“Don’t kill all your energy before we go on,” I heard Cam shout at him as he walked up with Dillon.
Van and Elisa trailed behind them. She was holding an envelope, and I had a feeling it was the stills from the magazine shoot I’d done a few weeks earlier. A fashion magazine was doing a spread of up-and-coming female artists, and they’d picked me. While we’d been in New York, I’d spent a day posing in different outfits and practicing my subtle pout for the camera. It had been fun, and for the first time in a while I wasn’t trying to pretend that the cameras weren’t on me. I’d actually enjoyed myself.
It might have been because Phillip, after having spent most of the day in the studio with his bandmates, had shown up for the last two hours of the shoot and had told me how sexy I looked when we’d taken a break so I could get my make-up retouched. Just those few innocent words had made me feel confident and beautiful enough to embrace the moment and enjoy it.
“I’m good,” Phillip told Cam as he skidded to a stop in front of Leah and me. He was only a little out of breath as he grinned at us. “I guess he’s right.”
“Yeah, he is,” Leah teased him as a guy sidled up next to her and put his arm around her waist. “I came to see an impressive show. I’m hoping to get my money’s worth.”
Phillip smirked at her and shook his head as she turned to the guy I assumed was her boyfriend.”
He kissed her on the cheek and said, “Sorry, babe.”
She looked over at him in adoration. “That’s okay. Is Robbie alright?”
He nodded. “He’s good. He just needed me to talk him through a few math problems. Fractions are giving him some trouble.”
“Good thing his dad’s a math teacher.”
The guy smiled. “I suppose.” Then he looked up at me. “Hi, I’m Dan Jennings. Leah’s boyfriend.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said as I put together the pieces of this motley crew of people who’d come to watch Phillip. “I’m Sabrina Tyler.”
Dan didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d be at a Westside show though. He was probably in his mid-thirties, and he was wearing jeans and a plaid button down shirt. He was nice looking, and his dark-framed glasses made him sexy in a nerdy way, but he really did look like a math teacher.
I felt the urge to glance over at Phillip, to see how he felt about Leah’s boyfriend being at his show, calling her babe, and putting his arm around her, but a part of me didn’t want to know if it was affecting him. I didn’t want him to be in love with her.
“It’s nice to meet you, Sabrina,” Dan told me. “My son, Robbie, is a big fan of yours. Would it be completely lame of me to ask you for an autograph?”
I smiled. “Of course not. In fact, I have some signed headshots in my dressing room. I’ll grab one of those for him.”
Dan smiled. “Thanks so much. That’s really nice of you.”
“It’s no problem,” I said as I saw out of the corner of my eye that Elisa was waiting for me. She probably wanted to go over the proofs anyway, so we could do that before Westside went on. “I’ll be right back.”
Elisa smiled at me when I turned to her. “These are so amazing,” she said excitedly, holding the envelope out to me.
I took a deep breath. “Give me five minutes. I don’t want to see them yet.”
She grinned and shook her head. “You’re insane. They’re gorgeous. The camera loves you.”
Twenty minutes later, after going through all the proofs twice and deciding they weren’t so bad after all, I heard the first few drum beats of the song Westside always started with. It made me smile. I’d practically memorized their show, and I knew Phillip was going to jump down from the second level of their set at any moment.
The set for this tour looked like the inside of a warehouse with different levels and ramps and catwalks that the guys ran all over during their performance. It was high energy, and the fans loved it. I loved it.
“We should head back to the stage,” I told Elisa.
She nodded as she looked at something on her phone. “You go ahead. I’ve got to respond to some emails. I’ll be there in a few.”
“Okay, sounds good,” I said as I grabbed one of my signed headshots for Dan’s son and scrawled a quick note to him.
“Sabrina!” Gavin said excitedly as I came back to where he, his mom, Dan, and Kelsey were all standing.
“Hey Gavin,” I told him, kind of loving how happy he always seemed to see me.
