The Price of Love (Rockin' Country Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

into me and you flew off the handle.”
    His look was sheepish. “I know. I’m embarrassed that I did that, but I don’t like it. It seriously makes me very angry that Shell’s the one asking you to do it too. She knows how I feel about you. She knows how you feel about me.”
    “I’m angry with her too, but she’s only doing what the record company asked her to do. Bryson was here, he said if I sang with him it would just be like me acting.”
    Garrett saw red. He did not like this guy one bit. “And what did you say?” It was a supreme effort for him to hold his voice, his attitude, in check, but he did it for her.
    “That I’m not an actress.”
    He laughed, one side of his mouth hitching up in a grin. “I love you,” he laughed again.
    “I love you too, and that’s why I can’t do this. They’re just gonna have to get over it.”
    The two of them were quiet for a few moments until she spoke again, this time not meeting his eyes through the phone. “You know, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to only be your wife.”
    “What do you mean?” he asked, his eyebrows screwing together in question.
    “Not being Harmony Stewart, only being Hannah Thompson.”
    His face was soft as he gently talked to her. “That’s not what you want and we both know it.”
    “I don’t know,” she answered. “Sometimes I do want it.”

Chapter Five
    *  *  *
    “H ave you calmed down enough to see reason?” Shell asked as Hannah made her way back into the studio.
    Hannah fixed her with an icy glare, putting her hand on her hip. She was tired of this, tired of trying to defend herself, and now it looked like she had to defend her marriage too. “I have. I talked to my husband and he supports my decision.”
    “He would.”
    The words were said under Shell’s breath, and they made Hannah mad all over again. Deciding she was done for the day, she grabbed her stuff and started packing it into her bag.
    “Where are you going?” Shell asked, confused.
    Hannah sighed. “I’m done for the day, so I’m going home. Nobody cares what I have to say about anything anyway. It’s not like you need me here for anything.”
    “We still have two hours left,” Shell told her, checking her watch.
    “No, we don’t. I’m going home.”
    The sound guys, Shell, and Bryson, who had come into the studio, were all speechless as she finished packing her stuff and walked out the door. Nobody tried to stop her as she made her way to her car and got in. Once there, she sat in the driver’s seat, breathing deeply. Starting up the car, she drove around to nowhere in particular. She needed to clear her head and shopping would do just that. As she was making her way to one of her favorite boutiques, the dashboard screen lit up, telling her that her sister-in-law, Stacey, was calling.
    “Hey,” she answered, happy to talk to someone who wasn’t a part of the issue-at-hand she was dealing with.
    “Garrett called me, pissed at the world. I’d like to hear your side of the story. Figured you’d like to talk about it.”
    Garrett and Stacey were close, and in the months since he and Hannah had gotten married, more and more, he went to Stacey to try to see Hannah’s side if they argued. They tried hard not to take things out on each other and to wait until they had both calmed down so that they could talk things through rationally.
    “They want me to record a love song with another artist as a duet,” she sighed. “I don’t want to do it, but Shell’s pressuring me, which means the record company is pressuring her. Garrett’s mad, I’m mad, the other recording artist thinks it’s funny, and Shell’s about had enough of me.”
    “I can’t believe that Shell, of all people, would ask you to do that,” Stacey mused across the phone line.
    “I know! That’s why I’m so angry. She knows what my marriage means to me, she knows how badly I miss Garrett, and she knows me better than almost anyone in this world. I know she