The Rockin' Country

Chapter 9

"Are you sure you're okay with me leaving you here?"

"Hannah, I'm not a child, and you're not babysitting me. I will be perfectly fine if I stay in a hotel room by myself for a while," Shell smiled indulgently. "I'll order room service, a movie, and enjoy your suite until you get back. I promise, I'm good."

"I still feel bad," Hannah worried her lip between her teeth.

"Don't." She put her hands on Hannah's shoulders and turned her so that they faced one another. "I don't have to be there every step of the way. I'm fine staying here by myself, but if it makes you feel better, next time just ask Garrett if it's okay that I tag along."

The two of them usually did everything together. It had been that way since Hannah and Ashton had parted ways. It felt odd for Hannah to leave Shell behind while she went off to start another chapter of her life.

"Go and have fun. Do you want me to pull up that picture that Garrett did for that magazine a couple of months ago? The one where he's shirtless in the rain? You're spending the night with that man. Do not give it up because you're worried about me. I'm just gonna tell you now, I wouldn't think twice about it."

Hannah laughed, shocked. "Well thanks for nothin' BFF."

They heard Hannah's phone start buzzing with the ringtone she had assigned to Garrett. "There he is. Answer it, and go have fun!"

"Hello?"

"Hey," she could hear the smile in his voice. "I'm here, what room are you in? I'll come up there and help you grab your stuff."

"No, that's not necessary. I haven't unpacked anything, so I'll just meet you down there in a few minutes."

"I'll be waiting."

"Oh wait," she stopped him before he hung up. "What are you driving today?"

"I rented an Escalade. If the guys all want to go out later, they'll need a big vehicle. See, I'm a nice guy."

"That you are. I'll be right there."

Shell sat in a chair next to the door, her legs crossed, her foot swinging. "Did he offer to come up and bring your stuff down?"

"Yes, Mom, he did."

"Well that's more than I can say for Ashton - who couldn't even lift your suitcase, much less carry it down to his car."

Hannah couldn't help the snort that came out of her nose. "That was unbelievably mean, but oh so true." She reached down and hugged her friend before letting the door shut behind her.

Shell looked around the empty hotel room, and with a smirk, she said out loud to no one but herself, "I hope she took my advice and got that birth control up to date."

* * *

The day was beautiful yet cold as she stepped out from the hotel and onto the curb. She hadn't noticed earlier how chilly it was, and she rubbed her hands up and down her arms as she waited for Garrett to come around and pick her up. Her jacket was in her suitcase, and she made a mental note to remember to get it out.

She noticed an Escalade pull up with tinted windows. The passenger side one came down partway, and she saw Garrett inside. She all but ran over to the car and jerked the door open. She was that excited to see him.

"Did you not bring a jacket?" he asked as he pulled his sunglasses down to get a good look at her.

"No," her teeth chattered as she hopped into the passenger side.

Shoving the gear into park, he took his sunglasses off, setting them in the cup holder and then unbuckled his seat belt. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what he was doing, but he pulled his hoodie over his head, leaving him in a long sleeve shirt. "Here, wear this. The heater is good, but if you're anything like me, you get cold and it's hard to get warm again."

"I am the same way, so thank you." She put the hoodie over her head and noticed that it swallowed her whole. The ends of the sleeves fell so far past her hands she could probably double them up, and she figured that when she stood it would probably look like a dress on her. Hannah couldn't help but pull the neck of the shirt into her nose and breathe deeply. It smelled just like him, and she knew that if given the chance, she would take it with her when she ultimately had to leave.

"You're welcome, now I have to figure out how to get the f**k outta here."

He glanced over at her, a smile playing at the corner of his lips.

"You said that just because you know I hate that word," she accused.

"Maybe. But it's one of my favorite words, so we're going to have to come to some sort of compromise about it."

Ignoring him, she checked his blind spot. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Kinda, and I've got the GPS," he pointed to the satellite map on the console.

"Are you one of those people who has to have complete quiet when it comes to finding your way out of a place you aren't familiar with?"

"Not really, but as soon as I make this turn, I'm on the main highway, so feel free to talk as much as you want," he told her as he merged into traffic and took the exit that would take them straight to Omaha.

"I meant to tell you something."

"Oh yeah?" He set the cruise control and moved to lean on the console, one hand on the wheel. "What's that?"

"I got myself a 'Garrett' file." She pointed to her forehead.

His dimples showed as he looked between her and the road. "You finally got enough information, huh?"

"I did," she nodded. "You're persistent, you love your fans, you like apple pie moonshine, and you love your best friend more than he probably even knows."

On impulse, he reached over and grabbed her hand, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. "Thanks for listening to me by the way. I'm glad I didn't scare you off. I was scared I would."

