Their conversation hadn’t been a long one, but when Adam mentioned he was looking for some local talent to play his small town bar, Cooper found himself aching for something a bit more relaxed than an arena filled with screaming women and knew Adam’s proposal was right up his alley.

That’s how he ended up in Devil’s Bend, Texas for the last week and a half. Until tonight, he’d been hiding out at a modest motel when he wasn’t checking out the local real estate.

This small town setting was a far cry from what he was used to but undeniably more in line with where he had come from. More in line with what had sparked his interested in the early stages of his career. In his early twenties, once he was picked up by a record label, he’d been blown away by the attention and chaos, inspired by it even.

Not so much anymore.

At thirty-one, after nearly eight years on the road full time, Cooper was ready to slow down. Significantly. After just a few minutes on stage, he realized this was more his pace these days. Not that his manager would agree with him, but then again, Marcus Evergreen didn’t think he could do much thinking for himself anymore at all.

“What’d you think?” he asked the crowd when his song came to an end. The group erupted in catcalls and whistles, clapping and laughter, and the excitement seeped into his blood. Truthfully, he hadn’t felt that heart wrenching rush of adrenaline in quite some time.

Glancing around the room, Cooper made eye contact with both women and men, smiling as the group began tossing out suggestions. As was usually the case, most of the requests seemed to go back to one of his early albums, back when he had fun doing this night after night. It seemed as though some of what he’d valued was lost along the way. Probably one of the reasons he was working his way back to his roots once again.

A shrill voice caught his attention, and his eyes darted back to the area closest to the bar. Before he could pinpoint where the sound came from, his gaze had landed on a stunning blonde maneuvering her way through the swarm of people. When the woman stopped and looked up at him, their eyes met for a brief second before she abruptly turned away, fleeing deeper into the crowd. Thanks to his position on the stage, he managed to track her until she slid behind the bar, leaning up to talk to another man standing there.

“Play Cowgirl in my Dreams,” one woman shouted from close to the stage and Cooper tore his eyes off of the mystery woman in the back, glancing over to where the request had come from.

“Yes, ma’am.” Readjusting his guitar, Cooper started the song, falling back into the music, letting himself get lost in the memories of a different time. This was what he’d been searching for these last few months. This was exactly what he was looking to find again.

Forty-five minutes later, Cooper was ready for a break. And a beer. Not necessarily in that order either.

He informed the group that he’d be back shortly, secured his guitar in an area at the back of the stage and moved down the steps. The instant his feet hit the hardwood dance floor, he was inundated with women flocking to his side, an influx of chatter making his head pound. They didn’t seem to mind that they were invading his personal space, hanging on him even as he tried to keep moving.

With a smile on his face, he worked his way through the group, trying his best to answer questions, offering a couple of hugs, posing for more than a few pictures before he finally reached the bar. He just wanted a beer. And maybe a few minutes of quiet. He wasn’t going to get the latter, but from the looks of it, the former was on its way thanks to the man behind the bar nodding in his direction.

A beefy hand clapped him on the shoulder and Cooper turned to see who it was, coming face to face with Adam Dryden.

“Hey, man.” Holding out his hand, he waited for Adam to shake it before tipping his hat slightly on his head.

“How’s it goin’?” Adam asked, having to speak louder just so Cooper could hear him.

A group of women were trying desperately to get his attention and Cooper was doing his best to be polite. He’d gotten used to the demand on his time, but he found it difficult to turn his attention away from someone he knew personally for a group who assumed he owed them his undivided attention.

“Why don’t we go to my office?” Adam offered, and Cooper didn’t hesitate before nodding his head in agreement.

Grabbing his beer bottle from the bar, he fell into step behind Adam. Sheer determination was the only thing that got them through the crowd, but once they did, Cooper found himself following his friend up a set of stairs at the far back of the room. Just when he thought they were going to have company, a hulking man insinuated his bulk between the gaggle of women and the cramped stairwell.

