Gypsy Hearts

by Lisa Mondello

  “I’m not wearing this on stage. I don’t even recognize me.” Brock laughed, but Josie could tell there was no humor behind it. He pulled at the collar of the shirt and at the waist where he wore a wide buckle.

  The tailor came out from the back room with a small sewing box and began pushing Brock’s arms up to make him look as if he were about to take flight. Pulling at the red satin fabric, he stuck pins in here and there and proclaimed himself finished.

  “The clothes will be ready in a hour. Why don’t you get a bite to eat while I finish up?”

  “Sounds like a good plan. We need to top it off though,” Will said, pulling the tailor away before turning back to Brock. “Don’t get out of that shirt just yet. I want you to try on a few hats.”

  Why Josie was sitting there witnessing this, she wasn’t sure. Brock had asked her to come along proclaiming he might need a woman’s touch. There wasn’t a whole lot for her to do on the road when he wasn’t performing. And as much as she loved her cat, Dex was more than willing to be left on his own for hours on end. So she’d come along to observe, but gave little in the way of encouragement when Will insisted on Brock trying on all those gaudy clothes.

  Brock glanced at her through his reflection in the mirror. “What do you think?”

  Should she tell him? “Depends on what kind of look you’re going for.”

  He sputtered. “Not this one.”

  “Then tell Will.”

  “You heard me. He seems to think this is going to give me an image.”

  “I like the one you had,” she said softly, smiling at his reflection.

  I’m not in the habit of passionately kissing my friends. Had she really said that to him? Could she have been any more obvious? They weren’t more than a day into this road trip and she’d already kissed the manpassionately, in the back of the bus. Oh, God!

  Her comment seemed to please him, relaxing his expression just a bit. “I don’t want to be just friends, Josie,” he said quietly. There was no one else around them in the store and yet Josie still felt as if all eyes were on them.

  Will’s sudden approach with an armful of cowboy hats kept her from having to answer. Plopping a matching hat on Brock’s head, he said, “This is the one.”

  Brock groaned.

  With a roll of her eyes, Josie said, “I’ll meet you outside.”

  She waited for Brock to go into the dressing room and then turned toward the door.

  “He’s something else, isn’t he?” Will said, walking along by her side.

  “Sure is,” Josie answered, but she was sure Will saw Brock in a different light than she did.

  Although she had to admire Will for his accomplishments and for what he was trying to do for Brock, the man knew a meal ticket when he saw it and Brock was surely going to make him fat. She didn’t think there was a person among them that didn’t believe the course they were on wouldn’t lead to a major recording contract. She wasn’t sure she agreed with his style or his vision for Brock, but it wasn’t up to her to voice her opinion with Will.

  That was for Brock to do. She had a feeling she’d be hearing him voice it loudly if Will kept up his pushing.

  “He’s a good kid,” Will said, putting his arm around Josie’s shoulder. “It would be a shame for him if his priorities got a little clouded.”

  Josie shot Will a sidelong glance. “Brock seems pretty sure of himself. He’ll do just fine.”

  “It would help if you had given him a little more encouragement back there.”

  “I’m not going to lie, Will, and Brock can come to his own conclusions without my help.”

  He gave her a hard, cold look as they reached the clothing store door. Josie put her hands on the metal bar to push to the outside, but Will caught her upper arm. “Are you sure about that?”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. You’ve been on the road. You know how it works. It’s important for Brock to play to the crowd and that means the women too. Is that something you can handle?”

  Annoyance rose up like bile in her throat. She pulled her arm from his grip. “You don’t really care what I can handle, Will. You and I both know that. You just want to make sure I stick around and play nice until we reach Nashville.”

  He laughed, but there was an edge to his voice that held a warning. “This is important.”

  “I know.” It was important to both of them.

  “I can’t have him losing confidence because of how starry-eyed he gets around you. I went along with his insistence that you work in the studio with him and it worked out just fine. We got a fine demo. But I don’t want to lose sight of what the goal is here.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  Will was right. She knew how it was on the road with a band. She’d been there before. Josie wasn’t going to do something as stupid as make a scene if an overzealous new fan ran up to Brock and gave him a kiss. She didn’t come on this road trip to find a boyfriend or a musician to marry. There’d be plenty of time for finding a solid relationship once she’d settled in Nashville. And when she did, it wouldn’t be with a music man.

  No. Sweet kisses and warm embraces didn’t only come from musicians. No matter how much the kiss she’d shared with Brock had stirred her soul, she wouldn’t let it go that far between them.

  “I just wanted to make sure we understand each other, Josie. Brock wants you here and that’s why you’re here.” The implications of Will’s words didn’t escape her and pulled an old wound open, stinging.

  “You’ve got your agenda, Will, and I have mine. Let’s just leave things like that.”

  Josie pushed out the door and left Will to stare at her back as she made her way to the bus. She wasn’t about to let him get the best of her even though her pulse hammered at her temple and her head felt as if it was about to blow sky high.

  She was here because Brock wanted her here. In Will’s mind, it wasn’t her ability or that Brock saw something in her skills as a sound engineer that he wanted for his music. To Will, Josie was Brock’s girlfriend and in the way of everything he’d been putting in place for his rising star.

