The Man You Need (Love on Tour #4) (5 page)

“You don’t go for married guys, just ones that are completely fucked up and treat women like used tissue?”

“I guess, yeah.”

“That’s fucked up, Stacey.”

“Whatever. Do your grandparents still have the bakery?”

“Yes, but my grandpa has a manager now. He’s going to sell it to the guy and retire soon. I’m hoping to talk them into moving out to California when they do.”

“That’s pretty friggin’ cute,” I teased. “Do you think they’ll come?”

“I’m working on it. Food is a big deal in my family. My grandpa is Black, but he’s been in Detroit too long and is obsessed with Polish food. He’s afraid he’ll miss out on Paczkis if he leaves.”

“That’s like a donut-y thing, isn’t it?”

“Do
not
say that to my grandpa. But yes.”

“He’s a baker. Can’t he make his own?”

“Of course he can. He’s just being stubborn. And my grandma is Mexican, and for some absolutely bizarre reason she insists that she won’t be able to get good Chorizo outside of Michigan.”

“What better place is there for Mexican food than California?”

“I know, right? At any rate, I’ve almost got them convinced that L.A. can fulfill their culinary requirements, so… We’ll see.”

“They sound pretty awesome.”

“They are.” He finished his drink. “I’m beat. You ready for bed?”

I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone until I was tucked safely in my bed, by myself. So I decided to give him a hard time. “Is that an invitation?”

“Girl, you must be crazy.”

6

“So, I started dating someone just before we left Malibu,” Mike said, staring at the cards in his hands. “He’s flying in to meet up with us in Dallas.” He looked up at Sean and Hank. “And I want everybody to be nice to him.”

“Who is this guy?” Sean asked.

“He’s a model. But not like an underwear model or anything. He’s on billboards and in magazines and stuff. Always wearing clothes – classy clothes.”

“What’s his name?”

“Tak.”

“Tak?” Hank’s eyes were wide. “What is it with you and guys with weird names, Mikey?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, first there was Grey, and that was his first name, mind you,” Hank told me. “Then there was Van.”

“Don’t forget about Zeke,” Bell chimed in.

“My favorite was Thumper,” Baby said.

“That wasn’t his real name, Baby.” Mike chuckled. “That was his stripper name.”

“He was a stripper?”

“Yep.”

“Like at a gay strip club?”

“No, at a straight strip club, on girls’ nights. Didn’t you know most of those guys are gay?”

“That explains so much,” I said.

Mike looked at me, one eyebrow raised.

I shrugged. “They never get hard.”

“How do you know that?” Hank asked.

“Wait,” Sean said, putting his hand up. “I do not want to know.”

I laughed.

“I think you just picked our next ladies night out, Stacey,” Baby said.

Sean’s head snapped to the side and he stared at her.

“What? Are you going to tell me I can’t go to a strip club, Sean?”

Sean turned to Mike. “I hate you for starting this conversation.”

“Are you, Sean?” Baby pressed.

“No, I’m not going to try to stop you,” he grumbled.

“I’m in,” Bell said.

“See, now I hate you too, Mike,” Hank said.

“Oh please, Hank. Like you’ve never been to a strip club.” Bell rolled her eyes.

Hank just grinned.

“Sean?” Baby asked. “Have you ever been to a strip club?”

“Hank dragged me.”

“It’s true, I did,” Hank said.

“More than once?”

He shrugged. “A couple times.”

“Did you ever get a lap dance?”

“Hank bought me one.” He gazed at his wife. “But Baby, she had nothing on you.”

“Gross.” I turned to Mike. “See, now
I
hate you for starting this conversation.”

****

I liked this guy. He was funny and warm. His eyes danced when he laughed. He was also taken.

“Really, tonight? You’re going to a strip club?” Tak asked us.

Baby grinned and nodded. “It’ll be my first time.”

Beside her, Sean groaned.

Tak laughed and turned to Mike. “That could be fun.”

The waitress came by again and filled our water glasses. We’d long since finished dinner, but we were still sitting there, taking up a bunch of space in the restaurant and thoroughly enjoying each other’s company. Little Henry had completely passed out in Sean’s arms, and we were taking advantage or the uninterrupted time to have some adult conversation.

