You got to Me (Love on Tour #3) (15 page)

“Yeah,” I said softly. “It’s not an issue.”

Sam and I stayed quiet for a long time. He continued to rub my back.

“What about you, Sam? You ever fall for someone like that?”

“Lots of times, sweetie. Lots of times, and they all ended badly. But it was different.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. It just was.”

19

I had been trying to get a moment alone with Lyle since Baltimore. And now we were in Orlando. We’d picked Dani up at the airport that morning, without little Henry, who was staying with my mom. There was a party happening for my sister in a big room down the hall. But I’d snuck out, and was roaming around backstage in search of Lyle.

Lyle had been Sean’s back-up guitarist for seven or eight years now. He was a good guy, and a good friend of Sean’s. He was also married and stable, unlike any of the other musicians they traveled with. I liked him, and he seemed to like me. I figured I could get him to tell me what happened with Victoria Dee.

I found him coming out of a little room off the main hall, just hanging up his phone. I guessed that he’d been hiding somewhere quiet while he talked to his wife, Sue.

“Hey, Lyle,” I said, bounding up to him. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Oh yeah?” He threw an arm around my shoulder and walked down the hall with me. “You’re not in the Baby welcoming party down the hall?”

“No, I wanted to talk to you. I’m dying to know, who did you call when you had Victoria Dee trapped in the hallway?”

He laughed and pulled me into a little alcove near the backstage area. “Gloria Rushton.”

“You called Sean’s mom?”

“Yep. Vicky’s terrified of her, has been since she and Sean were dating.”

“What did she say?”

“Well, I put Gloria on speaker phone and I told her that Vicky was there and was harassing Sean. Gloria went off. She started screaming into the phone. She said that she’d jump on a plane and come down there and deal with her herself. She said that there weren’t enough cops and lawyers on the planet to keep her from ripping Vicky apart. And she called her a ‘little whore.’” He chuckled.

“No way.”

“Oh, yeah. That woman is straight scary. Bell ever tell you about their showdown at the barbeque?”

“Yeah, she did.”

Gloria Rushton’s intense overprotectiveness when it came to her men made Sean look tame by comparison. My sister had gotten lucky and won Gloria over quickly. But it hadn’t been easy. Bell had a harder time. After all, Hank counted as one of Gloria’s men, too.

“You better watch out, Lisa.”

“Me?”

He grinned at me. “Because I’m pretty sure you’re sleeping with her son.”

“What? What would make you say that?”

“Well, everybody knows Sam has a thing for you. And all of sudden he stops hitting on you and he stops asking everyone’s advice on how to get you to go out with him. Okay, so maybe he didn’t ask everyone’s advice. But he did ask mine, and he just up and stopped. And the two of you walk around looking all happy and shit all the time. I’m pretty sure you’re sleeping together.”

My mouth was hanging open like a fish.

“Don’t worry, Lisa. I won’t say anything. But when it does all come out, just beware of Gloria.”

Lyle patted me on the shoulder and walked away.

****

“This is a shitty situation,” Sam grumbled. “Your room is on one side of Sean and Baby’s and mine is on the other. So, one, no loud sex, and two, when I leave here and head to my room, I have to do it really early in the morning so I don’t get caught by my damn brother.”

“Why don’t you just tell him the truth?” I said, pulling off his shirt.

“Really?”

I shrugged. “How bad could it be?”

I pushed him down on the bed and straddled him. Then I pulled off my own shirt.

“Yeah, you’re right. So what if Sean throws a fit. Besides, Baby is here to calm him down. Of course, I suppose that depends on how she feels about it.”

“She’s fine with it,” I said, leaning over on my hands so I could look down at him.

“You told her?”

Oops.

“Yeah, I did.”

“All of it, even the stairwell?”

“Yeah, even the stairwell. In fact, after that, she suggested that we have more sex.”

Sam flipped me around so that I was under him and examined me. “Which means?”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t think so.” He kissed a trail down my neck, over my chest, and stopped just short of the top of my bra. “I think it means you told her it was good.”

“You do, huh?”

“I do.”

“Why? Are you insecure all of a sudden?”

He got a very contemplative look on his face and leaned on one elbow. “Not insecure, exactly. But I like knowing what you like. And I like being the one to give you what you like.”

“Hmm, you do give me what I like.”

“I wasn’t so sure in Chicago.”

“You weren’t? I had an orgasm,” I pointed out.

Sam and I were good at this. We could talk about sex with no qualms. Maybe it was because it was the basis of our relationship, or fling, or whatever it was.

“Yeah, but then you said you wanted to pretend it never happened.”

“I was just upset about sleeping with you, young’un.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Was it your first time doing it in a public place?”

“Are you kidding? Of course. I already explained about my ex.”

“Yeah, but since then.”

I bit my lip.

“Lisa?”

“There hasn’t been anyone since then.”

