“It was all selfish angling, Sam. I just wanted to see you in a swimsuit.”
“Oh, right, because I was such a catch back then.”
“You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Still are.”
A blush crept over my cheeks. “Thank you.”
“No,” he whispered in my ear. “Thank you.”
“So what about you, Keith? What are you doing now? And, most importantly, why don’t you smell like seaweed?”
Keith smiled, a hollow gesture. There was real pain behind the scenes, and I wanted to pull back the curtains and get immediate answers to his mystery, but I got the sense that beyond even the tragedy that had befallen his family, life had thrown some hard punches Keith’s way.
“I have so much to tell you. But I can’t do it here with the music and crowds. I promise you’ll get your answers, though. Right now, I just want to look at you.” His voice hummed a suggestive tune as he brushed his thumb over my cheek. “God, Sam, you’re a knockout. How did I land a girl like you back in high school? It must have been all those prayers to the reefer gods.”
“Yes.” I laughed, feeling nothing but joy as my wandering hands continued to make up for lost time. “That must be it.”
There was a cyclone stirring inside my gut. He was something I desperately wanted, and I wondered how long it would take us to get horizontal. My guess was before the clock struck midnight, and even that would be too long to satisfy the hunger surging just below the surface.
A high-pitched squeak caught our attention, and we both swiveled our heads in unison only to find Shannon hopping in place, a smile so wide it threatened to split her face in two. Damn, she was a good friend. In a world of cynicism and female jealousy, Shannon was celebrating my triumph right up alongside me. Sometimes I wondered if she was more than I deserved.
“Shannon!” Keith called out, opening his arm to her. “Get over here! Group hug.”
As if she’d just been waiting for the invitation, Shannon squealed her way into our embrace with an enthusiasm typically reserved for the tiny organisms swimming under her microscope. Stewart stood off to the side, an awkward extra in our blockbuster movie.
“It’s like high school all over again,” Stewart quipped.
Keith glanced over at the lone giant waiting for an invite. “Dude, I have no idea who you are, but I’m feeling charitable, so if you need a hug, get on in here.”
And then we were four. I got the distinct impression Keith instantly regretted it as Stewart, overexcited by inclusion, proved a needy addition to our circle of trust. Keith was forced to physically extract himself from Stew’s loving embrace.
Once Keith had shaken himself loose, he extended a hand and properly introduced himself. “Hey, I’m Keith. Let me guess – you’re Shannon’s brother?”
Instead of politely correcting the mistake, Stewart snorted his amusement and went so far as to play along. “Yeah, okay, right. Yes, she’s my sister.”
Finger quotes completed the awkward exchange.
Shannon smacked him, rolling her eyes for our benefit.
“Or…uh… maybe not.” Keith’s brows drew together as he cast me a questioning glance. I grinned, shrugging.
“Keith,” Shannon said. “This is my boyfriend, Stewart.”
“Boyfriend?” Keith’s eyes widened at the unbelievable news. “You’re not related?”
“Nope,” Stewart answered.
“Separated at birth?”
“No again.”
“Distant cousins?”
“Nada.”
Once Keith had run out of genetic pairings, he shrugged and gave up.
Stew, however, refused to let it go. “You’re not the first person who has commented on our likeness. In fact, just last week, Shannon and I were confused for the Weasley siblings – which, by the way, is just beyond ridiculous given the fact that Shannon was clearly wearing a Hermione cloak.”
It was clear by Keith’s expression that he hadn’t spent much time in the wizarding world. The clueless look on his face reminded me of the time I’d tried to explain to him that guerrilla warfare did not, in fact, mean that there’d been an uprising at the county zoo.
“All right, well… now that we got that out of the way…” Keith paused to raise his hand. “Who wants to go backstage?”
* * *
No more than ten minutes later, the four of us were watching the concert from the side of the stage. Keith made obtaining exclusive backstage access look easy. A few words here, a back slap there, and suddenly we were making our way past the scantily clad women crowded around the side entrance hoping for the coveted invitation that would bring them one step closer to their musical idol.
Snuggling into Keith’s side, it felt like I’d never left it. “That was impressive back there. I thought scoring backstage passes was more challenging than that – like signing over your first born child or, at the very least, being on a list or something?”
“You don’t need a list, Sammy, not when you’ve got me.”
Keith spoke with the confidence of a man who was very familiar with the interworking of concert life. As if reading my mind, he nodded and confirmed what I’d been thinking.
“I worked for Jake for awhile.”
Angling my head to get a better look at him, I asked, “But not anymore?”
“No.” The slightest tense of his body belied his confidence. “I sort of wrote my own eviction notice.”
“Uh-oh,” I said, gripping his chin between my fingers and planting a smooth kiss upon his lips. “What did you do?”
Keith glanced over his shoulder surveying the area. “Let’s go find someplace quiet to talk.”
“At a rock concert?”
“Well, okay, quieter.” He ran his hand along my arm. “You think Stewart might stop hugging me long enough for us to slip away?”
