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.”
The dreams didn’t stop. Beckham dreamed about Roxie almost every night. They were either dancing or he was exploring her body like a man starved. He didn’t know if his dreams of her were memories or just the desire he’d had for her from the moment he saw her. Knowing how he’d wanted her from that first day, he couldn’t understand how he could ever forget her, but there was a stretch of time before he’d gone in rehab that he’d never even admitted to himself how bad off he’d really been. There were significant chunks of time that were completely lost—he couldn’t remember anything with clarity. The shame of that lingered before he ever saw Roxie, but knowing she had also been involved, and obviously hurt, ate away at him.