Groupie/Rock Star Bundle (57 page)

As he was shipped off to rehab Vanni could be
nothing but grateful. He had fucked up but hopefully this was a
lesson he’d only have to learn once.

Chapter Ten

September 25, 2010. Los Angeles.

Andy

It had been three weeks since Vanni had gone
into rehab. After the first week the paparazzi found someone else
to hound thanks to rumor another notoriously troubled actress had
once again fallen off the wagon. Interest in Vanni waned, as did
interest in Andy and Graham, so it was easy to settle into a
comfortable routine.

At first that meant Andy running interference
between the rest of DIB and Graham, but Leo’s unmistakable
hostility proved instantly problematic. This didn’t inspire Graham
to take back the reins. In fact Graham could not be moved out of
the house. Despite the progress he was making he refused to venture
outside the walls of his Malibu home.

However the positive changes in him were
undeniable to the precious few who got to witness them. He had
gained some weight and his previously sinewy chest was now toned
and defined. He had enough strength that he could get himself in
and out of his chair, roll himself toward the bathroom and take
care of some of his more personal business without the help of
anyone else.

This became an imperative for him after one of
Maggie’s sponge baths when, to his mixed horror and amazement, he
watched himself get an erection as she gently and thoroughly
cleaned him. She touched him like she always did, but this time his
body had a mind of its own. He wondered if it was how she leaned
over him and practically had her chest in his face while her hands
slid around his long lost friend. He could smell her perfume. He
could feel her hair against his bare shoulder. It wasn’t erotic as
much as it was intimate, and Mr. Happy decided to salute her hard
work.

Though they didn’t spotlight the new
development, it was a big boost to his self-esteem. He no longer
felt as vulnerable and at her mercy. He started to feel like a man
again.

So while he didn’t leave the house, he began to
work in his home office at least four hours a day in the midst of
his rigid physical therapy schedule. He could video conference with
his clients and employees, which projected a strong upper body and
the confidence he was slowly regaining.

Maggie had always driven him hard but it took
seeing the results of her program to get him fully on board. He
didn’t complain as much, instead he converted all his anger into
determination. His growing strength impressed Andy, which seemed to
be an even bigger payoff for him. He wanted to make her see that he
was still a man she could love, even while he was confined to a
chair.

He had learned that his SCI, or spinal cord
injury, was classified as incomplete, which gave him hope for
regaining function in this lower body. As he toiled hard in
therapy, sensations began to make themselves known where they
hadn’t been noticeable before. The first time they noticed any
subtle change was when he came out onto the deck one evening. He
joined Maggie and Andy where they sat sipping tea as they watched
the inky black ocean with her magical hypnotic appeal.

He helped himself to some tea without any help
at all from the ladies, and then rolled up to sit in between them.
After about twenty minutes of friendly conversation he happened to
mention he was cold and it was making his muscles ache. It took him
a full minute to realize the muscles in question were below the
waist.

The next day Maggie tested him with a needle
and he distinctly felt an ever so slight prick on this upper thigh,
along with pressure on one of his heels when she tested his
legs.

They both had tears in their eyes when they
smiled at each other, rewarded by all their hard work and
persistence.

He was glad he never actually fired her. She
was more than a miracle worker.

She was an angel.

That night he had flowers delivered to both of
the ladies in his life.

It was his love for Andy, though, that grew
stronger by the day. No one knew how he indulged nightly fantasies
about how it would be to take her into his arms and make love to
her at last. His body responded to the mental stimuli and, though
he didn’t feel he could admit it to Maggie, he began to experiment
with masturbation. Most nights he couldn’t go from erection to
ejaculation, so he knew he was not ready to take Andy into his bed
just yet. But knowing that it was possible to make love to her and
still father the children he knew she wanted to have someday filled
him with a hope he thought long dead.

In subtle ways he began to woo her. He even
began to wait on her, bringing her a drink when she was thirsty or
rubbing her feet after she and Maggie had trekked along the beach
for their daily walk.

Andy enjoyed the camaraderie the three of them
shared so much that she allowed him these little victories. It felt
good not to fight with anyone, to just enjoy one another, and these
gestures were fairly harmless. Maggie expressed how he needed to
show her his independence to reclaim some of his masculinity. She
encouraged her to allow him to be the man he is learning all over
again to be.

Watching the transformation take place was
nothing short of a miracle. He had gone from a surly,
self-absorbed, angry self-pitying victim to the Graham she
remembered fondly and missed dearly.

She clung to it like a life raft in a
hurricane.

Andy no longer rushed off to bed at the end of
the day. They resumed much of what they had had before when she’d
come to stay with him. They could talk. They could bond. They could
find shelter in one another.

Night after night they’d share a cool evening
out on the deck by the fireplace, chatting long after Maggie turned
in. They’d sit side by side as they stared into the distance,
reestablishing the relationship between them. There was no guilt or
pressure.

One particular night they listened to the radio
as they drank wine. He glanced over to where she sat peacefully
with a slight smile on her face. She looked so beautiful his heart
filled to overflowing. He set down his glass and turned his
wheelchair to face her with his hand outstretched. “Excuse me,
miss. Would you care to dance?”

She giggled. She loved it when he was silly.
They needed a little more silly. “I’d love to,” she said as she
rose to her feet, curtsied and took his hand.

He rolled backward and pulled her down toward
him until she sat across his lap. She wrapped her arms around his
neck as he spun them in slow circles to the music. He did a bit of
a wheelie while he twirled her around, and she pointed her toes and
tossed back her head to laugh. His eyes danced as he looked down at
her. “You ready for the dip?” he asked with a grin.

