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“I only found out about it myself,” Danielle said inside her spacious downtown Nashville apartment, shaking her head as if she were deeply troubled.
“Julian has never needed much managing, not even as a child.
That is not always a blessing.
At the very least, he should have discussed something this big with his family.”
She was talking about Julian’s move to take Playboy private.
She sounded exasperated, but the pride leaking through her voice was almost impossible to miss.
She was proud of her adopted son from the bottom of her heart.
“I mentioned it to Mr.
Moretti,” Julian said helplessly.
“His exact response was, either you are drunk, or I am.”
Even he had not been completely sure the deal would go through, so he had not said much beforehand.
“And Playboy is not the only thing,” Faith Hill said, still not entirely over the shock.
“Julian also plans to enter the record business.
He wants to buy the company Taylor is signed to.”
Judging by Danielle’s expression, Faith could tell Julian had not mentioned that either.
“That one happened because of the situation,” Julian said quickly.
“If I had not met Taylor, I would not have moved this fast.
I had not even had time to bring it up.”
Danielle narrowed her eyes at him.
“At next year’s birthday party, are you going to walk in with a woman on your arm and a baby in your hands?” she demanded.
Her cheeks were red, and she was clearly several drinks past sober.
“Absolutely not,” Julian corrected her at once.
“At the very least, I would invite you to the wedding.”
Before his mother could work herself into a real temper, Julian retreated to the bedroom she always kept ready for him.
He lay on the bed, opened his BlackBerry, and checked the public reaction to the Playboy deal.
Most mainstream outlets were neutral to negative.
A few called him a corporate raider.
One columnist had settled on thief and seemed pleased with himself.
Julian closed the browser and sent a message to Hadley.
How did the interview perform?
Her reply came back quickly.
Ratings were good.
My news director is happy.
They are giving me a temporary afternoon talk show slot.
Going from field correspondent to on-air host in a single leap was a meteoric promotion.
Given enough time, Hadley might become very useful.
When Julian came out of the bedroom, the party was basically over.
Only the steakhouse crew remained, clearing plates and gathering trash.
Taylor sat by the bay window, watching the city while attacking a plate of food with impressive focus.
Gabriela stood not far away.
After Julian had left earlier, she had seemed distracted, but now she was back to work, collecting dishes with quiet efficiency.
Faith and Danielle were still on the sofa, talking in low voices.
From the shape of the conversation, Julian guessed they were discussing the record company.
“Faith values that girl so much, and now Julian has stepped right into the middle of it,” Danielle said with a sigh.
Her tone made it clear she had already agreed to work on Taylor’s arrangements.
“The people at RCA are going to lose their minds.”
“Scott has not answered yet,” Faith said, swirling champagne in her glass.
She looked eager now, almost restless.
“He is probably asleep.
I will call him tomorrow.”
Faith leaned back against the sofa.
Outside, on the roadside, the light had been too dim to do her justice.
Under the bright indoor lamps, she looked radiant.
She wore tight black leather pants and tall leather boots.
After coming inside, she had taken off her denim jacket, leaving only a clean white top beneath it.
Her figure, polished makeup, and pale blond hair gave her the same bright, dangerous pull as the champagne in her hand.
Julian had to revise his earlier assessment.
Faith Hill was still at the height of her looks, just in a different register than she had been during her younger peak.
One word covered it neatly: mature.
Taylor, by contrast, still needed time and a great deal of shaping.
At this stage, if someone dropped her into a crowd, she would stand out mostly because of her height.
In Julian’s old timeline, her transformation had been obvious: styling, designer clothes, makeup artists, hair professionals, expensive gowns, and, most importantly, the confidence to occupy a room.
“Now we need to think about the next step,” Julian said, sitting across from Faith and Danielle.
“How do we make Taylor famous quickly?
How do we get attention?”
The pieces were in place.
The question was how to turn them into a launch.
Faith drained the champagne in her glass.
She was a singer and knew the machinery behind a launch.
“The simple answer is resources,” she said.
“Media appearances, radio, magazine placements, every promotional slot we can get.
You pay promotion people, you work radio, and the results usually rise with the budget.”
Then she glanced toward Taylor.
“But you control a magazine.
That gives you a natural promotional channel.
You could take a different route.
Put Taylor on the cover.
Do a pictorial.
Assuming she agrees.”
Taylor was still focused on her food and had not noticed the conversation.
Julian looked over at her and made the blunt calculation.
Taylor was tall, striking in potential, but not yet visually commanding in the way a magazine cover demanded.
“If we put her alone on the cover right now, sales would go down,” he said honestly.
The audience wanted impact, confidence, and a look that could stop someone at a newsstand.
Taylor was still too unpolished for that.
“But the idea is right,” Julian continued.
“We need a spark.
Something with contrast.
Something that makes people curious at a glance.”
He thought it through and finally looked at his mother’s old friend.
Compared with Taylor, Faith was fire.
“What are you thinking?” Faith asked, suddenly alert.
She folded her arms across her chest.
“Faith Hill, country crossover star, brings a new artist with her.
You and Taylor together on the March cover.
The cover line writes itself: A Challenge to Traditional Country Music.”
Julian liked the plan.
He was not throwing words around.
Faith truly fit the angle.
Country music’s core audience was still strongest in the South, the part of American mainstream culture that often read as the most conservative.
That audience also overlapped with a surprising number of the magazine’s buyers.
Plenty of men who had once listened to Faith Hill would notice a cover like that.
“An established country icon and the next breakout star on the same cover,” Julian said.
“That contrast gives the issue real weight.
It might even revive magazine sales.
A true win-win.”
In Julian’s private dictionary, win-win meant he won twice.
“How could that possibly work?” Faith said, looking embarrassed despite herself.
“I am not exactly known for posing in Playboy, you know.”
Even a non-nude pictorial would mean posing in lingerie and showing more skin than she was comfortable with.
“That is exactly why it works,” Julian said, moving into persuasion mode.
Danielle, meanwhile, was grinning from the sidelines, enjoying the show far too much.
“For my sake alone, you have to say yes,” she said.
“We are all grown women.
What is there to be shy about?
Call it art.
Call it making up for the recklessness we did not enjoy when we were young.”
Her cheeks were flushed, and alcohol had made her tone looser than usual.
Taylor finally realized all three of them were discussing something serious.
When Julian brought her into it, her face went pale.
“Taylor,” Julian said, “you do not want to spend your life singing in small bars, do you?
This may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I am not forcing anyone.
Think it through.”
Her parents had sold their farm in Pennsylvania and moved the family to Nashville to help her chase this dream, and Taylor still felt as if she had not done enough.
After RCA decided she was not ready and wanted to shelve her for a few more years, she had been forced to move to a tiny new label.
Now another door was opening, frightening and enormous at the same time.
After a long internal struggle, Taylor clenched her teeth.
“I agree.”
Once Taylor agreed, Faith found it harder to refuse.
If the newcomer was willing to take the risk, Faith could hardly ask her to face it alone.
Taylor hesitated, then added, “But I have two conditions.
First, you have to talk to my parents.
My mom will kill me if this gets back to her the wrong way.”
“I will handle that,” Faith said.
“Second,” Taylor said, holding on to the one line she would not cross, “I want a female photographer.”
“Agreed,” Julian said.
“The shoot will have an all-female crew.”
Only then did the tension break.
Julian and Faith first guided a thoroughly tipsy Danielle to bed.
Once the living room was mostly clean, Julian settled the catering bill with the steakhouse crew.
Then he looked toward Gabriela, who was waiting nearby.
It was time for the audition.
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Ready for more?
I hope this chapter drew you further into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.