Meant to Marry Me: Nashville Country Dreams Part 1 novel Chapter 17

“Good afternoon, we are here today on Nashville Rising Star with one of the newest voices in country music, Bree Matthews. Bree, it’s nice to have you with us.”

“It’s nice to be here.” Bree took a few deep breaths and tried to still her racing heart. In the last year, she’d done a ton of interviews, but this was the biggest one to date. Alice Kingston was one of the most popular journalists in Nashville, and her show had a huge following. Bree was so thankful her agent, Zelda, was able to get this booking for her.

“Tell us, Bree, what’s it like to be one of the most popular up and coming faces in the country recording industry today?”

“It’s amazing,” Bree said with a giggle. Even though this was a radio show and podcast, she knew it was also recorded and put on YouTube and other sites. She was sitting in a radio station room a few feet away from Alice, who was a lot shorter in person, with giant red hair that would’ve looked perfect in Texas. Her producer, a man by the name of Frank Wilson, sat on the other side of a glass window in a little booth, signaling them mostly with his hands, unless there was a commercial, then he might talk to them.

“Have you always wanted to be a recording artist?”

“Absolutely. Ever since my grandma taught me how to play the guitar when I was a little girl, I’ve dreamt of living this life--playing my music for people. It’s certainly a dream come true.”

“That’s great. You say your grandma taught you how to play. Does she sing as well?”

“She does--though not professionally. We would sing at church together sometimes. And sometimes my mama would join us.”

“What a nice little family trio,” Alice chuckled. “What about your dad?”

“Oh, no. Daddy always joked if you gave him a bucket to carry a tune in, he’d still manage to trip and spill it.” That got Alice laughing again, which put Bree at ease.

The interview went on for about thirty minutes with a few breaks for commercials before Alice said, “Now, Bree, tell us about your most popular song. Anyone who listens to radio stations like ours that play up and coming singers will recognize it. It’s called ‘Meant to Marry Me.’ What was your inspiration for such a beautiful, heartbreaking song? You’re not old enough to be thinking about getting married, are you?”

Bree laughed, though Alice had asked a question that pained her to think about. “I’m old enough to get married now, but when I wrote it, I probably wasn’t really. I wasn’t ready to anyway. It isn’t really about getting married, though, obviously. If you listen to the lyrics, you’ll hear it’s just about growing up thinking your life is going to be one way--maybe you’ll have a certain job, or live in a certain place, or marry a certain person, and then you get there, and you find out it’s not really like that at all. You have to be able to say it’s not what I wanted, but I’m gonna have to move on, that’s all.”

“Deep thoughts for a woman your age. How old were you when you wrote it?”

“I was twenty-one,” Bree said, remembering that night in the dorms when she’d discovered Sam was cheating on her like it was yesterday.

“And now you’re, what, twenty-three?”

“Almost twenty-four.”

“So still, pretty young for these sorts of philosophical thoughts. We heard from a young man a few weeks ago who said on his Twitter feed that he was there the night you wrote it, that you’d caught your college sweetheart cheating on you, and that’s where the song originated. Is there any truth to that?”

Bree had heard the same thing--from Jeff. He had been there that night. She shook her head. “No, not exactly. While it’s true that I did write the song after I caught my then-boyfriend sleeping with my college roommate, the song isn’t about him.”

“Would that be Sam Fowler, the guitar player for the band Back Roads? It’s fairly common knowledge that the two of you dated and used to play together.”

Sam’s band had also been doing well lately, which was great for him. He’d apologized so many times for what happened, Bree wasn’t even angry at him anymore. But she’d never give him another chance. Still, she didn’t want to embarrass him. “I did date Sam in college. He’s a great guy. I would rather not get into the specifics, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s understandable. But you say he wasn’t the one who inspired the song? Was it someone else that you thought you might marry?”

Again, Bree couldn’t bring herself to talk about that. She’d never said anything to directly tie Trent to the song, not in concert, not in an interview, never. She shrugged. “It’s probably more of a figurative person, someone who’s comprised of a lot of different people in my life. As we grow and change, we move on, and the people in our lives change as well. We go from being children who see our parents every day to adults who see them occasionally in the blink of an eye. The same can be said for our friends, neighbors, coworkers, everyone. Sometimes we think we’ve found someone who will be with us always, but they’re not. It can be hard. But we have no choice but to adjust and keep going.”