Learn to Fly (4 page)

“
It’s kind of a long
story,” Luke shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Lenny pushed his knee flirtatiously, “C’mon,
you can tell me.” The longer she spoke with them, the more
comfortable she got and the more Luke Casey's effect on her dulled.
Lenny was pleased to know she still had a handle on her own brain,
rock star or not.

Luke looked over at Sway who shrugged, “I don’t
care, man. You already ruined any chance of seduction on my part.
It’s still a better name than what Blake thought up.”

“
Trophy Wives would have been
an amazing name, you jag,” Blake Diedrich said from the seat
directly in front of Lenny.

Blake was also a guitarist, but played the grungier side
of their songs. He was older than the rest of them and had come from
a different band years ago. He was more punk rock than metal rock,
but his sound blended nicely with the rest of the group. Blake had
turned around a few times during the conversation and Lenny hadn't
missed the appraising gaze that came from his green eyes. He was
tall and lean with jet black, short, spiky hair and just like all the
other band members, he had tattoos and muscles.

They could easily fit in with the guys Lenny worked out
with at her local gym. Or a random biker gang.

“
I always liked Taco Night,”
Sway smiled impishly.

“
Anything is better than Taco
Night,” Mike interjected, receiving a scowl from Sway.

“
So, you guys just picked a
name out of a hat or what?” Lenny was trying to follow along.

Harrison turned around to face her and Luke again,
“Here’s the deal, we grew up in Boston, right?” He
waited for Lenny to nod so he knew she was paying attention. “Okay,
Sway has always had a…penchant for the ladies.” Lenny
looked over at Sway who winked and she resisted another eye roll.
“When he was only seventeen he started to sneak onto the campus
at Boston University to scam on college chicks.”

“
Why college chicks?”
Lenny asked, her mouth ticking up on one side.

“
Because college chicks are
experienced and usually pretty easy,” Sway said matter of
fact.

“
Dude,” Mike grimaced
with disapproval.

“
Anyway,” Harrison
continued, “BU does a lot of research, and some girls picked up
on the fact that Sway wasn’t a student. They developed an
experiment in order to study attraction and how strong a teenage
boy’s libido could be. They did a
double
blind study
in
which Sway didn’t know he was part of an experiment and neither
did the girls he was scamming on. It was going great for them until
Sway got caught by campus police. They threw him out and threatened
to turn him in on charges of seduction.”

“
Is that real?” Lenny
asked, incredulous.

“
Yeah, Frank Sinatra was
charged for it too, you know,” Sway said, making a sexy face
and blowing Lenny a kiss.

Lenny shook her head and waited for Harrison to finish.

“
My sister was the one who
organized the study, that’s how I found out about it,”
Harrison folded his hands together and rested his chin on his
knuckles. “We decided that our band was basically that, a
double blind study to the public where they didn’t know they
were part of it and neither did we. ‘Course we’re more
sober now than when we started. So I suppose we’re more aware
of our actions.”

“
Yeah, and you really don’t
want to have to go to all the trouble of changing your album covers
and t-shirts,” Lenny teased.

“
And Blake would have to get
that tattoo removed,” Harrison added.

“
You tattooed the name of your
own band on yourself?!” Lenny pulled herself up to look at
Blake, “Lemme see it.”

Blake tried to feign annoyance but he clearly liked the
attention. He stood up on the plane and yanked his shirt up to
expose his impressive six-pack and the large tattoo scrawled in black
ink across the width of his chest:

DOUBLE
BLIND STUDY

“
That’s nice and subtle,”
Lenny said sarcastically with a grin.

“
I was excited…”
Blake tried to defend, putting his shirt back down.

“
Dude, you were drunk,”
Harrison corrected. Blake shrugged in confession.

“
Blake came back with the
tattoo and we didn’t have much of a choice after that,”
Harrison finished his story.

They spent the entire flight laughing and entertaining
Lenny. They talked easily, having no reservations about her
seemingly innocent presence. She had built the perfect platform for
her next statement. It was time to cast the net.

“
You guys make it sound fun but
hard. I wish I could come along to help you out,” her voice
light and sweet. This was it.

They all exchanged glances, momentarily silent. Harrison
spoke first, “Actually, we do need an assistant-”

“
Dude!” Blake smacked
him.

“
Ow!” Harrison protested,
rubbing his arm. ”What?! Maybe it’ll get Carl off our
back!”

They all seemed to consider this for a minute. Luke
turned to Lenny and asked, “What do you say Lenny? You wanna
join a bunch of ugly, smelly guys for a few months?”

Lenny smiled. Her plan had worked. She nodded at all of
them and kept her tone even as she replied, “What do you mean?
Like, work for you?” She tried to look confused.

“
Yeah,” Harrison's face
lit up, “then you can hang out with us every day.”

“
That would be amazing,”
Lenny smiled but she noticed Luke's eyes shift down and away from
hers. The other members were already discussing how they could sell
the idea to Carl but Luke remained silent. He'd already given his
verbal approval and Lenny got the distinct impression that Luke was
the leader in more areas than just lead singer. If he had disagreed
with this than the deal would have been off.

