They both started talking at once.
“That is the best news.”
“I’m so glad! It’s time. I mean, I know you love it, but we miss you.”
“You can focus on starting a family!”
“Even if you go back to it later, you need a break!”
And on and on it went.
Beckham laughed and put another pork chop on his plate. He intended to eat whatever he wanted for one more night. It wouldn’t be like this once he was rehearsing.
“Okay, I’ll come,” Sierra said quietly at first, and then louder, “I’ll do it!”
“Really? You will?”
She nodded.
“Yes! Thank you! This is great. You have about two weeks to learn the material backwards and forwards. And then vocal work will be going on at the same time as the dance rehearsals. We’ll combine you guys in a few weeks.”
“I know it pretty well already,” she said. “I’ll just need to break it to the office that I’m leaving.” She shrugged. “Honestly, I was ready for a change anyway.”
She took a sip of wine and stared into space, a smile faintly touching her lips. He groaned, hoping his entourage wouldn’t embarrass themselves too badly over Ian.
She stuck a tack through the forehead of every person involved. Stick, prick, blood. She grinned. If it were only that easy.
There were only a few backup singers. His sister was the only new one. She touched the hair on Sierra’s picture and repositioned the tack so it looked like a hair barrette instead of a colorful ball in her forehead. Better. The sister was safe.
Ian Sterling and his wife and daughter were surprises she hadn’t seen coming. She had them on the wall, but they didn’t really seem threatening. From what she could tell, they were so wrapped up in each other, they wouldn’t stand in her way of getting to Beckham.
The dancers. She ticked off their names. Memorization had always come easy for her. There were two who had toured with him before, so that left two less to worry about. She repositioned the tacks on Justin and Vanessa’s heads. Brad and Shelton, too. They were gay and wouldn’t get in her way. Without question, Beckham was damn straight.
That left the last two: Brooke and Roxie. She left their pins right where they were and studied the pictures intently. Brooke was the prettier of the two, with black hair and porcelain skin. But there was something appealing about Roxie. Almost magnetic. Her thick, waist-length blonde hair made you want to pull it and her eyes looked deep blue-green innocent. She also had an ass that would probably be insured by the time the tour was over. Brooke was beautiful, but Roxie was sexier … by far. She tried to look at them through Beckham’s eyes and see what he would see in both of them.
Roxie. She would have to watch that one.
She stepped back to look at her walls. The maps were ready. Each of Beckham’s tour stops were marked on a huge map that covered a wall. The other two walls she’d been adding to for years, clipping her favorite shots of Beckham Woods. Some she’d printed from the Internet, some she’d clipped from magazines, most of them she’d taken of him herself. Those were her favorites.
The final wall was anyone who might get in her way. She belonged with Beckham. There was no doubt that she would have him.
Red X’s were drawn through Josephine Sales, Genny Freeman, and Bethany Cook—girls he’d dated. She kept watch on them every now and then to see if they were still in contact, but they seemed to have all moved on from each other.
There was one girl he’d met in rehab that she’d followed for weeks after he got out. He contacted the girl and went out with her once. She might have seen to it that the girl got reacquainted with her little buddy, heroin.
But that could never be pinned on her.
Stick, prick, blood. She grinned. It really was that easy.
Ian poked his head into the rehearsal room and watched for a few minutes before he saw a place in the back where he could sit unnoticed. Beckham had given him the security code, but Ian wasn’t expected to come in for another week at least. He was stunned by the whole set-up. The dancers were unbelievable. He’d done a lot of rehearsals and traveling—short tours and an extended tour—and liked to think he did things with excellence, but he’d never been part of something as big as this. This tour was a production, far better than anything he and Donny could have dreamed up on their own. He couldn’t wait for Sparrow to see all of it. She would freak.
When he realized Beckham wasn’t coming in, he went out the same way he came in—secretly. He walked outside, dialing Beckham before he reached the car. He looked around, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stick up … the way he usually knew he was being watched. Then again, he felt that way pretty much all the time now when he was out and about in L.A., and unfortunately, it was usually true. He hoped he hadn’t been followed. Beckham wanted to keep this location private as long as they could.
He looked around one more time but didn’t see anyone. Beckham answered just as he got in his car.
“I stopped by the warehouse,” he said. “Thought I might see you here.”
“Ahh, not yet. I dropped in the other day, but I probably won’t go in until later this week. I don’t want to make them too uncomfortable when they’re still learning the material.”
“They’re looking pretty damn phenomenal,” Ian said.
“Good, right?”
“Better than that,” he said. “There’s one that seemed like she could teach the whole group. Anthony kept having her demonstrate. She’s got it down, backwards and forwards.”
Beckham groaned. “That’s Roxie. She’s gonna be the end of me.”
Ian laughed. “Oh, it’s like that, huh. This is gonna be so fun.”
“Shut up.”
“Okay, touchy.”
“Hey, baby, come take a ride with me.”
Sparrow looked up from the book she was reading. He was glad she’d listened to him and taken a break from packing while he was gone.
She managed to scrunch her nose and smile at the same time. “Journey’s right here. We can’t have sex right now.” The last three words were not even whispered, but mouthed.
He leaned down and kissed her nose. “I meant a ride in the car, but I like your idea so much better.”
“Oh!” Her eyes twinkled as her smile brightened. “Where are we going? We still have a lot to do…”
“Not today we don’t. I want to take my girls out. Come on. I need to show you something.”
He looked over at Journey, who had a cloth book in her mouth, her bib soaked with drool. He raised an eyebrow to Sparrow.
“She’s eating books. Are you really okay with that?”
“When you say it like that, no.”
She leveled him with her eyes, and he flinched, throwing his hands up.
“Everything is going in her mouth today. At least it’s not a copy of Gone With the Wind or something,” she said.
“Good point. I guess we’ve got to let her normal-ness come out every once in a while. She can’t be perfect all the time. I think she should be allowed to have at it with the book.” He nodded gravely.
She smiled up at him, and her head tilted to the side as she studied him. “Do you ever have a serious thought anymore?”
He blinked fast, giving her his best doe-eyed look.
Her lips twitched and he knew it was taking a lot of effort for her not to laugh.
“Define serious, Little Bird. I’m serious as hell over you and the pumpkin.” He pulled her up and moved his arm around her waist, pulling her flush against him. “Beyond that … I can’t seem to get too upset about anything since the day you married me—I mean, there’s rough stuff and all. Like you scaring me to death with the early labor, and now Donny being sick, life…” He kissed her cheeks and forehead and chin. “But you and that baby girl are the two very best things I’ve ever done. Every single time I see you, my heart short-circuits and I feel a rush to my heart, my brain … my other brain…” He moved her hand down to the front of his pants and pushed against her, grinning. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop being in awe of the fact that you married me, Sparrow Kate Sterling.”