That Was Then, This Is Now

Part 4

4 Faith POV
We had finished rehearsals and had done our first show in Arizona. I guess looking back I wasn't as, shall we say, immersed in the tour life as I could've been. The whole Scott situation had been weighing me down. As soon as I had arrived for the first day of rehearsals Tim could see that something was wrong. He practically begged me to tell him what it was so that he could fix it. I knew he couldn't but just the idea that someone wanted to take away my struggles was really nice so I told him everything on my tour bus after the first rehearsal over a bottle of Jack Daniels. He was already very attractive but the JD in my system made him seem like everything I had always wanted. Of course he was the perfect gentleman and he even said to me "I don't want to step on anyone's toes." Meaning Scott. But after that drunken rant on my tour bus we became inseparable. We spent basically every waking moment together and I very quickly realised that he was perfect. I wanted him, I still think I do. But to him back then I was off limits. He didn't want to be the side guy. And I was to scared to talk to Scott. I left my wedding ring on the kitchen counter but I never spoke to him. We were performing in Eau Claire and that night as Tim and his band were performing they started doing the electric slide across the stage. I was off in the wings watching him like I do every night and decided to jump on stage and do it with him. I went right in behind him and that was the first time we ever shared the stage. Thinking about that now I realise that I have never felt more comfortable on stage than when I'm on there with Tim. I was in my bus trying to write a song when there was I knock at the door.
"Come in!" I yelled.
"Are you decent?" I heard Tim's voice.
"Yeah, but I don't have to be." I said to him. He stuck his head into the bus and I couldn't help but smile.
"Hey um... I..." He seems nervous. "I asked one of the local guys if I could borrow his jeep tonight. Do you want to go for a ride later?" He asked me. That would go down in the history books as the first time he asked me something nervously, with many more to come.
"Yeah, I would love to." I told him.
"Okay cool. Um I need to shower so in like 30 minutes?" I remember just smiling a whole lot as he shut the door. Something possessed me in that moment to call Scott. God knows why. Maybe I thought we could come to a mutual agreement that we were over and we could both just live our lives. Spoiler alert: Scott is an asshole. I rang his cellphone and remember it rang exactly 3 and a half times before someone answered. I don't think I'm ever going to forget the words I heard on the other end.
"Hi this is Scott's phone, I can see from the caller ID that this is Faith. Scott said to tell you that the morning you went on tour with Tim McGraw you and him were done. Don't call him again." And then she hung up on me. I remember that at first I was sad because I thought he'd moved on, then I was angry that he wouldn't talk to me himself but then the reasonable part of my brain kicked in and I realised that I didn't care. I wanted to break up with him anyway, and now if I want to I can pursue Tim. God I was crazy. I just thought that because I was single now Tim would want to be with me no questions asked. I mean I was right, kinda, but lord was I sure of myself. I got of my bus and I had a certain spring in my step, one that I had not had for a while. I saw Tim standing my the gate waiting. I practically skipped over to him, he must've thought I was mental. I remember us driving along dirt roads with the windows down and the radio on. I remember the gleam in Tim's eye and how he smiled as he turned the steering wheel. We pulled up to a field and he got out. I saw him climb on to the roof of the jeep so I jumped up with him. I wanted to tell him about Scott but I didnt know how. We were quiet for a while and the he broke the silence.
"What is it? There's something you want to tell me. Come on." He said. We had been friends for a few years but it was only in the last while that we had gotten really close but to this day it still blows my mind just how well he knew me then already.
"I broke up with Scott." That was the first time Tim and I kissed. On the top of a red jeep in a field in Eau Claire Wisconsin. I think about that kiss a lot. It was perfect. It was the start of whirlwind secret romance that would only remain secret for a few months and that would cause our managers more grief than anyone else. Tim and I went from spending every waking moment together to spending every moment together. All of a sudden there was an empty tour bus in our fleet that no one knew about. We would run around like naughty school kids trying to keep it a secret. I think that almost everyone knew really. We went on like that for about 4 months, just being content in our secrecy. Then one day we had a meeting with Jack and Gary. I was to busy looking at Tim and holding his hands under the table to fully absorb what they said but I remember it being about how the tour sponsors were upgrading the venues for the rest of the tour, which meant more tickets needed selling and we needed to give people a reason to buy them. As soon as we started on the tour tabloids were publishing articles about us being together and it was a hot topic throughout that tour at the start so I thought maybe we could just go out for coffee together in the next city and tip the paparazzi where and when. Instead the plan that Gary and Jack concocted would pour gasoline on our careers.

Tim POV
A duet. That was all it took to push me over the slippery slope of falling in love with Faith Hill. God if I close my eyes that day plays like a movie in my head. We were in my trailer together, like we always were, and we were trying to pick the song that we would sing as duet for the encore. Apparently the marketing team thought that it would boost sales, people would want to see if it was true. The rumours about Faith and I and they could check it out through the closing duet and our chemistry. That marketing team clearly knew what they were doing. Faith was sitting with the guitar and I was flipping through song books and we were getting absolutely nowhere. So instead we talked about what the future could be like.
"Tim, we are having a lot of fun but can to people in this business really have a solid relationship?" She had asked me. And god that haunts me still. She was right. How did we expect 2 artists to be able to maintain a healthy relationship, we were young and dumb. Maybe if I had had a good answer for her or had something that would've set us up for success further down the road we'd have gone better but I guess I didn't say enough. I can't even remember what I said, probably something cheesy and generic about how if anyone can do it we can, we're going to be fine as long as we stick together. What an idiot. We spent that night talking about a future we would never have and I still think about some of the things we said we wanted. 5 kids. A big house with farmland. Maybe a Grammy or two. But family first always. On paper we couldn't have been more perfect. I remember seeing that it was passed midnight and that we hadn't picked out a duet yet.
"Okay I'll flick through the book you say stop and whatever song we land in we do." I told her.
"Okay...stop."
Ding ding ding we had a winner. I really want to see you tonight. The way we did it because of how the song was made it more me serenading her to start with, but as the song went on she would join in an we would do a little slow dance in the instrumental and the sound of her voice when it was just for me was the best thing I had ever heard. From that first rehearsal in my bus I knew that I loved Faith Hill. I knew that she was going to be the one for me and that I would never feel that way for anyone else ever.