A Face in the Crowd

by Christina Kirby

  “No, I just got home from the gym and yes I saw the news.”

  “Can you believe Bailey is still in Atlanta? And sick? This is freaking horrible!”

  Under normal circumstances, Lexie would’ve attempted to calm her passionate friend, but on this particular matter, she agreed. “Yeah, it is. It must’ve hit him right after the show.”

  “You don’t seem as surprised as I am about this information. What are you not telling me here?” a hint of accusation slipped into her tone.

  Lexie sighed. She should’ve known she couldn’t keep anything from Simone. They had known each other far too long to keep secrets. It was amazing she hadn’t called her earlier in the day claiming some sort of disturbance in the friendship force.

  “I may have heard a rumor at work today.”

  “Uh-huh, care to elaborate on that?” Simone wasn’t going to give up where a member of Survival was concerned.

  “You know I can’t talk about patient stuff.”

  “Give me a break.”

  There was a pause in the conversation when a picture of the entire band appeared on the screen. Oliver stood beside his brother with his arm draped over his shoulders. It was obvious they were close, not that she’d appreciated their bond when they were ganging up on her earlier in the day. She’d only seen Oliver the one time, and she was glad. He was a distraction she wasn’t sure she could handle.

  When the reporters moved on to a new story, Simone picked up where she left off. “So, is he as hot in person as he is on stage, TV, and film?”

  “He’s pretty hot and his tattoos are really intricate, but he’s as arrogant as . . .” she trailed off realizing she’d said too much.

  “You saw him?” Simone’s voice went up an octave.

  “Yes, okay, I saw him. Now stop asking me questions.”

  “Wait, but if you saw him . . .” While Simone finished connecting the dots Lexie bit her tongue. “They never said what was going on with him. Does that mean it’s what I think it is?”

  “It’s not good, but he’ll most likely be fine.”

  “Most likely be fine?”

  Lexie returned the phone to her ear when she was sure Simone was done yelling. “Drop it, Simone.”

  “Okay, I’ll drop it, but know I’m still freaking out on the inside.”

  “Duly noted,” Lexie chuckled. “So, how was your day?”

  “Oh, fine. I was just hanging out with the kids, you know, the usual. No celebrity sightings or anything. The day was just so normal. You know how that is, right?”

  Lexie buried her face in one of her blue pillows. She had feeling normal days at work had become a thing of the past.

  Chapter 3

  Some hospital in Atlanta wasn’t where he was supposed to be spending his time. Oliver tapped the counter at Starbucks while he waited for his much-needed Grande coffee. The sun had not yet blanketed the city in its light. Instead, only the horizon showed signs of morning with its pink streaks and soft colors. The last time he’d seen the sunrise was when the band had rotated through the radio morning show circuit promoting their last album.

  “Thanks,” Oliver swiped his card and nodded to the barista, relieved she didn’t recognize him. In the last twenty-four hours, he guessed he’d answered over three hundred calls and texts. And though he appreciated the love, it hadn’t left him much time to process.

  As he rode the elevator up to his brother’s floor, he kept his hat low over his eyes. Generally speaking, people didn’t notice him. No one walked around expecting to see someone famous, but considering the number of paparazzi vans which were parked outside, there was no telling who was wandering around inside. He didn’t want any of the other patients or their visitors to draw attention to him. Not right now. Not when he was still reeling from his brother’s diagnosis.

  He let out a heavy sigh and pushed the door open to Bailey’s room. When he found him sleeping, he sat down in the chair beside the bed and hooked the hat over his knee. His gaze wandered to his brother’s face, and when it did he didn’t see his bandmate, he saw the kid who used to climb into bed with him when it thundered. The kid he taught to play the guitar, but who now could hang with the best there was. Cancer didn’t happen to people like his brother—healthy, strong people in the prime of their lives—it couldn’t.

  Bailey was three years younger than him, therefore Oliver had always done his best to be a kind of role model, but this . . . he didn’t know what to do or how to help. He massaged his neck where a headache was beginning to creep up the base of his skull.

  “Oliver,” his mother rushed across the room, dropping her purse on the counter as she moved. She hugged him and then turned to where his brother slept. “Oh, baby.” Her eyes filled, but she quickly blinked the tears back. “What’s the latest?”

  “Nothing new since I spoke to you a few hours ago.”

  She nodded once and then laid one of her hands over his brother’s. Her familiar stack of bracelets chimed and his brother stirred. “When will the doctor be back?”

  “Sometime this morning.”

  “Good.” She released Bailey’s hand and retrieved a piece of paper from her bag. “I have a list of questions that I’d like answered. I also want to have a meeting with Andy to make sure we’re all on the same page as to how we’re going to handle this, both with the label and the public.”

  As his mother stepped into her managerial role as head of the family, Oliver felt a pang of nostalgia. In the beginning, she’d been the band’s manager, and a damn good one, but as they’d grown she’d taken a step back. She’d claimed she wanted to stay home more and let her boys go on the road without having to have their mom hanging around, but he guessed the added pressure from the suits had been partly responsible.

