Love on the Rocks (Love on Tour #1) (6 page)

My face must have reflected my confusion because a third woman, who I was fairly certain was named Linda, jumped in to clarify. “The thing is, Lyle is married, has been for a long time, and his wife is like a smart… kinda…”

“Nerd?” I tried to help her out.

Linda looked apologetic.

“Not really,” Heather said. “Sue is hot. She takes care of herself.” She looked at me as though to say, ‘unlike you.’

“I am not sleeping with Lyle, but I would like to meet his wife. Where is she?”

Heather must have gotten bored with this conversation because she laid her head back on the chaise lounge and closed her eyes.

“She has her own business in California,” Linda explained. “She doesn’t come on the road. But she does meet up with him a few times during each tour.”

“And he doesn’t fuck around,” another girl said forcefully. I didn’t know her name, but she whipped off her sunglasses and glared at me

I decided to give up on this doomed mission and went back inside. I returned to an empty room. Dropping my towel and key on the counter in the kitchenette, I helped myself to a bottle of water from the fridge. I was standing there, drinking the water with enthusiasm, when the door opened.

My bathing suit was practical, designed for swimming laps, not some scrappy material that would fall off as soon as I moved. But it was a two-piece, and as a result showed off enough of me that it made me uncomfortable sometimes, usually in the presence of good-looking men that weren’t strangers, but weren’t family either. And of course, two such men walked through the door.

It probably looked comical to a fly on the wall. I froze in the middle of tipping the water bottle back. Sean and Henry froze too. They stood in the doorway, nearly on top of one another, eyes wide, staring at me.

I bolted to the bathroom. At first, when I reached the sanctity of the small room, I felt like I might cry. These men saw scantily-clad, and probably even naked, women on a regular basis. And yet they’d both looked like they’d seen a damn ghost when they saw me in a bikini. I wasn’t horribly scarred or disfigured. I was a little boney, and I had muscle instead of soft curves. There was very little curve at all in fact. It couldn’t have been that bad, could it?

I took a deep breath. Think rationally, Dani. This isn’t because you are hideous. It’s because they think of you as a friend, maybe even a sister. My brother had walked in on me once as I was coming out of the shower. He shrieked and carried on, claiming he was scarred for life.

“Baby?” I heard Sean’s voice through the door. It was soft and gentle.

“Yeah?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah?”

“Hank’s gone.”

“Okay.”

“He’s going to come back in a half hour so we can leave for dinner.”

“Okay.”

“Are you going to come out of the bathroom?” He asked gently.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes. But I need my bag so I can change.”

Instead of arguing that I could come out and get it, Sean retrieved my bag for me and handed it through the door. Apparently, he was not interested in seeing me like that again either.

****

That night I had the boys all to myself. We went to some swanky restaurant where we walked in the back door and were escorted, through the kitchen, to a private little booth in a dark corner. They didn’t have to sign one autograph or handle one hysterical fan.

Getting them to myself was like living out all my middle child fantasies. I was the absolute center of their attention. They doted on me and spoiled me. God forgive me, but I loved it.

“Baby, you sure you can eat all that?” Henry asked, eyeing my giant brownie sundae.

“Oh, absolutely,” I said.

“Where do you put it? I swear you ate as much as I did.”

I just smiled at him, then stuck another scoop, dripping with hot fudge, into my mouth.

“Baby, there’s something we want to talk to you about,” Henry said, looking far more serious than usual.

I dropped my spoon. “Okay.”

Henry glanced at Sean before looking me in the eye and asking, “how long are you planning to stay on the tour with us?”

I felt like I’d just been punched in the gut. They wanted me leave now. They’d brought me here and treated me like a queen in order to set the stage for dumping me. I would have left the table and run, walked right out the front door of the restaurant and caught a cab to anywhere. But I couldn’t. I was trapped in the intimate booth by Sean. Across from me, Henry was waiting for an answer. I took a deep breath.

