She responded right away to thank me and tell me that she heard from Emmie; a whole Rosewood/Westwood group was coming to Phoenix. Of course, I knew about Emmie, who was bringing her new boyfriend, some guy named Danny. Will had told me his roommate Jared Abramovich and Seychelles—Chelly—Spencer were coming too. But Sandy then said, as I’d feared, they were also bringing Brooklyn Prescott.
That she was coming made my stomach churn with anxiety, because not only had she dated Will, but we’d also had a thing where I’d liked this guy Brick, who I’d thought had liked me. But when he seemed to be into her all of a sudden, I sort of maybe turned mean girl and started some rumors about her and our equestrian coach. It was such a total horrible thing for me to have done and I’d regretted it almost instantly. Especially when I found out that Brick was a total douche and had treated Brooklyn really horribly at the school Olympics. Like, horribly enough that he’d been tossed out of the event and off the equestrian team—banned from returning to Rosewood.
When I’d apologized to her, Brooklyn had said she’d forgiven me. Then, I had brought Wiretap to the school to try to make amends (and to help out the school, of course, but mostly because Brooklyn had asked me to), but I was sure that she had to still hate me on some level. I’d hardly blame her.
Seeing her was going to be so awkward.
Though she was apparently not coming alone.
She’s bringing her brother and...
There was a long pause while my brain whirled with the possibilities. Because who would she be bringing? It had better not be Brick, I thought. I didn’t think she’d go out with him after what he’d done, but I really didn’t know her that well.
Who? I finally asked when I got tired of waiting through my best friend’s dramatic pause. Or maybe she’d lost her connection.
A second later, I received: Brady Fleming!
Nope, that had definitely been a dramatic pause.
What? Sandy had to have that wrong. Brady Fleming was our equestrian coach. I’d always suspected Brooklyn had a crush on him, but seriously, who didn’t? That guy was like sex on a saddle. Brooklyn had assured me when I’d caught them in the tack room together, that nothing was going on with them. According to her, he’d just inadvertently caught her changing. She’d said he had a girlfriend and they were just friends.
Also, he was a coach—a staff member—he’d never date a Rosewood student. He would lose his job if he ever got caught.
Serious. Brooklyn is bringing him. Don’t think he’s friends with guys. Dating?
COACH Fleming, I sent because I couldn’t believe it.
YES. Coach Fleming. And then she sent a horse emoji.
So much for him not dating a Rosewood student. Or maybe they really were just friends.
I wondered if Will knew. Coach Fleming was also a Westwood student, so they likely knew each other. Maybe they were friends, and Sandy just didn’t know? I only knew Coach Fleming from his job at the stables. I couldn’t remember seeing him at any of the dances or other social events that included both schools, so who knew who he hung out with?
Either way, this whole thing in Phoenix was bound to be awkward. It also felt a little...incestuous. My life was overlapping with Brooklyn’s in ways I wasn’t loving.
I wish you could come back sooner, I sent.
Same.
I’ll see what I can do, I typed, knowing that while my immediate reasons for wanting Sandy back were self-serving, she wanted to return to tour as much as I wanted her there.
Don’t push your dad, she sent. He’s already done so much for me. Don’t want to upset him.
Don’t worry, I typed back. I’ll try to work some magic.
Good luck! she sent along with a string of thumbs up and happy face emojis.
I then turned my attention to making a case to my dad, calling instead of texting (because he hated trying to text with his big thumbs).
So yeah, that didn’t go so well.
I didn’t want to sound like a whiny child but probably did when I sighed into the phone after trying for several minutes to no avail. “It’s not fair that she is stuck there with you, Dad. Can’t you just put her on a plane and send her back?”
“Vanessa,” my father said, his tone a sure indicator that he was beginning to lose his patience with me. “We’ve been through this. One of the conditions of me being Sandy’s unofficial guardian is that she’s with me all the time.”
“I don’t understand why she has to be with you and I can be across the country when I’m your actual child.”
He exhaled loudly. “Because I don’t have to answer to a judge as to your whereabouts. Also because I trust you not to get into trouble.”
That seemed incredibly unfair. “But you don’t trust Sandy?”
“Nessa, please,” he said, now sounding really irritated. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I have enough on my plate right now without you badgering me. Sandy will be back in a couple of days. I don’t see why one day sooner will make any difference.”
Because I need her with me when I have to face Will’s two ex-girlfriends, I couldn’t say for oh so many reasons. But even though I didn’t want to push him from irritated into full-on angry territory, I wasn’t done trying every angle to get my best friend by my side. I couldn’t fathom having to deal with Emmie and Brooklyn being around Will by myself, even if they were bringing boyfriends. Will had rock star appeal, and while Coach Fleming was hot, he was no rock star.
“I just think she should be here for the Phoenix show,” I said, trying to appeal to his business side. “She’s the one who set up the thing with Emmeline, so she should be with us to do some promo and take video.”
He sighed again but it this time it sounded like a resigned, getting worn down type of sigh. I held my breath, waiting for him to give in.
