Beckham shrugged. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“I’ll see if I can get her out there.”
Before Anthony was all the way out the door, Beckham called him back in.
“Hey, where did all this come from anyway? Who leaked this story?”
“That trampy journalist was on a gossip show earlier, pretty sure it was her.” Anthony pursed his lips. “Mariette? Miriam? Mi-something Wethers.”
“Well, fuck me. Mirielle Wethers. I don’t know whether to thank her or bury her. Maybe both, if I’m lucky.”
Ian stepped beside him as they walked through the back halls of the auditorium.
“I’ve heard about the mess with Roxie and Leo,” Ian said. “We were at their hotel today swimming and Mirielle stopped by. That woman is a snake, Beck. I wouldn’t trust anything she says.”
“How long have you known about Leo?” Beckham asked.
“I met him the last time he visited Roxie.”
“Funny. She has sex with me but doesn’t trust me enough to tell me she has a child?” Beckham rubbed his eyes and squinted at Ian.
Ian held his hands up. “I don’t get why she didn’t tell you about him. Makes no sense to me. She’s so proud of him, I’m shocked she hasn’t talked about him non-stop on this tour, but she hasn’t. She told Sparrow that we’re the only ones who know about Leo because of Journey—she’s wanted to remain professional, but knew we’d understand how much she misses him.” He studied Beckham and gave his hair a tug. “It’s weird, I’ve never thought about Leo looking a thing like you, but I do see similarities. That being said,” he pointed at Beckham, “Roxie is decent, and if she says he’s not, he’s not.”
Beckham stopped walking and glared at Ian. “Nice to know where you stand.”
Ian shook his head. “I’m standing right here beside you, and I’ll also continue standing by Roxie. I haven’t known either of you a helluva long time, but I know you’ve both become good friends to Sparrow and me. If I have to be the one to talk sense into either one of you, I will.” He put his hand on Beckham’s shoulder and gave it a shake.
Beckham returned the favor, shaking Ian a little harder than necessary, until he felt better.
“How are you so laid-back all the time?” Beckham asked.
“Lots and lots of sex with my beautiful wife,” Ian said. “If you and Roxie can get on the same page as each other pretty soon, maybe you can be as copacetic as me.” He was prepared this time when Beckham tried to grab him. He jumped out of the way and laughed all the way down the hall.
Normally Beckham had no trouble getting into the zone, but tonight he felt all over the place. When he wasn’t thinking obsessively about what it would be like to have a son, he was trying to cloud out the images of Roxie that had taken over his mind. Her skin, her hair falling down her silky back. Her breasts in his hands and mouth. Her whimpering his name. The look on her face when she shattered around him.
Ever since being with her, his body craved her. How had everything gone so haywire?
His body ached. His head hurt. His throat had a solid lump in it that wasn’t going away. Maybe he was coming down with something. If thousands of people weren’t counting on him to show up, he’d cancel the show. There was no way he could get away with that, not this late.
Sierra found him in the dressing room. He knew she’d heard about what happened. She didn’t say anything, just came over to where he was sitting and hugged him.
Nate came in a couple of times and walked back out each time when he saw they were still sitting there.
“What are you going to do?” she finally asked.
“Find out the truth and take him to Italy with us.”
She leaned back. “If he’s yours, you mean. And even if he is, you can’t just take him from her, Beck.”
He heard what she was saying and he knew she was right, but … if she’d really kept him from his son all these years, he was absolutely going to make sure he spent the rest of his life making up for lost time. Whatever it took.
There was a brisk knock on Roxie’s hotel door. She opened it to find Anthony standing there, holding up a dress. “Here, put this on. We’ve been waiting on you. The show starts in thirty minutes!”
Her eyes widened. “Beckham still wants me to do the show?”
“You know the saying—it must go on, baby!”
“This is all too much.” She shook her head. “I’m not ready,” she told him. “And I told you earlier I’m not doing it.”
“You can throw on more makeup on the ride over. Suzanne and Coco can’t even help you now.”
“Whatever happened to Tracy? She did my makeup the best. I miss her.”
“She was the best, but she flaked and didn’t show after her little sick break. You only get one chance with me.”
Roxie lifted an eyebrow.
“Besides you, I guess.” He rolled his eyes. “Come on, hurry up. We don’t have time to dilly-dally. Beckham sent me over to get you. I told him about your concerns and he said he was taking care of more security.”
“You guys are insane, you know that, right?” She scowled at Anthony and then looked at Chloe and Leo. “I really just want to be with them. It’s been a crazy day. We were going to hang out together…” Her eyes filled with tears. “If he manages to somehow take my son…” she whispered. “Leo is not his, Anthony.”
“Then there shouldn’t be any problem,” he said simply. “We’ll take them to my bus. It’s all planned out.”
“I don’t know. I’d rather him not…” Roxie crossed her arms over her chest.
“Put the dress on and let’s all go. I will personally keep Leo and Chloe company tonight,” Anthony promised.
“Yay!” Leo said. “And Beck said I needed to visit his bus!”
Roxie bit down on her tongue to keep from yelling. She changed into the dress, brushed her teeth, and they took off.
