Not Second Best (9 page)

“Anything for you. I’m expecting a ton of work to hit me in about three days, so it’s got to be before then.”

“Tomorrow.”

“Hang on. Let me make sure Brian doesn’t have plans for us.” The phone was muffled for a second, and he could hear her talking to Brian. They sounded so comfortable together. “Not a problem. I’m yours for the day, but Brian says you have to bring me back in the condition in which you borrowed me.”

“I will. I’ll pick you up at noon.”

“You’re gonna get up early for me? I’m honored. You know where the house is?”

“Sure. Wear something pretty for me,” he told her.

“Always. See ya tomorrow.” Laughing, she hung up.

Good. Tomorrow he’d have some answers.

“Geez Brett, I don’t know what to tell you.” Suzi twisted her water glass on the table. “I don’t really know Tessa that well.”

It had taken since he’d picked her up to after their salads were delivered to tell her the whole shitty story—leaving off the detail of why he and Tessa had ended up together in the first place—and that was her answer? Most of last night he’d been up pouring all his misery into a song, certain that Suzi would be able to give him a three-point action plan before their drinks were delivered. Damn.

“Tessa’s a very private person. Brian said you were ‘not dating.’” She made quotation marks with her fingers. “But I didn’t realize it was that complicated.”

The restaurant had deep booths with high screens. Nobody would see them here. Not that he wanted privacy with her, but he didn’t want the whole world to know what a sap he was. She did look nice. Her face was full and tan. She wore a loose pink blouse, navy pants, and leopard print Crocs. The maitre d’ had wrinkled his nose when he’d seen her shoes, but that guy didn’t know how lucky he was that she had shoes on at all. For the first time since he’d known Suzi, Brett didn’t get that sick coulda-shoulda feeling in his gut from being with her. “Just be honest with me. I’m a pussy, right?”

“No, I don’t think that. I have been crazy in love twice in my life, and both times it was like being skinned alive.”

“Does Brian know this?”

Suzi rolled her eyes. “He’d agree. It sounds to me like you’re in love, really in love, for the first time in your life.”

“And I’m a pussy.”

“No, you’re in love, and we can’t be sure Tessa doesn’t return the feeling.”

“What do you mean?” Brett leaned forward.

She shrugged. “This isn’t the first time Tessa has snubbed a pretty heavy relationship.”

“Like with Brian.”

“Yeah. Brian told me he was crazy about her. He even asked her to marry him once.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, she told him to grow up and started sleeping with Marc.”

“Ow.”

“Tell me about it. If Brian was a different kind of guy, she could have broken up the band with that stunt.”

“And that’s not the only time?”

“According to Brian, she’s been in a couple of very serious relationships that she ended for no good reason that anybody could see.”

“You two spend all night talking about Tessa and me?”

Suzi smirked. “Yes, Brett, Brian and I sat up all night talking about you.”

“Well, you know a lot for someone who doesn’t know anything.”

“The Brian-Tessa-Marc triangle is mildly legendary. Maureen, Cassie, and I speculate about what happened when we’re together, but none of us has the guts to ask any of the players what did happen, and we can’t ask Alex in case she doesn’t know. I wouldn’t want to let that cat out of the bag to Marc’s wife, would you? I mean, it’s one thing to know they have history without knowing they have
history
.”

“What happened?”

Suzi leaned across the table. “Brian had a crush on Tessa forever. Dating all the way back to elementary school. After Touchstone’s first album, Brian turned up the heat so Tessa jumped into bed with Marc who didn’t realize there was tension there. Brian may or may not have responded by sleeping with Candy who was in an on-again, off-again relationship with Ty.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Before I got together with Brian, I was just the innocent bystander girlfriend of one of the guys in another band.” She took a sip from her water glass.

“Are you sure you don’t want a Coke? You always have Coke.”

“I’m on a diet.”

Brett surveyed her face. She looked a little fuller in the cheeks than he remembered, and she had worn baggy clothes, but his best memories of her were when she lived in his house after leaving Logan and could go whole days without eating if he didn’t monitor her. “Why? Brian tell you you were fat?”

