Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star (59 page)

“Yeah, you look great.”

“Thanks.”

“So, have you been busy?” he asked hopefully.

“Actually, I have. I’m in a new relationship now.”

“Oh?” his eyebrows peeked out over his sunglasses. “Lucky guy. Anyone I know?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t think so. He’s a classical musician.”

His expression was hidden behind his sunglasses. “That’s great, Lizzy. I’m happy for you.”

Elizabeth smiled and left for wardrobe, pleased that the initial confrontation was over.

***

Darcy looked down at his guitar, carefully strumming the new melody. A few bars later he heard Richard’s voice singing. It was different; Richard’s voice was gravelly compared to Charles, but it was his song. As soon as they read the words, they understood that Richard had to sing it.

They stood in their studio, playing together, the way they had for years. The differences, Richard singing and a studio musician, Mike Hurst, on drums, were of no consequence as the men lost themselves in the creative process.

“You know, we could thicken this up with some keyboards,” Charles observed when they finished.

Darcy and Richard shared a grin, knowing full well the pretty keyboard player on Charles’s mind. It was a gentle grin. Each one of them was in the same place, thinking about a lady far away.

“I’ve got something else I’d like to work on,” Darcy told them, pulling out sheets of music.

And so the day passed into evening. The three members of Slurry found themselves easy in each other’s company, quitting the studio and returning to the loft, eating pizza and watching movies. Around eleven they began to grow quiet, then fidgety. Charles extracted his cell phone and checked that it was on and charged, resting it on the couch beside him. Darcy got his cordless and placed it on the floor next to him.

Richard frowned. “Did you give Lizzy your cell number or the loft’s?”

“The loft’s,” Darcy said darkly.

“Why didn’t you give her your cell? Charlotte is calling the loft.”

“Because it’s my house!” Darcy replied. “Why didn’t you tell Charlotte to call your cell?”

The ringing of Charles’s phone interrupted the fight; Darcy and Richard watched, eyes wide, until Charles said, “Hi, Jane,” loudly, for their benefit. Charles got up and moved into the library as the landline rang.

“Lizzy?” Darcy answered.

“No,” a laughing voice answered, “it’s Charlotte.”

“Hi, Charlotte, hang on.” Darcy said sullenly, passing the phone to Richard.

Richard took the phone and, covering the mouthpiece with his hand, told Darcy, “Call Liz on your cell,” before speaking into the phone.

Darcy was up in a heartbeat, grabbing his cell and dialing Elizabeth’s number as he went into his bedroom and closed the door.

“Hello?” a very confused-sounding Elizabeth answered.

“It’s me. Charlotte and Richard are on the landline.”

“Oh good. I tried calling and couldn’t get through.” He could hear the relief in her voice. “How are you doing?”

***

“Terrible,” Jane moaned. “I’m bruised all over.”

“Baby, what happened?” Charles asked imploringly.

“Promise you won’t hate me?”

***

“She can’t surf!” Charlotte replied. “Oh my God, I lost count how many times she fell off the dumb surfboard just paddling out.”

Richard laughed. “And how did you do?”

“I’m a surfing natural,” she grinned.

“That’s my girl.”

***

“So then what happened?” Charles asked.

“Oh, George finally gave up on the surfing thing and had us cliff diving instead,” Jane said wearily.

“How did that go?” Charles sounded dubious.

***

“Well, it was more jumping off rocks than actually diving. I tried to do a real dive, but then George said they couldn’t see my face.”

Darcy smiled, warmed by her voice. “I hate to admit it, but he’s right about that. How has he been treating you?”

“Fine,” Elizabeth shrugged. “I told him I was in a new relationship and he’s totally left me alone.”

***

“Good, I’m glad that’s all over. So how was the night shoot?”

“Boring,” Jane said tiredly. “They got a bunch of guests from the resort to be extras and had us playing around a bonfire on the beach.”

***

“Oh, that sounds lame,” Richard scoffed.

“Tell me about it,” Charlotte agreed. “George has changed. You can tell.”

“How?” he demanded.

“It’s like he doesn’t care. He wasn’t paying much attention to the shooting, and the crew clearly had no respect for him.”

***

“It’s like everyone is just going through the motions here. I don’t think the video will be very good.”

Darcy sighed. “Just get it done and come home, Lizzy.”

Elizabeth smiled. “That’s what I’m doing, my love. What did you do today?”

***

“We worked on some new songs today.”

Jane sounded pleased. “Will we get to hear them when we get back?”

Charles smiled, recalling the content of the two love songs. “I guarantee it.”

“When?”

***

“So, um, tomorrow night.”

Charlotte was puzzled by Richard’s tone. If she didn’t know better, she would swear he was almost shy. But that was ridiculous, she told herself. Richard Fitzwilliam had never had a shy day in his life.

“Yes?” she said encouragingly.

“Do you think we could get together and, um, talk?”

Charlotte stopped breathing. Struggling, she laughed weakly. “Richard, we’ve been talking every night.”

“I meant face-to-face. I want to see you, Char.”

***

“I’m never going to sleep tonight,” Darcy complained.

“I know. Why do they make these beds so huge?”

“Do you forgive me for this morning?”

Elizabeth had to think a moment to remember what he was referring to, and then she smiled brightly. “Of course I do.” She laughed. “Can I tell you something?”

Darcy’s voice warmed. “Anything.”

“Well, this is a little gross, but I um, I kind of liked it. All morning long I would catch little whiffs of you in my hair. It was nice,” she said in a very small voice.

