Incidental Happenstance (33 page)

            “I guess we’ll have to scrap
Lost in You
and
Pull You Up,”
Angelo said. “Unless you want to do them acoustic?” he looked at Dylan.

            “I hate to scrap them;” he said, “they were both really big over here. And now that we’ve started doing
Pull You Up
, we’ll hear about it if it isn’t on the set list. They’re not as good without the harmony, but I think we’d better keep them. Acoustic is better than nothing.”

            They finished off the meeting and Bo motioned Dylan over to a corner. “A quick word?” he said, and the two huddled for a moment, glancing back at the girls. Dylan smiled, and they nodded to each other. The boys gave each other a pre-show pep talk, and Dylan planted an enthusiastic kiss on Tia before she and Lexi left to take their seats.

            They watched the crowd filing in, and were in awe at the number of people packing the stadium. “Damn,” Lexi said, “it looks even bigger when it’s full—I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so many people together in one place!” They looked around their immediate area, front and center to the stage, and pointed out all the people they recognized. There were other celebrities, members of Parliament, and even the princes with their dates were just a dozen seats down, surrounded by their entourages.

            The crowd rose to its feet immediately when the lights dimmed, the roar deafening. The boys walked casually onto the stage and waved, inciting more cheers from the audience.   Tia was, as always, mesmerized by Dylan onstage. He owned the audience, and no matter how many times she watched him perform—twelve, by her count, just on this tour and at least twenty before that—it never got old. Every show was different, unique, and tailored to the audience and the songs that were most popular in that region.  They started with a bang, Bo pounding the bass drum and everyone else jumping in with a song that kept the audience on its feet, moving as one and singing along to the familiar tune. Tia and Lexi danced with them, pulled into the common bond that great live music delivered by talented performers forged for an evening. Dylan growled, howled, wailed and crooned into the mike, and delivered song after song in his unique and enthusiastic style. When the fourth song ended, Dylan spoke to the audience.

            “Hellooo, London!” he yelled gruffly into the microphone and the audience responded with a deafening roar. “It’s so good to be back in this amazing city—one that I’ll always call home! You’ve been so great to us, and we love you!” More screams and applause met his words. “Thank you very much! Now this next song is one of our absolute favorites to play live…” more screams and hollers, “…but unfortunately, Ty’s voice is a bit under the weather today, and he’s not going to be able to sing for you tonight…” the tone of the audience changed to something that could only be described as collective sympathy, ninety thousand voices sighing, ‘aaaww.’ “But if you’ll be so kind,” he added, “I have a beautiful lady in the audience tonight who knows this song, and if you could help me persuade her, perhaps she’d join usat stage and grace us with her amazing harmonies…” The roar of the crowd filled Tia’s ears and her heart began to beat a mile a minute as Dylan looked down at her and extended his hand. “Would you help us out, Tia?” he said with a grin, nodding toward the mike that a stage hand had just placed at his left side.

            “Holy shit,” Lexi wheezed on panting breath, “he wants you to…”

            “Yeah, holy shit is right!” Tia bellowed. “Oh my God, I can’t do this! There’re 90,000 people in this place!”

            “Oh yes you can!” Lexi hollered, propelling her forward toward the guard that stood ready to help her mount the stage. Dylan encouraged her with his eyes, and before she could even think about it, she found herself being lifted onto the stage, into the harsh glare of the spotlights and to Dylan’s side. He planted an encouraging kiss on her cheek and slid into the intro.

