A Face in the Crowd Read online

  “Yes, later this morning,” Dorothy’s face lit up.

  “That’s great, but you might want to warn her about the parking lot. It’s a zoo.” Lexie smiled. “Okay, I’ll be back.”

  She headed for Bailey’s room. Her curiosity was definitely piqued. She knocked lightly and stepped in to find him alone, but awake.

  “Morning, Lexie.”

  “Hey, Bailey. I can’t believe you’re already up.”

  “My phone’s been blowing up. I finally had to turn it off.”

  She observed him sitting up in bed, head shaved and smiling. He didn’t look sick. If anything, he looked out of place in the small room. Like his brother, he was nearly exotic and too beautiful for this place. She half expected him to jump out of the bed and burst into action the way he did on stage, all energy and charisma.

  “What are you thinking about over there?”

  “Oh, nothing. Sorry," she stepped to the far side of the bed and checked him over.

  “You were admiring my amazing head. Go on admit it. You want to touch it.”

  “You’re impossible.”

  He grinned at her.

  “Okay, let’s get your meds out of the way.”

  “If we must.”

  His mood was definitely better than it was the day before. The previous night had worked wonders for him. She smiled as she thought about all the guys filing in with hair and leaving without it. It had been more than a little fun watching them take the plunge.

  “You know the drill, name and birthday.”

  “You’re going to like this one,” Bailey then proceeded to rap the answers.

  “Mr. Honeycutt, you are a man of many talents.”

  He gave her mock cocky smile and swallowed his pills.

  “I’ll be back in a little while.”

  Bailey raised his hands as though in disbelief. “Can’t you stay and hang out?”

  “Hang out? No. My boss has requested an audience, so I really have to go.”

  “Good morning, Lexie.”

  The moment she heard Oliver’s voice her heart did a summersault in her chest. The sleep stealer had arrived. “Good morning.”

  Oliver looked at his brother’s pleading face. “Oh no. What does he want now? I’ve seen that look before. There was the time he wanted a puppy, and then the time he wanted Leo to get him Blake Lively’s phone number. The list goes on.”

  “It was nothing quite so elaborate. He just wanted me to stay and play, but as I explained to him,” Lexie placed her hands on her hips and looked at Bailey the way a mother might look at her small child. “I have to work. I’ll see you guys later.”

  As she walked past him, Oliver leaned in close. “In his defense, I wish you could stay and play, too.”

  “You two are impossible,” she said it as though exasperated, but laughed at the same time.

  Still smiling, she pulled open the door to reveal Andy hurrying in.

  “Move please.” He waved her off and made a point of closing the door in her face once she was on the outside. His message was clear. She didn’t belong.

  Oliver flipped the page as he continued to skim his Rolling Stone while Andy proceeded to freak out about the previous evening’s fun.

  “Bailey, why didn’t you tell me you were going to put it all out there? We could’ve gone bigger. We could have put teasers out to lead up to it.”

  “Because that’s not what it was about. I did it for me and for the fans.”

  “You have to see the crowd outside,” he gestured wildly to the window. “And the site crashed this morning. We have someone working on it, of course, but the fans are going crazy.” Andy was practically vibrating with excitement.

  Bailey eyed Oliver behind Andy’s back as if to say ‘deal with him, would you?’

  “Did the guys get to the airport this morning?” The best Oliver could come up with was to try to change the subject, but it was a challenge with Andy. The man was relentless.

  “Yes. I just left them and came straight over here.” His cell phone buzzed. He held a finger up to them and stepped over to the window to answer it.

  Oliver stared at the story about the history of the infamous Les Paul guitar without really taking it in. It was better now that everyone knew what was going on with his brother. That he had cancer. He struggled with the term even in his own mind. It was a word he never would have believed he’d have to apply to Bailey at twenty-eight years old, but there it was.

  The hardest part of keeping it quiet had been the speculating. Every reporter, blog, fan site, and radio station had been throwing out guess after guess as to why Bailey was in the hospital. The worst ones were the rehab rumors. He and his brother worked hard to stay away from the demons of the business—aside from girls—he was no saint. But, he’d seen too many careers implode from drug abuse. He vowed early on he wouldn’t be one of them. He would not become another cliché and he wouldn’t allow Bailey to, either.

  When Oliver grew up and turned to music, his mom worried he would fall in with the lifestyle so often associated with the music scene. She tried everything within her power to turn him onto something different. Sports, art, anything other than what he loved, but eventually she accepted it was in his blood.

  Resigned, she let Oliver be who he was and discovered he had talent which couldn’t be ignored. She agreed to pay for guitar lessons. Guitar lessons turned into voice lessons and then he met David. When the two became serious about starting a band, she remained close and then become their manager.

  “Listen, Bailey, it was the label guys. They think your idea is genius.”

  “Good to know,” Bailey sounded irritated which pulled Oliver’s attention from the magazine and the past.

  “They want to launch a full scale campaign. What do you think?”

  A crease formed between Bailey’s eyes. “I think we should keep it the way it is—on our website. Word will spread soon enough, hell it already has.”