Mike shrugged. “Totally up to you, honey. We could go to that show you wanted to see or we could go to the strip club with the girls. I’m game for whatever.”

Tak was extremely adorable, and highly likeable. He was a relatively small man with some sort of Asian descent in his lineage. He had a very handsome face, a lean figure, and an infectious smile. Both Sean and Hank, who were as protective of Mike as they were of me, usually hated Mike’s boyfriends. But it was obvious that this time was going to be different.

“Oh, you should definitely go for the strip club,” Jack said.

Sean and Hank both chuckled. If Mike didn’t go with us, Jack was going to have to go. There was no way they were letting their precious cargo go out without a burly man to protect them. Since they were both decidedly not invited, if Mike didn’t go, it would leave Jack with the burden.

Mike and Tak teased Jack about not wanting to go to the strip club. As I watched them, I was ruminating about how quickly Jack had been brought into this little circle of ours. Hank and Sean held the people close to them very tightly. Everyone else was at arm’s length. But Jack had not only been invited to ride on bus one, he was also included in all our meals and outings.

Then there was the Mike factor. Mike was like a little brother to Sean and Hank. He was so deeply woven into the fabric of their lives, that it was hard to imagine either of them without him.

Mike was pretty big and built. He was hot, too. Groupies were always trying to get with him. Apparently, a lot of people didn’t realize he was gay. It had never been a question for me, because I’d first met him with Sean and Hank. Mike was completely comfortable with them and talked about his love life freely. It took me a while to realize that this was not his norm. He was at home with Hank and Sean in a way that he wasn’t in other settings.

To be included in Sean and Hank’s world meant that you had to accept Mike fully, too. I knew that they’d once fired a tour manager halfway through a tour because he was uncomfortable with Mike and a boyfriend he had along on the bus. Jack would clearly not suffer the same fate.

****

Baby’s eyes were as big as saucers when we walked in the door.

“Holy shit,” she said softly.

I looked over to Bell. She looked unimpressed as her eyes wandered around the room. I had to admit, the place wasn’t glamorous. It was relatively small and dark. The tables were scattered around the room, with plenty of space between them for lap dancing. The stage had a pretty good set-up, with colorful lights and room for the three men now dancing on it, mostly naked.

The doorman greeted us. “Hi, ladies. We’re pretty crowded tonight, but there’s room at the bar.”

“We need a table,” I said.

He looked at me with exasperation.

“I’m Stacey Rush. This is Baby Rush, and that’s Bell Tolk. So can we get a table?”

I felt bad about tossing Sean and Hank’s fame in the guy’s face in order to get what I wanted, but only for a second. Then his jaw dropped and his face lit up.

“I’ll take care of you ladies,” he said with a grin.

From behind me, I heard Jack groan.

We ended up at a table not far from the stage. A server came over right away and got us drinks. Then we were swarmed with strippers. They descended upon us like we were the biggest whales they’d seen in years. I spent the first half hour getting rubbed against, watching Baby giggle nervously as she avoided touching all the man parts being shoved in her face, and laughing at Bell as she sized each man up with a critical eye. She was almost analytical about the whole thing.

Eventually, the strippers started to spread out a little. And then the stage show began in earnest, taking our focus to the four men in police uniforms who were dancing and slowly pulling off each piece of clothing.

Jack had been sitting quietly beside me through the whole thing. I’d almost forgotten he was there. I looked over and saw that the poor guy was trying to avert his eyes, his hand hovering over his eyebrows.

“I bet you wish Mike and Tak had decided not to go to that show,” I said to him, leaning over in my seat.

“God, yes.”

“This job is not like the others you’ve had, I’m guessing.”

“Oh, they usually involve strip clubs,” he said. “Just not this kind.”

I looked over to see what Baby and Bell were up to. Baby was engaged in a deep conversation with a stripper. No ass-shaking, no lap dance. She was actually
talking
to the guy. Bell had befriended some future bride at her bachelorette party and was over at their table talking to the girls.

I turned back to Jack. “Must be a fun gig, being a tour manager?”

