Aftershock (18 page)

Sydney still remained in her seat, waiting for everyone on stage to put away their equipment before she rose and headed down to the front of the theater. Today she wore black slacks that hugged her hips and a long-sleeved blouse the same shade as her eyes. Her hair was clipped back as usual. Although it accentuated the planes of her face, he really loved it loose and spread over his pillow. Or curtaining the two of them and feeling it whisper against him as she leaned over him and—

“Rick?”

He was suddenly aware she was speaking to him. He still held one of his guitars and moved it in front of his body to hide the erection that sprang up at the sight of her.

Damn!

“Sorry,” he said. “My mind was someplace else.”

“I’m sure it is.” She smiled. “I have some more things to go over with you. Your call if you want me to work through you or include the entire band in this.”

He paused with the guitar still in his hands, his body immobile as he ran the suggestion through his mind. “Let’s have everyone. Whatever you have affects all of us equally.” Safety in numbers. This keeping it under wraps was tough and he needed the insulation. From the look in her eyes, she had the same problem. A thrill skittered through him.

“Okay, then.”

They gathered on the stage where the seating could be more informal. Rick deliberately chose to sit where he could see her rather than beside her. The eye contact between the two of them would surely send signals to the others. Even so, he was hyperaware of her presence and of the little invisible shocks that ran up and down his skin. When everyone was ready, he nodded for her to get started.

Sydney wet her lips and took a deep breath, hoping to calm her jitters. At four that morning she’d given up the possibility of sleep, dressed and drove to the office. She trolled the Internet again and again as she waited with impatience for each of the blogs and online publications to go live. The butterflies were doing a tango in her stomach and she was so edgy she could barely swallow the cup of coffee she made. When the first results of yesterday’s event appeared she was ready to dance around the office.

Linc had stuck his head in around eight on the way to an appointment of his own. “Do you ever sleep, Sydney?” He chuckled. “Never mind. Renee said we got great coverage of yesterday’s mass interview. I looked at some of the stuff myself. Good work.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re meeting with the guys today, right?”

“Right after Mickey and Gordo. Did you get a chance to look at the folder I left for you?”

She’d placed one hand in her lap, beneath her desk, and crossed her fingers. If Linc hated, it her whole program would fall apart.

“No, but I trust your judgment. That’s why you got the solo gig. Good luck.”

Now, with the band gathered around her on the stage, she reached into her briefcase and took out several articles clipped together. “First of all, I have some things to share with you that I think will put everyone in a good mood.” She looked at each of the guys one at a time. “Did any of you check the blogs this morning, or any of the Web sites on the list I gave you?”

Marc chuckled. “Emma said she would as I was headed out. I told her I’d call after rehearsal. I didn’t want to know what people said beforehand. If it was bad, it would be a downer, and if it was good, we’d be too distracted.”

“You have nothing to worry about. I knew it yesterday and now I have proof.” She unclipped the articles. “I printed these off the Internet this morning.”

Rick held out his hand. “What are they?”

She passed them over. “Take a look. Go on.”

The moment their skin touched, her pussy clenched, her blood heated, and only iron determination kept her hands from shaking. Good lord! She made a huge production of organizing her notes so she could avoid looking directly at him.

“Holy shit!” Excitement edged Rick’s voice. “Look at these, guys.” He passed the clippings around so everyone could see them.

Sydney waited for their reaction as long as she could. “Well?”

When Rick turned and looked at her, a wide grin spread across his face. “Hot damn! They liked us.”

“Well of course they did.” She laughed. “And they’re going to like you even more.” She held up her cell phone so everyone could see her list of messages. “I’ve been getting calls all morning for more individual interviews. For access on the tour. For any information I can give them.”

Danny threw back his head, shouted, “All right!” and pumped his fist in the air.