“Oh, wow.” Sam rolled over on his back, away from me.

“Sammy?” I leaned over him. “It’s not a big deal. It’s not like I’m going to go crazy stalker on you because you gave me my first lay in four years.”

He ran his hand over his face. “That’s not it.”

“No.”

“I just don’t understand how. God, Leese, I figured the way you knew what you were doing, that you, ya know,
knew
what you were doing.”

“Not really. I was just going with the flow. I think it’s time you admit
you
knew what
you
were doing.”

He laughed. “You wanna know about my sex life?”

“Kind of. I mean, you know about mine.”

“I guess I do. Wow. Okay, I’ll tell you. I’ve been with eight girls. I was pretty sure I was madly in love with six of them.”

“Six?”

“Yeah. Ridiculous I know. But I had this bad habit of getting super into a girl and convincing myself that she was ‘the one.’”

“My little brother does exactly the same thing,” I said.

“It’s embarrassing as hell. And my family makes it all into a big joke. But it kept me on an emotional rollercoaster for a long time. I did, however, come to realize that none of those women was even close to being the love of my life. She’ll be someone else, and I’ll feel totally different when I meet her.”

“Let me guess, Sean and Baby are the reason you figured that out.”

“No, actually it was Hank and Bell. I mean Hank was, without a doubt, the world’s biggest slut. And one day he just turns.” Sam snaps his fingers. “Just like that. And he’s never going to look back.”

“He better not,” I said.

“So I figure that will happen to me some day, too.”

“I’m sure it will. Now come here and get me naked. I’ll try to keep quiet.”

****

“So, I have something I need to tell everyone. Lisa and I are having sex. I sneak into her hotel room every night.”

Holy shit.

The room went completely still for a long beat. Everyone had been in the process of sipping on their coffee, or eating their eggs and bacon. And they all went still, Hank, Bell, Mike, Baby, and especially Sean.

“I fuckin’ knew it,” Hank said.

“You did not,” Bell responded.

“I knew it was only a matter of time.”

We all looked at Sean.

“Honey, I don’t think you need to freak out about this. I mean, they are two consenting adults,” Baby said.

He looked at her for a moment, and his eyes narrowed. “You knew.”

She nodded.

“And I suppose the reason this was all a big secret was because everyone thought I would flip out?” Sean asked.

“That is exactly what we thought you’d do,” Sam said.

“Oh, so you decided to break the news over fucking breakfast,” I said to Sam.

Sam shrugged. “I figured Hank could help keep me from getting my ass kicked.”

Sean turned away from Baby and looked at his brother. “You thought I would kick your ass?”

“Just a little. Like the time I stole Mom and Dad’s car and went joyriding.”

“Huh?” Sean looked around the room at all of us. “You’re all just waiting for me to lose my shit, aren’t you?”

“Pretty much,” Hank said.

Sean leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.

“You’re not mad?” Sam asked him.

“No.”

“Are you mad at me?” Dani asked.

“Of course not.”

“Okay, this is new,” Mike said.

“Look, I realize that I’m an overprotective bear.”

“You’re not a bear,” Mike said. “I am.”

It must have been a joke I didn’t get, because Hank laughed.

“But,” Sean continued. “I’m working on it. I don’t want Henry to grow up afraid to tell me anything because I’ll freak out.”

Dani reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

“Besides, how do I protect you from each other?” he said to Sam and me. Then he looked at Baby. “Pieces right?”

“That’s right,” she said.

What the hell did that mean?

“Well, I guess we don’t have to spring for an extra hotel room anymore,” Mike said.

20

Sharing a hotel room with Sam was far different from him just sneaking in and out of mine. He was there with me all the time now. When I was working on my computer, he was on the bed watching TV. I read a book while he talked to venue managers on the phone. And I was pleased to discover that he never left the cap off the toothpaste, and once he even changed the empty toilet paper roll.

But it was disturbing, too, because it didn’t bother me to be with him so much. We got along very well. And I was afraid that one of us, particularly Sam, would get attached. That would not be good, because this was all going to end when we got back to Malibu.

It was also inconvenient because on our first night in New Orleans I had to find a way to get away from Sam. I had become convinced in the last few days that Hank was up to something. He’d been acting very strange. And Mike had been covering up for whatever it was. In fact, I had caught both of them having suspect phone calls that immediately ended when I walked in.

Bell had become very important to me, and I wasn’t about to let the world’s biggest player take her down in a ball of flames. I was determined to find out what he was up to and put a stop it somehow, or if I had to, tell Bell. It was better for her to know now what she was facing then to find out later, when it would be worse.

I had figured out, through some pretty serious eavesdropping, that Hank and Mike were heading out to a restaurant somewhere and that they were meeting with someone, definitely a female someone. On top of it, it was Bell’s birthday and Sean, not Hank, was taking her to a museum she wanted to see. The whole thing stunk like yesterday’s garbage.