  When would it ever not be an uphill battle for her to be seen for what she could contribute and not just an add-on because the star performer had the hots for her?

  Old wounds were always hard to close, but Josie tried as she took her first step up the stairs of the bus. As soon as she did, she immediately wanted to turn around and run back out to the sidewalk.

  Today was the day for confrontations. Raised voices in the back of the bus spelled trouble. But Dexter was also back there. He didn’t like confrontations and usually hid with loud noise. She couldn’t leave him alone in the middle of an argument with people he hardly knew.

  Miles and Roy were arguing where Josie and Brock had been earlier. Where they’d both been standing when Brock had kissed her. What they’d shared was heated, but not the same as what was happening now.

  “I turned my back for a second to pay the check and you moved in to score,” Roy was saying, pointing a burly finger at Miles’ chest.

  “She was interested in me, anyway.”

  Roy huffed. “No way. You’re a pity date.”

  “Oh, give it a rest, guys,” Josie said wryly, reaching down to retrieve Dex, who’d curled up in a ball at the end of her bunk. She nuzzled the cat to her face. “Don’t tell me you’re already fighting over a girl.”

  “Stay out of this, Josie,” Miles warned.

  “This is going to be an agonizingly long trip if we’re going to have to hear you two go at it every time you see a pretty face. Trust me, there’ll be plenty more at the next stop.”

  For all of them. Including Brock, she thought, a sinking feeling dragging her mood even lower than it had been in the store.

  “He’s just sore, is all.”

  “Your cat got hair all over my black jacket,” Roy said, ignoring his argument and Miles’ comment. He picked up the j
acket and thrust it at Josie.

  “I’m sorry. I should have kept him in the crate while I was in the store,” she said, heat creeping up her cheeks. “Dexter doesn’t know his boundaries yet.”

  Roy laughed wryly. “Yeah, I guess none of us do.” He started toward the front of the bus and Josie called after him.

  “I’ll take care of the cat hair, Roy. I promise it won’t happen again.”

  Roy waved a hand back at her. “Yeah, whatever.”

  She eyed Dexter, pulling up his face gently with her hand so she could look at him. “You’re going to get us both thrown off this bus. You know better than to nap on someone else’s bunk,” she crooned. “I don’t want to have to keep you kenneled in Nashville for the whole month until we can find someplace permanent.”

  Since the tailor finished Brock’s new clothes faster than expected, they all ordered Chinese takeout for dinner. The rest of the band climbed aboard the bus and even though Will insisted they were ahead of schedule, he still wanted to get on the road. Unlike the first leg of their trip, the atmosphere on the bus had become strained while they dished out their food.

  “What’s chewing them?” Brock asked quietly, taking the seat opposite her at the dining table.

  Josie took a sip of her soda. “Girl troubles.”

  Brock laughed. “That didn’t take long.”

  Josie stared at him. Maybe she didn’t find it as amusing as Brock because she herself felt some turmoil about what was happening between them. And she didn’t really want anything to be happening between them that didn’t have to do with her job as a sound engineer.

  But it was undeniably there. Like right now as Brock’s eyes lifted to hers from across the table. In his eyes, she saw the kiss, and Lord help her, she could feel it all over again.

  The brief kiss they’d shared earlier had started something. No doubt about that. But if she was going to be honest with herself, then she had to at least admit there’d been something brewing right from the start, from the moment Brock had walked through the DB Sound Studio doors.

  But it had to end here and now.

  “Listen,” she started, glancing around to make sure no one was focusing his attention on the two of them. She took his hand from across the table. “About what happened earlier today.”

  Brock’s smile was immediate and the light in his eyes burst to life, making her heart flutter.

  “It was really nice.”

  Josie couldn’t deny that. Brock Gentry certainly wasn’t the first man she’d ever kissed, but there was something about kissing him, his strength, and the way he made her head spin that had made her think it would be just fine if he were the last man she ever kissed.

  “I could get used to having you in my arms like that.” She could get used to being held in his arms, feeling things she hadn’t allowed herself to feel for any man in a long time. Closing her eyes to the images flooding her mind, she sighed.

  “I hope you don’t take this personally, but I meant what I said earlier. I don’t want us to get involved with each other.”

  Some of the sparkle vanished from his eyes. “I thought we went through that already.”

  She nodded, pulled her hand away and picked up her fork, poking at her fried rice. “We’re working together and things could get really complicated. I don’t want anything to get in the way of us working together. You know what I mean?”

  “Lots of musicians work together and have happy relationships. Look at Paul and Linda McCartney.”

  “Good try. But they were married before they began performing together and had a family they took on the road with them. Being around everyone while trying to start a relationship isn’t my idea of romance.”

  “It could be. We could get out of here,” he said, the smile on his face breaking her heart.

  “Yeah-you, me, and the rest of the guys. I think I’ll pass.”

  His brow crinkled. “Why do you do that?”

  “I’m not doing anything but declining your offer.”

  “You’re pushing me away.”

  “Is that a crime?”

