Piper took a deep breath before she had a panic attack. “It was a great idea, Dean,” she said, putting her smile back in place. “We’re here to sell records. Mine and Sawyer’s.”
The radio station rep’s relief was evident. The earlier tension had not been lost on her. “Let me show you to our hospitality room.”
Heart pounding, Piper followed the woman down the hall, into the elevator and up three floors. She could do this. She could sit next to Sawyer and answer questions about music. They could sing together like they did while writing songs and recording her album. Singing with him was the easy part. Avoiding his brown eyes, resisting his charm, ignoring the way he made her feel when he was near—those things might prove more difficult. Especially now.
It suddenly felt very warm. Piper was thankful she had dressed in layers. She peeled off her sweater and handed it to Lana for safekeeping.
Sawyer’s voice reached her in the hallway. His playfulness was infectious as he sang and strummed a guitar. It was his lightheartedness that had gotten her in this trouble in the first place.
She steeled herself as she entered the hospitality room. Sawyer Stratton had accepted there wasn’t a future for the two of them. How would he feel when he found out they’d be forever connected?
