She threw on a pair of shorts and a tank and opened all the windows. The breeze drifted through the windows as she did Pilates. She blew out all the negative thoughts and breathed in peaceful ones. Her nerves calmed and she felt better. Except for one huge bruise on her thigh, her body was healing from the fall. And as close as she had come to losing her heart again, she felt like she’d taken a step in the right direction. She wished she could blow Beckham Woods out of her brain as easily as a puff of air, but she knew that was impossible. His music had always been deeply imbedded in her, and her fantasies of him had long ago played out and backfired. Now that she’d gotten to know the real guy, though, she found that he’d penetrated her heart far deeper than she imagined possible.
She’d waited for hours in his New York suite, laughing her head off at him and Ian on The Tonight Show. The three of them had been magical that night. Beckham looked and sounded better than she’d ever seen him. The thought actually crossed her mind that maybe it was her kisses that had given him that extra spark. She allowed, in those quiet moments after Sierra left and Leo fell asleep, to think that maybe she could have that life. Maybe she could have him.
When he never came back and she saw that she’d missed a call from the lab, she realized what had happened. She carried Leo out of there, got a cab, and they crawled into the bunks on the bus. Beckham’s distance after that further solidified that she’d temporarily lost her sanity. There was no future with Beckham.
And then if she’d had any doubt, seeing the flight attendant follow him into the bathroom and then not come out for a while … it was obvious he was getting her out of his system. She had to pretend to be asleep so she wouldn’t be bawling when he came out.
Why he then invited her to stay with him made no sense, but nothing about Beckham Woods had ever made sense when it came to her. As much as she wanted to believe they could have something, it just always ended up in disarray.
It stung, but she was a big girl. Yes, she’d cried more times than she could count, but that would eventually stop. She’d gotten over him before, she’d be fine this time too.
No more feeling sorry for herself. And no more daydreaming about what could have been. It was time to move on.
She heard something outside and looked out the window. She’d told Johnny to go home. There was no need for him anymore. She thought he was probably still out there though. He seemed to think he didn’t have to answer to her.
While she did a few more stretches, the breeze picked up and she felt chilled. She slowly stood up and went to shut the windows.
She screamed when she saw someone standing outside her window. They turned and ran. The gauzy curtains made it hard to see any features, but she felt certain it’d been a girl. Shaking, she opened the door and looked around.
“Hello? Johnny?” she called.
No answer.
Creeped out, she shut the door and locked it and then closed all the windows. She didn’t see any signs of the girl or her bodyguard. Still shaking, she told herself to calm down and called Jill, the owner of the house. She looked out the window again to see if they were home.
“Jill? It’s Roxie,” she said as soon as Jill answered.
“Oh hey, girl! How’s the tour going?” she asked politely.
“It’s been great. I just wanted to let you know I’m back for a couple of nights. I should have let you know I would be back, so you didn’t think someone had broken in out here.” Roxie laughed nervously.
“Thanks, that’s probably a good idea!” Jill laughed.
“You didn’t just come by, did you? I saw someone outside my window a few minutes ago.”
“Weird! No,” she said. “I’m actually not home right now, but I can have Eddie take a look around if you’re nervous.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Just thought I’d check. Maybe I’ll see you before I head out again.”
“That’d be great. Let’s have coffee or something.”
They hung up and Roxie took another look outside but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She dialed Johnny.
“Johnny here,” he answered.
“Hey. Did you finally listen to me and go home?”
“No, I’m coming back. Silly girl. You can’t get rid of me that easily. Boss would kill me if he knew I left, though.”
“It’s fine. I won’t tell.”
“Thanks. I’m close. I needed a 4x4, animal style, and backup hadn’t come yet. Al’s supposed to be working tonight. Want anything?”
“Mmm, that does sound good. I’ll have a double meat, animal style … wait—make that without the onions though. But everything else. Please,” she added.
“You got it. Fries?”
“Pfft. Yeah!” she snorted.
This was going to change her whole day. She hadn’t had In-N-Out since before the tour started.
Johnny knocked on the door ten minutes later and handed her the bag. She wanted to hug him.
“Thank you!” she said, cramming her mouth with fries.
“Don’t mention it.”
“Hey, it’s probably nothing, but someone was here earlier, looking in my window. I think it was a girl.” She pointed at the window closest to the door.
“What?”
“Scared me to death. I screamed when I saw her and she took off.”
“Why are you just now telling me this?”
“I did call to see where you were and got sidetracked by this.” She held up her burger.
He glared. “I’ll take a look around the perimeter.” He suddenly stepped into bodyguard mode and backed out of the front door. “Before it gets dark…”
“Thanks, Johnny. I’ll go ahead and make up the couch bed for Al. And you can take Leo’s bed—he’s not here tonight.”
“No, don’t worry about us. We’ll take turns sitting up. I’m about to set up the tents. Really,” he raised his hands when she began to protest, “I’m looking forward to being outside. So is Al. We’ve been cooped up too long. I know this’ll be good for me,” he said with genuine enthusiasm.
She laughed. “Okay. If you’re sure. I can give you some extra blankets.”
“Thank you.”
The iPad mini dropped into her lap at least five times before Roxie gave up and stopped trying to read her book. She turned her light off, put in her ear buds with soft music playing, and closed her eyes. Her dreams gave her permission to think about Beckham Woods.
The girl in the window. A car backfired and the ground shook. Kissing Beckham. His eyes. His touch felt real. They were in her bed. He leaned down and kissed her bare skin. She tossed and turned, then shook the covers off. It was so hot. She reached for the covers again because the girl was watching from the window.
“Let me see you,” his voice echoed in her dream.
“Why is it so hot in here?” she asked him.
“Wake up,” he whispered. “Wake up!” The voice got more urgent.
She opened her eyes and her room was so full of smoke, she couldn’t see anything. She got down on the floor and crawled toward the door. She yelped when her hand touched the doorknob. Wrong thing to do. She snatched the blanket off of her bed and put that over the doorknob. She was shaking hard. Nothing was moving fast enough. Her eyes burned and her body felt sluggish. Maybe this was part of the dream too. Some of the kitchen walls were missing and the table was in pieces. She turned to the closest window and crawled out of it, stretching out on the grass.
Shaking. She woke up to someone shaking her. An oxygen mask was put over her nose and mouth. She looked up and she was in an ambulance. She tried to sit up.
“Hold up. Take it easy. How are you feeling?” one of the EMTs asked.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said in the mask.
“We’re gonna take you to the hospital, get you checked out. You’re really lucky you got out of there.”
She looked past the two men and out the open doors of the ambulance. The cottage was black in places and the smoke still filled the air. She couldn’t see the main house.
“Are Jill and Eddie okay?” she croaked, lifting the mask.
“I see a couple being checked out over there.” He tilted his head to the left. He shut the doors and said something to the guy driving. “Is there someone we could call for you? We’re gonna be on our way now.”