My Sunshine (4 page)

“My dad died when I was a kid, so it was just me and my
mom and Daniel. When I was eleven, my mom got remarried and a few years later, she and my step-dad took off. I’ve been living with Daniel ever since. He’s all I have now; him and Rebecca and Justin.”

“You don’t see your mom?”

Chloe shook her head. “I haven’t seen or spoken to her since I was seventeen.”

“What about
Daniel?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure. If he talks to her, he doesn’t
tell me about it. It’s just as well, I suppose.”

John
frowned. Although he wasn’t particularly close to his parents, he spoke to them quite often. He remembered another name she had mentioned. “Who’s Justin?” For some reason he felt concerned, and the feeling surprised him. Usually, he didn’t care if his latest conquest had a boyfriend.

“Oh, Justin’s my friend. We work together at Subway.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“Oh, no. Just a friend.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-one, too,” she replied. “My birthday was last

week.”

“Well, happy birthday. Maybe we should go somewhere so

I can buy you a present.”

“You’ve given me enough,” she said. “Last night and this
morning ought to last me for a good long while.” She paused.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

John shook his head. “No. I try not to get tied down.”

“Oh, so you’re a player?”

He shook his head. “No. I don’t hurt people or use women.

I just don’t want to be in a serious relationship. I like being free
to see whomever I want.”

She smiled. “You’re a playboy.”

He sighed. “I guess so.”

“That’s okay, I guess.”

“Try telling that to my mom or my sister Catherine. They think I should settle down right now and get married. I’m only twenty-one. I’m not ready to get married.”

“Why so much pressure?”

“It’s those other guys,” John explained. “You know, we’re tight, and we’re best friends. Those dudes are family and I love them like brothers, but every single one of them is married or getting married, or might as well be married. My mom and Catherine think that I should be more like them.”

“Why shouldn’t you? Is it working for them?”

He nodded. “It seems to be, but I don’t know. I’m not

ready to make such a permanent commitment.”

“Are you close to your parents?”

John
shrugged. “I don’t know. We get along. My dad was always working when I was a kid, and my mom is a career woman. You know, the kind of super-mom who tries to do it all and somehow her kids get pushed to the back burner? I’m not particularly close to them, but we have an okay relationship, I guess.”

“What do they do?”

“Well, Super-Mom is an anchor on the local ABC affiliate.

She hosts the morning show. My dad is a producer at the local
NBC station.”

“That’s interesting. So your mom is like a local celebrity.”

He nodded. “I guess so. No one outside of Nashville

knows who she is, but she walks around like she’s Barbara
Walters. Work is her life, and it’s all she talks about.”

“What about your sisters? Are you close to them?”

“Oh yeah,” he replied. “We’re really tight. I think when Garby graduates from high school this spring, she’s coming down to Orlando to go to college.”

“It’s nice to have a big brother,”
Chloe said. “I don’t know what I would do without Daniel.”

“Well, it’s nice to have a little sister.

“What are you doing next as far as the group goes?”

“We’re going to be doing the talk show circuit soon because
we’re releasing a new single next month, I think. We’ll go back on tour in the spring.”

“What’s touring like?”

“It’s fun. I love being on stage and performing. And it’s such a surreal experience to go out every night and see all those people who came out just to see you. But it’s grueling, too. It’s very tiring. Leading up to the tour, we’ll put in hours and hours of rehearsal with a choreographer. It’s like boot camp. The rewards are so worth it, though.”

“Do you travel by bus?”

John nodded. “Yeah, we do. We almost exclusively travel by bus because Mike is afraid to fly. It’s cool, though. Our buses are top of the line, so except for space issues, we’re not suffering.”

“Do you get your own bus?”

John shook his head. “No. When we go back out, I’ll be sharing a bus with Tyler, which I live with him now, so it won’t be so different, but before Mike and Josh got married, we were all on one bus -- all five of us.” “Sounds cramped. I’d like to hear some of your music. I mean, I’ve spent all this time with you. I might just like it.”

“Tell you what. You find a music store or a Walmart or
something like that, and I’ll set you up.”

“There’s a Walmart right near the parts store,” she said. She
pulled the car into the parking lot in front of the auto parts supply store. “Come with me?”

He nodded, and they entered the store. A man of about their
age was standing behind the counter tapping the keyboard of a computer. He looked up and smiled fondly. “Hey, Chloe.” He looked at John like he was trying to place him.

“Hey, Ray,”
Chloe returned his smile. “How are you?”

Ray’s smile broadened. “I’ve been good. It’s good to see
you again. I’ve been asking Daniel about you.”

She nodded. “I know. He told me.”

John felt the jealously rising in him. His gut told him that there was more between Chloe and Ray than just a friendship.

“Do you have
Daniel’s order?” Chloe asked.

“Yeah, just give me a minute.” He disappeared into the
back somewhere.

“What’s going –“
he began, but he was interrupted by Ray’s sudden return. Ray handed a large box to Chloe, but John intercepted the exchange.

“Oh, this is
John,” Chloe said to Ray. “It’s his Lexus.

John
, this’s my friend Ray.”

