Picture Perfect (9 page)

When I got home
I found that I’d gotten a text message from my dad and I spent a few minutes texting him.

Dad:
I see why you like her.  She’s lovely, inside and out.

Me: She really is,
isn’t she? Did Gram and Pop like her?

Dad: Are you kidding? Gram’s already told us that you and Tessa would have beautiful children. Pop agreed.

Me: Whoa dad. Slow your roll. I can’t even get her to hold my hand in public.

Dad: You and I both know you wouldn’t have introduced her if you didn’t know this could be big.

Me: True but it’s not me I’m worried about.  It’s Tess.  She’s not into me pushing too fast.

Dad: I swear I love this girl already.  You’ve had it too easy your whole life where girls are concerned.

Me: Hey! Mary didn’t make it easy on me.

Dad: Mary didn’t count as a relationship, and if you think she did…
then you’re an idiot.

Me: Ouch dad.  Ouch.

Dad: Fighting every day and breaking up every four seconds does not a relationship make.

Me: I know, dad.  I’m just kidding.  You’re right.  I don’t know anything about having a relationship.

Dad: Son, you learned at the knee of the master.  You’ve got it in you.  Now you just need to access it.

Me: J
eez dad.  Inflated ego much?

Dad: I worshipped your mother. Still do.  That had to have rubbed off on
you.  But I was talking about POP, smartass. 

Me:
I learned from you both, dad.  I remember how you were with mom.

Dad: That means a lot Flynn. I’ve go
t to get changed before I pick Pop and Gram up.  If I’m not there on time Gram will tweet about it.

Me: She scares me with that T
witter account.  Last week she put up a pic of me naked in the bathtub when I was a baby.  #myprecious   I swear to god I choked when I saw it.  All the gossip sites copied the pic too.

Dad: Of course they did.  Gram’s got a million followers. She takes her legion of fans seriously.

Me: I swear to god its Gram that’s the real performer in the family. She’s a nut.

Dad: That she is!
  But she’s the nut that you insisted on giving a computer and an iPhone to, genius. 

Me:
I just wanted to be able to talk to her all the time! Who knew she’d get into trouble?

Dad: It’s Gram.  Of course she was going to get into trouble!

Me: Now that you say it that way, I see what you mean.  Ha! See you at dinner. I love you dad.

Dad: Love you too
, son.

I
spent some serious time getting ready and choosing my outfit.  I’m a guy and I know that’s embarrassing, but I wanted to smell and look good for her.  Yeah, it was that bad.  I’ve never given a shit about looking good for anyone.  We’ve got a stylist that takes care of our tour wardrobe, but in real life I really don’t give a shit.  I’ve sure as hell never taken a shower, flossed, brushed my teeth, used mouthwash, shaved, dried my hair and then put on cologne to go on a date.  Or, a non-date I guess, since it was a family dinner.  In any case, I did it for Tessa and I hoped it would work for her.

My drive to her hotel seemed to take entirely too long.  I missed her.  I can’t even explain why, but I did.  I’d never been excited about seeing a girl.  Even with my high school girlfriend, we’d been more of a thing because of proximity.  Our ‘relationship’ had been one big piece of bullshit drama after another.  We argued at parties, broke up every few weeks, cheated on each other and in two years never managed to have an in-depth conversation about
anything
.  We were young and dumb, and our relationship reflected that. As my non-rock band friends have gotten into relationships I’ve always found myself being jealous, wondering what it would feel like to be so enamored of somebody.  Now, I knew.

When I stepped out of my car, I had some extra spring in my step.  My heartbeat sped up when I saw Tessa sitting in the lobby waiting.  She smiled when she saw me, but I’m pretty sure that I stared at her like a total idiot as she walked towar
d me.  She had on a pair of khaki shorts, a black tank top and a pair of black converse sneakers.  You’d think that casual attire would have made her beauty easier to handle, but it didn’t because she looked amazing.  I’d never have guessed that a pair of converse sneakers would look so damn sexy that I’d have trouble staying calm.  Who knew?

