Hearts on Broadway (Book 2)

Chapter 14 - A Step Forward, A Step Back

The gentle strum of Georgie's guitar filled the living room, a soft melody echoing off the walls of her mother's home. Her fingers moved effortlessly across the strings, as if they remembered what her mind sometimes forgot—music was the one place where she could still feel in control. Each note she played, each lyric she scribbled down in her worn notebook, helped her clear the fog that often clouded her mind.

It had been four months since she left Nashville. Four months of therapy, of adjusting to her medication, of learning to navigate the emotional storm that had swept her away from Morgan and Jackson. Four months of healing, though it felt like the progress was slow, almost imperceptible at times. She was better, in some ways—less consumed by anxiety, less overwhelmed by the crushing weight of her depression—but she still wasn't ready to go back.

Her mother, Joan, had been her rock through all of it. Quietly supportive, never pushing her to talk when she wasn't ready, but always there when Georgie needed to share what was weighing on her. The therapy sessions had been hard at first—opening up about the deep sense of inadequacy she had been harboring for months, admitting that she had felt like she was failing as a mother and partner—but slowly, with each session, she began to untangle the thoughts that had been suffocating her.

The antidepressants and anxiety medication had made a difference too. At first, she was skeptical, worried that the medication would dull her creativity, or worse, make her feel like someone else entirely. But instead, they had brought a sense of calm, a stillness to the storm that had been raging in her mind. She could breathe again, think clearly, and—most importantly—she could sleep. The restless nights spent wide awake, consumed by the fear that she wasn't enough, had finally started to fade into the past.

Still, despite the progress, Georgie couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't ready to go back to her life in Nashville. Every time she thought about Morgan, about Jackson, the guilt would return, twisting in her chest. How could she face them when she still wasn't the person they needed her to be? How could she go back when she was still trying to piece herself back together?

She strummed another chord on her guitar, the sound soft and soothing. Music had always been her escape, but now it was something more. It was therapy, a way to channel the emotions she couldn't always put into words. Her therapist had suggested she start writing again, and though it had been difficult at first—her creative spark buried under months of doubt and self-loathing—she had found her way back to it. Slowly, one song at a time, she was finding her voice again.

Georgie glanced down at the notebook resting on the coffee table. The pages were filled with half-finished lyrics, melodies that had come to her in the quiet moments of the night when the world was still and her mind was calm. She wasn't writing for anyone else now—not for the label, not for the fans, not even for Morgan. She was writing for herself, and that was enough.

Her phone buzzed beside her, pulling her from her thoughts. She picked it up, expecting a message from Joan, who was out running errands, but instead saw a string of notifications from social media. Her stomach twisted. She had been staying off social media as much as possible—her therapist had warned her about the dangers of comparing herself to others, about how easy it was to spiral into self-doubt when faced with the carefully curated lives of people online—but curiosity got the better of her.

She opened one of the messages, her heart sinking as she read the words: "Is it true you and Morgan aren't together anymore? Everyone's talking about it! What happened?"

Georgie's breath caught in her throat. Her fingers hovered over the screen as she scrolled through more messages, each one filled with speculation about her and Morgan. Her heart raced as she clicked on a link that had been sent to her, leading her to an article plastered with headlines like "Morgan Wallen's New Music Hints at Relationship Troubles" and "Are Morgan and Georgie Day Over?"