I hadn’t spent much time around kids, so I didn’t always know how to act around them. Gavin made it easy though. He was a cool kid.
“Guess what?!” he asked excitedly.
“What?”
He grinned. “I can almost play a song on my guitar. I’ve been practicing really hard!”
“That’s so great. What song can you almost play?”
“Happy Birthday! My teacher said it was a good one to learn since my birthday is soon.”
“Is it?”
He nodded.
“I might have heard someone mention something about that.”
His eyes got wide. “You did?! Who was it? Was it Phillip? I hope it was! He said he was going to get me something really cool!”
I frowned as I gestured to his skateboard. “I thought that was your birthday present?”
Gavin blushed. “It is, but when he gave it to me he said that he was going to send me something really cool on my birthday, and I want to know what it is so bad!”
I laughed. “Phillip loves to spoil you, doesn’t he?”
Gavin shrugged. “I guess, but it’s okay. He’s my best friend. I think he’s supposed to do that.”
That made me smile, and I had a feeling it would thrill Phillip to hear that Gavin thought they were best friends.
“You know what else my guitar teacher said?” Gavin asked me.
“What did he say?”
“He said that once I learned Happy Birthday and could play it real good, I could learn a real song. He said I could pick it.”
“Wow, that’s really cool. Which song are you going to pick?”
I watched him get shy on me, and I wasn’t sure what was happening. “Um, Dream On.”
“Dream On?” I questioned. “The Westside song?”
It was one of their acoustic songs from their second album that had gotten a ton of airplay.
He nodded. “Yeah, I wanted to play a song as good as Phillip, so I picked that one.”
“But Phillip doesn’t play guitar,” I reminded him.
“He plays the piano,” Gavin reminded me.
“That’s right. He does, but he doesn’t ever play it when he sings Westside songs,” I said, wishing he did.
I would have loved to hear Phillip play the piano. I had a feeling he was really talented. And as I ran through the song in my mind, I started to think that Dream On would actually sound better on piano than with the original acoustic guitar sound.
I’d seen Westside perform it a handful of times when I’d gone back to look at past performances – something I’d started doing fairly regularly over the last few weeks. I liked how young Phillip had looked when they’d first started out as a band and how different their sound was now to how it had been. That song was one of my favorites.
“He did one time,” Gavin told me. “He played at our house. He sung a few songs to Mommy, but Dream On was my favorite. She tried to sing with him, but she doesn’t have a very good voice. It was so funny.”
“Hey,” Leah said, turning around to grin at her son.
Gavin looked up at her. “Sorry, Mommy, but Phillip sings better than you. So does Sabrina.”
Leah laughed. “Yeah, you got me there, Gav. Why don’t you come watch Phillip’s performance?”
“Okay!” Gavin said eagerly as he scampered over to where his mother was standing.
I walked up next to Kelsey so I could get a view of the action. Phillip was standing on an elevated platform singing in tandem with Van who was on the other side of the stage on
an identical platform. When their part was over, they both jumped down, and as soon as he hit the ground, Phillip turned and grinned at us. Then he bounced up and ran to center stage.
“He really seems to like you,” Kelsey said to me.
I looked over at her in surprise, and she smiled.
“You think?”
“I do,” she said sincerely. “To be honest, I was a little concerned when Phillip said you guys were ‘hanging out’. I mean, you seemed nice enough when we met in New York, but I wasn’t sure what you guys were doing was good for him. He’s been through a lot, and none of it’s been easy. I liked that he had someone to talk to, but sex tends to blur lines.”
I nodded. “I know it does, but we seem to be okay. He’s actually opened up to me more since we started seeing each other more frequently.”
“That’s good. I’m glad to hear it. Did he tell you about his mom?”
I nodded.
“His dad?”
“Yeah, he did. He told me about what happened when he was fourteen too.”
Kelsey’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? He doesn’t ever talk about that. You must be special.”