Sydney waited while they read all the articles, thrilled at their excitement. “Okay. So.” She closed her cell and from her briefcase extracted sheets with the logo on them in different sizes. “I want you all to have a copy of this. Get an idea of the many ways the art can be used beside T-shirts. Can holders, patches, key chains, phone cases, all kinds of things. They’ve already been ordered from our merchandise suppliers. The idea will be to get as much product as possible into as many hands as possible.”

“Who takes care of that?” Danny asked. “Do you?”

She shook her head. “We have people at the agency who process all this. They know how much of everything to order for each show, depending on the size of the audience. Also, our web person will put up a site and people can order through that.”

They had a lot of back and forth about what went on the site, would they have a Facebook page linked to it—yes—and a Twitter feed—yes. Who would monitor it and how that would happen.

“So we really don’t have any input into what goes out over the Internet from those sites, right?” Rick frowned. “I’m not sure I like that.”

The reaction wasn’t unexpected. He was, after all, the group leader and the guys looked to him for validation of everything. Their personal situation, whatever it was, had nothing to do with business decisions.

“I’m going to give you a list of some of the links you can take a look at,” she told him. “The names on this list are bands we rep who are clients of the agency. We do their social media and you can get a feel for how they answer comments and questions. “Full Moon does this for all of its clients, as a matter of fact, and it’s worked out really well. If you have anything special you want us to say, just let me know and I’ll take a look at it.”

“Wait a minute.” Rick scrubbed his chin. “I’m not sure I like something so personal being taken out of our hands completely. If we have fans who Like us and comment, they want to talk to us, not some nameless geek.”

Sydney lifted a large envelope. “Like I said, take a look at the links on this list.” She handed a sheet to each of them. “Tell me what you don’t feel comfortable with and we’ll work to improve it. But your time is going to be taken up with rehearsing, performing, and interviews. There are only so many hours in a day. And it won’t be some nameless geek. It will be me.”

Rick shifted in his seat to look at her. “You? But when will you have the time?”

“I’m taking both my laptop and my iPad with me. I can work on it during downtime and it will also give you a way to see what’s going on in real time. Does that work for you?”

His smile went right to her heart. “We’ll give it a shot.”

“Good. Remember, if you do have a problem with anything, we’ll do our best to take care of it.”

“What’s next?” Rick pointed to the envelope she was still holding.

“Well. I’ve spent a lot of time studying photos of similar bands. How they appear on stage. How they present themselves to the audience. What sets the really successful ones apart.”

“Hold it.” Rick held up a hand. “I thought it was their music that did that.”

She looked at each of them in turn. “A band can have the greatest music in the world, but if they don’t make a visual statement, they might as well just be a studio band and create albums. They won’t get the excitement of the crowd, the thrill of the sold-out performance. The presence on every video platform. Please, guys. I’ve spent a lot of time preparing for just what we have here. For a band who had the right kind of music that I could push to the top. Can you try to trust me on this a little?”

Rick looked at the others.

Marc nodded. “She’s right, bro. Let’s hear her out. If we hate what she’s got, maybe there’s room for compromise. We signed with Butch because we trust him. We have to give Sydney and Full Moon the same opportunity.”

She tried to send him a silent message.

This is part of what we talked about, remember? Give and take
.

She could almost hear him thinking.

“It’s nothing extreme,” she added. “I promised you and I heard what you said. Take a second and look and listen to my reasoning.”

“Okay.” He held out a hand. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Sydney handed out photos and drawings and tried to explain her concept. The significance of wearing the T-shirts on stage. Suggestions on how to add eye-catching impact to the performance on stage. Why the sparkle was important. All the things that could emphasize the name of the band and impress it into people’s minds.

“We’re creating a brand here,” she said, trying to gauge everyone’s reaction. “It’s important to get it out there right from the start.”

She waited, barely breathing while each of them studied the material. And, of course, they looked at Rick to see his reaction.

