Chapter 16 #2
‘I have some great news and some less good news,’ she said.
‘I just got off the phone from Rolling Stone magazine and they want to interview Seth in advance of the CMAs. Now, it’s going to have to be asap, preferably today by phone.
I know the editor over there and he’s willing to make this a feature.
The next edition is already planned and it’s out next week but they are really keen to get a piece on you and it’s pretty much the best publicity you could get. ’
All other eyes in the room had gone wide and were focused on her… in a good way. But… ‘Thing is, I know you won’t like this part,’ she continued, her voice breaking as she met Seth’s gaze. ‘They want to mention Randy.’
Seth stood and moved close to her. ‘Rosalie…’ he said, with a tone that said whatever would leave his mouth wouldn’t be good.
Nervous and suddenly afraid of the bizarre way her heart was pounding in her chest with him this close to her, Rosalie looked past Seth to the break between the tiles on the floor.
She took a deep, steadying breath. ‘Look, you’re this tough, hot soldier guy, who happens to have a killer voice, knock-out lyrics and can play a mean guitar.
You’ve also burst onto the music scene, getting your first airplay hit right out of the box and you’re lined up to play at the CMA Awards.
Rolling Stone wants the scoop on you. But you also happen to be Randy Jonson’s brother and that elevates you from interesting to mega scoop for the magazine. ’
‘You know I don’t want to ride on Randy’s rep. I want us…’ He turned to Sofia and the guys. ‘Sofia, Billy, Frankie and me, to do this.’
She tried not to show how sad it made her that he, like everyone else did, had dismissed her, failed to even acknowledge the part she was trying to play in making him a star.
‘We are doing, Seth,’ Sofia said, coming to his side, where they were both facing Rosalie.
‘We’re the A Team. The interview won’t be just about Randy, and we can make that clear, but you’ve got to appreciate that people are curious about you guys.
Like, where has this insanely talented brother been hiding, huh? ’
He folded his arms across his chest and sighed. ‘Yeah, thanks to her,’ he said, gesturing to Rosalie. ‘All right, Soph. I’ll do the interview, but I’m doing it for us.’
‘So I’ll call the magazine and say we’re on?’ Rosalie asked, no longer excited at all about helping her friend.
Seth looked at her in a way that almost knocked her from her heels, which would have had devastating consequences for the box of cupcakes in her hand. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘And maybe you could say a small thank you, just this one time? I mean, if only for the fact I called you a hot soldier guy.’
When Rosalie smiled, Seth Young blew her away with a laugh that threw his head back and came from somewhere deep inside him. ‘Thank you for calling me a hot soldier guy, Rosalie.’
She pouted and scowled playfully. For the first time since she had met him, Rosalie didn’t find Seth to be a poorly dressed ignoramus.
‘And I brought cupcakes,’ she said cheerfully, giggling when Billy, who it seemed only ever thought about his stomach, took the box of cakes from her.
‘Let me lighten your load, sweet lady.’
‘Ah, it’s true, a man’s belly really is the way to uncover his good manners.’
As she glanced, uncommonly shyly, up to Seth, who towered above her even when she was in heels, he was displaying that curiously sexy half-smile again.
‘Say, Ros,’ Sofia said through a bite of red velvet cake, ‘why don’t you tag along to Nashville with us for the CMAs? Seth got a last-minute slot. We’ll go south for a few days.’
Rosalie gasped. ‘Oh, oh, oh! I could totally dress Seth. Get him out of those godawful lumberjack shirts and make him look like a real rock star.’
‘Now then, what’s wrong with a lumberjack shirt?’
The voice belonged to Jimmy, who had appeared at the studio door wearing his usual stonewash jeans and checked shirt. His appearance prompted Rosalie to consider the attire of every other person in the room and found them all wearing some variation of the same thing.
She shrugged, offering an angelic smile, and said, ‘You know what I mean.’
As everyone laughed, Jimmy’s expression changed. ‘Soph, I don’t want to break up the mood but I need to speak with you. It’s about Jay.’
* * *
Seth’s session was over for the day but he was hanging around waiting for Jenna from Rolling Stone magazine to call for a telephone interview.
They had a photographer in the city who was going to come out to take pictures of Seth in the studio the next day.
They wanted the story badly and it pleased Rosalie immensely.
Sofia had gone home after dropping a bombshell that Jimmy had agreed to drive her husband, Jay, to a rehabilitation clinic, so Rosalie offered to stick around at the studio, as much to calm Seth’s nerves and reluctance to do the Rolling Stone interview as anything else.
Frankie and Billy had gone for pizza and beers.
Rosalie wondered whether Jay could get clean and stay clean.
He’d never managed before but he had never had professional rehab before either.
She wondered whether it would be a good thing if he got clean and Sofia stayed with him, and because of that she knew that somewhere deep inside, Sofia’s loyalty would be battling with her sensibility.
Rosalie hated to admit it to herself because in her eyes, Sofia had the job, the husband, the impending family, but Jay wasn’t a nice person.
He had started off great – fun, making Sofia wildly happy.
But as soon as they married and he became involved with Sanfia, he started to change Sofia.
First her style, then her spontaneity; like, her random calls to hit an open mic night after work stopped.
Then he started trying to change Sanfia Records and the way Sofia ran things.
Slowly, her confidence started to go. That was all before they kept having to battle the drink and drugs.
Still, if Sofia loved him and if he was what Sofia wanted, then Rosalie wanted him to get clean and for them to work, for Sofia’s sake.
The sound of the piano being played in the studio reached her ears as she sat in the sound booth, picking at the last of the cupcakes she had brought. It was an unexpected sound, since Seth tended to improvise on a guitar.
She stood from her stool, looking through the glass pane into the studio, watching him move his fingers over the ivory keys. Then he started to sing, not his own lyrics but a song she recognised by Brett Young, called ‘Mercy’. In this instance, the surname was a genuine coincidence.
Listening to the words he sang made her heart stop beating and stole the air from her lungs. Could he love as fiercely as the man he was singing about? For a moment, she found herself indulging in the fantasy that someone, he , could sing those words about her.
Would she ever know that kind of love in her life?
Had Seth ever felt that way about a woman?
And, despite his crabby attitude towards her, Rosalie wanted him to be singing to her . She willed him to look up and meet her eye. Why? She didn’t know.
Before she could second-guess how much her very presence would irritate Seth, Rosalie had slipped her sore feet back into her heels and found herself walking down the steps into the music studio, coming to sit on a stool behind Frankie’s drum kit.
And she closed her eyes, letting Seth’s voice soothe her.
She thought of nothing else. Not the pain in her feet.
Not her posture. Not the way everyone saw her as a joke and how her loneliness broke her heart every single day.
Not about the person people expected her to be and the image of herself she always played up to.
She thought only about the voice in the room and the sweet melody of the piano. How could such a beautiful voice come from such an incredibly ill-mannered, poorly dressed man?