Fade to Red (10 page)

She rolled her eyes just as Anthony started the music. Today she was dancing on her own. It was a song where Beckham was supposed to stand like stone while she tried to ‘win back his affection’ with her dance. Anthony talked over what he wanted from her, showing her specifically in some sections, but then letting her take it from there. It was all about the emotion. She put every ounce of heartache and loss she’d felt, every bit of anger and also the longing…

When the song ended, the room was silent. Roxie tried to discreetly wipe the tear that had fallen toward the end. She’d gotten too caught up in it.

“Wow,” Anthony finally spoke. “Do you think you can do that every night? That was flawless.”

They wrapped it up quickly and Roxie was on the way to her car when Beckham stepped beside her. When they reached her car, he moved in front of her car door.

“Remember I wanted to talk?”

“I never agreed to that.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m just getting tired of this … animosity you seem to have toward me. What have I done?”

“If you don’t remember, I’m not going to remind you!” she snapped.

“I just need to know.” His chest rose while he stared at her. “Did we … sleep together?” he asked, cringing.

She tightened her ponytail and put her hands on her hips. “Why does it matter?” she finally said.

“So we did,” he groaned.

To her horror, tears welled up in her eyes. Oh God, she was making such a fool out of herself.

“Let me go, Beckham. I’m tired. I just wanna go home.”

He moved, but touched her shoulder. “Roxie. I-just … I’m sorry.”

She held her hand up for him to back off and he did. And once again, he watched her car squeal out of the parking lot.

Ian took his band with him the next time he went to the warehouse. The guys were pumped about the new tour development. Beckham had some of the country’s best musicians—players Ian and his guys couldn’t wait to mesh with on the road. This collaboration felt like a huge step up in each one of their careers. Donny was happiest of all. During Ian’s last two visits, he’d taken credit for what he liked to call the ‘best collaboration of the decade’ and Ian gladly let him. He was glad to distract Donny with something besides chemo.

“Who needs groupies when there’s all this eye candy?” Chris said when they walked inside.

Aaron was quick to agree. Charlie had a girlfriend, but his eyes were still wide as he took in the dancers and singers rehearsing.

“You didn’t tell us, man,” Chris nudged Ian.

He shrugged. Honestly, he hadn’t thought much more beyond the fact that they danced well, especially the girl Beckham was dancing with—Ian couldn’t remember her name. He grinned when he saw the way Beck looked at her. The guy wasn’t kidding—he had it bad.

“I knew you were whipped, but have you become
blind
? Jeez, Ian, look how flexible they are…” Aaron groaned.

He thought about Sparrow doing yoga and wished he was home. She’d been working on it for a year and a half and had actually gotten damn good. It had been comical at first, although he’d tried hard as hell not to laugh. She nearly gave up, due to how hard it was, being a bit physically challenged in the balance/tripping on nothing department. She stayed with it, though, and it had helped her immensely—she rarely got bruises now from bumping into everything, and she hadn’t fallen in over a year. It became their challenge to see if she could hold her pose while he teased her body in every way possible. He knew all about flexible.

The guys teased Ian all the time about being Sparrow-whipped. He knew it was true and he owned it with pride. There was no other woman for him, period. He didn’t believe in the saying, ‘Once a cheater, always a cheater’, because the very core of his heart had changed. The broken parts that made him who he was had been welded back together. The scars were there to make him appreciate what he had, but new skin had grown in its place. He didn’t view women the way he used to. They still came on to him all the time—it was part of the business—but he had no emptiness to fill, nothing to prove. That made all the difference.
Sparrow
made all the difference. You didn’t lose the love of your life and then get her back and not learn something from it.

The song ended and Beckham slowly backed away from the girl, like he hated to do it. He turned toward Ian, but it took a minute before his eyes focused. Ian’s laugh seemed to shake him out of the fog.

“Ian, come meet everyone,” Beckham said, motioning them forward. He walked toward them too, holding out his hand to Ian and pounding his back. “Sexiest Man Alive right here, people!” he yelled, laughing.

Ian gave his hair a yank and made a face. “So how does it work—do you suddenly stop being sexiest when someone else is selected? Am I gonna need therapy when that happens?”

“It’s why I’ve won so many times,” Beckham teased. “They see how down I get about losing the title and slap it on me again.”

Ian introduced Beck to the guys, who were sufficiently awed, and then Beck took them to meet the crew. He met the band leader, Hollis, first. Great guy. Everyone was friendly, some seemed especially star-struck, which cracked up both Beck and Ian. Beck’s sister, Sierra, shook when she met him. Ian elbowed Beck when he teased her about it. There was a dancer, Brooke, who seemed like trouble. She did a thing with her tongue when they were introduced, which Ian thought might be some sort of tick or something, but then she did a weird stroke with her finger down the middle of his palm when they shook hands. He dropped her hand like it burned and moved on. Eventually, Beck reached Roxie. He touched her shoulder and she stiffened, moving away from him and closer to Ian.

Shit. Ian watched Beck’s face drop and tried to lighten the situation. He shook her hand and then motioned between the two of them.

“The two of you make it look easy up there. Wish I had your moves, man.” He nodded at Beckham. “It’s a good thing I have my guitar to hide behind. Saves everyone the pain.”

“We’ll have to work on that, get you out of your comfort zone.” Beckham grinned. “Anthony’s a great teacher, aren’t you, Anthony?”

Anthony shot Beckham a look and then smiled at Ian, gripping his hand. “I would be honored to work with you. I love all your music. I listen to your album all the time!” He realized he was still shaking Ian’s hand and stopped, but didn’t let go.

“Thank you so much,” Ian said. “And I’d be honored if you’d help me up my game—I need to take Sparrow dancing more.”