I turned and looked back at the stage where the guys were singing the chorus of one of their most popular songs.
“I don’t know if I’m all that special,” I told Kelsey. “We’re friends, and I think Phillip feels comfortable with me after all I’ve been through. We’re similar in a lot of ways.”
“Trust me, you’re special,” she said, making me look over at her. “He doesn’t treat other women like he treats you. He talks to me about you, and he’s never done that before. Besides, I saw the way he was looking at you tonight. He likes you.”
“We’re just friends,” I said, feeling my face get hot.
Kelsey cocked her head to the side. “You don’t actually believe that, do you?”
I let out a shaky breath. “What I believe and what I want are two very different things,” I told her, hoping I wasn’t saying too much.
This was his best friend after all, a girl who was completely loyal to him, not me, and I had no idea what she would tell him. But maybe a part of me wanted her to tell him how I felt. That way I wouldn’t have to do it. Of course if he knew, he could choose to run the other way and not look back. If he knew how I felt about him, it probably wouldn’t change things between us – or it could change everything, and I could lose him.
“Don’t tell him I said that,” I told Kelsey quickly before she could respond. “Please.”
She looked at me quizzically for a few seconds. “You’re in love with him,” she said, and I wished she hadn’t figured me out so easily.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, ready to tell her no, but I couldn’t get the words out. I couldn’t lie. “Please don’t tell him,” was all I could say, which was pretty much admitting outright what she’d assumed. I could only hope she’d keep it to herself.
“Phillip’s never been in love,” Kelsey said, telling me what I already knew.
“I know.”
“But he’s different around you. I’ve never seen him like this before. He seems really happy.”
“I doubt that’s because of me,” I told her, not letting myself get my hopes up.
She shrugged. “I think it might be.”
I’d be lying if I said my heart didn’t swell a little at hearing her say that. She knew Phillip better than most people. It didn’t mean she was right, but a part of me hoped she was.
“He’s a good guy, isn’t he?” I asked her, needing to hear from someone who knew him so well what I already thought was true.
“He’s a great guy,” she confirmed. “He’s just not like most guys. He’s different, and he’s got a lot of scars on his heart. He needs someone who can understand that, who won’t have elevated expectations of him, and who will know that things won’t always be easy.”
“And you think I’m that person?” I asked her.
“I honestly don’t know you all that well, but considering you’ve gotten closer to him than anyone else, you might be – if you can handle his baggage.”
“We all have baggage,” I told her.
She nodded like she knew more about me than she was letting on. Knowing how close she was to Phillip, I wouldn’t have put it past her to Google me and find out everything she could. I had a feeling she’d done exactly that, and she knew all about my past.
“Take care of him,” she said after a few seconds of silence. “He doesn’t have many people in his life who love him. He doesn’t need to get hurt again by someone he trusts.”
“I don’t plan on hurting him,” I told her, figuring that if anyone got hurt it would be me.
Kelsey must have been satisfied with my response, because she didn’t say much else after that. We watched the rest of the show in silence, and then I waited in anticipation for Phillip to come off-stage. I loved that part of the show the best.
I’d avoided Westside’s shows for the past week while I’d been avoiding Phillip, but for the two weeks we’d been seeing each other, I’d been backstage for each one, and after each show he’d come off the stage and smile at me first. Usually it was a knowing smile, since we both knew what we’d be doing later, and we were both excited about it, but regardless of the reason, I relished those moments.
This time, though, Leah got to him before I could.
“That was an amazing show,” I heard her say as she threw her arms around his neck as soon as he came off-stage.
“You liked it?” I heard him ask as I watched them embrace.
I wanted to call out the fact that Leah had already seen the show. Phillip knew she liked it. I was sure she’d told him that in Seattle, but then again, maybe my jealous and catty side was coming out as she hugged him. I looked at Dan to see if he was equally affected by what was transpiring between his girlfriend and the guy who’d thought he was in love with her, but he didn’t seem concerned. Maybe I shouldn’t be either.
