Kylie thought it over. She missed him so much that it was a struggle to force herself through mundane daily activities. And it had only been a few days. But even Rae hadn’t seen him much lately and was worried. As much as she knew it would hurt to hear Gretchen’s depiction of her relationship with Trace, she figured it was better than the gaping black holes she kept falling into while wondering what was going on.
“There’s a diner down the block.”
Gretchen motioned for Kylie to lead the way so she did.
Once they arrived, Kylie saw the same waitress who had hit on Steven a few months ago. This was so not her day.
“Black coffee, please,” she told the woman without bothering to look up.
Gretchen ordered the same and removed the jacket she was wearing. “So, as much of an honor as it is to be having coffee with Nashville’s Sweetheart, I’m going to cut to the chase.”
“Guess you don’t read Rolling Stone magazine,” Kylie muttered under her breath.
“Kylie, I can only begin to imagine what you think of me. And thankfully, I don’t much care what most people think. But there is one person who I do care a lot about and he deserves someone who can cut him some slack.”
She watched as Gretchen dumped about a pound of sugar into her coffee. Kylie stirred a slightly smaller amount into hers.
“I did cut him some slack, for the record. And then you showed up.”
The woman sipped her coffee and nodded. “Yes, and if you hadn’t run off like your panties were on fire, you might have heard what I had to say and we could’ve avoided all this.”
Kylie ignored her drink and focused her attention on Gretchen. “For the past year, I spent day after day being bombarded by pictures and questions about you and Trace. And when I finally let myself believe that it was just a rebound thing or media hype or friendship or moral support or what the hell ever, I wake up to you. At his house. Where he swears he doesn’t bring women.”
Gretchen opened her mouth to respond, but Kylie wasn’t done.
“And that’s the thing. I feel like it’s always going to be something. I throw my heart at him, because like you said, I’m immature and impulsive apparently. And he keeps tossing it back at me like a game of hot potato. So excuse me if I didn’t stick around for the gory details.”
Gretchen nodded again, the hint of a smile playing on her lips. “Well guess what, kid? Love is one big mess of gory details. So deal with it.”
Kylie watched her intently. “Meaning?”
“We all have shit in us that we’d rather other people not be privy to. Except that one person who sees that and loves us anyway.” Gretchen looked sad for a moment, a fact Kylie tried not to dwell too much on. “And for you, Trace is that person. He doesn’t care how much of a pain in the ass you are. In fact, I think he likes it. For whatever reason. The part that concerns me is that you might not be that person for him. Can you handle everything that comes with him? Because I think you know by now it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”
“If he loves me so much, how come every time you called he took it in the other room? Or looked like a deer in headlights when I saw you together in Macon? If y’all are just friends, why all the secrecy, Gretch?”
Judging from the way her eyebrows lifted, Gretchen didn’t miss Kylie’s disdain for the nickname Trace called her by.
“Well, let’s see. The media has made us into some alcoholic duo just because we happened to do a stint in rehab together. He knows you and I aren’t exactly friends. And he and I are about to be business partners. He was trying to figure out the best way to tell you about it when I heard from a mutual friend that his sister was in an accident and decided to bring myself over to Georgia and check in. Plus, I had paperwork for him to sign.”
Kylie was beginning to feel as if she were being buried under the heap of information Gretchen was piling on her. “But I saw the pictures. Same as the rest of the world. The two of you didn’t just happen to go into rehab at the same time, you walked through that door hand in hand.”
“And if we were teenagers, instead of grown adults, that might’ve been a big deal.” Gretchen’s pointed expression let Kylie know how big of a deal it wasn’t. “But for your information, if you saw a picture of Trace and I holding hands, it was because at the last minute, I panicked. The fear of everyone knowing I was trying to get help, of knowing I might fail, had me retreating. Trace literally pulled me through.”
“I still feel like I’m missing something. What in the world kind of business are you buying? Please don’t say a bar or a record label.”