  He’d never minded having his mom as part of the business. No one cared more about their best interests than she did, but at the time, he’d been too young and too focused on the music to worry much over how the business side worked.

  As she made another note on her piece of paper, her eyes cut to Bailey and her hands shook. The scene threatened to cut him to his core.

  “I’m going to step out and see if I see the doctor. Maybe speed things along.”

  Once out in the hallway, he leaned against the wall and wondered for the thousandth time in the last two days how they’d gotten here.

  The hospital parking lot was a nightmare the next morning. There were reporters and paparazzi parked all over the place and a group of people huddled on the sidewalk holding signs. Lexie cursed under her breath as she waited for a girl in a business suit to walk in front of her car. So much for people respecting Bailey’s privacy.

  At least it was business as usual inside. She took the stairs up to her floor and stopped off to drop her stuff in her locker.

  “What a circus out there, eh?” another nurse commented as they passed.

  After her morning meeting and checking over the board, Lexie began her rounds. She was glad to only have two patients again. Maybe she’d actually be able to eat lunch that day. It would make for a nice change.

  She headed for her easy patient first. Not only because he was less demanding, but because she needed the extra time to brace herself against her next meeting with Bailey and any other family member who might be hanging around.

  “Good morning, Mr. Roberts. How are you feeling this morning?” She stopped at the sink to wash her hands.

  “Same ole, same ole for me.” When she started taking his vitals, he squinted up at her. “So, how long’s the celebrity going to be here?”

  “Heard about that, huh?” she continued checking his med levels and his lines.

  “I saw it on the TV, but based on all the excitement around here last night, I knew something was going on. The nurses were in a tizzy and there was a l
ot of noise in the hall at all hours.” He nodded his head toward the open door.

  Lexie let out a sigh. “I don’t know how long he’ll be here. Hopefully, not long.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Now, what’s that supposed to mean?” She looked down at him and placed one wrist on her hip.

  “The nurses say he’s quite good looking.”

  “I bet they do.”

  “I could hear them out at the desk last night. Practically swooning out there.”

  She laughed. “Well, they’re easily excitable.”

  “What about you? What do you think of him?”

  “I think he’s a rock star who’s going to make things less than peaceful around here.”

  “Peaceful is boring,” he smiled at her with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Oh no, don’t look at me like that. It’s too early in the morning for any of your matchmaking.” Besides, she mused, Bailey was good looking, but he wasn’t the one who made her nerves stand on end.

  He chuckled, but let it drop.

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes to check on you.”

  Lexie made her way down the hall, but as she passed the nurses’ station her steps slowed. Oliver was standing in the hallway with his back against the wall and his head bent. He looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and the image stirred something inside her, some need to want to share his burden. Before she could move, he raised his head and their eyes met and held. For a moment she was transported back to the concert. The same surge of recognition seemed to span between them. A connection she couldn’t explain.

  As his different emotions played across his features—pain, helplessness, a touch of fear—her throat tightened. Pain in the ass rock god or not, when all the fame was stripped away, he was still a man with a sick brother.

  A moment later, he shook his long brown hair back from his face and broke the connection, however fleeting, which they’d shared.

  He pushed away from the wall and rose to his full height. “Hey there, Sexy . . .”

  She narrowed her eyes.

  “Right, sorry. Good morning.” When he turned his smile on, she couldn’t stay annoyed. He was too beautiful.

  “How’s Bailey?”

  “You tell me.” He held out a hand for her to enter first and followed her into the room. “You just missed my mother.”

  “Oh?”

  “She’s somewhere bombarding Dr. Milo with questions.” He leaned against the wall and folded his ridiculously toned arms over his chest. “They were trying to let B get a little more sleep.”

  “This isn’t really a great place to catch up on sleep.”

  “We tour around the globe for a living. Trust me, we can sleep anywhere.”

  As she went about her job, she tried her best not to look at Oliver. His mere presence made concentrating just shy of impossible. After all, she didn’t need to stare at him to know how he looked. His deep blue eyes, long brown hair, and perfect smile were all well engrained in her mind.

  She took Bailey’s pulse as gently as possible and then placed the blood pressure cuff around his arm. He had really nice arms, not exactly Oliver big, but the wiry muscles under tanned skin were nothing to scoff at. Simone would die if she knew where her hands were right now. Her eyes wandered to his tattoos while she waited for the cuff to beep and tried to make sense of them.

  “Enjoying the view?”

  She jumped at the sound of his voice and then blushed with embarrassment. “I couldn’t help myself. Your tattoos are pretty impressive.”

  “That they are.” He turned his arm from side to side admiring them. “Is this the part where you ask me if it hurt?”

  “No. I have a couple of my own. I’m well aware of what it feels like.”

