Free Yes to Everything by Shayne McClendon Page B

they wore as they turned to head back inside.
    The siblings and their entourage filled the limo with happy laughter; the three women chatting animatedly and not discussing the twins in any way. The minute they entered the suite, every one of them stripped out of their party clothes, pulled on pajamas, and crashed hard.
    For the first time in a very long time all of them slept late. It felt amazing.

Chapter Eight
    The next morning, Brooke opened the laptop Travis had insisted on giving her. Her screensaver was the day of the photo shoot when they were all playing in the water together.
    She wrote a personal check to an elderly woman back home in Idabel and tucked it into the shipping box Jeanette offered to take downstairs for her. Miss Harmon was in poor health and wasn’t wealthy but had helped Brooke on two separate occasions when she’d needed urgent repairs on her old truck. Her grandson had driven out to the ranch with the parts and repaired it in her barn. Brooke had never forgotten it and it had felt good to send her a beautiful, hand-crafted quilt and a check for double the amount she felt she owed.
    Checking the news and weather, she saw a picture in the local celebrity section of Logan and Decklan leaving the party the night before with a lovely brunette with a caption that read, “Lucky Girl”. It hurt her but she pretended it didn’t and let it go. She didn’t have any claim on the Bradshaw brothers and she never would. That was reality.
    She copied the picture and put it in a file labeled ‘Logan & Decklan’ as a reminder that the Bradshaw brothers could never…would never…be hers.
    Eventually everyone stumbled out of the bedrooms looking groggy but happy. They went for brunch close to noon and two young women asked for Brooke’s autograph. Shyly, her surprise at being recognized evident, she gave it to them then posed for a picture. They looked about her age so she exchanged email addresses. She told them she’d welcome their emails on the road since she was bound to get bored.
    They headed to the studio and she was working with the techs for almost two hours before the brothers showed up. They sipped coffee and watched her work through bleary eyes. Brooke controlled her thoughts, refusing to let them race over the many reasons they were so exhausted. Logan tried to rub her shoulders and she subtly stepped away pretending to need water.
    From their first true studio session together, Brooke had known she would always work harder than they did but she didn’t mind. She had more time to make up, more people to support on the money she earned. There was more at stake for her and she had to make sure her inclusion in their band worked out.
    Putting a little bit of distance between them was better for her personally and professionally.
    Three days after the album wrap party the local radio stations started playing their first single. Within forty-eight hours the fan mail started arriving. The label was forwarding it from Nashville to the satellite studio in Dallas.
    Brooke got Jackson to help her sort through it. There were envelopes with letters and cash, photos of potential suitors, jewelry, stuffed animals, and plane tickets to visit people she’d never met. It was surreal.
    He helped catalogue everything and she created a thank you template on her computer. She returned the jewelry with a personal note, donated the stuffed animals to a local Dallas shelter that helped families with small children, and divided the cash between a charity for military veterans and the ASPCA.
    On her blog on the band website, she made a list of what kinds of things she’d received and what she’d done with them. She thanked her fans and explained it looked like her days of struggling financially were behind her. That they should keep the money for their own families but if they sent it to her, she’d give it to those in need.
    “Instead, why don’t you look around in your city or town and find a family like mine?