“My turn,” Kelsey said as Phillip and Leah separated.
She pulled him into another hug as people squeezed by all around them, doing all the post-show things that needed to be done. I figured we should move, but I wasn’t going anywhere until the rest of Phillip’s entourage moved. We’d be those people who annoyed the roadies to no end. I’d have to apologize to them later.
“What about me?” Gavin asked, and Phillip reached down to pick him up.
“Hey kid, what did you think of the show?”
“You were awesome!”
“Yeah, I kind of was,” Phillip agreed.
“And humble,” I mumbled.
He turned to look at me. “You didn’t think I was awesome?” he asked with a coy smile.
I rolled my eyes. “Of course you were.”
He winked at me, and I knew what that wink meant. Damn, it was just too easy for him to suck me in.
Then he turned back to Gavin. “What do you say we all have ice cream sundaes?” he suggested, and I saw Gavin’s eyes get big.
“Yeah!”
“No,” Leah interjected quickly.
“Why not?” Phillip and Gavin questioned in unison, sounding so much alike it was eerie.
Phillip might have thought that Gavin didn’t idolize him, but he was so wrong. The kid wanted to be just like him, and there wasn’t anything Phillip could do to change his mind.
“Because it’s eleven o’clock at night. It’s way past your bedtime, mister,” Leah said to Gavin.
“But I want a sundae,” Gavin whined.
“It is kind of late,” Phillip agreed. “How about we get sundaes tomorrow, bud?”
Gavin pouted.
“I’ll get you three scoops, loads of chocolate and gobs of whipped cream,” Phillip promised, trying to pacify him.
Gavin shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”
Phillip tickled his stomach, and as much as he tried, Gavin couldn’t hold back his laughter. He giggled and squirmed until Phillip set him back on the ground. T
hen Phillip held out his fist for Gavin to pound.
“We cool?”
Gavin nodded and pounded Phillip’s fist in return. “We’re cool. But tomorrow we’re getting ice cream.”
Phillip made an X over is heart. “I promise.”
Leah pulled Gavin close to her as she looked up at Phillip. “Any chance I could get penciled in for a lunch date tomorrow?”
Phillip smiled. “Yeah, sure. Of course.”
“Okay, cool. I actually sort of wanted to talk to you about something. It’s kind of important.”
Phillip looked confused, but Kelsey seemed to know what was going on, since she stepped forward and said, “How about if Gav and I go to an early movie, and then we can hook up with you guys for ice cream afterward?”
Leah nodded. “That would be great. Thanks Kels.”
Kelsey winked at her younger sister. “You got it.”
I was starting to get worried when Kelsey squatted down to be eye-level with Gavin.
“And tomorrow night, you and I are going to come back here and watch Phillip’s show again, so your mom and Dan can get out of town. How does that sound?”
“Awesome,” Gavin agreed, grinning up at Phillip. “Aunt Kelsey’s staying with me all weekend. Maybe you can stay too. We can have a sleepover party.” He shifted his gaze to me. “You can come too.”
Phillip smiled as he told Gavin that we wouldn’t be able to stay the weekend. We had to get on the road to Tampa the day after next. I was still relishing in the fact that I didn’t have to be worried about Leah talking to Phillip the next day about wanting to date him. No way would she have a big weekend planned with Dan if she wanted to be with Phillip. It was a sweet relief to hear that.
“Alright, we’ve got to go,” Leah told Gavin. “Say goodnight to Phillip and Sabrina.”
Gavin gave hugs all around, and once they were gone, Phillip turned to me with a big smile on his face.
“You look happy,” I told him.
“Tonight I had everyone I care about under one roof. It was kind of awesome.”
I smiled. “They love you so much.”
Phillip rolled his eyes. “They’re obligated to after all this time.”
Westside Series Box Set Page 100