Page 78 of Poetry By Dead Men
Bobby excuses himself, mentioning that he has to get back to get ready for his show, and I don't miss how, on the way back toward me, he slides what appears to be an envelope full of concert tickets into Miss Castin’s grasp.
He holds out his hand and I take it, unable to help myself as he leads me back to the car.
“Well?” he asks as he waits for me to buckle my seatbelt. “You always talked about wanting to see that play instead of just reading it. Is it as good when it's performed by teenagers who’ve probably never been in love?”
“Are you kidding? They’re probably right in the middle of their first loves. There’s nothing more raw and passionate than that,” I say without thinking, my heart beating a little too fast. Bobby pauses, his grip tightening on the steering wheel, and I clear my throat, desperate to move on. “What did you think?” I ask. “Are you a Shakespeare fan now?” I bite the inside of my cheek, ready for him to joke about how boring Shakespeare is, but he surprises me.
“I'm a fan of anything when I'm with you, Beth,” he says with a long, loaded look. My face flushes and he looks away, starting the car and pulling out of the parking lot.
I almost say me too.
Almost.
Except at that exact moment, my phone dings. I flip it over to see a text from Harrison along with a blurry tabloid photo of Bobby and me walking hand in hand into the high school.
I see what this is about now.
And then, only a second later.
You’re going to regret this.
THEN
October 2018
Maybe you need a winter in the south of France
To set the words inside you free
A spring in England, a fall in Spain
Before you migrate back to me
—An excerpt from "Little Bird," written and performed by Robert Beckett
My stomach squeezes as Bobby commands the stage, memories from this afternoon making my skin tingle and my legs feel like jello.
An image of the engagement ring flashed into my mind as he’d slid inside me, my back arching off the bed as he filled me completely. If that was what he had in store for our lives, I was more than ready to say yes.
"Now, before I leave the stage for the night, I have a little something new I’d like to play for you all," Bobby says into the mic. His set is almost over, but he has a surprise for the audience. It’s exciting, being one of the few people here who knows what’s about to happen. A few weeks ago, Bobby recorded a song with country music's newest star, Kelsey Darling. It was an odd pairing, I'd thought, until I heard the song.
The single hasn’t been released yet, but I’m confident it will be all over the radio the second it's dropped. Cheers explode from the crowd and Bobby holds his hands out in front of him.
"Well, all right!" He pretends to be surprised. "I’ll take that as a yes! Let’s do it, then. I'd like to introduce to you my dear friend, Kelsey Darling." He gestures to the side of the stage, and Kelsey floats out. She’s a knockout, with curves that are perfect for those blue jeans country music stars are always singing about, and long, honey-blonde hair that falls to her waist.
She’s wearing boots with cut-off shorts and a crop top, one of Bobby’s merch shirts with the bottom roughly cut off, and it slides up to show the bottom of her lacy black bra as she reaches Bobby and gives him a big hug.
"Some damn show this man puts on, am I right?" she asks, waving to the crowd, and Bobby’s fans scream.
Bobby laughs, but he rubs the back of his neck the way he does when he's uncomfortable, and I clock it as odd. He'sneveruncomfortable on stage.
"We have a new single coming out soon," he says, taking a step back from Kelsey. "It’s called,When Winter Comes.
"We hope you love it as much as we do," Kelsey adds, looking at Bobby with big, doe eyes, and the way she's staring at him makes me want to rub the back of my neck, too.
I’m not one for jealousy in general, and I’ve gotten rather accustomed to girls looking at Bobby this way over the past few years. But something about Kelsey’s adoring gaze makes my stomach go sour. This is clearly a girl that’s used to getting what she wants, and if my gut feeling is right, what she wants is Bobby.
The slow, sad notes of their song begin, and Bobby and Kelsey walk to opposite sides of the stage. He starts them off, singing about being lonely and needing someone when the cold starts to seep in. The first chorus hits, and her voice joins with his. It’s undeniably beautiful, and the way their voices meld together is so good it’s almost hypnotizing.