Luke suddenly came back to the conversation and his easy
smile returned. Whatever he had been thinking about had been settled
and Lenny tried to push his obvious discomfort with her to the back
of her mind. She would just have to prove to him that she could do
the job.

Shane:
Lenny won't answer her phone or any of my texts

Cody:
so it's over then

I’d think
you'd be happy about this

Shane:
she
didn't tell you where she was going?

Cody:
Nope.

But
you know her, she's not big on confrontation

Shane:
do you think she remembers?

Cody:
it's been 2 years

pretty sure it
would've come up by now

relax, you're
finally off the hook

we both are

***

Luke was uneasy.
Again. Hiring Lenny excited him and he knew it shouldn't. She was
gorgeous, and that would present a whole set of issues. But, she was
also smart and seemed to genuinely fit into the dynamic of the group.
It had been a long time since Luke had gotten this flustered over
the presence of the opposite sex, it was like being a teenager all
over again, hence the unease.

Luke wasn’t
the oldest, but he felt the most responsibility for the rest of the
guys. The band had always looked to him to be the leader, in more
ways than simply musically. Luke took it all in stride. He had no
problem being the one everyone else expected to make the hard
decisions, the one to lead by example. After what had happened in
Germany two years ago to Mike…well, he couldn’t let
anything like that happen again.

Luke was aware of
Carl's apprehension in regards to the tour and what obstacles could
potentially arise. He couldn’t see that they had grown up and
things were different now. At least, they all hoped they were
different.

Their opening show
in Chicago went smoothly. They had gone directly from the airport to
the venue, meeting Carl backstage and presenting Lenny to him. Carl
had been annoyed, not unexpectedly. They were always coming up with
new ways to make his job harder than it needed to be. Most of the
time Carl's veto held solid, but he had caved under Harrison's pleas
and Blake's outright promise of defiance. The band did need an
assistant, and Lenny had been the most decent candidate to come along
in a while.

“
Decent
candidate,” Luke rolled his eyes as he recalled Sway's
description of the newest member of their entourage. They had each
driven away a number of women in the past, be it from heartbreak,
exhaustion or restraining order. Luke felt his gut clench at the
thought that Lenny would eventually be another casualty of their
fame.

But maybe not. She
didn't seem nearly as naive as most women he'd known over the years.
She was audacious and self-aware. If she had any insecurities or
illusions about what her job would be, it wasn't obvious. And with
the guys new commitment to being straight laced and sober for the
first time in their lives, she just might have a chance of leaving
this tour emotionally intact.

Luke raked his
fingers through his hair and let out a sigh. He shouldn't be having
so many thoughts about the new girl. It was a dangerous path to
start down. Luke found it unusual that the rest of the group was so
taken with her, they barely knew her. However, he couldn't judge, as
he was the one standing on his hotel balcony devoting every stray
thought to her. He sighed again and tried to shake some new thoughts
into his distracted brain.

He truly felt like
the only one who was apprehensive about adding a female into the mix
this early in the tour. It had turned out so badly last time. But
then again, that wasn't the fault of the women around them; that had
been their own poor choices.

His hotel room was
on the top floor; and just below he could see the buses getting
loaded. They would travel by bus for the tour through the States,
and then fly overseas for a few shows in Europe. Departure was to be
early in the morning, about twelve hours from now. This was probably
the only night they would get a hotel, at least for a while. He and
Mike would share a bus while Sway, Harrison and Blake would share
another. They had five sleeper buses to accommodate the large crew
that their show required which is where Lenny would ride.

Things were sure
different than when they started out ten years ago.

Luke returned to the
interior of the room and closed the sliding glass door.

Mike came in from
the hallway and crashed face first onto one of the beds, “Holy
shit, I’m tired.”

Luke chuckled,
“Maybe you should’ve slept last night instead of
practicing your bluff so late.”

“
Practice
makes perfect…or something like that.” Mike closed his
eyes, “I’m gonna sleep now. Go away or be quiet.”

Luke left the room
quietly, thinking that a walk might do him some good. Maybe he could
help with something. He hated sitting around anyway.

His nerves were more
than likely in direct correlation to the huge tour they were
embarking on at dawn and had nothing to do with the chick who seemed
to be at the forefront of his thoughts. He had to keep his head
clear. He had to stay alert. If he wanted this band to not only
survive the industry but their own past mistakes, he needed to focus
on the music. Not on Lenny's thousand watt smile.

Easier said than
done.

“
Carl
put you to work already?” He asked as he came up beside her.
The wind was tossing loose strands from her tied back hair around her
face. She turned to smile at him and his stomach tightened. She was
crazy beautiful.

“
I
like to stay busy,” Lenny noticed Luke’s frown as he
chastised himself internally and she misunderstood its meaning, “I
can’t justify being your assistant if I’m not actually
assisting
.