  “Look out, Bailey. You’ve got you a tough girl right there.” Oliver dropped into the chair and grinned at her.

  “I don’t know about that, but I do like them.”

  “In that case,” Bailey cut in, excited, “you ought to see Oliver’s back. It’s a work of art.”

  She did her best not to think about Oliver’s back or to mention that she’d already seen it online. She didn’t want to sound like a complete stalker, but what else was Pinterest for?

  “So, you’re back to torture me some more,” Bailey shifted in the bed.

  “I’ll be gentle.”

  “That’s too bad,” Oliver rested his leg over his knee.

  She scowled at him.

  “Sorry. I’ll be quiet. It’ll be like I’m not even here.”

  Somehow she doubted that. His size alone made him hard to ignore. She shook her head and placed her hands in her pockets. “How was your night?”

  “Busy, there was a bit of commotion up here. Some of our friends came up to visit and it ticked the nurses off something fierce.” Bailey smiled like a Cheshire cat. “It’s not their fault. They’re more of a night crowd.”

  They both paused when a noise sounded from the bathroom.

  “Do you have company?” She looked from Bailey to Oliver, who unfolded himself out of the chair and stepped beside her at the same time they each shook their heads.

  Lexie moved for the door and flung it open while Oliver flipped the switch. When a young blond girl stood there blinking in the harsh light and tried to run, Lexie blocked her path.

  “What are you doing?” Lexie demanded.

  “I . . . um . . . I just wanted to see Bailey. I’m his biggest fan and I,” her eyes darted nervously around the room.

  “Look, I get it, but you can’t be in here. It’s inappropriate no matter how big of a fan you are.”

  The girl looked up at Lexie with tears in her eyes. No more than fourteen years old, she was suddenly aware of the magnitude of her mistake. The poor thing probably hadn’t thought about what she would do after she made it inside. “I’m really sorry.”

  “Hey, why don’t you come on over and take a picture. There’s no need to cry about it. You were just checking on me, right?” Bailey winked at the girl and she wiped her eyes.

  Lexie stepped out of the way and waited as his biggest fan approached him with timid steps. All she’d wanted was to get near him and now she couldn’t meet his eyes as she removed her cell phone from her bag.

  “Would you mind, Lexie?” Oliver held the phone out to her.

  Lexie let out an impatient sigh, but stepped forward to snap a picture of the three of them.

  “Thanks for checking on my brother,” Oliver plucked the phone from Lexie’s fingers and handed it back to the girl, “but it’s time to go.”

  Not needing to be told twice, the girl bolted.

  “I don’t want to see you in here again,” Lexie called after her, trying to restore at least a little authority back into the situation.

  She hated to admit it, but the Honeycutt brothers had handled it in stride. She guessed it wasn’t the first time a girl had tried to get close to them. “That was fun. So, back to what we were talking about. How’re you feeling this morning?”

  “Better, now that you’re here to protect me.” Bailey grasped his hands together by his face as though a damsel in distress and grinned at her in the most infuriating way.

  “I’m trying to do my job here. Anytime you want to help me out, you let me know.” She crossed her arms over her stomach and rested all of her weight on one leg while she waited for Bailey to cooperate.

  Oliver whistled. Lexie was something else and completely different than most of the women he was usually around. She was petite with dark hair and green eyes. She also had a look about her which said she wouldn’t take any crap from anyone. But, he admired the multiple piercings in one of her ears, the kind that go almost all the way around. It seemed as though miss follow-all-the-rul
es Lexie had a bit of a wild side. He liked her, and he really liked the way her cheeks turned pink when he teased her. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but it felt as though he’d seen her before. For a moment in the hall and then again when she’d actually smiled, a familiar tug pulled at his memory.

  “To be honest,” Bailey said, “I feel like crap. Does that help?”

  Oliver’s head swiveled in his brother’s direction, but he masked his surprise at his brother’s words before Bailey could notice. When he was acting like the flirt he was, it was easy to forget why he was lying in the bed.

  “Not really. I’m going to need you to be more specific, but if you would like to start with discussing crap, we can do that.”

  Oliver smirked. She was something all right. The shoe was on the other foot now it seemed and judging by the way she was grinning as she typed in notes, she was enjoying the shift in power.

  “I’m tired and achy, if you must know.”

  “Okay, I’ll be back in here in a few with someone else to give you blood. Try not to let any other teenagers sneak in while I’m gone.”

  Bailey perked back up at Lexie’s playfulness. “I make no promises. I’m pretty irresistible.”

  She laughed and Oliver couldn’t help it when his gaze stayed with her until she disappeared out the door. Her ability to be so caring and so unyielding at the same time fascinated him. She was the first person in a decade who treated them like equals other than their bandmates and few close friends. Everyone else catered to them and held them in some sort of high regard.

  For a time, it had been fun and exciting, but there were also days it was exhausting. Sometimes he just wanted to disappear into the crowd and have a normal day. He leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling from his place in the chair.