“She is beautiful, just beautiful,” Anthony gushed. Finally, he let go of Ian’s hand.

“Inside and out,” Ian said. “She is it for me.”

He looked at the girl Brooke when he said this. She’d inched closer and closer to him, until her shoulder pressed into his. He backed up and the motion made her weave ever so slightly. She put her hand on her hip and steadied, not sure what to make of him. Good. He’d probably have to spell it out for her at some point, but hopefully not today. He wanted to at least get through this first introduction with everyone.

“You’ll meet the rest of the crew in later rehearsals. By the time we go on the road, we’ll have double this.”

“Wow, this already seems like a lot of people,” Chris said.

“Yeah, large crew.” Beckham wiped a hand over his face and cracked his neck. He gave them a tired smile. “We were just getting ready to break for lunch. You got here just in time.” He put an arm over Ian’s shoulders. “I’d like to go over some of our ideas with Hollis and Anthony … your guys should sit with us too. I know you and I have talked it to death, but I’d like both bands to hear from you how you see them fitting into your sets, and vice versa.”

Ian reached over and pulled at one of Beck’s waves that had shaped into a curl.

“Great hair, man. Don’t let Sparrow get ahold of this. I’ll be out of a wife.” The guys around them laughed and Ian talked on, oblivious. “You are inspiring me already, Beck. Organization is
not
my strong suit. I can talk music all day, though, so let’s get to it.”

Anthony had taken Ian seriously about the dancing and scheduled him to come to some of the choreography rehearsals. He still didn’t feel very comfortable dancing with these professionals, but Anthony insisted he looked ‘fabulous’ and that no one would ever know he was nervous. Once Ian got more comfortable, Anthony scheduled one-on-one rehearsals for a couple of Ian’s songs. He’d come to Ian all excited after the last rehearsal.

“I have an idea for your song, ‘True Love Story’,” he said, talking a mile a minute.

“Lay it on me,” Ian said.

“I think Sparrow should come out and dance with you on this,” Anthony pressed his lips together and then put his fist to his mouth, his eyebrows creased together in what appeared to be bliss or pain. “Can you imagine? The audience. Will. Lose. It.”

“Oh, I don’t know. She’s … not one for big crowds, kinda shy…”

“Just let me talk to her about it,” Anthony pleaded. “I have the vision. I can already see what she needs to wear…”

“She’ll want to wear a turtleneck to cover her splotches.” Ian chuckled.

“What?”

“Sure, ask her. I’ll see if she’ll come sometime this week.”

Sparrow and the pumpkin were going with him to rehearsal that morning, their first time to meet everyone. He was excited to show them off. Sparrow needed the lift—they’d gotten everything moved into storage and were now living in their bus. They’d parked it on their new land. Ian had tried to convince her that they should at least find a furnished condo until they went on the road, but she wanted to put all their income toward the new house. She swore she was fine, but he knew she hadn’t been writing as much, wasn’t sleeping great, and she might not want to admit it, but he could tell she was a little overwhelmed being on the bus with a baby full-time.

“It’ll be good practice for the next year,” she’d said.

“It means we’ll be on the bus
longer
than a year…”

“Which will make us all the more grateful when we finally move into our new house.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic, but he wanted to make sure she got out more. The paparazzi made her nervous—rightfully so—and she didn’t venture out much on her own. She FaceTimed Tessa and her parents a lot, but that wasn’t the same as having friends nearby to hang out with … especially as a new mom.

They pulled into the parking lot and he patted her hand. “They love you already,” he told her.

She gave him a nervous smile and tugged on her black short shorts.

“You look sexy as hell,” he whispered, leaning over to kiss her.

“There’s that baby girl!” Vanessa squealed.

Everyone crowded around when they saw the girls were with him. He’d been showing them pictures of Journey for weeks now. He introduced everyone to Sparrow. Beckham gave her a quick hug and Journey a kiss. She reached out and tugged on his hair, getting such a laugh from everyone, she jumped and her face crinkled into a cry. She buried her face in Sparrow’s neck and peeked back out at all the faces. Beckham played peekaboo with her until she was laughing again and pretty soon when he reached out to hold her she went to him.

He held her close and lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “Oh, this girl can have whatever she wants.” He put his nose to her dark wavy hair and sniffed. “And she smells so good.”

Ian smiled. “Nothing like it, man.”

Anthony stood in front of Sparrow and took both hands.

“You are even more breathtaking in person,” he said. He backed away, still holding her hands and looked her up and down. “That is one hot outfit. All creamy, demure lace on top and chiffon black shorts up to there.” He lifted one eyebrow and nodded.

Her cheeks turned rosy as she thanked him and he looked at Ian like his every fantasy had come true.

“She’s perfect for you!” he said.

“You’ve got that right,” Ian agreed.

Roxie had stayed back and when she finally came forward she had a little bag in her hand. Ian had told Sparrow about Roxie and how he thought Beck liked her. She was a cool girl—funny and nice … well, to everyone
but
Beck. The way they danced together canceled out all that animosity though.

Roxie introduced herself and held up the bag. “Ian’s been showing us her pictures, telling us all the new things she’s doing. I hope you don’t mind—I’ve been working on this during my breaks…”

Sparrow opened the bag and stared at Roxie. “Oh my goodness! That’s so sweet. Thank you!” She leaned over and hugged Roxie, which seemed to catch Roxie off guard.

Inside was a beautiful yellow sweater. Ian reached out and touched it.

“So soft,” he said, smiling at Roxie.

Sparrow held it up. “I love it—it’s beautiful! Thank you so much. I can’t believe you did that before even meeting us.”

Roxie smiled. “Ian talks about you guys so much, I feel like I know you.”