“No! I’m just trying to stay away from pop for a while. It’s bad for my teeth.” She stared into her water. “Back to Tessa. You know their father abandoned them when they were kids.”

“Whose father?” The whole baggy-clothes-wearing-not-drinking-Coke issue bothered him.

“Jason and Tessa’s.”

“I thought he died.”

“He didn’t. He walked out when they were little kids and remarried twice. Eva, Jason’s live-in house sitter, is his half sister.

“I didn’t know they had a live-in house sitter.”

“Oh. Well, they do. She’s Jason’s half-sister. Cass is very excited about the whole family being together.”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

“I ask questions.”

“So what does that have to do with me and Tessa?”

“It’s going to make her very wary about men. My guess is she thinks you’re going to leave her before you’ve even gotten there.”

The waiter arrived with their lunches. Suzi’s diet apparently included cheeseburgers and fries.

Baggy clothes plus full face and cheeseburgers and fries, minus Coke with a secretive, glowy expression. “You knocked up again?”

“Shh! No!” She peeked at him out of the corner of her eye, smiling.

He caught his breath at how beautiful she was. He’d never have her, but he could appreciate her. It made for a nice change. Pure, like the appreciation of a gorgeous sunset or an amazing landscape.

Then the pain came. He’d wandered into what Tessa would look like, telling a friend she was having a baby. Having his baby.

Which would never happen.

Suzi grabbed his hand. “You can’t tell anybody.”

“It’s a secret? People are going to find out.”

“Just for a little while. Just until I’m sure I’m—”

Not going to lose it again
. He squeezed her hand. “Sure, Suzi. I’ve kept your secrets before. I can do it again. Did you tell Brian?”

“Yes, he knows.” She blushed and held up her wrist. Brett had noticed the diamond and ruby bracelet but hadn’t thought anything of it. Lots of rock wives and girlfriends dripped with jewelry, but Suzi never had. “I can’t believe I’ve managed to keep track of it this long.”

From the woman who managed to lose her cell phone daily, she probably would, and Brian probably wouldn’t mind. Those guys had been around for a long time and had sold a ton of records. Their whole back office, Sandy, Tessa, Helen, even Jody, had been around from the beginning, too. The band would not be paying their office peanuts. Tessa’s house in the hills, modest as it was, couldn’t have been cheap. So much for getting her flashy gifts to impress her.

“What? You look like the cat just ate your canary.”

“I was just thinking Tessa probably has more money than I do.”

“Probably. Those guys have been very careful with their money. Have you seen Bear’s itty bitty house?” Suzi shrugged. “Besides, I don’t think Tessa wants you for your money.”

“You think she wants me?”

“At least in one way. Probably others. What do you have to offer her?”

“Nothing.” Brett poked the chicken he’d ordered with his fork. “She’s rich. She’s powerful. I know guys who would kill for fifteen minutes alone with her cell phone contact list. She’s been around fame most of her life. You should see some of the pictures on her walls.”

“I have.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” He sank into his chair. Abandoning his fork, he picked up his drink. “I don’t have anything to offer her except sex.”

“You have more than that. You’re creative, talented, ambitious, intelligent.”

“I never finished high school.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re not intelligent. You’re young.”

“She treats me like a kid.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?”

“She doesn’t treat me like a kid, and you and I are close to the same age.” Suzi stuck a French fry in her mouth. “Are you doing something that’s making her think you’re immature? Or are you perceiving that she is when she really isn’t?”

“She doesn’t like me to go to her office.”

“Brian mentioned she seemed annoyed that you were there. What does she say to you?”

“
What are you doing here? I told you not to come to my office.
” Even repeating the words stung. “But it’s always good when I’m there. She’s always hot for me. Except last time.”

“You’re having sex with her in her office?”

“Trying.”

“That might be the problem. She works there.”

“But she wants it. And besides, I stopped us the one time.”

“Do you think she might be embarrassed?”

“I’m pretty sure she is.”

“I don’t mean by you exactly. More like embarrassed because she’s a cougar. Chasing after a guy as young as you. It looks funny and maybe kind of pathetic.”

“I’m chasing her.”

Suzi shrugged. “We don’t know enough. We could toss around theories all afternoon and never get the right one. I could try to talk to her for you. I have a good excuse.”

