You got to Me (Love on Tour #3) (14 page)

“Yeah, I’ll go find him right now.”

I hung up with Dani and headed down the hall in search of her husband. I was checking each door, listening for the sounds of guitars. I found Hank’s green room. I knew this because when I pressed my ear against the door I could hear Bell moaning in ecstasy. I moved on quickly.

I rounded a corner. Dani had been right. There they were, right beside the back door. Mike had Sean’s supermodel ex-girlfriend, Victoria Dee, trapped between his arms. Three security guards were behind him, trying to look mean.

“You better let me go, Mike. You don’t want the shit I’ll rain down on you if you lay one finger on me.”

“You need to leave, now. I’m not playing around, Victoria. You don’t scare me,” Mike said, looking more menacing then I’d ever seen him.

I walked toward them slowly.

“I’m not leaving until I talk to Sean.”

“Not happening.”

Victoria Dee looked at me as I approached. “Wow, look at you. Flat brown hair, big doughy brown eyes, you must be the sister.”

“Let her go, Mike. I’ll take care of her,” I said.

“No way, Lisa. She’s got an army of lawyers.”

“I sure do. And here’s the thing, I demand to talk to Sean, alone.”

“Believe me, you don’t want to talk to Sean. We’re pretty sure you’re the one responsible for that article, and he is not happy about it,” Mike said.

“I’m not, but I know who is. And I’ll only tell Sean.”

“He’s not interested.”

“I bet Sam is. He’ll want to sue the pants off the bitch.”

“What the hell is this?” Sam asked, walking toward us.

“She won’t leave,” Mike responded, his scary glare still on Victoria.

“I’ll make her leave,” I said, seething.

Sam grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me back a foot. He stepped in front of me, closer to Victoria. “This is stupid. You’re not getting near my brother. Why don’t you just give up?”

“Yeah, I can stand here like this all night,” Mike said.

“Eventually, Sean’s going to come out of one of those rooms,” she gestured with her head down the hall. “And when he comes, he’ll see me.”

“I see you.”

17

I whirled around. Sean was standing in the doorway of a room just a few feet behind me. Lyle was beside him.

“Just the man I wanted to see,” Victoria said. She tried to pry Mike’s arm away, but he held steady. She punched him in the elbow. His elbow bowed for a split second, but then locked again.

“That all you got?” he asked her.

“I’ve got some information for you, Sean,” she called.

“Not interested.”

“You sure? I know who dragged your name through the mud and made your precious little wifey look bad.”

“Don’t care.”

“You know Sean, it won’t last. I mean three years is impressive. But there’s no way it can go on much longer, baby or not. In fact, I bet you’re already getting bored.”

Sean looked pissed. Very pissed. I turned and stepped toward him. “Hey, why don’t you and me and Sam go back to your green room,” I suggested.

“In a second, Lisa,” Sean said. Then he looked over my head toward Victoria. “I do actually have something to say to you, Vicky. As you know, I don’t ever talk about my sex life. But I’m going to, right here in front of all these people. You were a boring fuck, Vicky. And that
ordinary
park ranger wife of mine, she blows you out of the water.”

He turned and walked back to his green room. Sam and I followed.

I heard Lyle say as we left,” I think I can help you out Mike. I know someone Victoria here is afraid of.”

“Oh yeah,” Mike said.

“Yep, and I’m going to get her on the phone.”

I didn’t hear the rest, because we walked around the corner and into Sean’s room. He plopped down on the sofa, his head in his hands. Sam sat down next to him. I shut the door behind us, and stood there, unsure what to do.

“Do you remember that time me, you, and Baby drove up to Monterey?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, Baby wanted to see the aquarium,” Sean said, still sounding very grumpy.

“And we spent all day in there, too. She watched the jellyfish for hours. And you watched her.”

Sean pulled his head up, and one side of his mouth kicked up in a half smile.

“But it was pretty crazy with all the people. They wouldn’t leave you alone. So afterward, we went back to the hotel. We had that big suite with like three rooms, a full kitchen, and a bar. Baby made spaghetti and we all got drunk, really drunk.”

“You were wasted.”