She nodded and allowed him to lean her backward
from the chair until she nearly touched the floor.

His strength was impressive. He no longer
looked like a shriveled old man who was drowning in his clothes. In
fact he was more impressive than he had ever been prior to the
accident. His chest was solid as he pulled her back up for a hug,
which she allowed to linger.

His lips brushed her forehead and then their
eyes met. Slowly his mouth descended onto hers for a long, chaste
peck. It was all he dared.

He reached out to caress the side of her face
with the back of his hand. “You’re beautiful,” he
whispered.

She smiled. “And you’re amazing,” she
responded. He was so determined to walk again that he was working
small miracles every day. It was impossible not to be in awe of
everything he was capable of doing in such a short period of time,
with a dose of healthy good humor to boot. This was the Graham she
met two years ago.

Right or wrong a piece of her heart would
always belong to him. It was that part of her that reached for
another kiss. She didn’t even think about it. Somehow, in that
moment, it was right. He was no half-man, and he more than almost
any other deserved to know he could be desired.

He groaned softly before he deepened the kiss.
She didn’t fight him. In fact she cherished the fact he was alive
in her arms, not just from surviving the gunshot wound but finally
putting to rest the emotional torment he’d suffered facing life as
a paraplegic.

He was alive in all ways that mattered and all
man in every way that counted. It was suddenly very important to
her that he knew that.

She let him drag his hungry, open mouth to her
neck while his hands slipped over her generous curves. She gasped
as he touched her. It felt like a lifetime since she’d been touched
and kissed and loved so tenderly.

She whispered his name as she ran her hand
through his hair. He shuddered as she planted kisses along his neck
and back toward his lips.

When he claimed her mouth again she nearly
jumped as she felt the unmistakable sensation of him stirring
against her. It wasn’t a fluttering; he was surging to life in her
arms – like Lazarus coming back from the dead. He kissed her deeper
and further he stirred, pressing hard against her hip where she sat
on his lap.

She gasped as the kiss ended. Her wide eyes met
his. “Why Graham Baxter,” she said with a teasing grin. “Just what
exactly have you been hiding?”

He gave her a sideways grin that mirrored hers.
“I guess an old friend just wanted to say hello.”

“And just how long have you been keeping this
little secret?”

“Not so little,” he insisted with a playful
growl as he tickled her. “I mean, I’m sure you’ve probably noticed
Maggie doesn’t give me sponge baths anymore. I think I may have
intimidated her.”

Andy laughed as she threw her arms around him.
“That’s such great news, Graham,” she said sincerely. “You really
are on your way back.”

He couldn’t help but give her a bashful hug. He
knew he had a long way yet to go. “Things are not yet working like
they used to,” he clarified. “But I finally feel like they can…
that they will.” He touched her face. He wanted to tell her how
taking her into his arms and making love to her at last was what
got him out of bed every morning, especially now that he knew it
was a real possibility. But he sensed that conversation was better
saved for another time. Instead he began twirling her around to
another song as they “danced” under the moonlight.

He carried her to her bedroom and deposited her
right at her door. She gave him another goodnight kiss, but he
didn’t press it for anything more than a chaste peck on the lips.
As always he was a gentleman of infinite patience. He wanted it to
be right. He wanted it to be perfect.

He wanted it to be forever.

As for Andy, she had a smile on her face as she
drifted off to sleep. After Vanni’s accident she had stopped
worrying about the future. She wanted to enjoy the moment, and this
was pretty monumental. For the first time in months, maybe even
years, it felt as though things were finally aligning. Vanni was
getting the help he needed and Graham was finally on the road to
recovery, such as it could be for an unpredictable SCI.

And for the first time in a long time she
didn’t feel pressured by either man – or herself – to make a choice
between them during this complicated process. She gave herself
permission to love them both because they both needed her as much
as she realized she needed them.

There were things far more important than a
relationship status one would plug into a social media website for
the whole world to see. She had come to accept the fact she was
taken and it was complicated. She loved two men, both who needed
her in very different ways. She felt certain when the time came
they could all make much better choices regarding “forever” once
the immediate crises had passed.

But then again
maybe there were no happily ever afters. Maybe there were no fairy
tale weddings and white picket fences. Maybe this was what love
looked like in the 21
^st
century.

Or maybe, just maybe, she was lying to herself
yet again on how she could be all things to both men what they both
desperately needed her to be, without any consequence for the
future. That everything else was just convenient justification so
that she didn’t have to hurt anyone.

She put off making any choice because it was an
impossible one to make, especially once Vanni was released from
rehab and the roller coaster started all over again. Just the
thought of seeing him again made her heart race in that old
familiar way. He was undeniably a part of her and likely always
would be.

But she couldn’t think about that now. Not with
Graham and his breakthrough.

It would all work out the way it was supposed
to. That was the mantra she had repeated for the last four months.
She held onto it tighter than ever because she knew how long the
road still was and how much work they still had left to
do.

In the meantime Andy worked very closely with
Gwen on the band’s P.R. It was the one thing she could control, and
by God that was what she was going to do. At Vanni’s request they
had incorporated Holly into doing street team. Ironically she took
the place of Andy, who was still a lightning rod of publicity
thanks to the tabloids. This was especially true as a fan liaison,
the grunt position Andy once held. She was so eager to help, in
fact, that she jumped into action without being asked much of the
time. She made sure emails were answered and posts were moderated
on the official website. She also kept a vigilant eye on other
information being shared about the band over the
Internet.