“Well,” I said, pushing my dessert aside. “I can go right now. I don’t want to cramp your style.” I tried to sound tough, but I was so close to tears I couldn’t quite pull it off.

Henry’s expression changed from patience to horror. “God no!” He spoke so loudly I was half afraid that we’d attract attention in the restaurant. The other half of me didn’t care. “We don’t want you go!”

I looked up a Sean. His brow was creased and his lips were pressed together. “You misunderstand, Baby,” he said. His voice was low and deep. He stared at me for a long moment, but was apparently unable to go on. So he looked at Henry and nodded.

I turned back to Henry, too. He reached across the table and grabbed my hands. “Here’s the thing, Baby. We’ve been talking.” His gaze fell on Sean again for a moment, then came back to me. “And we don’t think it’s fair for you to string us along.”

“What?”

“We want you to stay, for the whole tour. We want you here, with us. But at every stop there’s the possibility that you might take off. When we were at that meeting today we were both in a panic that we’d come back to the room and you’d be gone. Quite frankly, it’s not fair to us.”

This was not what I’d expected, not even close. I took several deep breaths. They both watched me, and waited.

“Okay. I see your point.” I said slowly.

“Baby,” Sean said. “Say you’ll stay.”

“I’ll stay till we get to Denver.”

Did I really make that promise, without even thinking about it? Two minutes before I was sure they were kicking me out and then I promised to stay for another week. What was going on with me?

Both Sean and Henry visibly relaxed after I made my impetuous declaration.

“Well, now that we’ve settled that,” Henry said with a mischievous grin, “let’s rethink the sleeping arrangements. My bed is available tonight, Baby.”

I threw my napkin at his face.

6

Texas was fun. Henry and Sean took me out to dinner before every show. Then we went to the venue where I watched from backstage with Mike. Exhausted at the end of the day, I had no trouble sleeping in the comfy bed in Sean’s fancy suite.

We had an extra day in Oklahoma City, so I dragged Sean, Mike, and Lyle to the National Cowboy Museum and the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I was having a great time, and I didn’t regret making that promise to stay for a second.

But everything changed in Albuquerque...

We arrived only about 90 minutes before the concert started. Sean and Henry, still weary from the long drive, took the stage and made it look like they’d just spent the last twelve hours sleeping in a luxury hotel and getting Swedish massages.

After the show, as we walked from the back door of the venue to the bus, I saw a group of women lined up by the bus door. I had seen this before. Sean and Henry knew that the whole thing freaked me out a little.

There were about two-dozen women, all in either mini-skirts or Daisy Dukes. Not one had fully covered cleavage. An Avon rep could have made a killing with this group, and I could smell the mixture of twenty different perfumes and half-dozen hairspray brands wafting on the breeze.

That night there was a woman that definitely stood out from the others. She was tall, blonde, and very well put together. Her skirt was still ridiculously short, and her top still way too tight, but somehow she managed not to look trashy. She looked hot, and downright sexy. She was the kind of woman that made me actually stop and think about how my roomy t-shirt, plain jeans, and flip-flops look to the rest of the world.

I was doubly taken aback when she launched herself into Sean’s arms.

“Hey there, Krysta,” Sean said, as he gently patted her back and pulled her far enough away that she was no longer touching his chest.

Henry continued onto the bus, but Mike and I, who were walking behind Sean, stopped. I was feeling awkward.

“It’s been a long time,” she said in an airy tone.

“Yeah, it has. Come here.” Sean escorted her over to the rear end of the bus, away from the crowd and out of earshot of the open bus door.

Mike put his hand on my back and gently pushed me toward the door. I climbed aboard and plopped down across from Henry.

I was trying to act casual, but my mind was moving at a million miles an hour. I had been taking my sleeping arrangement for granted. While Henry had a woman in his room nearly every night, Sean hadn’t shown the slightest inclination to do the same all the while I’d been traveling with them.