  “If you do it for the wrong reason, yes. I enjoy your company. I think you feel the same, but every time we get the tiniest bit close to each other and start to move to a new level, you either hightail in the opposite direction or push me away.”

  Sighing, she dropped her fork on the table again. She wasn’t all that hungry anymore. “It isn’t personal.”

  Brock laughed sarcastically. “So you say.”

  “It’s just…” she said, trying to think of the right words to explain and coming up empty.

  “You’re still looking for a blue suit. Maybe I should have that tailor find one instead of that flashy, God awful red thing Will insisted on having me buy.”

  She chuckled and felt some of the tension ease. “Christmas tree bulb, huh?”

  “Shoot, I’m going to blind everyone in the front row at tonight’s show.” Brock shifted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable.

  “Seriously,” she said, clearing her throat.

  He filled in the blanks she’d left with her silence. “You and I can have some time to ourselves. It doesn’t have to be us and the band all the time. There’s a whole lot more to me than just this.”

  “That’s just it. When we’re together, all we do is talk about the band and that’s fine, except…”

  “There’s more to you. I understand that. And that’s a part of you I want to get to know.”

  “Outside of this, I don’t know how to be. What are we going to do, sneak off and then come home?”

  “Are you afraid of what they’ll say?”

  “No, not really. I just don’t relish the idea of being under a microscope. And we will be, you know.”

  “I have to admit I’m not all that fond of having eyes on me all the time-except yours, of course.”

  He laughed at the look she threw him. “You can do better than that, cowboy.”

  “Don’t push me away and I’ll try better. I like you, Josie. A lot.”

  “I like it when you say things like that better than when you’re trying to impress me with your words or your songs.”

  He tilted an eyebrow. “Hey, you don’t like my songs?”

  She laughed. “That’s not the point.”

  “I’ll leave you alone, if that’s what you want. I won’t push you to do anything you don’t want to do. The last thing I want is to make you uncomfortable.”

  She looked at Brock a long time, looked into the depths of his magnificent eyes and wondered how she could have ever thought he was too young for her. In years, maybe. But that was just a play of numbers. He had a wise soul and it showed in what he did. And in his beautiful eyes. It didn’t seem strange to refer to them that way. She didn’t think she’d ever met a man who didn’t push his way on her. Brock was different.

  But Brock was different from the kind of man she’d convinced herself she needed. She couldn’t imagine him sitting behind a desk and filling out paperwork all day. Growing up on a ranch had given him a different perspective on life than she had. But she couldn’t see him lasting forever on a ranch, herding cattle and stringing barbed wire fences, either.

  “You don’t make me uncomfortable,” she said. “In fact, it’s just the opposite.”

  “That’s good.”

  “It’s this situation that bothers me. But that’s the way it is. It’s not something we can change.”

  “Brock?” Will called from the front of the bus. Will gave a strong look to Josie and she knew he was thinking about their conversation at the department store. She wouldn’t let Will or anyone else intimidate her. She’d done that before and crawled home to regret it.

  Before Brock turned his attention to Will, he reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “We can if we try. I want to try, Josie.”

  She watched as he got up from the table and walked down the aisle toward Will. When she’d packed her bags for this road trip, she’d promised herself there
’d be no regrets this time around. She didn’t want to think that she’d ever regret her decision to come on the road with Brock or anything at all about the man.

  But she had to stay true to her goal. The end of the road for her was Nashville. She had a lot of catching up to do. Looking at Brock, she knew they both hoped for wonderful things in Nashville, but their roads were sure to turn in different directions once they arrived. She was going to have to be careful not to take the wrong path again.

  he first week on the road had been met with a series of mishaps that were quickly fixed so that the audience was left unaware to enjoy the show. Unloading and setting up quickly and not getting in each other’s way while doing their jobs was getting easier after their tenth show, Josie discovered.

  All of the early shows had been small, held in local clubs and large dancehalls that drew a regular crowd no matter who the headlining band was on the sign outside. It was a good way to bring in new fans and get exposure for Brock on the local radio stations. The new CD was starting to get airplay and that set everyone’s spirits a little higher.

  The sound check had become a routine for Josie. They’d all fallen into a groove, having spent so much time in close quarters on the bus. Such is life on the road, but it wasn’t without a downside. Tensions flared and then dissipated, usually by Will, who, being on the phone a good deal of the time, would scold whoever was making the ruckus.

  But despite the little spats that went on backstage and on the bus, the band had become tight, not unlike a married couple who’d grown through their first year as newlyweds. They’d done well and survived the first leg of the tour, but the big test would come when they reached the coast.

  The mood had change as the anticipation of their first big show in Galveston approached. Josie could almost hear it like a hum getting louder by the moment until it became a roar.

  Will had high hopes for Galveston. He’d said that everything they’d done so far was solely leading up to this one gig. From then on, every gig they had would build on the last.

  They pulled into the fairgrounds, located on one of Galveston’s thirty-two miles of beach.

  “Hey, this is us,” Miles said, reaching over to the stereo sitting in the overhead compartment. He turned up the volume. Brock’s voice filtered over the speakers.