You Love Somebody

9 (Eddie)

The tour bus stopped for a while at a rest stop near Pittsburgh. Hailey was arriving by private plane, and would be transported to the bus. She texted Eddie several times, that she was looking forward to seeing him, and he felt like a lying traitor every time he agreed. It wasn't that he didn't want to see her, but somewhere inside a switch had been flipped and he didn't feel what he had felt before. In their argument the night before, Ben had claimed that everything had changed when Eddie met Anna, but it had started before that, when Hailey had gotten upset with him for not proclaiming his love publicly. That had been a reoccurring issue. Her constant demand for him to better himself was getting to him.

Every time Anna was in the same room as him, he revisited their moment in his bunk. The way she had playfully tried to wrestle him for her pillow, and how she had ended up on top of him, deliciously close, her heat against him. How she had licked his finger when he touched her lips. They had come painfully close to kissing, and he wanted it so badly. It had taken every last bit of willpower to stop himself. He didn't want to be a cheater again, and Ben had underlined many times that if he crossed the line with Anna, there would probably be legal consequences. 

Ben was very helpful with getting things ready for Hailey's arrival. He arranged for someone to fetch flowers, and he would take the band and crew out for dinner, so they could eat a romantic meal, just the two of them in the bus. The guilt was eating Eddie up; he was supposed to want to do those things himself. He was a romantic, and romantic gestures came naturally to him, so he was feeling lousy for not coming up with anything for Hailey. He was pacing back and forth outside the tour bus, kicking at gravel and letting his frustration out. A tiny daisy stood in the grass and he picked it, and twisted it between his fingers. 

"Picking daisies, are we?" Anna was watching him and smiled cheekily at him. 

He walked over to her, and handed her the flower. "For you, Doc," he said and bowed. 

She laughed and took the daisy and placed it in her hair. "Thank you! How does it look?" She asked and did a silly pose. 

"Beautiful," he said and held her gaze. He wanted to tell her that he meant it so much more than just a small comment on the side of the road at a rest stop. He thought she was more beautiful than anyone he had ever known. 

She blushed and started walking. She waited for him and they walked in silence for a while, stopping at a small green patch by the rest stop. There was a fence around the patch, holding in a couple of cows. Anna leaned against the fence and called for the cows, but they just looked lazily at her and continued grassing. 

"Wauw, you really have a way with animals." Eddie said sarcastically and chuckled. 

She nudged his arm and shook her head. "I'm from New Jersey, I don't do nature," she put on the Jersey accent and made him laugh until his stomach hurt. 

She smiled and looked off in the distance, and all he could think of was how much he wanted to kiss her. They were standing so close by the fence that their arms were touching. It would be so easy to just bend down and kiss her. She looked up at him like she had read his mind, but something in the distance caught her eye. 

"Is that your girlfriend's cortege, I wonder?" She pointed towards the area where the buses were parked, and a cortege of black SUVs were driving up next to the buses. 

"I believe so," Eddie sighed, and started walking back. He had taken a few long strides before he turned and stopped in his track, making Anna stop abruptly before she crashed into him. "I have to say something before..." He gestured behind him and grimaced. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever known." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and nodded. Then he turned and walked back to the buses.