  Andy’s face contorted in disbelief. “Are you sure? Think of what this could do for the band—the exposure alone will have album sales back on top—no, through the roof.”

  “Dude, leave it alone. We’re not going to use my cancer to sell more albums. It’s not like we need the money.”

  The color drained from Andy’s face. “I just thought since you’d already gone public . . . and the label—”

  “I don’t give a shit about the label. They keep acting like they haven’t cashed in on their investment when the truth is, they’ve made their money back a hundred times over.”

  “And, that’s why we’re getting out after this tour,” Oliver’s tone was calm, unlike his brother’s. He hadn’t planned on breaking the news to Andy this way, but enough was enough. Andy would have to decide if he wanted to stay on with the label or not. He’d worked for them originally and he could stay, but Oliver and the rest of the guys were out.

  “Getting out?” Andy’s eyes went wide making him look more like a wild animal than a man. “You can’t.”

  “Actually, according to our lawyer and our contract, we can. Our obligations are almost fulfilled.”

  Andy placed a hand on his head and turned to face the wall. “I can’t believe it.” He took a minute, his breathing labored while he fought to regain his composure.

  Oliver studied the man’s back, a man he’d known for the better part of a decade. He’d known Andy wouldn’t be thrilled with the idea of breaking ties with the label, but he hadn’t expected his reaction to be quite this over the top.

  “You know what?” Andy faced them, composure back in place. “You guys know best, but we should talk about this more when I get back from L.A.”

  “Sounds good, but Andy,” Oliver caught and held the man’s gaze, so he wouldn’t miss what he was about
to say. “We aren’t going to change our minds on this. It’s as good as done.”

  “Understood.” Andy ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll be back out next week. You call me if anything comes up.”

  “I’d say Andy took that pretty well,” Bailey laid his head back on his pillow, drained from the discussion.

  Oliver stared toward the door, unsure he agreed with his little brother. “I guess.”

  “You wanted to see me, Janice,” Lexie stepped through Janice’s open office door, the smell of floral air freshener overwhelming.

  “Yes, please come in.”

  Lexie did as she was asked and approached the desk.

  “I’ll get right to the point. It has come to my attention that you’ve been spending extra time with one of our patients.” She dropped her chin to add emphasis to her next words. “A certain famous patient.”

  “Extra time?” Lexie tilted her head to the side as she fought the urge to laugh. There was no such thing as extra time when it came to nursing. Was this lady crazy?

  Janice reached for her computer and turned it around for Lexie to see. There on the screen was a picture of her sandwiched between a newly bald Oliver and Bailey. When she fought to keep the color from her cheeks and failed, Janice leaned back in her chair and smirked.

  “After today, you will no longer be on Mr. Honeycutt’s case.”

  “Have I done something wrong?”

  “It’s inappropriate for you to spend so much time with one patient and ignore the others in your care.”

  “I haven’t ignored anyone,” Lexie cut in, feeling the beginnings of her temper come to life.

  Janice placed her hands on her desk and leaned forward. “Mr. Callahan had a heart attack yesterday and almost died.”

  Lexie mimicked Janice’s posture and placed her own hands on the desk before leaning in. “And I was there. In fact, I spent hours in his room yesterday making sure he was recovering and keeping him comfortable.” To keep from lashing out further, she bit the inside of her cheek and took a step back. “All I did was help a patient deal with his illness, which he chose to do by shaving his head. They asked me to help. That’s it.”

  “Lexie, don’t make this difficult. Stay away from Mr. Honeycutt and everything will work out. You’re dismissed.” Janice waved a hand in her direction and returned her fat backside to her chair.

  Lexie left the way she had come in and marched to the locker room, seeing red the whole way. The nerve of Janice treating her as if she didn’t know how to do her job. She worked as hard as anyone else, then remembered Janice’s own sister Ashley and amended, and in some cases harder. She paced back and forth in front of a line of lockers and inhaled deeply through her nose. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Maybe she should just ignore it and let someone else do all the work since that was apparently what she did anyway. When it buzzed again, she rolled her eyes and reached for it. No matter what she said, she would never rely on someone else to do her job for her. She wasn’t wired that way.

  “This is Lexie.”

  “Lexie, could you get me an extra blanket? It’s rather cold in my room today.”

  “I’ll be right there, Mr. Callahan.” Defeated, Lexie left the locker room and made her way down the hall. It was just as well. Oliver was out of the question and lately she’d let her libido do too much of the thinking.

  Lexie rolled her shoulders in an attempt to shake off her run-in with Janice. Getting mad wouldn’t help. Janice was her boss and therefore held all the power. Arguing was futile. For Lexie, the time had come to focus solely on her job and get through the day, then, life would go back to normal. Normal . . . what her life had been before Oliver Honeycutt. A time when he’d just been the lead singer in a band whom she admired from afar. A time when her life had been simple.

  She sighed as she reached Bailey’s room and remembered the previous night: the laughter, the camaraderie, the way she’d felt when Oliver walked her to her car.

