CHAPTER 24 ALEXIS
“What the hell was that?” my dad demands over the phone.
I’ll admit one thing I love about life on the road is the fact that my agent stays home.
He figures he’s got Brooks and Gregory babysitting me, so I can’t get into any trouble. But he has other clients besides me, and while he hasn’t mentioned the merger or the potential engagement to me since that one time, I have a feeling he’s working behind the scenes while I’m gone.
Part of me hopes he forgot—that it was just a random conversation where he was spouting possibilities. I’m just glad he’s allowing me to focus on the tour rather than on all that nonsense.
It’s why I’m both dreading and excited for the end of the tour.
I want to see Danny again. I want his offseason to get here so we can find a time to get to know each other.
Somehow every conversation we have draws me closer to him and plants me more firmly in his orbit, and I scribble down a few words about that feeling as I sit at the desk on my bus the third week of our tour.
We’re plowing through the east coast with barely enough time to stop and smell the roses—or the cities, I suppose—but that’s life on the road.
If I weren’t Alexis Bodega, I might be able to hit up a museum or dine at a restaurant, but instead I’m basically relegated to my bus or whatever stadium we’re playing since my dad has been clear that going to any restaurant means I’m essentially promoting that restaurant, so if I want to try something, Brooks will order ahead and pick it up for me.
It's become something of a challenge for me to find a restaurant that’s far away from our bus lot just to get some time away from him.
He doesn’t even realize I’m doing it, but I think Gregory might be onto me.
He hasn’t said anything, but I swear he smirked at me once when he heard the name of the place I told Brooks to go to.
And then he added onto my order, which was even better.
Sometimes I wish Gregory was my dad. He’s like a dad to me anyway, but I feel like he protects me and my best interests unlike my actual father, who seems to protect his business interests above all else.
“What the hell was what?” I ask, my voice tired.
“You’ve been singing ‘Believe’ for six years, Alexis, and you biffed the third verse tonight. Why?” he demands.
“The dancing is complex and I got tripped up trying to remember the choreography,” I admit. “It won’t happen again.”
“Practice the choreography. People didn’t pay hundreds of dollars a ticket to watch you screw up.”
It was barely noticeable. I recovered quickly, and the only way he’d even know about it is if Brooks told him. As soon as I hang up with my dad, I storm out to the bunks. He’s not there, but he’s sitting up front watching a movie with Gregory.
“You told on me?” I screech at him.
He shakes his head calmly. “He asked how tonight went, and I told him the truth.”
I huff out an annoyed breath as my eyes flash at him. “Ugh!”
I storm away from him because honestly…there’s nothing more to say. His allegiance is to my father, and it always will be.
I slam and lock my door, and I dial up Danny.
I don’t expect him to answer, but I suddenly need to hear his voice. And that speaks volumes to me. He’s the person I’m turning to when I’m upset because he’s the person who has the best shot at calming me down right now.
“Hey. Is everything okay?” It’s loud in the background wherever he is. Anxiety pulses in me that he’s out picking up some new woman and he’s already forgotten all about me and the kiss that he’s supposed to hold onto for six entire months when he’s been a womanizer his entire adult life.
“Sorry. Butt dial.” I hang up, kicking myself at my stupidity for believing this was going to work.
My phone rings back immediately.
I see it’s Danny calling me back.
I answer. “Hi.”
The noise is getting quieter, as if he’s walking away from whatever he was just doing. “What’s wrong?”
“How do you know something’s wrong?”
“Well, butt dials are usually just that…your phone is in your pocket, and you don’t realize you did it immediately, but I picked up right away, so there’s no way you realized it that fast, which tells me you called me for a reason but thought twice about it and made up a shitty excuse.
So talk to me, Bodega.” Now it’s quiet wherever he is, and I can’t help but wonder what he’s doing.
“Where are you?”
“Rush’s place. He’s having a little…get together. I stepped into one of his guest rooms.”
“What kind of get together?” I press. “Like one with beautiful women who take off their clothes?”
He laughs. “Not exactly. It’s all dudes who got together for a poker tournament on our one night when we don’t have a game. He always plays his music too loud, that’s all.”
“So you still hang out with your teammates even when you don’t have to?” I ask.
“They’re like brothers to me. The team is like family.”
“Well…I don’t want to keep you,” I say. “Go get back to your game.”
“Nah. I’m already out, and I’d rather talk to you anyway. Why’d you really call?”
“I don’t want to say,” I admit.
“Come on, Lex. It’s me.”
The way he says that so simply makes me feel safe and warm.
“I messed up a little tonight and Brooks told on me to my dad, who called me to scold me like a child.”
“How’d you mess up?” he asks.
I blow out a breath. “I skipped over a few words in ‘Believe’ because I was concentrating on some complex choreography.”
“Did you execute the dance move?”
“I did.”
“Then that sounds like something to be proud of. So you skipped over a few words in a song that the entire crowd would’ve been on their feet singing to anyway. I’d call that a big fucking win, baby.”
He says the word baby not necessarily like he’s calling me his baby, but in the way people add it as emphasis at the end of a sentence.
But it does mark the first time I want him to call me that.
And it also marks the first time I called him because I needed someone to lean on…and he knew exactly what to say to help me move past it.
It’s scary how deep I am with him already, but I don’t see myself climbing out of this anytime soon.
In fact, all I see is a future filled with a whole lot more Daniel James Brewer.