“Me? So were you. And I remember you said that you hadn’t been that drunk since Colorado. You told me the story about how Baby got drunk and almost fell into the fire, then she propositioned you – for the first time, I think – and you had to turn her down. So you got stinking drunk with Mike, instead.”

“That’s pretty much how that story goes, yeah. I’m surprised you remembered it so well given your state that night.”

“Me, too. Anyway, Baby was two sheets to the wind. She turned up the radio and there was some REO Speedwagon song on or something. She started dancing around the room and singing into a hairbrush like a maniac.”

Sean smiled for real this time. “Yeah, she was pretty hilarious.”

“Then one of the hotel people came up to complain about the noise and Baby wouldn’t let us answer the door. She goes over there ready for a fight.”

“I was enjoying watching her so much, I didn’t have the heart to stop her.”

“But when she opens the door the guy’s jaw drops.”

I was listening closely to this story, and at this point I figured that the guy saw Sean. But I was wrong.

“Yeah, he was hitting on her hard.”

“Yes, he was. You were so wasted it took you a minute to figure it out.”

Sean laughed. “It did, and by the time I got to the door the guy was pretty far along in his lines. He was down to some the super cheesy one-liners. Baby was just standing there, totally amused, listening to him try to get into her pants.”

“Then he saw you.”

Sean laughed harder. “I was never sure if I remembered this part right or not, because of all the whiskey, but I think he peed his pants.”

“Oh, he did,” Sam said.

“I didn’t even say anything to the guy.”

“You didn’t have to. You can be kinda scary sometimes. To people who don’t know you, anyway.”

Sean looked at his brother. “Thanks, Sammy.”

Sam stood up. “Call your wife, man.”

Sean patted his pockets. “Where’s my phone?”

Sam walked over to the little table in the room. Sean’s bag was sitting on top of it. He riffled through it.

“I swear to God, Sean, you’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached.”

“Yeah, that’s what Mom always says, too. Good thing I got you, Mike, and Baby. And Lisa, she keeps my tablet for me.”

Sam found the phone and handed it to Sean. “Say hi to Baby for me.”

Then he walked over to me and put his arm around my shoulders. He ushered me out of the room and down the hall, in the opposite direction of Mike, Lyle, and the supermodel.

“You missed your calling, Sam. You should have been a shrink.”

“I just know him really well, that’s all.”

“How did you know the exact right story to tell just then?”

“You know, ninety-nine percent of the time people like that they see their loved ones in a unique way. They like knowing that they are the only one who sees them in that light. But there’s that one percent of the time that they wanna know that someone else in the world sees what they see in someone.”

“Really? I mean, it’s very intuitive, but I never thought about it like that before.”

We turned a corner. I had no idea where we were going, I just kept walking slowly along with Sam.

“You know what bothered Sean the most about that article. Well, after the implication that his best friend slept with his wife, of course?”

“The shooting blanks thing?”

“He could’ve cared less about that.”

“The ordinary thing?”

“Yes, it bothers him that all these people in the world, thousands, shit millions of people think that his wife isn’t good enough for him. And here he is thinking just the opposite, that he won the lottery the day he met her and was lucky enough to get her to fall in love with him. He told me once that he didn’t understand how anyone, even a complete stranger, couldn’t see that she is the very best part of him.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“I told him that the people who really mattered knew.”

Sam turned and pulled me through an open door into a little room that held a bench, a cooler, and not much else.

“How do you always know the right thing to say?” I asked, sitting down on the bench.

“I don’t always,” he said. He reached into the cooler and pulled out a bottle of beer. “You want a beer?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I want a drink for sure. But I don’t think I like beer.”

“You’ve never tried it?”

“Once, when I was 19.”

Sam popped the top on the beer. “I’m guessing that was pretty shitty beer.”

“Probably. Is that good stuff?”

He looked at the label. “Must be, Mike bought it. Here, try it.”

I took a sip, then another. “Hmmm.”

“You like it?”

“Yeah, maybe it’s my old taste buds.”

Sam grabbed a second beer from the cooler, opened it and sat down beside me on the bench.

“Old?”

“Hmmm,” I said, taking another sip.