I was a nervous about going out with Flynn and his family.  Not because I was nervous about his family, they were lovely.  Flynn was too, but he was what made me nervous because it was him that made my heart skip beats.  That alone scared the bejesus out of me.  It had certainly never happened before.

I felt Flynn’s presence before I saw him.
  I couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that broke out across my face when I saw his attire.  We were dressed practically identically, and I found that hilarious.  He was wearing a black t-shirt, khaki cargo shorts and a pair of black converse.  People were going to wonder if we’d purposely coordinated, but I thought it was a good sign that maybe we really were compatible.

He might have been
dressed casually, but he was the most beautiful man I’d ever set my eyes on, bar none.  There wasn’t anyone that even came close to Flynn’s beauty or magnetism.  Even his walk was sexy, and I enjoyed watching him as he came closer to me.  I had to remind myself that dissolving into a puddle in the hotel lobby would be frowned upon.

When Flynn reached me he pulled me in for a hug, just like he had when I’d showed up for the all hands on meeting earlier in the day.  I’d noticed that he had hugged his father, grandparents and Cole’s parents earlier as well, so I assumed he was just comfortable bei
ng affectionate.  Another check mark in the positive column for Flynn as far as I was concerned.  Lee had been the polar opposite of affectionate unless it was sexual in nature.  I wished that I’d really noticed that before.  Damn me for making such a foolish decision and giving Lee something that I’d never be able to get back.

Apparently I’d tensed up when I thought of Lee, because Flynn pulled away and put his hand under my chin to tilt my head back.  “
Babe, what’s wrong?”

Shaking my head, I
sighed.  “I’m sorry I just had an unpleasant memory.  It’s nothing to worry about.”

He didn’t just gloss over that or let it go.  Instead he kept one finger under my chin as he stared into my eyes for a moment.  Apparently whatever he saw there reassured him that I really was fine.  He smiled at me as his mouth moved closer to mine, and I’m pretty sure I smiled back.  I can’t be sure though because I was in a total Flynn-induced daze.  He kissed me quickly and gently, and I melted against his chest. For just a second our tongues touched, and then it was over.
  Sliding his fingers through mine, he walked me out to his car.  I couldn’t quite pinpoint the feeling that I was having, but it definitely wasn’t something I’d ever experienced before.

Flynn mig
ht be one of the most famous voices in the world but that didn’t make him less of a gentleman.  His parents had raised him with impeccable manners, and I appreciated it. He opened the passenger door for me and waited until I’d buckled my seatbelt before closing my door.  As soon as the door clicked shut, I realized what the feeling that I was having was.

It was the feeling of being safe and secure
.

It seemed so absurd to feel that way about someone I’d known for less than twenty-four hours, but that was how I felt.  It occurred to me that
while I liked the real life Flynn, I’d be meeting celebrity Flynn very soon.  I knew that it was very unlikely that he’d maintain his gentlemanly behavior once the tour started and thousands of women were salivating and clamoring to do anything and everything to make him happy.

I needed to maintain my walls
in order not to get hurt when he inevitably turned out like every guy.  He was a rock superstar for god sake, not a music teacher.  I couldn’t judge him for that, because I couldn’t even imagine how that would warp a person’s perspective.  Being able to have whatever you want, whenever you wanted it, would really give you unrealistic expectations about dating and women in general.  I was nothing like the women he was used to, of that much I was sure.  That thought was a real confidence killer.

His car stereo was softly playing Pearl Jam, and I tried to relax and get into the music.  Pearl Jam was one of my favorite bands, but I couldn’t turn my brain off. At the first red light, Flynn turned and looked at me.  “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”

I knew there was no way that I could say that I was thinking that he was very likely a man whore and that I’d never measure up to the wild women that he ran with.  Instead I shook my head and gave him a smile.  “I’m just enjoying your music selection. Corduroy is one of my favorite songs.”