“You do make a good point, Nessa,” he said. I had to stop myself from squealing in triumph. “And I will try to make it back before tomorrow’s show, but I can’t promise. I am dealing with some things here.”
Well didn’t that take the umph out of my triumph? “With my mother,” I said. I couldn’t bring myself to call her ‘Mom.’ Not yet. Probably never.
“Yes,” he said. “There are some legal implications to her returning.”
“Because she’s not dead anymore.”
“That’s right,” he responded, his tone clipped, like he was so over this conversation. I was too, but couldn’t seem to let it go.
“And money things, I guess. And where is she going to live? Does she even own anything?” For some reason, all these questions bubbled to the surface. As a logistics person, these are the things I thought about: she’d taken a lot of her stuff with her when she’d left—where was it now? Scattered like garbage in the ocean after her plane wreck?
She couldn’t expect that dad had kept whatever she’d left behind. Long after the ‘accident’, he’d purged it all and had sold the brownstone and moved into the condo. It gave me some satisfaction to know she would hate the condo, which was a hundred percent not her style (on purpose?).
“All of that. I can’t answer all your questions yet, Nessa. But we will, I promise.”
We will? I sure hoped that didn’t mean they were negotiating their relationship, but I was not about to ask. I didn’t even have the guts to ask him where she was staying while they were in New York. Better not to know. Because if I did ask and he said she was in the condo, I would be pissed. If he also said she was sleeping in my bed (or worse—his) I would lose my ever-loving mind. I was just thankful that Sandy hadn’t said anything—maybe she was intentionally keeping it to herself. If so, I loved her even more. Some things I just didn’t need to know.
“Great. I’m sure you’ll both fill me in when you get here,” I said, not meaning to sound quite as snippy and sarcastic as I did. But I guess that’s what happens when your dead mother reappears in your life and Blur
ty McBitchypants is your new alter-ego.
I wasn’t about to apologize, either—I never asked for any of this. If it had been up to me, my mother would have stayed at the bottom of the ocean.
“Nessa,” my father said again in his disapproving tone. I had a sudden fear that he could read my mind. Or that I’d said it out loud.
I hadn’t, had I?
“I’d better go, Dad,” I said, suddenly feeling guilty and eager to get off the phone. I didn’t want to know more about my mother. I didn’t even want to think about her while I still had two full days of responsibilities and Will’s exes to get through first.
In the Wings
The night in Santa Fe was a warm one, the sky clear and filled with a million stars. The crowd was buzzing after a day spent at the big, outdoor air festival, devouring funnel cakes, braving creaky old rides, and emptying their pockets playing carnival games.
Now, a big audience stood on the grounds, mostly gathered toward the front of the field to watch the band that was rocking it in the bandshell.
By all accounts, the guys seemed to have gotten their mojo back and were playing as well as I’d seen them—in sync and sounding amazing. We hadn’t compared notes, but I could tell just by his posture that Billy was thinking the same and was as relieved as I was. Maybe even more since he’d likely worried it was because of him that the guys had been off the night before.
He was currently standing beside me, tapping his foot as we watched from the wings. Well, I had been watching, now I was distracted, looking down at the text Will had sent me earlier in the day. The one-liner that I hadn’t responded to yet, but was going to have to deal with at some point. Some point soon because I knew him well enough to know that if I didn’t respond to the message, he was going to come hunt me down. It’s what I would have done if the roles were reversed, so it’s not like I could hold it against him. But still, those few words had me stumped.
You never said what you thought about the LT gig.
No, I hadn’t. When he’d told me about it when we’d been on the sofa of truth, I’d been busy grilling him with a bunch of irrelevant questions, and had then been a jealous bitch to him about his ex coming to see him play with Wiretap—a very huge deal for him that she’d been excited about because she was a nice, supportive, normal person.
It’s not that I’d intentionally dodged telling him how I felt about him joining his grandfather’s band. But maybe I would have, had I thought about it.
Because the truth was, I didn’t want him to go. For many reasons: I didn’t want him—the best musician we had—to leave Wiretap because I didn’t want to do that to my father. The guys liked him a lot and would miss him and maybe a change like him leaving would make them permanently lose their groove. Also, staying with Wiretap would give Will a better springboard for a musical career than playing for an old band’s reunion tour, recycling old hits. Not that it wasn’t a great opportunity, but I was convinced that under my dad’s wing, he’d go further and would have more chances to grow as a musician.
Also, while all those other reasons were legit ones that any decent tour manager would put forward, I forced myself to admit that, of course, a big part of it was that I didn’t want to lose him. It was selfish, yes, but I couldn’t deny my feelings for him.
Not unrequited feelings, either; he’d said he loved me, so maybe not wanting him to leave wasn’t totally selfish on my part. He’d asked my opinion, so clearly, he did care what I thought. At least part of that had to do with us as a couple. Maybe he was conflicted about leaving because of me. Not that I’d ever let him hold back on his dreams to pursue a relationship with me.
But the fact was, though I would never stop him, I would hate it if he left.