“You are so hung up on the age thing, Lisa.”

I shrugged. “I guess it’s because I thought I’d be more accomplished by now.”

“Lisa, you are 34. You’re a tenure-track professor with published works who gets asked to speak at major universities. You
are
accomplished.”

“Not compared to Sean, who’s the same age as me.”

“First of all, Sean is technically older than you. And how is he more accomplished?”

“Are you kidding? He’s a multi-millionaire.”

“Is that how you measure success? With money?”

“Actually, no. I mean, a tiny part of me does, yeah. My dad kinda drilled that into us as kids. But overall, no.”

“So?”

“Happiness, I guess that’s how I measure success.”

“And you’re not happy?”

“I like my job. My career is going well.”

“But?”

I looked down at my beer and started to peel the label. “I don’t know. By this point in my life I thought I’d be married, not divorced, with a couple kids, a house with a ridiculous mortgage, a dog, maybe a boat.”

“A boat?”

“Sure, why not, a little motor boat, or maybe one of those pontoon boats people take on lakes.”

“Well, Sean doesn’t have a boat.”

“No, he doesn’t. So I guess, if I get one, I win the competition.”

Sam pulled his phone out of his pocket and started pushing buttons.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for a boat for you on the internet.”

“You’re an ass.”

18

“So I have a question,” Bell said, looking at Hank, who was sitting beside her in the booth.

“Okay?”

“I was thinking about that song you guys have been doing for the final encore, you know, Baby’s song? What’s it called, anyway?”

“That’s what it’s called, Baby’s Song,” Sean said.

“I thought it was a dumb name, but I was overruled by Baby. She loves it,” Hank said.

“Baby told me that you wrote it the morning after you ‘christened’ her new trailer,” she said to Sean.

Sean smiled and nodded.

“But I know Hank was there, because he helped you bring the new trailer out. So,” she turned to Hank, “where were
you
that night?”

“I was rocking a different trailer,” he said with a grin.

“With whom?”

“A hot weed-sprayer chick.”

“She was a ‘resource management specialist,’” Sean said.

“Yeah, that.”

“What was her name?” Bell folded her arms over her chest and stared Hank down.

“Why do you care?”

“You don’t remember, do you?”

Hank looked like he was thinking really hard. Sean laughed.

“How many names have you forgotten, Hank?” Bell asked.

“A lot,” he admitted. “But it doesn’t matter now, sweetheart. Because I only have to remember one name, yours.”

“Goddamn right.”

Hank laughed and kissed her.

But I wasn’t fooled. A leopard doesn’t just change his spots overnight. I was worried about Bell. She might have a foul mouth, but she was really just a sweet, innocent girl. Baby and Sean seemed completely unconcerned about the kind of damage Hank could do to her. But I wanted to protect her. Someone had to, after all. So I decided to keep my eye on Hank Tolk.

****

We were in some sort of closet. It was stacked with chairs and tables and smelled like pine. Sam had pulled me in here, all hot and horny. But, I’d quickly taken over. I’d pulled his pants down to his ankles, pushed him down on a chair and straddled him.

Sam always let me lead in the bedroom. He let me take over and set the pace. I liked that I could set all rules between us, even when and how we both came. And it gave me the freedom to pull back when things got too intense, to close my eyes or scream out when I felt like we were making too deep of a connection. It allowed me to remind him, and myself, that this was just amazing sex.

I bounced on top of him in that closet. I couldn’t cry out because people might hear, but I was moaning and keening softly. I knew Sam was watching me. I could feel his gaze on my face. But I kept my eyes pinched closed and my head thrown back. I did not look at him. It was too scary to see what was in his eyes when we were close like this.

“God, yes, Sammy,” I whispered, as I clenched down and came around him.

I felt him shudder, heard him groan. I waited a beat, then I hopped off his lap. Only then did I look at him. God, he was beautiful, staring up at me, a huge smile on his face. Swirls of black hair floated around his head, where I’d pulled them loose from his ponytail. His dark eyes were dancing as he looked at me.

Sam reached forward and smoothed my skirt back into place. “I love it when you wear a skirt.”

“You just couldn’t wait until we got back to the hotel room tonight, could you?” I teased.