"I'm not saying that it didn't scare me at all. I don't like physical violence, and I didn't like what I heard, but I understand that it was necessary. It takes a lot to scare me off of something that I want."

He liked the sound of that. "So do you want to hear about what we're going to do tomorrow?" It was getting a little too serious between the two of them, and he wanted it to go back to a fun date.

"You have something planned?"

"Well," he pulled his hand from hers and scratched the stubble on his cheek. "I wasn't going to have one, but I made the mistake of opening my big-ass mouth to my mother. I told her I was taking a beautiful woman out for the weekend. Of course she knew it was you, and then she hounded me for a few hours about what I had planned for us to do. When I told her I didn't have anything planned, she literally sent me a list of things that we can do in Omaha. I found something that I thought you would enjoy. Then I sent it to her for her approval."

Hannah laughed. "Oh my God, your mom and my mom could be BFF's. Mine's the same way. She's texted me a few times since that picture of us showed up together."

"Your mom texts? That would be nice if mine learned how to do that, but no, she calls me at 5 a.m., and then bitches when I'm not in the mood to talk."

"Oh yeah, my mom just learned how to do all the tech-savvy stuff like texting, f*******:, and Twitter. So she's cute about wanting to use it all the time. She would rather do that stuff to show me that she can rather than call me."

"Hey, don't knock that s**t. At least then you can pretend like you didn't get the text or something. With a phone call, they know you at least got the voicemail."

She smacked him on the shoulder. "Do you really do that to your mom?"

He shrugged. "Sometimes. She's nosey."

"She's your mom, she's supposed to be."

"What about you? Are you nosey?" he teased.

"Not really. I mean I guess I kinda used to be back when I started in the business. I still read the gossip magazines and the blogs and all that stuff. None of them ever had anything about me in them, so it was okay for me to read it. Then it was like things changed, and overnight people cared about me, about what I was doing, and it wasn't so much fun anymore. I'm private and I don't care much for paparazzi," she admitted.

"But you do all the social media stuff."

"Yeah, because I can control it. I don't mind giving the fans a glimpse into my personal life, but I want to be able to show them on my own terms." She shifted in her seat. "Anyway, we got off topic. What are we doing?"

"We're going to the aquarium that they have in town. They also have a zoo, but I'm not sure how cold it'll be. I didn't have time to check all that out."

She grinned over at him. "Do you know that I've never been to an aquarium but I've always wanted to go? I'm excited now."

"Good, I'm glad. I was worried you would think it was lame or something, but I had limited time and resources to work with."

"No, you did good, I'm surprised you did so well actually."

"Grab my phone and thank my mom."

She laughed. Immediately, she thought that she would probably like his mom. As they passed a sign that told them they had 100 miles left to go, she watched their surroundings. "This is nice, driving in a car where you can see your surroundings."

"I know - you can see what's coming at you. Really though, I like to drive," he told her as he switched lanes and passed a slow moving car.

"That works out well, because I'm a rider. I usually text or check my phone while Shell drives."

"Speaking of her, what is she doing while you spend tonight and tomorrow with me?"

Again she felt the sadness about leaving her friend behind. "She told me she was going to rent a movie and get some room service. Ya know, enjoy her time alone," she bit her lip and looked over at his profile.

"I should have told you to invite her, but I never even thought about it," he admitted.

"She told me she's a big girl; she can take care of herself, so I'm going to do my absolute best just to have fun while we're together."

He wagged his eyebrows at her. "I'll be sure to help you however I can. I'll be whatever you need me to be."

A blush covered her cheeks. "Why do I get the feeling that you mean that in a completely different way than how I'm taking it?"

"Because I'm a guy, and you're not trustful of guys. It's okay though, I'll worm my way under your skin, and then you'll wonder how you ever lived without me. It's kinda what I do with people."

He was so confident that she had to laugh. "Is that right?"

"That's right. Ask anybody. The first time I asked any of the guys to be in the band, they all told me no. Yet here we are a decade later with millions of records sold, millions of fans, and sold-out tours wherever we go. I think they've learned not to doubt me and trust that I can make the right decisions for everyone involved."

"So what decisions do you have for me? I'm curious."

He stuck his lip out, pretending to ponder her. "I think you should just learn to say 'f**k you' and have a good time."

"I don't know that I'll ever be able to do one of those things, but I think maybe you could show me how to cut loose and have a good time."

"I think I can too, if only you would let me."

She shifted in her seat, leaning her head against the window as they pulled off the main highway and went into downtown traffic. "I guess I could let you, and I guess this weekend would be a good a time to start as any."

They pulled up to the hotel, and he popped the lock on the doors to let the valet open them. "Then come on, Ms. Stewart, your good time awaits."