Confusion blinds me briefly until it hits me. “Benji?”
“He’s like a son to me, but he’s jaded as hell, and sadly his perception is a bit fucking skewed because of what he’s been through with Ben and Lexi. He’s smart. I’ll give him that, probably more intelligent than all of us. Buried somewhere inside him is a good heart, but make no mistake, he’s got more acid than blood running through him at this point.”
“He has a strong aversion to our government and commitment issues, but that’s Benji’s prerogative. Credit me for having a mind of my own.”
“I do. I just don’t like the path he’s on. He’s starting to worry me, and I don’t want you mistaking his word for gospel, especially right now.”
“Stop. This whole conversation is unnecessary. We may be as close as brothers, but I don’t share all his beliefs.”
“Fine.” Dad gestures toward my hand. “You need to ice that.”
“Yeah, I’d better.”
“Come on then, I need a smoke and I’m starving,” he prompts, already digging in his pocket for his cigarettes.
Shouldering my bag, my phone buzzes in my pocket with an incoming call. Figuring it’s probably Natalie, I resist the urge to make an excuse to answer to pursue the conversation with Dad instead. “What exactly happened with them?”
Dad shrugs. “Lexi cheated, and Ben couldn’t forgive her. I couldn’t blame him at the time. They were heavy, and it was pretty brutal. When she tried to move on, he couldn’t forgive her for that, either. Neither of them could truly let go, so they went back and forth for years. He got her pregnant the night I married your mother.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah. He was good to her when she was pregnant, too. You could see the potential there for reconciliation, but it never happened. I never really understood why they could never manage to get it together until a few years back. I decided the reason was and still is what it’s always been, the band.”
“Lexi couldn’t handle being a rock star’s wife,” I add, recalling the same conversation with Natalie in Seattle.
“Exactly.” He glances up thoughtfully. “As close as Ben and I are, I realized her cheating changed something inside him for the worse. It’s like their relationship going south slowly poisoned them both.”
“What about you and Mom?”
He draws his brows as we walk the hall backstage. “What about Mom and me?”
“Where was your head when you were together?”
“We got together when I was at my lowest point, so it was scattered. You know that.”
“Yeah, but did you two ever get dicey like Ben and Lexi?”
“We were dicey from the start because of my circumstances. I had absolutely nothing to offer her. Your aunt Paige was fucking furious and didn’t want me near her baby sister. That was a nightmare in itself. Sad part was, I agreed with Paige back then, but thank fuck your mom didn’t.”
“Did Mom cheat?”
Dad pauses as we exit the building, cigarette dangling from his lips. “What? No. You can’t cheat if you’re not with the person. We broke up, I got signed and hit the road, and she had to finish school. We were in entirely different places.”
“So, did she sleep around?”
“You’re seriously asking me about your mother’s sexual history?”
“I’m just curious.” I shrug as he pushes open the door and instantly lights his cigarette before exhaling.
“We weren’t apart for days, son. We went years without each other before we got back together. I can’t speak for her, but it was hell on earth for me for the first two and only got worse as time went by because I knew if we stayed apart much longer, I would lose her for good.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” I turn his question back on him, knowing he’ll come clean.
“Nothing to tell. Your mother wrote our story,” he grins, “and it’s available for rent on Amazon.”
A foreboding feeling sets in as I realize even my dad is reluctant to talk about Nate.
“So, how did you get her back?”
“The way she wrote it. We found each other at the house on Lake View. It happened just like that.”
“Would you have forgiven her if she had cheated?”
He stomps out his cigarette with a black booted heel. “Back then, I would have forgiven her for anything,” he says. “Absolutely anything. Probably still would. But I wasn’t always capable of that. She’s the reason I became capable.”
Joel hops out of the driver’s side of the SUV as we approach and opens the back door for Dad, who shakes his head in irritation. “Twenty years of telling you to stop opening the door for me. You think you would get it by now.”
Joel grins. “After twenty-two years of paying my salary, you would think you know I don’t do anything half-assed.”
Dad splits his attention between Joel and me. “I’m not paying it anymore, so cut that shit out. You up for a burger?”
“Hell yes, I’m starving,” Joel replies as we all get in. Dad shoots me a look from the front seat as he buckles in, prompting me to do the same. “The truth of the matter is some people work together, some people don’t, time will tell, and trust me, it always fucking does.”
Shit. The summary.
Otherwise known as Dad’s way of ending a discussion.
Joel eyes me in the rearview as he starts the SUV while Dad checks his phone. I jerk my chin to Joel to let him know all is well, but in truth, it’s anything but. In the last twenty minutes, I lied to my father. The worst part?
He lied to me, too.
Baby I Love You
Aretha Franklin
Natalie
My phone rumbles in my pocket as I pull to a stop and retrieve my cell to see EC requesting Facetime. Wiping the sweat from my brow, knowing there’s not much I can do about my appearance, I slide to answer with a ready smile. “Howdy, handsome. Just in time, I want you to meet someone.” Unable to see Easton clearly due to the glare of the sun, I lower my phone. “Percy,” I introduce enthusiastically, practically lying atop him to lower the phone, “this is my boyfriend, Easton. Easton, this is the other man in my life, Percy.”
“Hey, man, nice to finally meet you,” Easton greets, the smooth rumble of his velvet voice spiking my heart rate. “Heard a lot about you, but why the long face?”
I lift the camera, giving him a dead stare. “Har, har.”
“Fuck, you look beautiful.”
“You need your eyes checked, buddy. I’m a hot, sweaty mess.”
“You were the last time I saw you, too, and you looked just as beautiful.”
I can’t help my smile as I swat a fly away from my flushed face. “It’s hotter than Satan’s anus out here,” I say, and he chuckles in reply. “You’re lucky you’re up north, where summer doesn’t feel like a three-month sentence.”
“I’d much rather be where you’re at. So you’re home, home?”
“Yeah,” I turn the camera around and scan the house and surrounding grounds for him to view. “My parents flew to Chicago last night for a few days on Hearst Media business, so I’m housesitting for the pool privilege and to bitch to Percy about you.”
“Oh yeah? Any complaints I should know about, Percy?” Easton muses.
Cupping the phone from the glare of the sun, his gorgeous face fills the screen. “You’re too far away,” I say mournfully before whispering a more intimate. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he repeats, black hat on backward, buds in his ears.
“So, you’re on the road?”
He turns the camera on Joel. “Riding with my man here today so I could call you. Say hi to Natalie.”
Joel turns and waves. “See the way he abuses me, Nat?”
“I see it,” I tease. “It’s just wrong.”
“He can’t hear you,” Easton points to his buds.
“Well, tell him I’d ride with him any time.”
“You’re my date tonight. He can find his own.”
“Are we on a date?”
“Yeah,” he grins, tilting his head back against the rest. “That okay?”
“I’m all yours.”
“Yeah, you fucking are,” he declares with a possessive edge. “So, show me around.”
“And this is my one and only riding ribbon,” I say, holding the camera up to the corkboard still mounted in my childhood bedroom closet.