“No I could not.” I watched as he stood and buttoned up his jeans.

“Okay, I’m going out first. Wait a couple minutes before following.”

He leaned over and kissed me. “Why do I feel like I’m having a torrid affair with my boss or something?”

“Your boss? I kinda like the sound of that.”

He laughed. “I figured you’d punch me if I said ‘my secretary.’”

“Yeah, you’re right about that.”

I walked out the door, shutting it behind me. I looked both ways down the hall. When I turned toward the loading dock door, it was like Déjà vu. Only this time it was Sean, instead of Mike, standing like a brick wall in the doorway, talking to someone.

“How many times do I have to say no before it sinks in?” Sean asked sternly.

I took a few steps toward him. Then I saw a head peek out from beside Sean’s arm.

“Lisa! Lisa, honey it’s me.”

Shit. I’d completely forgotten that we were in Atlanta.

“Tell your brother-in-law to let me through.”

Sean was taking up 90% of the total area of the doorway with his massive frame, and there was no way Roger was getting by him.

“I don’t want to talk to you, Roger,” I said, as calmly as possible.

“And that is your cue to leave,” Sean said to him.

“Lisa, I think you should reconsider. I, um, I have something important I need to talk to you about.”

I heard the door behind me open. I knew that Sam was back there. He didn’t speak as he approached me.

“Lisa, adoption, let’s talk about it,” Roger called.

And that did it right there. I refused to spill tears over this man, or anything he said. But holding them in was taking all my effort.

Sean turned his head, keeping his body in the way of Roger. He looked at me for a second, then he called to Sam. “Sam, take Lisa to my room.”

Sam didn’t question it. He just wrapped his arm around my waist, turned me around, and shuffled me down the hall.

Once we were inside, I took several deep breaths, trying to contain myself. Sam enfolded me in his arms. I leaned my head against his chest. It felt really nice. We stood like that for a long time. Sam was stroking my hair, and I was trying to control my breathing, the tears that were threatening to fall, and my mind.

Eventually, Sean came into the room. Sam didn’t let me go. I was glad because I didn’t want him to. I watched Sean approach us slowly.

“You okay?” he asked.

I shrugged.

Sean leaned down and kissed my cheek. I was struck by the intimacy of this situation. I was completely wrapped in Sam’s arms, which meant that Sean had to get far closer to Sam than men usually get to one another to kiss me. But it wasn’t an issue because they were brothers. I wasn’t entirely sure why this was running through my head. I only knew that there was something I liked about it.

“Lisa, I have to go on in a few minutes. Sam’s going to stay here with you. How does that sound?”

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “That sounds good.”

“If you decide to call Baby and you want Sam to leave, make sure you stay in here, okay?”

I looked up at him.

“I would just feel better knowing where you are, that’s all.”

“Okay,” I said.

This was what I liked. I was being taken care of. It was a pretty foreign thing for me. It was always me taking care of everyone else. I took care of my mom after her divorce. I took care of Dani when she was a teenager in need of guidance, and when she dated a total jerk. I’d been taking care of Brad since he was a baby. I took care of my dad, too. I was always the one who brought him tea when he was up late working, or gave him a shoulder rub when he’d spent too many hours hunched over the computer. But, for once, it was me being taken care of.

Sean left, and Sam ushered me over to the little loveseat opposite the door. The thing was uncomfortable as hell, so I tried to lean as much of my body on Sam as possible. He picked me up and set me on his lap. I rested my head on his shoulder.

“Was it the ex? Roger?”

“Yes. I forgot all about the fact that he would be here in Atlanta.”

“Mike didn’t. He had every security guy on the premises looking for him. They must have called Sean when he showed up.” Sam rubbed my back. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I hadn’t really talked about Roger since the day he left me. Dani had boarded a plane and come straight to Indiana. I’d melted down in her arms that night. But by morning, I was done. I hadn’t shed a tear over him since.

“It might be hard to believe, but I was a different person before him. I was pretty quiet and shy. I was definitely not the hardass bitch I am now.”

“Did he hurt you?” Sam asked.

“No. Not physically anyway. It wasn’t like that.”