            Time stood still. Tia knew the song inside and out, and had sung harmony just this afternoon at the sound check, plus hundreds of times before that. She took a deep breath and remembered the first night they’d sung this song together—their first night together—at Sing-a-long-Cassidy’s, in front of less than a hundred people. They’d come so far together on this journey, yet here they were, back where they’d started, and Dylan was winding up the intro and starting to sing…
Lost in you, don’t know what I’m gonna do, every day is an eternity, every minute an hour and I’m searching, searching, for what I lost in you
, and Tia fell into the music on autopilot, sliding in at just the right moment, her voice more clear and steady than she could have believed, and there, in front of the sold out stadium, she and Dylan sang together, weaving their voices like a complex net, ensnaring the audience with the words and harmonies. She’d never felt so alive yet so completely vulnerable, but then Dylan was at her side, smiling at her, singing to her as he looked into her eyes and strummed the melody, and it was only the two of them in the whole world as they finished the song, holding out the last note as he coaxed the final chords from the guitar. At once the applause from the audience was deafening, and she was jerked back into reality, thousands of voices screaming their approval and Dylan was stepping back and motioning for her to take a bow. She absorbed the applause like a drug, hardly able to believe it was for her. “Thank you very much!” Dylan said to the crowd, “and thank you, my lovely lady, for helping us out!” The crowd cheered again, and Tia took one more bow. Then, just as swiftly, she was swept back into the audience and back to Lexi’s side.

            “Holy shit!” Lexi bellowed as soon as she’d retaken her seat. Strangers around her were patting her on the back and congratulating her on her performance. “You were awesome!” she cried as Tia tried to catch her breath. She looked up and saw Dylan smiling down at her. Then Bo hit the snare in a familiar opening and the crowd exploded again as InHap belted into the next number.

            “Oh my God!” Lexi yelled over the crowd. “You just sang in front of 90,000 people! And you
rocked
it!!”

            “Holy crap, I did, didn’t I?” she yelled back elated, unsuccessfully trying to get her heart to beat a normal rhythm. Her breath was still coming in gasps; she could scarcely believe what she’d just done.

            “That’s my girl, Tia!” Dylan exclaimed into the mke. “Give it up for her one more time!” Again the crowd answered enthusiastically, and Tia broke into a huge grin. Dylan blew her a kiss, and then added his guitar to the drums and keyboards on stage as the next number exploded from the speakers. But as much as she appreciated the applause, she was even more excited that Dylan had just told ninety thousand people that she was ‘his girl.’

            Tia rode the rest of the evening on a high that she couldn’t put into thoughts or words. She and Lexi danced, sang, and high-fived all the spectators eager to get closer to the girl who’d been called up to sing on stage with InHap. She passed on a thought to Nick, who was surely cheering more loudly than all of them, proud of her and what she’d done.

            It wasn’t until the encore that Dylan played the first chords of
I’ll
Pull You Up
. He’d played only three notes before the crowd recognized it and went ballistic. He stopped playing, and the crowd quieted immediately, waiting for him to speak.

            “This next song is special in my heart,” he said softly. “We’ve only recently started playing it live, and I could use some help with this one too—it isn’t the same without the harmony.” He looked down at Tia and raised that one eyebrow in question. This time she didn’t even hesitate, and she was lifted once again to the stage where she took her place beside Dylan, sharing his mike, as he wound into the intro for
I’ll
Pull You Up
. They swayed together as the music wound around itself, creating an other-worldly sound and as Angelo joined in with the sax, Dylan poured out the first lyrics, “
You lie dyin’ and I’m left here cryin’… nothin’ I can do to save you, but who’s gonna save me? Thought that I could be so strong but you’ve been leavin’ me for so long…now there’s nothing left but this hole
… Tia joined in, soft and slow,
I’ll pull you up, from your darkest fears…when the world’s tryin’ to drown you in your own tears… take my hand, and hold on tight…I’ll pull you through this dark, dark night…The sun’s still shinin’ on the other side…have
no fear, I’ll be your guide… through heaven’s pearls or the gates of hell…inside my heart you’ll always dwell… You’ll never be too far from me…don’t lose your grip, we’ll make it you’ll see…When the skies are gray and stormy, I’ll pull you through the clouds, so you can see the sun’s still shining, above the earth’s dark shroud
…
I can’t you on take this journey, and that we’ve always known, but in my heart I know you have the strength to get there on your own… 