Especially now that I knew we wouldn’t be at neighboring schools in the fall. That meant being with him at all didn’t make much sense since I wasn’t convinced we could manage a long distance relationship come autumn. But our time on tour seemed more important now. Precious, I guess, is the word I’d use.
Even though I promised him and myself that we’d be responsible and wouldn’t get involved on tour.
See how well that had worked out so far? Ugh. I so hated being a hypocrite.
But when I thought back to the kissing from the day before, the way he’d made me feel and the look of him all rumpled and well-kissed because of me? I could almost push away my self-loathing about being a hypocrite. Because yeah, the idea of being responsible didn’t seem so appealing anymore. Not when the alternative was being well-kissed by him.
“You thinking about Will?” Billy asked suddenly, breaking into my thoughts.
I nearly choked. “What?” Was he some sort of mind-reader?
He grinned at me. “I have eyes. I can see how you two look at each other. Like how you were looking at him just now.”
I felt my face heat as I realized he was right. Some time ago, I’d stopped looking at my phone and had been absently watching Will on stage as I’d been thinking about him. So much for keeping it all on the down-low.
I was going to deny it, but why bother? Billy clearly knew. Instead, I just sighed.
“It’s a good opportunity for him,” he said.
“What?”
“Going out on tour with Legion Thunder.”
I glanced over at Will, wondering who else he’d told. “You know?”
Billy smirked. “Who do you think suggested him?”
“Really?” was all I said out loud but I couldn’t keep the irritation out of my voice as I thought: so you’re to blame! Not that he had to answer to me, but I never would have guessed someone on our own team—even a temporary member—would have done something that would mean Will leaving.
Dad was going to lose his mind. I was just glad I wasn’t the one who was going to have to tell him.
Billy nodded. “I worked with Legion Thunder on their last reunion tour a few years back, and they’ve asked me to help with this one. I’m producing the album, too.
He leaned toward me and lowered his voice. “Between you and me, they thought they were done but Larry—their lead guitar—made some bad investments and his recent divorce nearly cleaned him out. He needs the money. The other guys are on board, but just for this last time. This will be their farewell tour.”
“What about Zen Garden?” I asked because they were set to leave for Australia in the fall to kick off their world tour.
“I’m getting too old for international tours,” Billy said with a tired smile. “I send my second in command for those nowadays.”
“So why Will?” I asked.
Billy glanced over at him. “He knows the songs and the legacy thing will make him a sweetheart. More than he is already,” he added, jutting his chin out toward where Will stood on stage, legs spread wide as he rocked out, seeming oblivious to the whistles and screams from the crowd. “Maybe he’ll bring in a younger fan base, too.”
“You don’t think he’s better off staying with Tony?” I asked, knowing the answer I was about to get, but still needing to hear the why of it.
“Your dad is an amazing producer,” Billy said, looking me in the eyes, so I knew he meant the compliment. “Will would do great with him. But honestly?” He leaned toward me again, even though there was no way any of the band members could have heard him while they were performing. “He’s miles ahead of these other kids. Legion Thunder is filled with career musicians that will make Will stretch his skills. He’s great now, but he’ll come off that tour even better.”
I did not want to hear that. Because if Dad trusted Billy to manage Wiretap, even for a short time, that meant he knew what he was talking about.
Speaking of my dad... “Tony’s going to be pissed,” I said, crossing my arms.
“Tony’s supportive of it,” Billy said, and then tilted his head as he looked at me with something like pity in his eyes. Damn his intuitiveness; he clearly knew I was the one
who was going to be pissed if Will left.
“You talked to him,” I said, not a question because obviously, he had. But I felt a little left out, even as I reminded myself that I wasn’t really a part of the management team, just the producer’s daughter who was helping out with logistics. Still, Dad had included me in just about everything so far, and this was about Will, the guy I’d discovered and gotten to join the band.
“Of course I talked to him. It’s up to Will what he decides to do, but he had a contract with your dad.”
“Had a contract?” I asked, my heart starting to pound at the use of past tense.
“It became null and void when Chris returned from his medical leave. The contract with Will was an interim one. He’s been without a valid contract for a few days now. Your dad is still paying him, of course, but leaving the terms of his staying on up to him. At least for now.”
Isn’t that convenient, I thought. “So him going with Legion Thunder is the perfect solution for everyone,” I said drily.
He gave me a look that said exactly what I was thinking, which was that it was the perfect solution. For everyone except me.
“Nessa...” he began, but I waved him off.
“It’s all good. Obviously I want what’s best for him.”
I was actually impressed with how I was able to not just deliver the lie without losing it but managed to even sound like it might be true. It should have been true. I should have wanted the best for Will, and I guess deep down, really deep down, I did. But the non-deep down part of me was a selfish beast who just wanted to drag him back to the bus, sit in his lap, and kiss him forever.
I trained my gaze out toward the band, willing myself not to get all emotional. I tried to put my tour manager hat on, taking the opportunity to study the guys to see if there was anything to critique. Anything that wasn’t working or could be improved on that I could mention to them later.
The Rosewoods Rock & Roll Box Set Page 73