“Okay. Look.” She pointed to the clippings. “We’ve got a good head start with these. Generated some excitement. Wearing the T-shirts was a good move, even though you might not have thought so at first. But now everyone wants one and when they write about the band that’s what will be in their minds. So can you just think about some of this other stuff?”

“Okay,” he said, at last. “But nothing extreme. Nothing I think alters who or what the band is. Agreed?”

“Let’s wait until opening night and reevaluate,” she told him. “You can be sure I’ll always do my best to keep your objections in mind. Oh, and the clippings are yours. We have a service that takes care of that for our files. I’ll keep on top of it, though, so you get them when they’re fresh.”

Sydney stuffed everything else back in her briefcase, aware on some level that the band members were headed toward the back of the stage. Except Rick. When she turned, he was right in front of her and she bumped into him. They were so close she could almost count his eyelashes. Her heart started its usual rhumba.

“I’m not being a hardass, okay?” His voice was soft and more relaxed than she expected.

Their gazes locked, and Sydney couldn’t break away. At last she forced herself to blink, to focus on the business at hand. “I understand. Neither am I. Together we’ll figure out what’s best.” She gripped the handle of her briefcase hard, the strap biting into her hand. “If I guess wrong, make the wrong decisions, it hurts both of us.”

“I know,” he assured her. “This is all so new to us. We’ve always done everything ourselves.”

“And now you don’t have to,” she reminded hm.

“Thank you. From all of us.” For a moment she thought he was going to forget where they were and kiss her. Instead, he gave her a wink and then turned back to the others.

The excitement blazing in the air was almost visible. This was it. The big night. The kickoff. Everything would coalesce into the next ninety minutes on stage. For Lightnin’, that time was reduced to thirty minutes, but it was their half hour to make it all work.

Wearing her permanent badge on a lanyard around her neck, Sydney leaned against a big, hard-sided travel case in the wings, in an attempt to stay out of everyone’s way. The roadies still fiddled with the setup, making sure the band had bottles of water handy, the mics in the right places. Up on the catwalk at the back of the stage, the light crew was adjusting the equipment. Deep Blue River’s roadies and guests were still in the band’s dressing room. Sydney didn’t expect to see them until Lightnin’ finished their set.

Business was brisk in the lobby as people devoured the merchandise, for Lightnin’ as well as Deep Blue River. The single had debuted two days before and, thanks to the early press, was getting great airplay and generating a lot of chatter. The office was keeping track of the downloads and so far they had racked up a significant number for an unknown band. At least, unknown outside the local area.

From beyond the heavy curtain, the sounds of the audience filtered back, a steady hum as people found their seats and greeted friends. Sydney was glad they were opening here, in their hometown, kicking off before a friendly audience. Every media person of note had a ticket and a pass for the after-party, thanks to Linc and Butch. Sydney had followed up with additional phone calls to her own contacts, just to add a personal invite and make sure they knew she was Lightnin’s point person.

Okay, so most of the crowd tonight was here to see Deep Blue River. Linc handled them himself and had made them into an international household name. If Sydney did her job properly, it would soon be Lightnin’ they clamored for.

Despite the fact she’d had very little rest, she was jazzed to the max. At three in the morning, she’d given up on sleep, made a pot of coffee, and sat down in the kitchen to go over her lists once more. She and Rick had managed to keep things professional between them despite being together every day, despite the fire that simmered between them in a steady, slow boil. They each did their own thing but whenever circumstance threw them together, like steel to magnets, their eyes sought each other and
wham!

Now she took a long look at the band as they assumed their place on stage. With only marginal grumbling, they’d agreed to her jazzing up their stage presence a little. The T-shirts she’d given them had a scant dusting of glitter added to the lightning bolt. When the lights hit, she knew she’d been right to insist on it. Marc wore the leather vest she’d sent over and she thought it was perfect for him. Danny had opted for the leather pants.

“The ladies will love the way it cups my ass.” He grinned.

Rick had swatted him on the back of the head.

All in all, she thought they looked incredible.