“Krysta is a recurring fling for Sean,” Mike was explaining to me, though I hadn’t asked.

In fact I hadn’t said a word. Henry was studying me. I squirmed in my seat.

“Oh yeah, she’s pretty hot. Hotter than most of your girls, Henry,” I said.

Henry smiled, but it looked fake, and he continued to stare at me.

“I guess I need another place to sleep tonight.”

I expected Henry to make a quip about me sleeping with him. But he didn’t. Instead his brow creased, he stayed quiet. I knew Mike had met a guy at the concert and made arrangements to meet up with him later, so his room was out as well.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, Baby,” Mike said. “I’ll get you your own room.”

As Mike pulled out his cell phone, I realized that this night in my own hotel room would be my last on the tour. I couldn’t explain to myself why, I just knew it was. I would feel guilty about breaking my promise when I was sneaking away in the morning. But right then, all I could feel was betrayal. And it was completely unjustified.

Mike was mid-way through ordering an additional room at the hotel when Sean walked into the bus and closed the door behind him. He was alone.

“What the hell are you doing?” He asked, placing a hand on Mike’s shoulder.

Mike told the person on the other line to hold on and put the phone to his chest. He looked up at Sean, “I’m ordering a room for Baby.”

“Bullshit,” Sean lowered himself into the booth next to Henry. “Baby stays with me. We’re not wasting a bunch of extra money for a person who takes up two square feet of space.” His expression indicated that this was the end of the conversation.

Mike hung up the phone and the four of us rode to the hotel in silence.

Sean and I didn’t speak to one another until we were in the suite.

“Sean,” I said hesitantly.

He looked up from his bag. “What’s up, Baby?”

“I feel bad right now.”

“About what?”

“Cramping your style?” It came out as a question.

Sean turned back to his bag and continued sorting through the contents. “Don’t be ridiculous, Baby.”

He was avoiding eye contact with me. It was pissing me off. So I walked over to stand next to him. “I mean it. You obviously have a history with that woman.”

He still didn’t look at me. Instead, he started pulling clothing out of his bag and throwing each piece on the bed. “And?”

“And, maybe you want to be alone with her. You can tell me.”

Finally, he looked up at me. “I don’t.” It was all he said, before turning away again.

“She’s very beautiful,” I said softly.

Sean’s head snapped up. He examined me, a look of contemplation on his face. Then he said, “she’s alright.”

“How long – ”

“Look, Baby, I don’t want to talk about this right now, okay?”

Then he scooped up his clothes and headed for the bathroom.

****

“I’m bored,” I whined when Mike came to the door of his hotel room, wearing only a pair of jeans.

“What do you want to do?” He opened the door wide and I followed him inside.

“I don’t know. Something,” I said, plopping down on the edge of his bed.

Mike pulled a t-shirt over his head. “It’s pretty late. Sean and Henry are still at the studio?”

“Yes, they’ve been gone forever,” I complained.

They were laying down some tracks at a local studio for a friend of theirs. I’d expected them to be gone for a few hours. But now it was almost eleven, and I still hadn’t seen or heard from them.

“Hotel bar?” Mike suggested.

I followed Mike down to the hotel lobby. When I first walked into the bar I thought about changing my mind and heading back to my room, or even asking Mike to take me to another bar. But I refused to be a coward. The fact that at least half a dozen groupies, including Heather, were sitting at a long table with the enigmatic Krysta, should not have me running to the hills.

I squared my shoulders and headed for the opposite end of the room. But the bar was so small that there was no way to avoid detection. Soon, the women were calling to both Mike and me. Reluctantly, we headed to their table.

I should have known that something was up when they were all sugar sweet to me. Mike seemed to be pleased that I was getting along with the other women. I wasn’t so sure that them pretending to like me and me being polite and very quiet in return counted as ‘getting along.’ But I had two beers and started to feel better.