  For an instant she’d been part of their world.

  She straightened her shoulders and held her head up high. It was time to stop thinking like a girl with a crush and go to work. “Hey there,” she found Bailey with his feet dangling over the side of the bed, a big grin on his face, guitar in hand, “ready for your next round of chemo?” She gave Oliver a brief smile and put her back to him. It was easier to concentrate when she wasn’t looking at him.

  Bailey set down his guitar and climbed back into bed. “If I have to.”

  “I’m afraid you have to,” Lexie’s voice sounded strained even to her own ears as she tried to sound cheerful. She sure could use the punching bag at the gym about now to help ease her frustration. But, it would have to wait. Her day was far from over.

  She hung Bailey’s bag on his IV stand and let the drugs go to work.

  While she stripped off her protective sleeve-length gloves, noise from the crowd outside escalated. It must have grown to be able to hear it from where they were inside the hospital.

  “Earth to Lexie. Sexy Lexie are you there?” he waved a hand in front of her eyes as he tried to get her attention.

  “I’m sorry. I was distracted by the noise outside. There are a lot of people down there for you.”

  “Yeah, it happened a lot faster than I thought it would.”

  “What did?” Lexie looked at Oliver for clarification.

  “People’s reaction about Bailey’s condition. We posted the truth on the band’s website last night and the outpouring of love from the fans was immediate.” He looked almost humbled, another side to the man she’d just begun to know. “I hope you don’t mind that I posted the picture with you in it.”

  “No, it’s fine.” So, that’s where Janice had seen the picture. Lexie shook her head, annoyed with her own careless lapse in judgment. Although, she couldn’t imagine Janice checking out Survival’s website as a hobby. Her mind switched gears over to Ashley and suddenly she had a pretty good idea who was to blame for her trouble. She huffed out a breath, but froze when Oliver’s fingers closed around her wrist.

  “Lexie, is something wrong?” Her gaze dropped to where his skin was touching hers, confident he would be able to feel her pulse’s reaction to his touch. “You seem off today.”

  She debated for half a second on whether or not to tell him the truth. “It’s nothing. Just work stuff.” She plastered a smile on her face. “You guys tell me more about the fans.”

  Oliver looked at her a moment longer and then released his grip as Bailey filled her in.

  “What you said yesterday about telling them, you were right. They needed to know—deserved to know. They’re the whole reason we do what we do and I should’ve thought to say something without you having to tell me.”

  “You needed time to adjust and take it all in. It’s a lot to deal with.” Lexie appreciated Bailey’s enthusiasm more than he knew. It provided a much-needed distraction. And since when could Oliver gauge her moods so well?

  “You’ve got that right and I didn’t know how to handle it, any of it.” Bailey paused to tug down one side of his knit cap. “I guess I didn’t really believe it, which I know sounds crazy since I’m sitting in a freaking hospital bed.”

  “You’re not the first person to want to keep it to themselves or to compartmentalize what’s happening. A lot of people shut out their families, friends, and anyone else who wants to help. They try to place their sickness in this little box and forget about it, but like it or not, it’s a part of you now. The thing you have to remember is that it isn’t who you are and you’re not alone.”

  “I think you’re right. It’s like all of a sudden you lose your identity. You become someone with cancer and no one thinks about you as a person anymore. Just a person with cancer, like your life before the diagnosis didn’t happen.”

  “How you deal w
ith it is up to you, but if you’re the one to control the news, it at least might make you feel as though you are not losing control of your life.”

  “Own it, right?”

  “Exactly. And, when you beat it—”

  “You mean if.”

  “No, I mean when. When you beat it, that will be your news to share, as well, and the fans will celebrate with you.”

  “I sure am glad I ended up in Atlanta that night.”

  “That makes two of us.” When Oliver spoke up, Lexie jumped. She’d almost forgotten he was in the room.

  She glanced at him and grinned. “Me, too. It was a great show.” She winked and then laughed when both of their mouths fell open.

  Bailey, incredulous, pounced first, “You were there?”

  “Of course. Simone and I never miss a Survival concert.”

  Oliver smiled and shook his head slowly as recognition shone in his eyes. “You were on stage that night. I knew I recognized you.”

  She shrugged, but couldn’t stop her grin.

  “You’re a piece of work, Sexy Lexie.”

  “Back at you, Bailey.”

  “No wonder my brother has a little crush on you.”

  Oliver threw the magazine he’d been holding at his brother’s head, while Lexie’s face burned.

  “You two are so cute.”

  Cathy walked in the room. “What’s going on in here?”

  “N-Nothing,” Lexie turned to leave, hit the IV pole hard enough to send the bags swinging, and fled. One person could only take so much embarrassment in one day.

  Chapter 9

  Lexie got up off the couch when she heard a knock at her door. Decked out in pajama pants and a tank top, she hoped it wasn’t anyone important.

  “Down for the night I take it?” Simone pushed her way into the apartment, plastic bags in hand as she breezed inside.