“I like it. And, believe it or not, it’s the only job I’ve ever had.”

“Really?”

“Well, aside from the bakery.”

“Your grandparents’ bakery?”

“Yeah, I started working there as soon as I could walk. I did just about every job there was to do. But by fourteen, I’d figured out that I was into planning, organization, numbers, that kind of thing. My grandpa, he sucked at it, and my grandma wasn’t interested in it. So I took over a lot of the business parts of the company.”

“At fourteen?”

“Yep.”

“You sound like my brother, Sam. He started making investments at that age – investments that ended up resulting in millions of dollars. Freakin’ child prodigies.”

A tall, greased-up stripper approached me and stuck his crotch in my face. Jack leaned away from us. I stuck a couple bucks in the guy’s G string and slapped his ass. When he left, I turned back to Jack. He was holding his face in his hands.

“So you don’t mind the objectification of women, just men,” I needled him.

“No, I mind that much more. But at least they are pleasant to look at.”

I didn’t know what to make of that comment. So I deflected. “So the bakery, then what?”

“I went to college.”

“Where?”

“Wayne State.” He shrugged. “It was close by, so I could still live at home and help Grandpa out.”

“God, you
are
a Boy Scout,” I groaned.

“I got my first tour manager gig my sophomore year in college.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah, it was just a state-wide tour, mind you, but I did well.”

“I’m sure.”

“It led to other gigs. By the time I graduated, I had ‘em lined up.”

“You’re one of those guys. Everything just drops in your lap. Like Sam. Shit, and Sean, too.”

“Not you, huh?”

“Hell no.”

Growing up in the middle of two successful brothers had been tough on me. Some people might have tried harder to be successful themselves. Others might have given up and just embraced failure, realizing they couldn’t compete. But I did neither. I rolled through life with a balance of effort occasionally punctuation by not giving a rat’s ass.

“I hate to point this out while you’re having a pity-party, but you are very accomplished. You’ve been in some highly revered plays. And unlike a lot of stage actors, you didn’t have a slump, ever. Things went well for you right out of school.”

“Until recently. Hey, how do you know so much about me?”

He shrugged and took a sip of his beer.

“No, really?”

“I’m very good at my job.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“Before a tour, I check everybody out.”

“Like internet stalk them?”

“Pretty much.”

“Everybody?”

“All the band members, any girlfriends or wives.”

“And any random sisters they drag along.”

“I had less time to research you because I was told you were joining us only a few days before we left. But I found some shit out.”

This made me wonder what was on the Internet about me. I scrunched up my brow while I was thinking about this, and Jack must have read my mind.

“Sudden urge to Google yourself?” he asked, chuckling.

“Actually, yes.”

“Don’t worry, Princess, none of it was bad.”

I knew that the worst stuff wasn’t publically available. My deep, dark secret was legally protected.

“I bet it took weeks to sort through all the shit on Hank.”

“Fuck, my printer ran dry.”

I laughed. “I bet it did.”

Even after he was sober Hank had ended up in the paper again and again for his antics. Sometimes it was the girls he hooked up with – there were
so
many before Bell. Sometimes it was just crazy shit he would do, like the time he threw a roadie fifty feet into the crowd during a show. The crowd caught the roadie and no one got hurt, but the press had a field day speculating whether or not Hank had fallen off the wagon.

Sean balanced him out. There was never much to say about Sean because he’d always been calm, sober and tight-lipped. The press liked to get pictures of him with beautiful women on his arm, but that was about it.

All that had changed last year when Henry was born. It was a like a dream come true for the paparazzi when an ex-girlfriend of Sean’s claimed she had knowledge that Hank was actually the father of Baby’s baby.

I was ruminating about this, and all the information on our lives that was publicly available when Jack snapped me out of my thoughts. “Hey, we should gather up the girls,” he said, looking past me. “I’m not doing a very good job of being chaperone here.”

I turned my head to follow his gaze. Baby was finally done having her marathon chat with the stripper and he’d moved on to shake his ass for someone else. Jack waved at her, so she moved around the table closer to us. Bell was leaving the bachelorette party and heading back to our table as well.