Waiting for a Girl Like You (24 page)

“Candy will do the planning, just talk to her about what you want. She’s done several already.”

All these people she was going to have to get to know. They might not like her. Marc could lose interest in three months. Then all of this would have been for naught. She snuggled into him with a comfortable sigh. No, he wouldn’t lose interest. “I want kids. But not too soon.”

“A year here, Italy, recording, and a tour. Is two or three years from now good enough?”

“I was thinking I’d wait until I was thirty.”

“I’m not excited about being in my fifties with babies. We’ll discuss it after we get through this year.”

She twisted to look at his face. “Isn’t it a little creepy to plan like this?”

“What’s creepy is planning and not being willing to adjust for circumstances. We might not get to Italy next year. Recording and touring might come up sooner than I expect. Are you going to kill me if that happens?”

“No, but I’ll pout and demand that you buy me ice cream.” She turned to press her back against his chest. There were index cards taped to the wall beside the bed with lengths of yarn connecting them. “What the hell is that? Were you conducting a manhunt?”

“Sort of. You left me, and then you dumped me. I needed to know why.”

Some of the players were there, including a few from West Virginia. A couple of direct quotes missing their proper punctuation. “You’re missing a few people.”

“I didn’t have a complete playbook, but I still figured it out. I got to Roger.”

Alex studied the mind map on the wall. Somehow, it was comforting to see that he’d invested all that time and effort into figuring her out after she’d told him to go. It shouldn’t have. Roger hadn’t been able to let go, but he’d hunted her down and manipulated her into staying with him. Marc just needed to know and wanted the best for her. She tugged his arms tighter around her. He put her interest ahead of his own.

“Is there any way we can keep that?”

“Why?”

She smiled. Why? That obsessive crazed thing on the wall was better proof of love than anything she’d ever seen. It wasn’t big bands and grand passion, but Marc hadn’t been willing to let anyone put her in a corner.

“Ah,
scusi
?” The man in front of her fumbled with a map. A woman Alex presumed to be his wife stood a couple of feet behind him frowning and staring down the Grand Canal. “This— this
vaporatto
go, go—via—um—Rialto Bridge?”

“I speak English,” Alex said.

“Thank God.” The man melted a little. His wife also sighed. “I can’t make heads or tails of this map. Can you tell me how to get to the Rialto Bridge from here?”

Alex glanced over her shoulder at Marc. No wonder tourists thought she was a local with Marc glued to his phone all the time. “You need the
vaporatto
on the other side of the canal.”

“How do we get there?”

Alex pointed. “Footbridge.”

“Can you answer me another question?”

Marc slid his phone back in his pocket and draped his arm over Alex’s shoulders. The man frowned at Marc. It was the now familiar don’t-I-know-you expression.

“My girlfriend and I were wondering what all the padlocks are about.”

“The Love Locks on the bridges? You put a padlock on a bridge and throw away the key. It means you and your lover will never split up.”

Marc kissed her temple. They had discussed getting a Love Lock, but hadn’t done it yet.

“Aren’t you Marc Wells?” the girlfriend asked.

“I am.”

“Can I have your autograph?” She snatched the map out of the man’s hand and started riffling through her purse.

“Hey!” the man said. “We need that.”

“We’ll get another one.”

Alex held out a pen. She’d learned after the first month to have a couple on her every time she went out with Marc. People at school had eventually gotten over Marc Wells sightings, but everywhere else he was stopped and people didn’t usually have a pen they could find right away. She should start carrying around a notebook, too. Marc released Alex and autographed their map across a restaurant ad.

“Can I take a selfie with you, too?” The girlfriend was bouncing on her toes. The man looked like he wanted to throw Marc in the canal.

Marc obliged for the selfie, smiling stiffly. “You guys have a good trip.” He guided Alex in the opposite direction of the footbridge.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Away from the fan. Look, the boat is coming. We can ride out to the gardens.” He turned her in to the shelter at the
vaporatto
stop and wrapped his arms around her waist. “So what do you think? Will they make it?”

“Are you kidding? Did you see the looks that guy was giving you? If he doesn’t learn to control his jealousy, and she doesn’t learn to stop slobbering all over the nearest rock star, they don’t have much of a future.”

Marc nodded. “I concur.”

“So what’s up with Suzi?”

“She’s in Potterville with Brian.”

Alex smirked. Didn’t take a genius to see that one coming. “Really now?”

“Yeah, there’s a picture of them near Ida’s. I wonder what she’s doing there.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No.”

The boat docked and Alex and Marc joined the line to climb on. “Brian has a huge crush on Suzi, and Suzi has a thing for Brian.”

“He does not. He’s just been worried about her like all of us have been. I was with him in Japan when she broke up with Logan.”

“You are such a man sometimes.”

“Good thing for you.” He pulled her against him.

“What do you want to do after this?”

“After the garden or after Venice?”

So many options. Alex rubbed her cheek against his sweater. “How long do you plan to stay in Italy?”

“As long as you like, Mrs. Wells.” He kissed her nose and then turned to watch the city slide past the windows.

Last year, while he waited for her to finish her masters, he and Glen had recorded an album in Chicago and then traveled back and forth to Potterville to record with his own band. Marc felt bad about leaving her alone so much that he was perfectly happy to go wherever she wanted now that both records were finished. “We could take a train to Rome.”

