Roxie bit down on her tongue to keep from yelling. She changed into the dress, brushed her teeth, and they took off.
It’d be interesting to see what kind of show they managed to pull off under such chaos.
Roxie crawled into bed that night, exhausted. They were still on Anthony’s bus. Leo had fallen asleep before the show was over, and Anthony thought it would be best for Roxie if they all stayed put. Nate usually stayed on this bus too, but they never saw him. She figured he had moved to another one for the night.
Being with Beckham on a normal night was already like playing Chutes and Ladders—colorful, making progress then sudden drop offs, and having to go back to the beginning just when you got close to the end—but tonight had been a thousand times that. She made a mental note to throw the game away when she got home.
She kept thinking of his face and felt her insides tremble. He’d looked like he wanted to murder her and devour her all at once. And then to make things worse, they’d been carted off during the intermission to get their mouths swabbed, making her feel like a guest on Maury. The more she thought about it, the more she felt very justified in her growing outrage at Beckham, not to mention the non-stop news shows that were discussing the possibility of Leo being Beckham’s love child.
She’d made the mistake of turning the TV on to see what they were saying and had seen a picture of her dancing with Beckham five and a half years earlier. How had they managed to find that? And one of her ‘friends’ from school was giving interviews about how obsessed Roxie had been with Beckham Woods throughout high school, making her sound like a star-crazed groupie who had conned Beckham into impregnating her.
Even more uncomfortable, everyone was mad at her. She’d been on the other bus during intermission and they’d taken their turns at saying their piece. Vanessa was hurt that she didn’t tell them about Leo and was in disbelief that he was Beckham’s. Brooke just sat at the table and scowled at her, the fury palpable from across the room. The guys were mad at her for the tension she’d caused. The bus had never felt so small.
She didn’t bother defending herself. The test results would take care of that. She walked out, stunned that everyone had been so quick to lash out.
And Sierra … it broke her heart that her new friendship with Sierra had been reduced to quiet distrust. She’d tried to pull Sierra aside to tell her the whole story, but Sierra had just said she needed to stick by her brother on this one. She seemed sorry, but resolute.
She couldn’t imagine ever being any more humiliated than this. It stirred up the hurt from years before that she’d thought she was finally beginning to get past. Her heart hurt all over again, the way Beckham had looked right through her, not having a clue what he’d taken from her. It was just a repeat, five and a half years later. Why should this time surprise her? She’d become hardened overnight once before. Innocence lost was never pretty, though—no matter how many times the lesson had to be learned.
Next stop: Atlanta. They drove all night and were there by mid-morning. Anthony told them to make themselves comfortable and to plan on staying on his bus for the rest of Chloe and Leo’s trip. He’d made sure an assistant picked up some necessities for Roxie since all of her things were ruined. Instead of hanging around the crew at dinnertime, the three of them went out, walking until they found a sushi place. Johnny and Al were always nearby.
“I’ve missed you so much, Leo. I’m so glad you guys got to come for the last few days. I needed my peoples.”
He looked up at her and began swinging their hands as they walked.
“I’ve missed you too. Really, really bad.” He looked at Chloe then. “Auntie and I have been having lots of fun too,” he assured them both. “This is my favorite, though. And I can’t wait to have sushi!” His face split into a huge grin.
It took Roxie’s breath away when he smiled like that. She leaned down and covered his face with kisses. He laughed and finally moved away to catch his breath.
He loved sushi, although he wasn’t as crazy about ‘wathabi’ as she was.
They had just ordered, when she felt eyes on them. She looked up and Beckham was looking at Leo. He wore a fedora low over his eyes, but she could see how his lips curved up as he watched Leo. Oblivious, Leo was chatting about the fish in the nearby tank and didn’t even notice Beckham.
Roxie’s blood boiled. When Beckham walked to their table she wouldn’t look at him.
“Hey, buddy,” he said to Leo.
“Beckham! Hi!” Leo said excitedly. “Sit down! We just ordered some major sushi!”
Beckham laughed. “Thanks! I believe I will.” He sat down by Leo.
Roxie’s eyes cut to him and he stared at her, daring her to try and stop him.
“Did you follow us here?” she snapped.
“I might have.” He shrugged.
Her eyes flashed; she was livid. So it seemed they were going to act like children—fine, if that’s the way he wanted it.
The waitress came to the table to take Beckham’s order and didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was checking him out. It didn’t seem like she knew who he was, just that she liked what little she saw. He never fully lifted his face into the light. Roxie was learning his tricks. She wondered what other sneaky skills he had lurking.
“So, we’ll have a whole day off in Atlanta tomorrow,” Beckham cleared his throat, “and I’d like to take Leo to ride the SkyView Ferris Wheel. Would that be okay?”
“Yeah! That sounds great!” Leo agreed. “What is a SkyView Ferris Wheel?”
“Well, it’s really, really high and was once in Paris and…”
“Hey, hold up. Those are the kinds of things you ask before … not while he’s right here,” she scolded Beckham. “And you can’t just take him … I’ve missed him so much.” She tried to give him the rest of the message with her raised eyebrows and at the same time not show Leo how much she despised Beckham.
“It’s not every day he can ride the SkyView Ferris Wheel,” he replied.
“Fine. But not without me.”
“Rox, what do you think I’m gonna do—hijack him?”
“Take it or leave it.”
“Okay, you can come. Also, I’ve arranged for you to be on my bus while Leo and Chloe are here. So you’ll have more room, and so I can visit with him. We can also extend their stay…”
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Roxie stood up, glaring down at Beckham.
He jumped up, his face as thunderous as hers.
Roxie heard Chloe chattering about all the sushi they were going to eat as she walked away.
“This is craziness. What are you even thinking?” She put both hands on her hips and glared up at him. “I don’t know what you’re envisioning, Beckham, but you can’t just pretend like he’s yours because you want him to be. He’s not.” Roxie took a deep breath before she continued. “Just let me see my son. I’m not fighting you with the testing. He’s already been swabbed too, and now the decent thing would be to just let me have a nice time with my boy.”
“You will. I just don’t want to miss any more time with him if he is my son.”
“If you get his hopes up in any way, whatsoever, I will destroy you,” she said under her breath.
He heard her loud and clear. “You’ve already said that, and I’m done being bullied by you, Roxie Taylor.”
She threw both hands up and wanted to throttle him. Her chest rose and fell as she tried to regain her composure before she turned and walked back to the table. He was on her heels. When they sat down, his brows were drawn together, but then he looked down at Leo next to him and his face lit up.
“There’s this phenomenal restaurant we’ll visit, too. You’re gonna love it, Leo. They have these amazing crepes.”
He went into a long explanation of what crepes were and how the chocolate oozes out of them. Leo sat there, spellbound.
Roxie rested her forehead in her hands and tried not to cry. She’d always wanted Leo to have a dad, but nothing was worth the fear of losing him. Beckham seemed so determined for Leo to be his, she wasn’t sure a test result would settle it for him one way or the other.