CHAPTER 26

Ty had a moment of panic, but then Inya was whisked away for another adjustment to her costume or to her hair, or make up, or something. Ty breathed a sigh of relief. He looked around and thought this should be one of the greatest days of his life. Or the one of the most fun. Backstage at the biggest lingerie fashion show of the year, are you kidding? How amazing is that?

Plus he was singing "So Unexpected" in the show. To a backup track, which quite frankly, Ty thought sucked. Made him feel like a manufactured pop star, rather than a musician. But when he had suggested to Inya, after she had told him that she had talked to the show's producers and they were willing to add him in—Surprise!—that the whole band should perform, she had made a face and said no. So Mack, Nate and Dale were hanging out at the hotel in Atlanta on a rare day off and Ty was up in New York for the show.

But it hadn't been a great day. In fact as the show grew closer and Inya got thinner and thinner, it hadn't been much fun to be around her at all. And Ty wasn't the only one who noticed. Mack, Nate and Dale made themselves scarce as soon as Inya turned up in the room. Rich had said something to Ty about how models were never worth the trouble they caused. Connor had dragged Ty out to go running, in Oklahoma City, against Inya's wishes. When they got back Inya was bawling her eyes out, to Steve.

Ty winced just thinking about it, how he had been climbing back onto his bus, (Inya's bus?), anxious to jump in the shower and found Steve comforting Inya on the sofa. Steve had left, immediately, but managed to throw a smirk at Ty, when Inya wasn't looking. That had been the biggest fight they had ever had, but half way through Ty realized it just wasn't worth it. It was easier just to give Inya one hundred percent of his attention, unless he was on stage, if that's what it took, to get her through until the fashion show. So he had apologized, even though he knew he wasn't the one being unreasonable and silently resolved to agree with everything she wanted until the show was over and he could just get her to eat something.

Ty looked around and while everyone was rushing around, frantic and completely stressed out, no one seemed to need him right now. He pulled out his phone to check his e-mail.

Hi Ty, I just wanted to thank you for the skates. Your timing couldn't be better, the old ones Robbie had were getting too small for him. Thank you very much, it was very generous of you. I checked the tour schedule and I guess you are somewhere between Atlanta and Nashville. It sounds like the tour is going really well. I'm so happy for you about that. Thanks again. Take care, Sara.

Ty read the message, over and over again. It seemed like a lifetime ago that they had been together. Sara was the reason Ty suspected Inya's constant irritation at him was from her being hungry. Sara had once told Ty, "You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry." She had been laughing when she said it, but Ty knew Sara thought it was true. In general people's dispositions didn't improve when their blood sugar dropped.

Ty glanced around and decided nobody seemed to need him, so he hit reply to Sara's message and told her she was welcome and he was actually in New York, to film the fashion show. Sara must have been at her computer because barely a minute later she responded to him. Ty opened the e-mail. Sara had written "Worst gig ever, huh?" Ty laughed out loud, then quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed. He wasn't really doing anything wrong, but he didn't want to explain to Inya why he was e-mailing his ex-girlfriend and he especially didn't want to have to explain why he had sent that ex-girlfriend's kid an eight hundred dollar birthday present. Ty imagined Inya wouldn't think too kindly about either of those things and he was all about not rocking the boat until this damn show was over.

Ty wanted to e-mail Sara back again. He wanted to find out how Rob was doing in hockey. He wanted to know what kind of crazy mischief Ben had gotten into lately. He wanted to know if the snow Ty's dad had told him they had gotten last week was all gone yet. But most of all, Ty wanted to know if Sara was still seeing that Charlie guy and was it serious and was he treating her okay? But Ty knew he didn't have any right to know that any of that.

Ty read the e-mail exchange with Sara one more time and then deleted it. Despite her promise after the tablet/album dedication fiasco Ty suspected Inya went through his phone, any time she had the chance. He had never seen her do it, but he always left the phone plugged in and a couple of times he had found it lying on the dining table in the bus, when he knew he never would have left it there. Ty had thought about asking her, but when he considered the way she'd been acting lately, he quickly decided that no good would come from that and dropped it. He'd thought of adding a lock code to his phone, but figured that would make him look guilty of whatever it was she suspected him of.

It was crazy. Inya was always upset about something, which was usually nothing and Ty was growing weary of it. Even when Sara had been upset about the video, she had never gotten as upset as Inya was likely to at the drop of a hat. Ty couldn't help but compare the two women and right now Sara was looking downright reasonable. He told himself he had to stop thinking like that. Inya would be over the stress of the fashion show soon enough and then things would be fun again.

Ty stashed his phone in his pocket and got up to wander aimlessly around. Everywhere were models, in outfits that ranged from the very skimpy to the completely ridiculous. Many of them smoked non-stop. Ty had to avoid smoke at all cost, on account of what it would do to his voice. He had kept a strict one beer, or less, a night limit, since the start of the tour and his voice was holding up well. He thought for a minute that none of this was as glamorous, or fun, as it seemed. Not for the models, and not for him.