            They ended the song resting their foreheads against each other, much like they had when they first sang together just over a month ago. Something was so different this time though; they shared the common bond of loss and survival and were both stronger because of it. Their relationship had grown immensely in a short time; spending so much time together over the past couple months had given them a sort of crash course in each other, and they were finding that they were incredibly compatible in all the ways that mattered. There was a comfort that passed between them, and at that moment, there was no crowd, no cheering, no pressure, just a sense of security and connectedness that they both felt strongly. He tossed his guitar over his shoulder and put his arm around her waist and bowed with her, then stepped back and motioned with a sweep of his arm for her to once more receive the adulation of the audience. Reality hit hard when her eyes swept across the crowd and she saw the immense sea of faces there, and her knees went weak, heat rising to her face and her breath was gone againDylan was back, pulling her into an embrace and kissing her before handing her back over to the security guard who helped her back to her seat.

            Lexi just stared for a moment, then her whisper was lost in the sound of the crowd and the music but Tia read it on her lips, “Oh my God, Tia, you are so amazing together,” and she pulled Tia into an embrace and said into her ear, “I am so blown away by you right now!”

            Tia hugged her back, welcoming the support as she was trying to settle her heart, breathing and body temperature into some sort of normalcy. Again, the people around them were patting her back, rubbing her head, and doing anything they could to get more connected to what was happening on the stage. A big bear of a guy spun her around and pulled her into a hug, and as she laughed, she saw, four rows back, Penelope Valentine, glaring at her with a look that was downright hostile.

            Penelope seethed in the fourth row—again. She’d had her agent get the tickets for her and her assistant so she could catch Dylan off-guard after the show and maybe get a little time to get to know him. This time she’d done her homework, and knew the kind of person that Dylan needed her to be, and she had every intention of playing the role like it was for another Oscar nomination. She’d never for a moment considered that he wouldn’t be here alone. The first few songs had her up and dancing with the rest of the crowd, and she was feeling almost giddy watching him on stage. He had such an amazing presence and he couldn’t be sexier, and she imagined that this time, he’d be lonely and glad to spend some time with her. Then her entire fantasy came crashing down around her when he plucked that little bitch out of the audience and had her singing with him on stage.           

            Penelope found it absolutely pitiful the way she was behaving, craving the limelight one minute and feigning shyness the next, just to get applause. Worse though, was the realization that things could actually be serious between them—Dylan had obviously thought enough of her to bring her to London, and maybe even for more of the tour. She’d hoped that he’d have forgotten about her by now, and that showing up ‘accidentally’ in Europe would jump start things between the two of them. It hadn’t figured into her plans that she might still have competition for his attention.

            Patience was never one of her virtues, but she knew when it was time to drop back and wait. This Tia person was a schoolteacher, for chrissake. She’d be back to grading papers and wiping snotty brats’ noses in the fall, and Penelope would have Dylan all to herself. They’d be far from his little commoner and from Hollywood, and then they could take things to the next level. It was all a matter of timing, she told herself, and this wasn’t the right time. She’d just have to kick things up a notch later, have a good plan in place and follow through in just the right order. She was an Oscar nominee—she knew just how to play the part—and Dylan was part of it. He just didn’t know it yet. There was a positive side to this little encounter, though—now at least she knew there could be another hurdle she’d have to get over, and she could plan for that too. That little girl was deluding herself if she really believed she could hold on to a man like Dylan Miller. She had no idea what she was up against, and Penelope smiled as she leaned over and whispered something to her assistant. They needed to get on this right away; there were only a few weeks left before she’d have him all to herself.

            InHap finished off the show with two more rockers and an extended jam that had the audience jumping in unison and singing along. When Dylan gave her the nod, she and Lexi waved to the people around them and headed for the stage entrance. She was sure to flash a smile at Penelope, who had to know she wouldn’t be welcomed backstage.