Keith wasn’t exaggerating. Stew really couldn’t keep his hands to himself. It was like high school all over again – the geek trying to get the attention of the cool kid. Stewart took to nudging and patting and even made the misguided decision to massage Keith’s shoulders.
“It’s like no one ever taught him the maximum hug time rule. For guys, it’s a strictly enforced three seconds. Anything over that is painfully awkward.”
“He’s just excited. I’m sure you’re the coolest thing that’s happened to him since he met Pikachu at last year’s Comic Con.”
Keith chuckled. “Well, then, we might want to keep him away from Jake. He’s not big on the touchy-feely shit.”
After letting Shannon know I’d find my own way home, I left hand in hand with Keith as he searched for that elusive quiet spot. I watched him intently, intrigued by the man he’d become. From just the snippets he’d provided, I knew he had a story to tell; how bad it would be was hard to tell. Although he certainly wasn’t that goofy boy who’d condemned me for sprucing up his vocabulary all those years ago, he didn’t appear to be overly damaged either.
“You up for a little hide and seek?” he asked, peeking his head around the corner before redirecting his attention to me.
Confused by the question, I stumbled on my words. “Um… I… I don’t know. Is that something you like to play?”
He laughed. “I like to play it if I have Samantha Anderson with me and I need a quiet place to talk to her. So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to distract the guard, and you’re going to slip into the first door on the right.”
“What’s the first door to the right?”
“Let’s put it this way. If we let Stew inside, he’d be humping the furniture.”
I gasped. “You’d better not be asking me to sneak into Jake’s dressing room!”
“See, you’re catching on to this game. Now, be ready. As soon as you hear the code word, bolt for the door.”
“What? No,” I whispered, panic beginning to rise. “What’s the code word?”
With a grin, he replied, “You’ll know when you hear it.”
>
Before I could protest, Keith was gone, disappearing around the bend. With my ears peeled to the discussion he was having with the guard, I couldn’t resist a peak – this was hide and seek, after all.
“So anyway,” I heard Keith say. “Let me show you where I was thinking of getting a tattoo of a platypus.”
The animal that haunted my dreams was practically hollered, leaving no doubt it was the elusive code word, and that set me in motion. I was slipping into the dressing room when I saw Keith flash his ass to the guard. “Right here on my left butt cheek.”
A minute later he came strolling through the door with a satisfied smirk on his face.
“The guard wasn’t the biggest fan of the idea.”
“No,” I laughed. “I can’t imagine he would be. Come here.”
Keith wasted no time. He practically swept me off my feet after bounding across the room. His enthusiasm was contagious, and the kiss that followed was just as wild. Unpredictability had always been his thing. Although while I applauded his spontaneity, sneaking into Jake McKallister’s dressing room felt all kinds of risky.
“How will your brother feel about us being in here?”
“Um…you know,” he replied, shrugging.
No, I didn’t know, and now I had one foot pointed toward the door, ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. “Well, that doesn’t sound promising.”
“Relax, Sam, we’ll be out of here before he’s done performing. Now do you want to hear my life story condensed into thirty minutes or not?”
I smiled, running my hand over his face. His humor and tell-it-like-it-is charm was what had hooked me in high school, and it was proving to be just as captivating to me as an adult.
Keith began his story the night ours had ended – the night Jake was abducted. He’d chosen to mask the pain instead of work through it with me by his side. He was remorseful. It was a decision that had changed both our lives, but had immeasurably shaped the last six years of his. And although he seemed hesitant to dive deep into a discussion about the hard years following Jake’s return, he did speak freely of his descent into drugs, the withdrawals, the rehabs, and the relapses. I also got a sense of his rock bottom moment while on tour with his brother that led to him finally getting clean.
“I often wonder what my life would have been like if I’d made a different decision that night. Would I be further ahead or further behind? I think maybe I needed to go through all that to be where I am today. Even if nothing had happened to Jake and nothing had happened with your mom and we’d just gone about our lives as normal, I think I still would have found a way to screw us up somewhere else down the line. I mean, if you will recall, I was the king of bad decisions.”
“Oh, yes, I recall.”
The two of us smiled at the memory of his wayward self.
“I guess what I’m saying is it was only a matter of time before I did something stupid – something that would have ruined us to a point where there could be no reconciliation.”
I wondered if maybe he wasn’t giving himself enough credit. The boy I remembered had been committed to reevaluating his life. But I understood his reasoning. We’d been so young back then. Even if he had chosen me the night Jake went missing, our chances of surviving the fallout would have been slim.
“I know I don’t have a lot to offer you yet, Sam, but I’m working on it. Being a drug dealer taught me I’m a good business man, so that’s what I’m focusing on.”
Only Keith could put a fun spin on a felony. “Maybe don’t lead with that fun fact in job interviews,” I teased.
He rubbed his stubble thoughtfully. “So, I should remove it from my resume? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes,” I laughed.
“Anyway, I just want you to know I don’t plan to sell unlimited texting plans forever. Jake and I have a plan. As soon as I get some business classes out of the way, we’re going to open that surf shop, Sam, just like I always said I would do.”
It was indeed a dream he’d spoken of often. That he might realize it made my heart swell. “I’m so happy for you.”