Ty realized the tour was close to half over which surprised him. He had stopped counting the days to go home when Sara had made it clear it was over. Ty realized he didn't have a home to go home to in April when the tour was finished. He found a quiet corner away from the noise, the smoke and the chaos and busied himself looking at houses, online. In New Hampshire. "It was near his dad," Ty told himself and besides, Inya already had a place in LA. He looked at fixer uppers and new construction. He was dwelling on a property with its own skating pond when his phone buzzed.

"Where the fuck are you?" Inya said, into the phone. She wasn't screaming, but close. "Brian's freaking out."

Ty stashed his phone and dashed out into the middle of the fray. He was tall, but the models were too, and with the sky-high heels they were all strutting around on, he could barely see over anyone. He resorted to waving his arms in the air and yelling for Brian, the show coordinator. A couple of seconds later Brian descended on him, unleashed a torrent of swear words about Ty, Ty's mother and anyone Ty had ever met or had contact with, then Ty was swept up in the swarm and heading out onto the stage. He didn't even realize until he was stepping out into the darkness that someone had attached a wireless head set to his ear.

Even though they had rehearsed earlier in the day, it felt incredibly strange not to have his guitar in his hands. Ty stepped into the spotlight and sang the first verse. Then the stage was flooded with light so the models could start their trips up and down the catwalk. Ty kept an eye out for Inya. When she came back up the walk towards him, he smiled and tried to make eye contact, but she was in full model mode with the pout and the bored out of her mind stare. He got zero acknowledgement from her. For some reason the property in New Hampshire popped into Ty's head and he ran through the details he remembered about it as he finished the song. He had a flash of inspiration for a new song and was excited about it. He closed his eyes and poured all the emotion into his performance. When he was done, he knew he had done great.

Ty exited the stage quickly. Inya's first appearance had been during "So Unexpected" but she had several walks more to do before the end of the show. There wasn't really a good spot to watch from backstage, so Ty found an area where he could see the models lining up and, hopefully, get enough of a glimpse of Inya to be able to comment, somewhat thoughtfully, on how she had looked. Ty was getting used to it, but it still boggled his mind how much reassurance Inya needed on how she looked, all the time. In spite of being revered the world over for her beauty, in private, most of the time, she seemed massively insecure.

The show ended with a big finale, every model in the show and all the musicians who had performed on the stage together, applauding and cheering. Ty found that odd too. He was used to high fiving the guys in the band after a great set, but he had never stood on stage clapping before. He was glad the show was over. Ty had an early morning flight to Atlanta, but tonight was free and he had made reservations for dinner, to surprise Inya. He had never been to New York before, but he had done the research and picked a renowned steak house, after carefully confirming that they offered salmon, every day, and chicken, the night they were going.

Ty found Inya accepting congratulations from other models and people he had come to think of as fashiony-types, who must have come backstage from the audience. He kissed her and told her she did great. He was a little miffed she didn't offer him a word of congratulations in return, but after all, it was her gig, and she had gotten the opportunity for him. The exposure could only help his band, although Ty guessed the vast majority of people who would watch the fashion show on TV when it aired in December wouldn't remember the music from the broadcast at all.

Bored of the nonstop gushing, Ty stepped back and let Inya have her moment. He pulled his phone out, just to check the time and calculated they had two hours until their dinner reservation. He really needed to get Inya started on getting dressed now, if they were going to make it. Ty watched carefully and took the first opportunity he saw to jump in front of Inya.

"Hey, I have a surprise for you," he said. As soon as he said it he realized that it wasn't going to compare to the surprises she had sprung on him, the bus, for example, and regretted his choice of words.

Ty looked again and this time recognized Mike Neely, Inya's ex-boyfriend. He was with a couple of other guys, who Ty vaguely recognized as other major league ball players. And they were talking to several of the models.

"Oh," Ty said. He didn't know what Neely was doing there, but if he had to guess he would have said, "Trying to hook up with another model." Ty steered the conversation to where he wanted it to go, namely the dinner reservation. "Look, I made us dinner reservations at this great steak house," the word steak earned him a glare from Inya, and he hurriedly added, "No, they serve chicken and salmon too. I checked. So let's get out of here and go back to the hotel and you can change before dinner."

"Remember, I said after the fashion show I would take you out to eat," Ty said. "You said you didn't eat steak, so I found a place..." Ty didn't bother to finish the sentence. Inya was still directing all her attention to watching her ex intently.

"Inya," Ty said, grabbing her arm gently. "Come on, it's been a long day, and a long couple of months on the tour. Let's just go out for a nice dinner by ourselves, okay?"

"I can't go out for dinner tonight, Ty," Inya said in a tone that implied that he should know that.

"Why not?" Ty asked wearily. He wanted to say, "Why the hell not?" but he kept it civil.

Ty didn't know what she was talking about. He had been given a schedule and there wasn't anything about a party on it.

Some older woman in a suit with impeccable hair and makeup came out of the crowd to grab Inya and kiss her, on both cheeks. Ty waited a minute, to see if Inya would introduce him and when it became apparent she wouldn't, he slunk off to cancel the reservation. When they were settling into the limo with a bunch of people from the fashion show to head to the after party Inya asked Ty what was wrong. He muttered that he was hungry and she smiled and stroked his leg and told him not to worry, there would be food at the party. And there was. Sushi.