It’d be interesting to see what kind of show they managed to pull off under such chaos.
Roxie crawled into bed that night, exhausted. They were still on Anthony’s bus. Leo had fallen asleep before the show was over, and Anthony thought it would be best for Roxie if they all stayed put. Nate usually stayed on this bus too, but they never saw him. She figured he had moved to another one for the night.
Being with Beckham on a normal night was already like playing Chutes and Ladders—colorful, making progress then sudden drop offs, and having to go back to the beginning just when you got close to the end—but tonight had been a thousand times that. She made a mental note to throw the game away when she got home.
She kept thinking of his face and felt her insides tremble. He’d looked like he wanted to murder her and devour her all at once. And then to make things worse, they’d been carted off during the intermission to get their mouths swabbed, making her feel like a guest on Maury. The more she thought about it, the more she felt very justified in her growing outrage at Beckham, not to mention the non-stop news shows that were discussing the possibility of Leo being Beckham’s love child.
She’d made the mistake of turning the TV on to see what they were saying and had seen a picture of her dancing with Beckham five and a half years earlier. How had they managed to find that? And one of her ‘friends’ from school was giving interviews about how obsessed Roxie had been with Beckham Woods throughout high school, making her sound like a star-crazed groupie who had conned Beckham into impregnating her.
Even more uncomfortable, everyone was mad at her. She’d been on the other bus during intermission and they’d taken their turns at saying their piece. Vanessa was hurt that she didn’t tell them about Leo and was in disbelief that he was Beckham’s. Brooke just sat at the table and scowled at her, the fury palpable from across the room. The guys were mad at her for the tension she’d caused. The bus had never felt so small.
She didn’t bother defending herself. The test results would take care of that. She walked out, stunned that everyone had been so quick
to lash out.
And Sierra … it broke her heart that her new friendship with Sierra had been reduced to quiet distrust. She’d tried to pull Sierra aside to tell her the whole story, but Sierra had just said she needed to stick by her brother on this one. She seemed sorry, but resolute.
She couldn’t imagine ever being any more humiliated than this. It stirred up the hurt from years before that she’d thought she was finally beginning to get past. Her heart hurt all over again, the way Beckham had looked right through her, not having a clue what he’d taken from her. It was just a repeat, five and a half years later. Why should this time surprise her? She’d become hardened overnight once before. Innocence lost was never pretty, though—no matter how many times the lesson had to be learned.
Next stop: Atlanta. They drove all night and were there by mid-morning. Anthony told them to make themselves comfortable and to plan on staying on his bus for the rest of Chloe and Leo’s trip. He’d made sure an assistant picked up some necessities for Roxie since all of her things were ruined. Instead of hanging around the crew at dinnertime, the three of them went out, walking until they found a sushi place. Johnny and Al were always nearby.
“I’ve missed you so much, Leo. I’m so glad you guys got to come for the last few days. I needed my peoples.”
He looked up at her and began swinging their hands as they walked.
“I’ve missed you too. Really, really bad.” He looked at Chloe then. “Auntie and I have been having lots of fun too,” he assured them both. “This is my favorite, though. And I can’t wait to have sushi!” His face split into a huge grin.
It took Roxie’s breath away when he smiled like that. She leaned down and covered his face with kisses. He laughed and finally moved away to catch his breath.
He loved sushi, although he wasn’t as crazy about ‘wathabi’ as she was.
They had just ordered, when she felt eyes on them. She looked up and Beckham was looking at Leo. He wore a fedora low over his eyes, but she could see how his lips curved up as he watched Leo. Oblivious, Leo was chatting about the fish in the nearby tank and didn’t even notice Beckham.
Roxie’s blood boiled. When Beckham walked to their table she wouldn’t look at him.
“Hey, buddy,” he said to Leo.
“Beckham! Hi!” Leo said excitedly. “Sit down! We just ordered some major sushi!”
Beckham laughed. “Thanks! I believe I will.” He sat down by Leo.
Roxie’s eyes cut to him and he stared at her, daring her to try and stop him.
“Did you follow us here?” she snapped.
“I might have.” He shrugged.
Her eyes flashed; she was livid. So it seemed they were going to act like children—fine, if that’s the way he wanted it.
The waitress came to the table to take Beckham’s order and didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was checking him out. It didn’t seem like she knew who he was, just that she liked what little she saw. He never fully lifted his face into the light. Roxie was learning his tricks. She wondered what other sneaky skills he had lurking.
“So, we’ll have a whole day off in Atlanta tomorrow,” Beckham cleared his throat, “and I’d like to take Leo to ride the SkyView Ferris Wheel. Would that be okay?”
“Yeah! That sounds great!” Leo agreed. “What is a SkyView Ferris Wheel?”
“Well, it’s really, really high and was once in Paris and…”
“Hey, hold up. Those are the kinds of things you ask before … not while he’s right here,” she scolded Beckham. “And you can’t just take him … I’ve missed him so much.” She tried to give him the rest of the message with her raised eyebrows and at the same time not show Leo how much she despised Beckham.
“It’s not every day he can ride the SkyView Ferris Wheel,” he replied.
“Fine. But not without me.”