“Mr. Krenshaw will be back down shortly, ladies,” he told the group, making Cooper smile.

Mr. Krenshaw. Shit. That was funny. At thirty-one, he certainly didn’t feel like a mister.

At the top of the dimly lit stairwell was a door that read “Private” on a plaque haphazardly glued to the wood. Adam used a key to gain access and Cooper followed him, successfully shutting out the majority of the noise once inside.

“Damn, man. You sure know how to draw a crowd,” Adam stated as he moved across the room to a large window. He twisted a plastic stick and the cheap wood blinds turned, offering them a view of the scene below.

“It’s a curse.” The words tumbled out before he could think better of it.

Ok, so truthfully it was a blessing, but Cooper wasn’t feeling it these days. The words were an honest reflection of his mood, but he’d grown accustomed to keeping a filter on his thoughts until recently. Cooper hoped he sounded as though he was joking, but for some reason he wasn’t all that worried whether Adam knew the truth. He was beginning to feel as though it was a curse.

He wasn’t sure when he’d stopped being grateful for all of the fame that came along with his career, but in recent months, he was finding it harder and harder to want to keep moving forward. Instead, he found himself wanting to sneak out early, disappear on his own and find the solitude that had been lacking in his life for years.

His manager told him it was a phase that he’d be over soon. Cooper wasn’t so sure that was the case. Sure, he was thankful for his success, especially after he’d worked his ass off to get where he was, but Cooper was beginning to feel disconnected. As though he wanted more, but wasn’t sure what that more even was.

Hitting the big time and becoming a country music star might’ve been his original intention when he was a teenager, but he hadn’t known what all it entailed. Somewhere along the way, he felt as though he’d lost a part of himself. And despite all of the fans and the interactions, he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of being alone that had started haunting him lately.

Cooper moved up close to the window, standing nearly shoulder to shoulder with Adam in the confined space, downing half of his beer as he took in the silence while watching the overabundance of bodies below. His eyes landed on the woman he had glimpsed earlier. She was moving gracefully as she worked behind the bar and he found himself once again staring at her.

She was short, much shorter than most of the people standing around her. He couldn’t see much more than the snug black t-shirt that clung to her rather impressive curves, but he found himself trying to get a glimpse of the rest.

She looked like a country angel with her curly blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail at the back of her head, the long strands falling down and over her shoulders. He couldn’t make out much of her features from this distance, but it was her dazzling white smile that captivated him. She was laughing with the man behind the bar, serving up drinks like she was born to run the crowded place.

“You meet my sister yet?” Adam asked, pulling Cooper from his visual assault of the cute bartender’s sultry smile.

“Haven’t met anyone, actually. I got here late, so I had to rush up on stage. The Realtor you referred me to decided tonight was a terrific night to show me another house.”

Adam just nodded his head, his attention once again on the folks below. “What’d you think of it?”

Cooper was beginning to relax again as he watched what was going on down on the main floor. There were still people coming in the door, and he was beginning to wonder just how many people the place could actually hold. He couldn’t imagine they’d be able to squeeze more than a couple hundred people between all four walls, but from the looks of it, they had almost twice that.

“This one is a little worse for wear than the one you mentioned. It needs more work, but I’m definitely interested. Don’t think the price can be beat. Luckily, I’m kinda handy.”

“A fixer-upper, huh?” Adam smiled at him, then returned his gaze to the scene below.

Fixer upper was an understatement, but for the price, Cooper could see himself making some serious progress on the house. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have some extra time on his hands.

And the land…

The property was almost double that of the one Adam had told him about. Hell, the two hundred forty acres were more than worth it. He had plans for the land which was the main draw of the property in the first place.

Movement at the front of the room close to the bar caught Cooper’s attention, and he looked over to see two men going chest to chest.

“Awww, hell. I’ll be right back,” Adam said with a groan, obviously seeing the melee that was about to erupt below.