He grabbed my hands. “For us.”
“Maybe we should get to know each other again before you start planning our future.”
“I don’t need more time to tell me what I already know.” Keith gathered me in his arms, and my body melded to his.
“And just exactly what do you know, Keith McKallister?”
A sudden influx of voices outside of the dressing room drew our attention. Keith and I exchanged startled glances at the exact moment the door swung open, and Jake, drenched in an hour and twenty minutes’ worth of sweat, stepped inside. We jumped to our feet and he halted in his tracks, all of us looking like we’d come upon a grizzly bear in the clearing.
Thirty minutes? Yeah, I don’t think so. Why had I trusted Keith to accurately tell time when, back in high school, he’d struggled with the concept of counter clockwise? I slugged him in the arm.
“Ow.” He rubbed the sore spot. “What’re you hitting me for?”
I didn’t answer because now I had the unenviable task of explaining myself to his rock star brother. “I can explain. It’s all his fault.” I poked Keith in the gut. “I told him no, but he wouldn’t listen, and then, before I knew it, Keith was flashing his butt, and there was Pikachu… it was all so disorienting.”
Jake’s look of bewilderment only made me talk faster, and when I was done with the apology, he raised a brow and replied, “Yeah, I can see where that might have gotten confusing.”
Keith’s amused chuckle was cut short by the daggers shooting from my eyes.
“What she means to say is that she’s Samantha Anderson, my girlfriend from high school. You know, the one I told you about?”
Now Jake seemed more interested, less suspicious, and his gaze softened. “No shit?”
“We just found each other in the crowd. Dude, she practically fainted at my feet. It was a magical moment. She’s so lucky.”
Jake smiled, and for the first time, I was able to catch my breath.
“Huh.” I grinned. “I remember it differently, but whatever.”
“Don’t worry,” Jake answered. “I learned over the years to pass everything Keith says through a bullshit meter.”
“Yes. I forgot those existed. Anyway, I’m happy to finally meet you, Jake.”
“You too, Samantha.”
“Actually, everyone just calls me Sam.”
Keith swung his head around, gaping. “Since when?”
“Well.” I paused. “Since you.”
Ah, so smug Keith was, and that grin of his nearly irresistible. “See, Jake, this is how you make an impression on a girl.”
“Yes Jake,” I added helpfully. “Make sure you completely disregard her request to have her name pronounced properly so often that the girl finally just gives in.”
Jake glanced between us. “Why do I feel like I’m no longer a part of this conversation?”
He was right. Our flirting had effectively forced him into the background.
“Anyway, you guys are free to… uh… to do whatever this is…” Jake made a wide sweeping gesture with his hand. “But I’ve got to sign autographs in twenty minutes, so I’m off to the shower. Nice meeting you, Sam.”
And without waiting to make it to the bathroom, Jake pulled off his drenched shirt and tossed it to the floor. My eyes immediately zeroed in on his bare torso because there, hanging around his neck, was my grandfather’s blue-laced stone.
28
Keith: Enough
The second Jake pulled his shirt off I was in full defensive mode, waving my hand rapidly under my neck in a frantic aggressive cease-and-desist motion. Sam’s eyes were as wide as bubbles, but she wisely kept her mouth from popping open until Jake had safely disappeared into the bathroom.
“Um… so… about that,” I said, my finger over my lips as I kept my voice at a hush.
“Yes,” she answered, trying but failing to keep a hushed ton
e as well. “About that. You think maybe you could have warned me first?”
“Jesus, Sam, where’d you learn to whisper – inside a helicopter?”
“Excuse me if I’m a little stunned to see my grandfather’s stone around a rock star’s neck.”
“No. It’s around my brother’s neck.”
That stopped Sam in her tracks, and I took the following seconds of blessed silence to explain myself. “I was going to tell you, but I only had thirty minutes.”
“Try fifteen,” she answered, her eyes going into the centrifugal stage of rolling. “I see your math reasoning skills haven’t improved.”
“Nor has your tact.”
She met my eye and smiled. God, I’d almost forgotten how much I missed her. Sam never let me get away with anything, and it was her checks and balances that had kept me honest in high school – until I’d gone and ruined it all. But there was no reason to rehash the past, not when I had my future within arm’s length. I closed the distance, grabbed her around the middle, and commenced laying waste to her long-untouched skin. She giggled as my fingers dug in. After a moment of reckless abandon, Sam knocked my hands away and arranged her shirt back into place.
“He’s in the bathroom,” she whispered, finally.
“Babe, if he couldn’t hear you during the Apache helicopter phase of our conversation, I doubt he’ll hear a little innocent tickling.”
More eye rolls. I was already getting under her skin. “Can I just say thanks for making it weird between your brother and me? Jake probably hates me now.”
“I wouldn’t say hate.” I grinned, now just trying to nettle her so I could continue seeing the irritated little crinkled of her nose. “He probably just mildly dislikes you.”
“You think this is funny? We’re trespassing. I can’t afford to be arrested, Keith.”
Rogue Wave: Cake Series Book Five Page 24