Darcy grinned. “I found one of your long Lizzy hairs on my guitar today.”

Elizabeth laughed. “How did it get there?”

“I don’t know, but I liked it. It’s like having a ‘Property of Elizabeth’ sign on me.”

***

“I love you,” Jane cooed.

“I love you too, angel.” Charles sounded lonely. “I wish you were here. Let’s not ever do anything stupid, like go on separate tours, all right?”

“Charles, I could never do that,” Jane answered without thinking. She paused, realizing what she said and was stunned by the implications. “Oh!”

“Jane?” He was concerned by the emotion in her voice. He wished he were there with her. “Jane, it’s okay. We’ll talk about it when you get back, but it’s okay.”

“Are you sure?” Her voice was a weak whisper.

“Darling, I’m certain. I lost you once and I am not going to do that again. We’ll work it out. We always do.”

Jane closed her eyes to the sound of his voice and let it soothe her.

***

“I’ll meet you at the airport?”

Charlotte looked down to see her fingers trembling. She clenched her fist to stop them. “Yes,” she answered, wishing her voice was stronger.

“Great.” He sounded relieved.

“Richard?” she called out plaintively.

“Yes?” His answer was quick and ready.

“I… I miss you.”

He closed his eyes against the desperation in her voice. “I miss you too, Char. I’ve missed you so much. There are so many things I want to tell you.” He made a conscious decision to stop talking. He longed to say those three little words to her, but he wanted to see her face, to hold her when he said it. Instead he told her, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Char.”

***

“I can’t wait.”

“I never knew one night could be so long, Elizabeth.”

“Me neither. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Sleep well, angel.”

“You too, love.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

***

Elizabeth found herself in the strange position of growing tired of her own song as she heard the playback once again.

While the previous video was filmed with a sense of order and precision, this one seemed to be thrown together in a haphazard fashion. The day had started out well enough, with filming Elizabeth in an RV. But it had since gone downhill. After a half-dozen takes of the band playing together while sitting on the sand, Elizabeth was now being asked to writhe about on the beach while a camera filmed her from overhead. She was quickly losing patience with it all.

She found her attention drifting back to Darcy and all the things she wanted to do with him back in New York. This would be the last night of the break. Tomorrow they were scheduled for the first of three nights at Madison Square Garden, then a day off, and then they were back on the road.

Elizabeth’s eyes drifted over to Charlotte, who was smoking again. Elizabeth realized that she had been smoking every time Elizabeth had seen her today, except when they were filming, and wondered what was wrong. Charlotte was being uncharacteristically quiet and withdrawn, and Elizabeth strongly suspected that returning to the tour was weighing heavily on her mind as well.

Elizabeth sighed. No matter what happened, Elizabeth couldn’t see a happy course for her. With a flash, she realized that Charlotte was now in the same boat she had been in for most of the tour—the only one not in a relationship—and Elizabeth’s heart filled with empathy for her friend.

***

The pleasant creativity that had prevailed the day before for Slurry was long gone by the next morning. In a strange twist of behavior, Richard was the first one up. Darcy woke to the smell of coffee and was surprised to find his cousin up and dressed.

With a puzzled look, Darcy sat on the bar stool beside his cousin and poured the tea that Richard had thoughtfully made.

“Okay, spill,” Darcy said shortly.

“What? It’s after ten already. What’s the problem with a man not wanting to sleep the day away?”

Darcy studied him impassively, took a sip of his tea, and said, “So, it’s Charlotte then?”

“Jesus
Christ
!” he swore sharply, putting his elbow on the counter and resting his forehead in his hand. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.

“What did she say last night?” Darcy asked calmly.

“She said she missed me,” Richard answered automatically. “And I almost blew it.” He closed his eyes and slammed his fist on the counter. “What if I screw up?” he demanded, his voice bordering on desperate.

Darcy lifted an eyebrow. “Richard, you already screwed up. What you really mean is ‘What if Charlotte doesn’t want to love an alcoholic and sex addict,’ right?”

Richard gave him a black look. “I hate it when you’re like this.”

Darcy nodded once. “I know.” He took another sip and continued impassively. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m meeting her at the airport, and I’m going to take her to my place.”

“Does she know this?”

“Yes, I asked her last night if we could have a date tonight to talk.” He slammed his fist down again, rattling the cups. “I can’t believe I asked her for a fucking date! I’m acting like a high school kid!”

“No, you are just nervous because you are planning on admitting some important stuff to someone who could really hurt you deeply.”

Richard glared at his cousin. “I fucking hate you.”

One corner of Darcy’s mouth turned up. “If it’s any comfort, I can tell you I’ve been there, and I think you’re doing the right thing.”

Richard took a long sip of his coffee and grumbled before saying, “How did you tell Elizabeth that you loved her?” His eyes, when he looked at Darcy, held his vulnerability, despite his light tone of voice.

“Well, you heard the first time I told her and witnessed how successful that was. When we met again at Tanglewood, we couldn’t really be alone all day, and while that was making me crazy at the time, it was actually kind of a good thing because we didn’t have a chance to let words trip us up.” Darcy frowned thoughtfully. “Words have always been hard for Lizzy and me.”

“You seemed to have worked that out,” Richard observed.

“Yeah,” Darcy grinned, “but we still do better communicating with our music or nonverbally.” He looked over at his cousin. “You and Charlotte are different, though. You two have never had a problem with words.”