Page 3 of Love is a Dance Step
“Nora Renee Stone.” Their mom swatted her with a towel.
Lizzy chewed on her hair. “What have they been up to?” She looked from the screen to Nora.
Nora choked on a laugh.
“Dancing.” Drew offered her a smile.
Lizzy nodded in approval. “Good. You need to practice.”
Nora was rolling in laughter now.
“You girls.” Lillian Stone loved her children more than life. Despite having a big family, there was always enough to go around. And she was better at keeping them in line than their dad. “Your brother is going to stop calling home if you tease him so much.” She turned the phone away from his sisters to her face. “How have the last few stops been? We haven’t connected in a week or so.”
Leah jumped in. “He’s been great, seriously. Right now we’re in Tennessee but only driving through since we hit Nashville already. We’ll be in Florida in two days.”
“Yeah, Ma, they have this tour schedule super screwy. I know it has to do with when arenas could be booked since the tour is so huge, but we’re doing a lot of backtracking.”
“Where are you now?”
“Chattanooga. We decided to give everyone a half a day off the buses, and then we’ll drive through the night to reach Florida.”
Penny popped up beside their mom, her blonde hair falling in her face like it always did. “Will we get to see you before the concert?”
“Sorry, Pen. There won’t be time. You can come backstage and say hi, but I won’t be able to really hang until afterward.”
Her face fell.
Drew hated disappointing his sisters. “But look, we scheduled it so there’s a week off after the concert in Tampa. I’ll be sticking around for a few days.”
Her expression brightened. He’d planned it as a surprise, but seeing her excitement made telling her early worth it.
“Oh, Drew.” His mom covered her mouth. “Really?”
It had been months since he was last in his hometown of Gulf City, but that was a long time in his family. They were close… well, most of them. “Is Ash there?”
She shook her head. “He spends more time over at Lola’s house these days than ours.”
He tried not to be disappointed. He and Asher were close when his brother was a kid, but things had changed in recent years.
“That’s okay, Ma. I can’t wait to see you guys.”
She smiled. “We’re excited you’re coming home, kiddo.”
“Tell Dad I said hi.” His dad was a night manager at one of the local resorts, so it was rare he caught him home during the day.
“Sure, honey. Girls, say goodbye to your brother.”
A chorus of goodbyes came from the most important women in his life, and by the time he hung up, he wanted to hear them again.
Leah understood without him saying a word. She squeezed his hand. “Soon.”
Drew had few people in his life he trusted. His family. Leah and the guys and gal of his rock star support group.
But they were all enough.
2
Lola