Turning to me, he frowned.  “Be that as it may, you aren’t sitting
there thinking about the song.  What’s wrong sweetness?  Am I making you uncomfortable or something?”

I emphatically shook my head in the negative.  “No!
Ignore my Flynn.  I’m just being an idiot.  It’s been a crazy couple of months.”  I seriously needed to get control of myself.  What the hell was I going to say to him if he pushed? 
‘Sorry, I was sitting here thinking that you’ve had entirely too much sexual experience and I know you’ll be woefully disappointed if anything happens between us?’
  Yeah, I couldn’t say that without sounding psycho.  We’d just met, and that meant it would be nuts to spout things off like that.  If I said
any
of that he’d probably think I was as crazy as Glenn Close in ‘Fatal Attraction.’

The look on his face indicated that my words weren’
t making him feel much better, but when I smiled he had no choice but to let it go.  We spent the rest of the drive to the restaurant talking about his family.  I asked a million questions and he answered them all.  By the time we pulled into the restaurant parking lot I felt like I had a good idea of the family dynamic. 

When Flynn parked, I moved to open my car door.  Touching my shoulder, Flynn smiled down at me.  “My grandmother would smack me silly if she thought I wasn’t opening doors for you.  You don’t want me to be punished
, do you?”

He was so much different than I had expected.  For all of his fame and wild lifestyle, he really was a gentleman.  I smiled up into his handsome face when he opened my door and I shivered when he took my hand in his again.  As we started to wal
k, I tried to pull my hand away.  Stopping dead in his tracks, Flynn looked at me.

“
What the hell, babe? Why is it not okay to touch you?  You seemed okay at the hotel, but you pulled away before the meeting today and now you’re pulling away again.  Does touching me bother you?”

He couldn’t have been more wrong about his touch bothering me.  I actually found it comforting and soothing.  I felt comfortable with Flynn in a way I never had with anyone else before.

“It’s not that
at all
. I pulled away before we walked into the meeting today because I didn’t want the entire room to think I was throwing myself at you.  I tried to pull my hand away now because I don’t want your family to think that, either.”

Grabbing both of my hands, Flynn pulled me closer to him.  “
Babe, my family already knows about you.  I was at my dad’s house at the ass crack of dawn this morning yapping about the amazing girl I met.  Believe me they don’t think you’re throwing yourself at me.  They’re happy Tess, happy that I met somebody normal.  They’d never have agreed to dinner if they didn’t like you.  No one is going to raise an eyebrow that we’re holding hands sweetness.”

I surrendered totally, smiling shyly at him as he started guiding me into the restaurant. 
The restaurant was packed, but the hostess recognized Flynn.  “Your family is in the back,” she said with a smile.  I took that to mean they came here a lot.

I understood better by what she meant when she said in the back when we entered a private area.  Everyone was already seated around the table, and I smirked when I saw Devon sitting right in between Cole and
Ian.  There was a story there; I just knew it. 

Flynn’s father had saved us two seats next to him
, and he and Flynn’s grandfather stood to hug and greet us both.  Flynn’s Gram stayed seated, but we both hugged and kissed her before saying hello to Janice and Steve.  Flynn was particularly affectionate with Janice and his Gram, something that made me smile.  He’d said in the car that Gram and Janice were his favorite women, and I could see that.

As much as I knew about Flynn from reading band articles when I was a teenager, I didn’t really know anything personal about him.  I could see that his dad wasn’t married now, but I wondered if he’d ever remarried or if he was dating.  He was a really handsome and funny man, a lot
like Flynn’s grandfather, Mason.  The three of them were ridiculously attractive, and Flynn’s Gram had something beautiful about her that drew the eye. I found myself wanting to take her picture to try and capture what made her so unique.  She had such a love of life in her eyes that I swear it radiated off of her.