Sam and I were supposed to go to dinner. So I told him he smelled and needed a shower. I waited until he was in there. Then I slipped out of our room and down the hall. I hid just around the corner from Mike’s room.

I sat there for about ten minutes before Hank showed up. “Ready to do this, Mikey.”

“Me? I should be asking you that.”

“I’m good man, really.”

“You look a little pale.”

“Shut up.”

I took the stairs down to the first floor and watched as they walked from the elevator to the front door of the hotel. They were catching a cab. I moved over to where the bus was parked. Tony was sitting in it, waiting to take me and Sam to dinner.

“Tony, I need you to follow Hank and Mike,” I told him frantically.

“What? No way.” He turned back to his magazine.

“Tony, they’re up to something.”

“Mind your own business, Lisa.”

I ran out of the bus just in time to see the cab with Mike and Hank in it pull away. I ran to the next cab in line and threw myself into the front seat.

“Follow that taxi,” I demanded.

The guy was good, real good. He kept up with Hank and Mike. We stopped one car behind them when they pulled up outside a swanky-looking seafood restaurant. I waited until they were in the restaurant before I gave the guy a big tip and got out of the car.

That’s when I saw Melanie coming from the parking lot and rounding the corner of the building. She went right inside.

Melanie was a good friend of Dani’s. They used to work as park rangers together. She’d recently moved to New Orleans from Denver. She’d been at the wedding. In fact, my brother Brad had caught her and Hank making out in a closet during the reception.

I walked into the restaurant and looked around, but there was no sign of anyone. I walked up to the hostess and tried to look important and demanding. “Where’s Hank Tolk’s party?”

She glared at me. “I’m not telling you, honey. They are not to be disturbed.”

I sighed. “Don’t I look familiar?”

“Honey, if I had a dime… Oh wait, you look kinda like Baby Rush.”

Ugh.

“Yeah, I’m her sister. Hank’s expecting me.”

“Oh, sorry. They’re in the private dining room on the left.”

I marched in there and caught Melanie and Hank in a compromising situation. She had her hand on his chest and she was cooing, “It’s hard to believe you’re off the market.”

“I knew it!” I said.

“Hi, Lisa,” Melanie said, turning away from Hank and walking toward me.

“Stop,” I held my hand up. “I know you don’t know Bell very well. But you should still be ashamed of yourself.” Then I turned to Hank. “But not as ashamed as you.”

“What are you talking about?” Melanie asked.

“How did you get here? Sam’s supposed to be with you,” Mike said.

“I’ve been watching you, Hank, and you’ve been acting awfully fishy lately. So I followed you. Tony wouldn’t help me, said to mind my own business. But I found an excellent cab driver.”

“You’re insane,” Hank said.

“I talked to Brad at the wedding, you know. I know all about your little tryst in the closet.”

“That’s ancient history,” Melanie said. “And that was before Hank even met Bell.”

I ignored her. “And today you have Sean taking Bell on a trip to the museum. How convenient!”

“What exactly do you think is going on here?” Hank asked me. “We’re doing something so kinky it involves Mike and a computer?”

I looked around the room for the first time. It was set up for a party, with one long table in the center and banquet tables along the far wall. Mike stood beside a laptop that was perched in the center of the long table.

I didn’t know what all that was about. But I was having trouble with logic. I was angry. I was crazy in that moment. I pointed my finger at Hank’s chest. “Bell deserves better than this, Hank. If you don’t tell her you’re running around, I will.”

“Lisa, listen,” Hank said.

But I was pissed and I wasn’t listening. “I will tell her!”

“Tell me what?” Bell stood in the doorway with Sean. “Oh my God. It’s my birthday surprise!” she said. “Seafood!”

She ran into Hank’s arms.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said, gathering her up.

I was still so mad that I felt like I was out of control. I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, “Bell, Hank is up to something. Something other than a birthday surprise.”

“Come on Lisa, make yourself comfortable.” Melanie pushed me across the room and shoved me into a chair. Damn, she was strong.

“Hello! Hello! Oh my God, what’s this?” Dani called out. Her face appeared on the computer screen that was sitting just a few feet from where Melanie had forced me into the hard wooden chair.

“Baby!” Bell squealed. “Oh Hank, you are something else.”

“Am I part of a surprise? Awesome! Happy Birthday, Bell!” Dani said.

“It’s more than that,” Hank said. “Actually, I have something to ask you.”

Oh my God. I was an idiot.

“I couldn’t find Lisa anywhere–” Sam came barreling into the room, his hair still wet from the shower. He looked around. “Oh, this is it. Sorry.”

So, he knew, too. Well, I’ll be damned.

Hank reached into his pocket and pulled out a big diamond ring. He looked at Bell with the sweetest expression I’ve ever seen on his face. “I wanna know if you’ll marry me.”

