Superstar
Page 13
“That would be too convenient, now wouldn’t it?” Sioux retorted. She had driven up to his house on the Encinal Bluffs above Malibu because neither he nor Thad would return her calls. Coming to the house was a last resort because she knew Callie would let her in, even if, like Thad, Bryan wouldn’t. Callie had led her into the den of the stone and glass Mid Century modern home where Bryan sat at the piano evidently composing. None of their growing brood was in evidence, though the detritus of their presence was scattered all over the room leaving it looking as though there had been an explosion at a toy company.
Bryan didn’t rise from his seat or even turn around to face her, so she walked over to the piano to face him. Still he ignored her, as he continued to make notes in his battered songbook. It was only after she had the temerity to close the book that he finally spoke again.
“I know I’m going to hate myself for asking this question, but what do you want?”
“I want to play tonight.”
Well that got his attention as he rose to his feet and stared at her as though not believing his own ears.
“Why the hell would I agree to that? You did exactly what I knew you would do. You played with Thad’s head just for the hell of it. You fucked him over and I can’t believe you have the nerve to come here and ask me for anything.”
Sioux gasped at the unfairness of the accusation. “You don’t really believe that do you? I never played with Thad at all.”
“I know what I saw.”
She paused and took a deep breath. And that was the point. From what he and Thad had seen it probably did look that way. “Bryan, I want to make it right. Just one song. I promise. I love him, but he’s not going to talk to me. I have to show him.”
“Well, what you’ve shown him so far…”
“I know. I know. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was scared. Hell, I’m still scared. But I love him.”
“If you hurt him again, I’ll make sure you never get a recording contract or sing in public again. Do you understand?”
Sioux stared at him for a long moment, knowing he meant every word he said. “Fair enough.”
***
Under the glare of a single spotlight Sioux played the long introduction to “Superstar”. The club was practically microscopic; she doubted it was much larger than her den. She wondered who B.T. owed a favor to that he would book the band in such a undersized venue. Even so it was standing room only and the fire marshal had already forced several dozen people to leave, though there wasn’t an appreciable difference in the size of the crowd. The room was quiet in a way that was almost spooky. Several hundred people should not be capable of that level of noiselessness. People, just by their very nature, had a tendency to make sound, even when they tried not to. But this crowd watched her with the fixity usually reserved for a tightrope walker, and the comparison was certainly apt.
She played the intro again. She hadn’t meant to drag it out, but she needed the extra time to relieve the nerves that had almost closed her throat. She had never experienced this level of stage fright. Then again, she’d never had this much on the line before. When it was time to begin singing, for a moment she feared nothing would come out, but then, almost of their own volition her lips parted and the words poured forth.
The emotions were too much to bear and she closed her eyes, focused on nothing but the music. Telling him the only way she knew how that she loved him and deeply regretted causing him so much pain.
Bryan had agreed to keep Thad in the dressing room until she began her set, but even with her eyes closed she knew he was there. Could feel his presence in the wings just as surely as she could feel the cool smoothness of the wood of her guitar under her damp hands. Then he crossed the stage and stood beside her and everyone in the room evaporated like fog under the warm rays of the summer sun. There was no one but him; everyone else had ceased to exist. When he joined her on the chorus it was as magical and lyrical as it had been that day on her deck. She watched his face as he stood at the mike with her. The lines of his face were drawn. He looked as rest-broken as she felt. Their gazes locked and never separated through the next verses and then the chorus. When the song ended, neither of them said a word. She couldn’t look away and apparently neither could he. Even the audience seemed caught up in the same spell. Sioux had forgotten they were there, and Thad actually jumped when the crowd leapt to its feet and the thunderous applause shook the rafters of the small venue.
Still she couldn’t look away not even when tears welled in her eyes. She knew that in this small place pretty much everyone there could see her face as though in extreme close-up, but she didn’t care. When he raised a hand to cup her chin she nuzzled there as he wiped the tear off with his thumb. Almost in the same motion he pressed his lips against hers so lightly she sensed rather than felt their presence. Just as she felt rather than heard his words over the deafening applause.
“So we’re going to do this?” he asked.
“If you still want me.”
“Always baby. Always,” he said before lowering his head again. And just like that the audience vanished. For this moment nothing existed but real Sioux Dupree and the man she loved.