Page 52 of Strum Me

It’s almost a minute before Brad stops laughing and tells me, “Never mind.”

We watch TV with Ben for a few minutes while he eats his Dippin’ Dots and then Brad motions to me.

“You going to be okay in here by yourself for a moment, buddy? I just want to talk to your Mommy. We’ll go outside so we don’t disturb your Pokémon, okay?”

“Okay,” Ben says, eyes still glued to the TV.

I follow Brad out the door, cursing him as I notice how handsome he looks, as if he wasn’t affected by yesterday’s goings-on at all. “Stupid, sexy fucker,” I mumble under my breath, then accidently bang against his back, not realizing he’d stopped walking.

“What?”

“Um, nothing,” I say, although I can feel a hot flush rising up my neck and onto my cheeks.

“How are you?” he asks.

“I’m…I’m okay. I didn’t sleep much, but Ben seems to be doing pretty well. When the doc said that he can leave in a few days if he eats all his food and gets strong,he ate all his breakfast—even the yogurt, which he hates.”

“He must hate being all cooped up in the bed like that.”

I nod. “I don’t know who it’s worse for, him or the nurses!”

“So…let’s get him out of that bed soon, what do you say?” Brad says, and there’s a glint in his eye.

“What are you saying?” I ask.

“I’m saying, once he gets the all-clear, let’s really let him stretch his legs. I want you to take him on tour with us.”

“Us, who?”

“Us, the band, and you,” Brad clarifies.

That’s the last thing I expected him to say. “Brad, I told you last night—”

“I know what you told me, bossy britches. But now I’m telling you. You’re coming back on tour, and you’re bringing Ben and we’re gonna have the best fucking time ever. Like, Dippin’ Dots galore fun.”

I can’t help but burst out laughing, even with the ridiculousness of it all, the image of the three of us twirling around while Dippin’ Dots fall from the sky is too funny an image not to indulge in.

“Is that a yes?” Brad asks, his eyebrows raised, his mouth open, a look of hope on his face.

“The hell it is. I was laughing at how crazy you are. I wasn’t even going on the tour myself! What makes you think I’m going to take my injured five-year-old?” I shake my head at his gall.

“Because. Because name one reason why the fuck not?”

“Er, because he has a broken arm in three places and probably needs to be near someone who can care for that sort of thing; because he has school; because he is five years old and shouldn’t be gallivanting around the country like a groupie; because I need to work, or find a new job because I’m probably going to be fired from this one; because you and I can not be in the same damn room together without kissing; because…”

“Whoa, overachiever, I said name one reason. And anyway, none of those are valid,” Brad interrupts me. “Yes, he has a broken arm. Well, people have had broken arms before, and we will make sure he has the care he needs. I wouldn’t jeopardize his health for anything. And school? He’s five. He can take a few weeks out and not have it affect his application to Oxford, and this is more of an education than anything he’d learn in school.”

I open my mouth to argue but Brad’s hand comes up to cover it as he continues.

“And groupie? Hello, we have a cupboard of board games on the boys’ bus. I think you have a very distorted view of just how we live. And if you get back on tour with us, you won’t be losing your job. And as for the kissing…are we kissing right now?”

“Hell no.”

“Then, see? No problem! I can totally not kiss you.”

“Brad!”

“Just, okay. Sit down. Sit! Jeez, it’s like blood out of a stone.” He waits until I’ve sat before he sits down next to me, his lecture continuing. “You need to do this, for you. Your time to shine remember? This isn’t about us. This is about you, You, you, you, you, you. This story is going to put you on the map. And I want to be a part of it.”