“Would you? You can plead my case so much better than me. That would be great.” Brett cut into his chicken. He didn’t want to consider the weirdness of sending Suzi to talk to Tessa about him. Whatever got the job done.

* * * *

Cassie sat down next to Tessa on the deck behind Brian and Suzi’s house. They were having a party to announce Suzi was pregnant even though almost everyone knew. “I thought BroRide was supposed to be a bunch of party animals,” she announced.

“Why are you asking me?” Tessa asked. For a month now, she’d been trying to pretend she’d never heard of the band or their lead singer, but everyone kept asking her questions about them. Even the radio had turned against her. Every time she turned it on, it was playing one of their songs. She and Brett were probably the second most well-known secret in this circle after Suzi’s pregnancy.

“Just making conversation. They’ve been working really hard in the studio. Brett has been a regular worker bee. Jason said they were fighting a lot at first, but the whole time I’ve been there with the girls, it’s been pretty quiet.”

“Good.”

“Andi loves Brett because he swings her around by her feet.” Cassie shuddered. “I keep thinking he’s going to smack her little head into something, but my mom said she thought the same thing when my dad used to swing me like that when I was a kid.”

“What? Swing them around?” Connie sat down on Tessa’s other side. Great, now she had a sister-in-law and a sister ganging up on her. “Bear used to do that to my Conner when he was little. Scared the shit out of me.”

“But kids love it.” Cassie’s stomach growled.

“You hungry?” Connie asked.

At least Brett wasn’t there. That would make the gathering unbearable. So far it was the usual suspects. Band, back office, family. They all overlapped, anyway.

“Starved, but I’m holding out until Sandy gets going on the grill. I don’t want to eat too much junk.”

“You’re not pregnant too, are you?”

“No, but wouldn’t Jason love me to be. I swear, as soon as he heard Suzi was pregnant he started with ‘We should have another kid. Make it a nice even three.’”

Connie snickered. “His math skills were never great.”

“I need to cut back on the sweets, anyway.” Cassie eyed the food table across the yard. “Brett Cherney has this unadvertised talent for baking. You have not lived until you’ve seen him strut across my kitchen like Mick Jagger wearing my
You’ll Eat What I Give You and Like It
apron with a cookie sheet in his hands.”

Bear and Maureen arrived. Maureen had a ceramic bowl in her hands that could only hold her famous corn and avocado salad, which would be gone before the avocados warmed up to air temperature.

“You should video that,” Connie said.

“I should. It would make great blackmail material. Bake more cookies or the video goes up on YouTube.” Cassie laughed.

At least she was out in public and not sitting at home. Being alone had never bothered her in the past. Before, she could take company or leave it, but sometime in the last couple of months, alone had morphed into lonely. When she walked into the house at night, she wished there was someone to say hello to, and at night when she woke up, she wanted someone to curl up with. “I’m thinking about getting a dog,” she announced.

Cassie closed her mouth and looked at Connie, who shrugged. “Okay,” Cassie said. “What kind?”

“I don’t know. Just a dog.”

Connie raised one eyebrow. “Put a lot of thought into this, have you?”

“I thought it might be nice to have a pet.” Talking about her potential dog should keep them off the topic of Brett Cherney for a while.

“So, do you want a big dog or a little one?” Cassie folded her hands in her lap.

“A big one. The bigger the better.”

“The bigger the dog, the bigger the mess,” Connie said.

“Hello, ladies.” Maureen walked over, having detached herself from the food table where everyone was swarming her salad. “I made a triple batch this time, but it’s not going to last long. I don’t know why everybody doesn’t take the recipe and make it at home.”

“Because you make it special.” Cassie grinned at her.

“I guess. How’s the recording going?”

“Jesus Christ.” Tessa jumped up. “Is Brett Cherney all you people can talk about?”

“No, but it seems to be all you hear,” Connie said.

Tessa stomped toward the food table. Maybe she could at least get a little of Maureen’s salad. Sandy stopped her before she got that far.

“You okay?” he asked, balancing a tray of raw hamburgers and sausages in his hands.

“Fine. Why?”