The third beer was the killer. Not long after Mike returned from a trip to the restroom, I started to feel really fuzzy, like I’d had six beers instead of two and half. He was sitting across from me, between Linda and Wendy, both women were fawning all over him, clearly unaware that it wouldn’t get them anywhere.

I wasn’t really capable of talking, so I decided to go over to where he was. I managed to stand up briefly, before I fell and ended up sprawled on the barroom floor. I heard some gasps and few giggles.

Mike had me back in the chair quickly. He was looking into my eyes, smelling my beer, pouring it out on the table, where a frothy substance could be seen. Mike’s face was beet red as he turned to the occupants of our table.

“Someone is going to pay for this!” He shouted. Then he scooped me up in his arms and carried me out of there.

****

“Fuck that, we gotta take her to the hospital.”

I was lying on a bed. There was a pillow under my head. I was dressed. In fact my jeans were irritating me, the way they rode down on my hips. But I couldn’t move.

“You guys, there are some serious implications…”

“Fuck your lawyer talk Mike. Hank, I’ll carry her, go find Tony.”

My sluggish brain was trying to work. I had been drugged. I could barely move, I was fighting to stay awake, and everything was very fuzzy. Henry and Sean were going to take me to the ER. Oh shit! I couldn’t let that happen. Even in my impaired state I could comprehend the consequences of two rock stars bringing in a girl who’d been drugged.

“Okay, let’s do it,” Mike said, as if he had a choice.

I could hear Sean whisper in my ear as he leaned over me. “Hey Baby, I’m going to pick you up now, okay.”

“No.” I intended for it to come out as a loud shout, instead it was a weak whisper. I tried again “No, no, no!”

He must have heard me, because his hands stilled on my shoulders and knees where he’d been about to lift me.

“Baby, we need to get you to a doctor,” Sean pleaded.

“No hospital!” It was taking all the energy I had, and I still wasn’t able to open my eyes and actually look at him while I spoke. But I was determined to make myself heard.

“We could call Dr. Brown,” Mike suggested.

“This is crazy.” Sean’s hands weren’t on me anymore, and I imagined that he was standing over me, running his hand over his face, the way he did when he was stressed.

“I’ll call him,” Mike said.

I heard Mike move away, then his muffled voice in the distance. I was pretty sure Sean was still near me. I managed to move one of my arms. I reached out for him. I made contact with flesh. Sean grabbed my hand and held it.

“Baby, I’m so sorry,” he said in a whisper.

“Sean,” I slurred his name. “Take off my pants.”

“What?”

“Off,” I took my hand back and tried to push at my jeans, but I got nowhere.

“Okay, Baby. I promise to get them off. Let’s just wait a minute, okay.”

I experienced some sort of lapse in time, because the next thing I knew Henry was back in the room and all three of them were talking again, very close to where I was lying.

“Dr. Brown says she should sleep, someone should stay by her and just check on her every once in a while. In the morning make sure she eats and drinks tons of water. He says that’s all they’d do at the hospital anyway.

Sean growled.

Henry was pissed. “Who the fuck did this, Mike?”

“I’m going to find out.”

“Go with him,” Sean said. “I’ll stay with her.”

I heard the sounds of footsteps, grumbling, and a closing door. Then the bed sunk next to me. I still couldn’t pry my eyes open, but I was certain that Sean was sitting on the edge of the bed beside me.

“Will you take my pants off now?” I asked in a soft whisper, that I had intended to come out far more demanding.

Sean let out a loud sigh. But he moved. I felt him carefully remove my jeans and cover me with a blanket. I wanted to ask him to somehow get my bra off too, but I wasn’t sure I had the energy to request it. I was just working up the strength, when a more important request came to the forefront of my mind.

“Sean, stay with me.” I lifted my arm and let it fall with a thump on the bed beside me, as if to punctuate my request.

“Okay, Baby,” he said softly.

The last thing I was aware of before losing consciousness was the bed moving beneath me.