****

“I’m a complete moron,” I told Sam that night in our hotel room.

“I thought it was kinda cute how you went running in there to save Bell.”

“I wouldn’t have done it if you’d just told me, asshole.”

He laughed. “It was a secret.”

I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back on the headboard. “There is a good possibility you are not getting laid tonight.”

“Lisa,” he sat down on the edge of the bed. “You were trying to protect your friend.”

“She’s not my friend, she’s Baby’s – damn it – I mean, Dani’s friend.”

“She’s your friend, too.”

“Whatever.”

“Lisa,” he leaned toward me. “She’s your friend.”

“Why does it matter?”

“It matters a lot. Because you refuse to accept that you have any close relationships outside of your family.”

“What? You’re just talking crazy now.”

“Quit deflecting. You push people away. It’s why you had a crush on Sean. It was easier than accepting that you had just gained a brother.”

It was entirely possible that Sam was right about this. I didn’t like it. So I got mean. “I had a crush on Sean because he’s hot.”

“Thank you. After all, everyone says I look like him.”

I didn’t see the ways he looked like Sean. I saw all the ways he looked different. I saw the way his face was softer, his eyes a lighter brown, and his chin more rounded. That chin had a soft coating of fuzz on it again, and I really liked that.

“And it did not escape my attention that you said ‘had.’”

“I
have
friends,” I said, moving the conversation away from Sean.

“Oh yeah, like who?”

Shit.

“There’s a couple women in the department I go out with once a month.”

“Faculty night out. Please.”

“And there’s this lady I serve on a board with, she and I get along great.”

“Yeah? You ever see her outside a board function? Lisa, do you have any friends you would throw yourself under the bus for? Humiliate yourself in front of everyone for?”

“Apparently, just Bell. I’m a loser, okay.”

He put his finger under my chin and tilted my head up. “No. You’re just finally scaling the brick wall that fucker Roger erected around your heart.”

“I am so not interested in more of your psychobabble,” I said sharply.

“Okay, you want a change of subject?”

“Please.”

He reached into the drawer of the nightstand next to him and pulled out a box the size of a piece of bread.

“Bell’s not the only one who got a present today. I got you something, too.”

He opened the box to reveal a beautiful diamond necklace with two rubies – my birthstone – on either side.

“Oh my God.”

“I noticed you like necklaces. But you always wear cheap ones. So I got you a nice one. You like it?”

“God, yes.” I lifted up my hair and Sam put the necklace around me and fastened it. I fingered the diamond and rubies. “Your brother pays you too much.”

Sam laughed. He put the empty box back on the table and scooted more fully onto the bed. “My brother doesn’t pay me at all.”

“What?”

He shrugged. “Not for this tour. I’m doing it for free.”

“How is that possible? You just graduated from law school. You must be up to your eyeballs in debt.”

“Not a drop.”

“Do you have some sort of trust fund I don’t know about?”

“Not exactly. My grandfather left me two thousand dollars when he died. I was 14. Two weeks later I saw Sean’s show. And I started thinking, I could take that money and invest it, in music specifically. So I asked my dad for a loan against the inheritance, since technically I couldn’t touch it until I was 18. He gave it to me.”

“He gave you two thousand dollars when you were 14?”

“He figured if I lost it, it would be a lesson learned. And it wasn’t so much money that he was overly worried about it. I mean, it wasn’t like it was going to pay for college. So I invested it, some of it in Sean’s career. And I made out like a bandit. So I paid my dad back and kept going. When I was in high school and other kids were at keggers, I was researching rock bands and music studios.”

“You made money like this?”

“Enough to put myself through school with cash. And I didn’t stop once I was in school. I kept going. Now I don’t need to get paid.”

“What?”

“I’m rich, Leese. Not quite as rich as Sean. But close. I’m buying a house in Malibu two blocks from his. It’ll be ready for me a few days after we get back.”

“What?”

“You look a little shocked.”

“You’re rich?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit.” I jumped out of bed. “I gotta go.”

“What?”

“This is over.”

“Lisa, what the hell?”

I picked my bag up off the floor and set it on the end of the bed. Then I started packing up the loose clothing items I had strewn around the room.

“Lisa, what’s going on?”

“I can’t be with you. It’s a thing.”

“A thing? What kind of thing?”

“I made a pact not to be with a rich guy.”

“A pact? With who, the Socialist Society of America?”

“No, with Dani.”

He laughed. “I think she broke that pact.”

“She did. That’s why it’s up to me to carry it on.”

I walked to the desk and put my computer in its case.

“Lisa, forgive me, but this is dumb.”

I whirled around. “It’s not dumb. We watched our mother turn into… I don’t know… change because she used money as revenge on our dad. She took his money and it wasn’t hers. She didn’t earn it. And I love her, but I resent her for it!”