John
tried not to frown. He didn’t like the fondness they had for each other. He stepped closer to Chloe. “Nice to meet you,” he said to Ray, shifting the box to under his left arm and extending his right hand.

Ray shook his hand. “Do I know you? You look familiar.”

John shook his head. “I’m just passing through. My car broke down and Daniel and Chloe have been helping me out.”

Ray nodded. “You won’t find no better people than those
two,” he said.

“This is going on
Daniel’s account, right?” Chloe asked.

“Yeah.”

Chloe grabbed John’s free hand and pulled him toward the door. “Thanks Ray. See you later.”

“Call me sometime!”

John pulled the seatbelt around him. “Ray seems nice. He seems to like you a lot.”

Chloe
smiled and started the car. “He’s nice, yeah. Not my type, though.”

Whew
!
“Why not?”

Chloe
shook her head. “I don’t know. I just...I don’t

know. So Walmart?”

John nodded. “Yeah.” He half listened to Chloe talk

about Walmart as they drove there. He was trying to sort out the
feelings he was having and trying to figure out why the hell he cared if she had a boyfriend or any prospects of one. It wasn’t

like he would ever see her again.

She parked in the closest spot she could find in front of the store. “Do you mind if I pick up a few things while we’re here?”

He shook his head. “Not at all.” He ran his hand through
his hair and looked around. He knew that he was bound to be recognized and he didn’t want to draw that kind of attention to himself. He was enjoying not being famous.

Chloe
saw his nervous glances and knew exactly what he was thinking. She opened the trunk of her car. “Here, maybe this will help some.” She took a brand new Atlanta Braves baseball cap out of a blue plastic bag. She pulled the tag off and handed it to him.

“Whose is this?” He asked. He took the cap from her and
bent the brim before putting it on his head.

“It’s yours now. I bought it for Justin for Christmas. I can
get him another one.”

“Christmas? It’s just September.”

Chloe slammed the trunk shut. “I like to shop early.” She gave him a good once over. “I think you’ll be okay. If anyone asked if you’re John, just say no. Why would you be here, anyway?”

“I wish it were that simple,” he said. He followed her into
the store. “What other things do you need?”

“Some deodorant and trash bags and I want to see if the new
Benjamin Williams’ book is out yet.”

John
followed her to the trash bags then to the books. She plucked the novel off the shelf. “Do you read much?”

He shook his head. “Not really.”

She shook the book at him. “You should. Reading is

fundamental.”
He smiled as if they were sharing a secret joke. “I've heard.”

She nodded toward the next aisle. “CDs?”

“Yeah.” He led her to the Pop section and right to the Parrison CDs. He took two different ones off the rack.

“This is the first one,” he said, holding one up. “From 1998.
Really, really early in our career.”

He held up a second one. “This is our second one. It came
out in 2000.” He turned back to the racks and pulled out two more. “This is our Christmas one. It came out last Christmas.

This one is our latest; it came out this summer, and we’re getting
ready to start working on another one for next spring.”

“Wow, you’ve been busy,” she said, taking the CD’s from
him and carefully studying the covers. She laughed at the cover of the first one. “Gosh, you look so young!”

“I know. I was only seventeen then.” He walked down the
aisle a little further and pulled out another CD, then another.

“We’re on these soundtracks, too,” he said. “This should give
you a pretty good feel for our stuff.”

“I’m sure I’ll like it.” She handed the CDs back to him.

“We should have gotten a cart,” he said.

She shook her head. “I just need deodorant,” she said.

“Unless there’s something you need.”

“Nope.” He followed her across the store to the hygiene
products. While she searched for the particular antiperspirant she wanted, his eyes wandered to the display of condoms at the end of the aisle. He grabbed a box. Not using protection that morning had been way out of the norm for him. “Chloe,” he said.

“Yeah?” she replied without looking up.

“What time is it?”

She looked at her watch. “Almost noon, why?” She looked at him and raised her eyebrows.

“I was just thinking that I might not go back tonight. I
might get another room and just stay another night. Daniel probably won’t have my car ready until late, and I didn’t get a lot of sleep.”

The fact that he was standing next to the condoms didn’t
escape her
.
He wants to spend the night with me agai
n
. “That’s probably a good idea.”

Of course he does, you whor
e
. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the negative voice.

He joined her. “Did you get what you needed?”

She nodded. “Did you?”

“Yeah, I think we’re good.”

Chloe stopped the car in front of the motel. “I think I’ll check myself in this time.”

She nodded. “Good idea. I’ll come back for you around
seven, okay?”

“See you then.”

She yawned most of the way home. She hadn’t realized how tired she was until just then. “A nap will be a good idea,”

S
he said aloud. She pulled into her spot in Daniel’s parking lot and unloaded her bag from Walmart. She left the trunk open and entered the garage. Daniel was hunched over the motor of a small pick-up truck.

“The stuff for
John’s car is in my trunk.”

“It’s about time,” he said. “It’s going to take me the rest of
the afternoon.”

“It’s okay. He’s not in a big hurry. He’s staying another night.”

“Why?”

Chloeshrugged. “I don’t know.
”
Liar, liar, liar.

“It’ll be done this evening.
Rebecca and I are leaving

tonight and going to Charlotte.”