“Rox, what do you think I’m gonna do—hijack him?”
“Take it or leave it.”
“Okay, you can come. Also, I’ve arranged for you to be on my bus while Leo and Chloe are here. So you’ll have more room, and so I can visit with him. We can also extend their stay…”
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Roxie stood up, glaring down at Beckham.
He jumped up, his face as thunderous as hers.
Roxie heard Chloe chattering about all the sushi they were going to eat as she walked away.
“This is craziness. What are you even thinking?” She put both hands on her hips and glared up at him. “I don’t know what you’re envisioning, Beckham, but you can’t just pretend like he’s yours because you want him to be. He’s not.” Roxie took a deep breath before she continued. “Just let me see my son. I’m not fighting you with the testing. He’s already been swabbed too, and now the decent thing would be to just let me have a nice time with my boy.”
“You will. I just don’t want to miss any more time with him if he is my son.”
“If you get his hopes up in any way, whatsoever, I will destroy you,” she said under her breath.
He heard her loud and clear. “You’ve already said that, and I’m done being bullied by you, Roxie Taylor.”
She threw both hands up and wanted to throttle him. Her chest rose and fell as she tried to regain her composure before she turned and walked back to the table. He was on her heels. When they sat down, his brows were drawn together, but then he looked down at Leo next to him and his face lit up.
“There’s this phenomenal restaurant we’ll visit, too. You’re gonna love it, Leo. They have these amazing crepes.”
He went into a long explanation of what crepes were and how the chocolate oozes out of them. Leo sat there, spellbound.
Roxie rested her forehead in her hands and tried not to cry. She’d always wanted Leo to have a dad, but nothing was worth the fear of losing him. Beckham seemed so determined for Leo to be his, she wasn’t sure a test result would settle it for him one way or the other.
Ian looked around and settled onto a stool. He had arrived at the hair and makeup trailer before Suzanne and Coco, which was a first. It was usually bustling in there by the time he showed up. He looked at his watch—oh, he was way later than usual. Maybe they’d assumed he wasn’t coming … sometimes he didn’t.
The bright lights showed the sun he’d gotten the other day. He hadn’t realized he’d gotten that much. He noticed skin peeling around his right eyebrow and started pulling it. Damn. That made it worse. He looked around for lotion or something that might help.
He found lotion and squirted some—a huge glob filled his hand.
“Shit!” He jumped up and looked around for a paper towel. He didn’t see any on the counter, so he opened a couple of nearby drawers. Nothing but hair products, makeup, and pain medication.
“Ian?”
He turned around and saw Coco standing by the door.
“I got way too much.” He showed her his hand. “Thought I might find some paper towels.”
“You can wash it off in the sink.”
He nodded. “Should’ve done that in the first place,” he said.
She leaned down to shut the drawer. “Been waiting long?”
“No. First time I’ve been the only one in here, though.”
“I was a-about to lock up. Thought you weren’t coming.”
“If you could just put some junk in my hair to get it to stay—it’s getting too long and I’m out of the good stuff.”
“Sure.”
He watched her grab the hair paste. As she got closer, her hand shook, and he felt bad if he made her nervous. They’d never really talked much. He knew she was shy and usually Suzanne was available when he walked in.
She fixed his hair and studied him when she stepped back. He lifted his eyebrows and she turned around and got lotion, getting the perfect amount out and putting it above his brow.
“Thank you,” he said. He looked down. Her hands had a few painful-looking cuts. “Oh wow, doesn’t that sting your hands? What happened?”
<
br /> “Got a bigger pair of scissors than what I usually cut hair with … d-didn’t work out so well for my hands.” She blinked and gave him a shy smile.
“Oh, thought you were gonna say the oven or a flat iron.” He cringed. “Scissors, ouch!”
“F-flat iron doesn’t like me much either,” she agreed.
Poor girl. She really was awkward. Surprisingly good with hair though. He stood and walked toward the door, trying to get out of there before he gave her a heart attack.
“Thanks for the hair,” he said, with a wave.
She held up a hand. “B-break a leg tonight,” she said.
He had almost reached his bus when he heard his name called. He turned around and Coco was walking toward him holding out the hair product.
“Had extra. You take it.”
His hand accidentally brushed hers when he took the container. He felt her stiffen and he quickly pulled his hand away. Her eyes were wide when she looked at him.
“That’s so thoughtful. Thank you,” he said. “I’ll make sure to replace it when I get a chance.”
“Not necessary,” she said slowly. “Haircut next time.” She gave him a big smile and walked away.
“Okay then.”
He was shaking his head when he got on the bus.
“What’s the matter?” Sparrow asked.
“I’ve met someone clumsier than you,” he teased.
She frowned and jabbed his side. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” he said against her lips. Before he could feel her up, she backed away. “Aw, come on, I didn’t mean it. Kiss me.”
She smiled but shook her head. “Who is it? You didn’t fall in love with their clumsy ways, did you?”
He snorted. “No, definitely not. You know Coco, hair and makeup girl?”
Sparrow scrunched her nose. “You’ve actually had a conversation with her? I’ve never heard her say a word. She’s pretty though.” She jumped when he tickled her side.