Rock Radio - By Lisa Wainland Page 0,68
into this with. Didn’t I see flowers yesterday?”
“Yeah.”
“And he calls you, right?”
“Right.”
“Even with his busy schedule.” Jonny let his words sink in before continuing. “Dana, guys don’t do this kind of stuff if they’re playing around. They’re doing it because they like someone. This guy really likes you, Dana Hill, you.”
“But he’ll leave me again, just like Sam.”
“Sam’s an idiot. Cody isn’t Sam.”
“How do I know for sure? I don’t want to waste another year of my life on some guy who’s not what he seems.”
“Dana, you don’t have a crystal ball, I don’t have a crystal ball, there’s no way to know what tomorrow holds for any of us, but if you don’t try, you’ll never find out. If you don’t try you’ll definitely be alone.”
“Logically you make sense. Reality is different.”
“Look, do you think this Cody is a good guy?”
“Yeah, but I thought the same thing about Sam.”
“What do you lose by giving it a shot? It’s obvious he’s into you.”
“I guess.”
“You guess? I don’t know what exactly happened in Tampa. I don’t know if I want to know, but you came back from there a different person. I’ve never seen you like that before and I’ve known you a long time.”
Dana subconsciously smiled.
“The lead singer of what soon will be the hottest band in America is pursuing you Dana. It’s not a bad place to be in.”
Dana smiled through her tears. “He is, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is.” He tousled her hair. “Now go splash some cold water on your face and cheer up. You’re on the air in thirty minutes.”
Chapter 47
Cody missed Laura.
Not the person, but the closeness of her.
Being on the road was lonely. He missed having a close companion, someone to share his life with. His youth was a den of instability. There was no one to turn to for comfort or love, no one to confide his deepest hopes and dreams.
No one.
Now that the band had started to taste success, friends appeared from nowhere, people wanting to be close to the next best thing. Cody saw through their shallowness. Harper and Bobby didn’t. They were loving every minute of the attention and adoration, staying out late, having a different girl/woman/cougar leave their bedroom every morning. They were rock clichés falling into the trappings of success.
He couldn’t totally blame them. The trappings were tempting.
Who wouldn’t love to be told how wonderful you are all the time? Who wouldn’t love to have gorgeous women throw themselves at you every night?
Cody learned a hard fast lesson from his one night stand that permanently ended his relationship with Laura. It didn’t make him feel good about himself. He didn’t feel like a stud. Instead he felt like every other prick who only cares about himself.
No different from his dad.
Cody was better than that. The happiest he ever was, was with Laura. They had gotten so close...but she didn’t want to live his dream with him. There was too much for her to give up. He didn’t blame her, and the fact that she saw problems with his lifestyle probably meant the relationship would have inevitably failed. He just sped up the process by killing any hope for reconciliation with one wild night.
No, Laura probably wasn’t the one. But she was close. And that taste for closeness with someone was addictive. Cody only wanted a real love.
His burgeoning rock star career gave him a feeling of success. Standing on stage, having the crowd sing his lyrics back to him was electrifying. No words could describe the sheer pleasure he felt seeing people respond to his songs. At the mic, with the band behind him, Cody was in his element. The loud rock, the screaming fans, the pulsing beat. Noise, noise, noise.
Then he’d go back to his hotel room. And there was nothing. It was so unbelievably quiet, a one hundred and eighty degree difference in sound. And in the silence, he was just Cody Blue Smith, from Pinetree, Florida with an abusive alcoholic dad and a mother who never protected him. He was just a scared kid who wanted someone to put her arms around him and say that everything would be all right.
Success had changed his friends. Bobby and Harper were living the rock star life and Alex was wallowing in his impending fatherhood and clingy girlfriend situation. They weren’t ‘brothers’ anymore. More like an odd group thrown together by circumstance.
Awash in self-pity, Cody called Dana. He knew she was on the air. She answered in her radio