“I’ll tell the concierge to set it up when we get back to the hotel.”

The boat bumped into a dock, but it wasn’t the right one yet so Alex indulged in watching tourists scramble off, and then onto, the
vaporatto
. The longer they stayed in Italy, the longer she could put off getting too involved with all of Marc’s friends in California. A lot of people were surprised she didn’t know most of them by reputation. Moving to Los Angeles might require as much preparation as her thesis defense and wedding combined.

“Suzi doesn’t have a thing for Brian. They’re just good friends. Brian’s her biggest fan,” Marc said.

“You are welcome to believe that, but it isn’t true.”

“Present your evidence.”

“She calls him several times a week to have long conversations.”

“She calls me several times a week.” The boat unmoored and set off across open water toward the garden.

“But she doesn’t talk about talking to you. When I hear from her it’s ‘How’s the thesis coming? Send me anything you want me to proof. I was talking to Brian, and on and on.’”

“So she does talk about me.”

Alex snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. “Hey, Mr. Center of the World, back on topic.”

“But she does talk about me.”

“To me, but it makes sense that she would talk to me about you. It doesn’t make sense that she would talk to me about Brian. Candy says she talks to her about Brian, too.”

“You and Candy got very chummy.”

“She was planning my wedding. We had to talk.” Plus Candy was nice and it would be good to know somebody when she landed in California permanently. The wedding reception had been a blur of names and faces that she half knew and hoped she wouldn’t be quizzed on.

“What are you going to do now that you’re finished with your degree?” Marc asked. “I’m going to be on tour in a few months and we’re usually on the road six weeks, then home for two over the course of about eight months.”

The boat bumped against the garden dock giving her a minute to collect herself. Another good reason to stay in Italy as long as she could. Going home meant dealing with having nothing to do for the first time in her life.

They walked in silence to the public park. The wide gravel paths and trees didn’t fit with her image of Venice, and that’s why she liked it here so much. These quiet surprises.

“Maureen and Cassie join us on tour sometimes. Cassie won’t be this time, not with the baby, but if you wanted, you could. Then you and Maureen could go site seeing while we’re working. Maureen also volunteers in the school. Candy and Tessa have a gym they go to. Not that you need a gym.”

“I’m not going to run away with my personal trainer.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Alex smirked at him. “You didn’t have to.” She laced her fingers through his. They had passed through the meandering park area to the long path that lead back to town. After the narrow alleys and crowded streets of Venice, this felt very exposed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I had planned to get my masters and apply to a doctorate program, but I’m not sure that’s what I ever really wanted to do. The doctorate was just so I could work with Roger. Did I tell you Roger is teaching remedial English at a community college in Birmingham, Alabama?”

“Several times.”

The path ended on a street that was two lanes wide. Two little Oriental girls rode past on bikes chattering in Italian.

“Gelato?” Marc asked.

“Sure.” Alex waited on the street as Marc went for the gelato. Since she was a kid, she’d been busy. School and clubs, then school and work, any time gaps filled with reading, mostly of the dry academic type as she tried to get ahead or impress someone. She hadn’t read for fun in years, and the only movies she’d watched had been with Marc. All that time she’d spent making fun of Finn and his parade of police dramas? She hadn’t seen any of them.

“Here you go. Strawberry. Your favorite.” Marc handed her a cone.

“I have not seen a single episode of
Castle
.”

“Okay, and what is this stemming from?” Marc licked his cone. His gelato looked too dark to be hazelnut.

“You asked me what I wanted to do now, and I realized I’ve missed a lot of television and movies and books because I’ve been studying.”

“You read Suzi’s books.”

“Only because you had them on your e-reader on the flight over here.”

“So you’re going to become a consumer of popular culture full time?”

“For a while. You got a problem with that?”

He draped his arm over her shoulders. “As a producer of popular culture, I have no problem with that at all.”

Born in Northeast Ohio, I have lived on four different continents (including both sides of Asia) and traveled extensively. I have an extremely elaborate fantasy life and have forgotten that my bands don’t really exist to the extent that I have shooped for their albums on iTunes. I have met sheikhs, magnates, high ranking politicians and the guy who did the original production paintings for Raiders Of the Lost Ark, but I’m pretty sure the only celebrity who would make me completely tongue tied would be Randolph Mantooth of Emergency!

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They love each other. Will the rest of the world let them?

Reluctantly on her way to a blind date, Maureen detours to her mechanic thanks to squeaky. He’s not there, but his intriguing brother is. Maureen can’t believe how instantly and powerfully she’s attracted to this grease monkey. But since Michael is only town for a week, she doesn't want to waste an instant.

Michael is no grease monkey. He’s Bear D’Amato, rock n’ roll drummer. He’s leaving in a week to get ready for a world tour with his band, Touchstone. When he first meets Maureen, he just wants to have some fun. But when relationship deepens, he realizes he wants more than just a couple of dates. He wants a lifetime.

“Read on for a special sneak peek of the next book in the Blank series!”

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Maureen dropped her head to the steering wheel in front of Tony’s Garage. She was not going to make that blind date, and depending on the repair bill, might be happy about that. One of these days she had to tell her friend Linda no when she came up with another man. So far they had all been wasted evenings.

She really needed to try to meet some decent men on her own. So far the strategy of school all day and sitting home all night planning for school the next day wasn’t working so great for the social calendar.