Grace Unplugged: A Novel by Melody Carlson

here.”
    “Look, Moss, this is wrong, and you know it.”
    “What, Johnny?” Mossy sounded offended now. “What’s wrong?”
    “My only kid. You rip her right out from under my nose.”
    “Rip her from under your nose? Are you serious?”
    Johnny was pacing now, back and forth like a caged tiger ready to go for blood. “I’m dead serious, Moss. You stole my baby, and I want her back. I’m coming after you, man.”
    “Are you insane?” Mossy sounded indignant now. “I’m taking a chance on her. I came for you, remember? But you kicked me to the curb again. Just like you used to do.”
    “Wait a minute!” He stopped pacing. “I honored every agreement we ever had. This had nothing to with that, and you know it!”
    “Hey, I poured my life into you, man. Even when you fell apart, I stuck by you.”
    “And I gave you my publishing!” Johnny was pacing again.
    “I never asked for it. All I know is, after twenty years I come to you for one favor. And you. Said. No.”
    Johnny wanted to hit something . . . or someone. “How can you do this to me, man?”
    “Do what?”
    “Steal my little girl.”
    “Listen, Johnny, I’m not going to tell you this again. I did not steal anyone’s little girl. Your adult daughter, who happens to be brilliant, came to me . What did you expect me to do? Turn her away? Ignore her talent?”
    “What do you mean she came to you? I don’t believe it. You cast out a line and pulled her in. I know you.”
    “You don’t know—”
    “You promised you’d make her a star, didn’t you? You told her she’d be living the big life and—”
    “For your information, Johnny, your daughter came to me. When she saw you turn me down that day, her musician’s mind went to work. She made a demo of ‘Misunderstood,’ and she sent it to me. Naturally, she didn’t want you to know about any of this because, as you’ve just shown me today, you would’ve flipped out. Seems that Grace knows you a lot better than I do.”
    Johnny sat down in his desk chair, trying to process this. Grace had approached Mossy, not the other way around.
    “And just so you know, Johnny, Grace’s demo was brilliant. Everyone who’s seen it is totally taken with her. She’s got real star quality. So, really, it’s pretty simple. When plan A didn’t fly, I moved on to plan B. To be perfectly honest, I’m already liking it a lot better anyway.”
    “Don’t do this, Mossy.” Johnny leaned forward on his desk, running his hands through his hair. Somehow he had to stop this machine, but he had no idea how. “She’s just a kid,” he said meekly.
    “You know, your daughter has you pegged, man, she really does! I get this isn’t your thing anymore, but now you wanna kill her dream too? Listen, I got a new talent that starts gigging tomorrow, and I gotta lot of work to do before then.” He paused as if to let this sink into Johnny’s already throbbing head. “Give my love to Shelly.” Then the phone line went dead. Mossy had hung up on him.
    Now Johnny did something that he hadn’t done in years. He cupped his head in his hands and he cried. Just like a broken little kid, he cried and cried. And then he did what he should’ve done right from the start, he humbled himself and asked for God’s help to untangle this mess.

Chapter 9
    G race knew this was her big night, her first gig in a real club. A Hollywood club. Her emotions were a gnarled ball of threads—excitement, fear, hopefulness, anxiety—all of it was twisted inside of her. “Just breathe,” Mossy said as he handed the keys to the parking lot valet. “You’re going to be fine.”
    She looked down at the outfit she had sweated bullets over and hoped she got it right. First she’d wanted to dress older and had several outfits lined up that would’ve helped her pass for mid-twenties. But then she remembered how Mossy had told her just to wear whatever she was comfortable in. So she’d done that. And now she wasn’t sure she had made