We were quiet for a while. I decided to tell him. I decided it would be good for me. “We met in college. I was very inexperienced with men.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

I looked up at him. “Are you saying I’m slutty?” I asked playfully.

“No. Definitely not. I’m saying you’re hot.”

“Well, I didn’t know what to do with men. And I’d only been with one, my high school boyfriend. We did it on prom night. It was awful. Two virgins in a bed trying to figure stuff out. I was not interested again after that. But when Roger came around, I fell hard. I was crazy about him. But I don’t know why. He wasn’t romantic, not at all. In fact, Roger came at our relationship like it was a word problem. Did you know he’s a high school math teacher?”

Sam shook his head.

“Well he is. And he’s one analytical son-of-a-bitch. I fell for him, though. And after we graduated he asked me to marry him. It was not my dream-come-true proposal. He presented it with perfect logic over dinner one night. We were the right age, plus we’d been dating for the right amount of time, which equals marriage. And I went for it. It’s funny. I was always a pretty emotional person up until Roger, like Dani. But he must have just bled it all out of me.”

“Anyway, we moved to Indiana so I could go to grad school. He got a good job there. We bought a little house on a cul-de-sac. As soon as I got my PhD, Roger started talking about wanting kids. I’d never even given it much thought until then. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted kids. But he explained that it was the reason he’d gotten married. That it was all part of the formula. We tried for about a year before he insisted I go to the doctor. I had ovarian cysts, which were taken care of in a simple procedure, and the doctor said I should be good to go. But I wasn’t getting pregnant. And I completely stopped enjoying sex.”

“What?”

“Yeah, it was all work and no play. Roger would have me take these ovulation tests and time our sex on it. It was ridiculous. Another year and half went by, and still no baby. So then he sent me back to the doctor and insisted I get fertility drugs. The doctor explained all the side effects and also said that she didn’t think I needed them. So I went home that night I told him no. I told him I didn’t want to do it.”

I took a deep breath. This was where the story got hard. “He put the house up for sale the next morning and told me he was moving home to Georgia. He said that I couldn’t give him what he wanted, so he was going to find someone who could.”

“Oh, Leese.” Sam kissed the top of my head.

“I don’t know what was worse, the fact that I loved him and he just left me like that, or the fact that somewhere along the way I’d started to want kids as bad as he did. And there I was, alone and defective.”

“You’re not defective,” Sam said.

I had gone to a few support groups for women with fertility problems. Some of the women had these amazingly supportive husbands who told them things like that. I had always wished that Roger had been like that. I resented him for not being that way, for not supporting me. And here I was with Sam, of all people, and in two seconds he’d said what I’d always wanted to hear.

“So, was the next time you saw him at Sean’s?”

“Yeah, he showed up the night before we flew for the wedding, like Hank said. He just showed up and rang the doorbell. I took him back to Dani and Sean’s room so we could talk alone. He said he wanted me back. He said we’d figure something out about the babies. He didn’t say what, but I suspected he had in vitro fertilization or something in mind. He did not mention adoption, which was something I’d brought up a thousand times when we were trying, but he always blew me off. Anyway, I asked him why he was there. Why now?”

I took another deep breath and just sat there for a minute, liking the feel of Sam’s hand running slow circles across my back. “And he said that things had changed. He figured even with the baby troubles we could have a good life, because we’d be a part of something big and exciting.”

“Oh no,” Sam whispered.

“Yeah, you’re not the only one that has to deal with people who only want you for your brother. He was there because he wanted to be Sean’s brother-in-law. And I suspect that’s why he was here today.”

“So you had Hank throw him out?”

“Something like that. I don’t really remember how that all went down. But, yeah. I told him I never wanted to see him again. Obviously, he didn’t take no for an answer.”

Sam kissed the top of my head again. “I think big brother probably took care of that today.”

I smiled. “I suppose he did.”

“Did you ever think maybe it was him, not you, that was infertile?”

“My doctor suggested it. And I asked Roger to take a test. He went to his own doctor and he told me that the tests said he had strong swimmers. The problem was mine.”

“And that’s what you meant, about taking care of the birth control.”