Hurricane Reese Read online

  The twenty minutes it took her to arrive were long and filled with terrible thoughts. Was it drugs? A girlfriend? Prostitution? Why the hell would he leave school? Kyla rushed him out the door, and he drove like a bat out of hell to the location on the app. He didn’t ping it because he wanted his arrival to be a surprise. He planned to catch his brother in the act, beat the shit out of him, and march him before their parents.

  He parked the truck and nearly broke the window when he slammed the door. Then he stalked up the steps to the front door and flung it open. He followed the same path he’d taken when he brought lunch to Reese.

  Reese. There were two asses he’d be kicking that night.

  As he entered the auditorium, he saw Toby sitting next to a blonde woman a few rows from the top. They had their heads together and were whispering. Jude spotted Reese’s mop down in the orchestra pit at the piano. A group of dancers was performing a number, and they ended as Jude walked in.

  “Thank you. Can we please see numbers thirty-two, seventy-six, fifty-four, and twenty-nine onstage?”

  Toby turned the mic off as Jude approached them.

  “Jude! Come here and have a seat. We’re about to see the last audition group. I hope they’re great, because so far I haven’t seen anyone who really pops out, you know?”

  Jude sat next to him on the edge of his seat. As the dancers took the stage, Jude cursed.

  “Oh, I recognize number seventy-six,” Toby said. “Jude, what—”

  The music started and the dancers began the number. From the first eight count, Bailey danced circles around the rest. He was strong, confident, and so damn charismatic that Jude had no choice but to follow his moves. Tears welled up in Jude’s eyes, and he covered his mouth.

  Bailey was a star—a bona fide natural talent. What the hell were they going to do?

  When the music stopped, Reese turned to speak with the bass player, and they laughed about something together. Being in the orchestra pit meant Reese couldn’t see the stage. But Jude and Toby stared at each other—Jude in horror, Toby in sheer titillation.

  “We’ve found our lead,” Jesse was saying. “Who is this kid, and why are we seeing him last?”

  “His name is Bailey Francisco De La Torre, and he’s in big trouble.”

  “Uh,” Toby laughed nervously into the mic. “Reese? Can we see you up here? Like now?”

  Reese turned, squinted into the lights, and made his way out of the pit and up the aisle to where they sat. He smiled happily when he saw Jude was there, but his smile faded to concern quickly.

  “Oh God, is he okay? Did something happen? Oh, God Jude.”

  “No. He’s fine. Grandpa is fine. It’s him who’s in deep shit.” Jude pointed to the stage where Bailey was holding court with a couple of young women.

  “What’s he doing here?” Reese asked with a frown.

  “He’s our lead?” Toby said nervously. “I’ll let you two discuss this. Jesse? How about we, umm, getthefuckoutofhere?” He shooed her toward the aisle and Reese, who stood with his hands on his hips, looking perplexed. Once they’d gone, he made his way to Jude’s side and sat down.

  “I got a call from his counselor saying he’d cut school the last two days. I found him by using the locator app on my phone.”

  Reese was still frowning. “Sonofabitch.” He paused for a moment with a curious expression on his face. “And how was he?” He turned to look at Jude, and his eyes grew wide. “I had no idea. You have to believe me. I’d never let him cut school.”

  Jude sighed. “He was fantastic. He was born to do this.”

  Reese nodded and looked back to the stage. Then he picked up the mic and turned it on. “I’d like to see that last group again. Band, take it from the top.”

  Reese sat back and reached for Jude’s hand. Jude leaned forward and pressed his lips to Reese’s knuckles as he watched his little brother soar.

  Epilogue

  Feedback Magazine

  January 2016

  Sammara Gunderson

  A VERY special production is being rehearsed in Santa Monica, California on this dreary winter day. Despite the gray skies and cold temperatures, the cast of The Boy on the Corner, an original musical by Reese Matheson and Toby Griffiths, are sweating and smiling. Leads Sean O’ Reilly and Bailey De La Torre are currently running through the pivotal scene where Boy meets Boy. De La Torre is stunning as the clever musician caught by surprise at his irresistible attraction to the red-haired Boy. He sets a seductive tone to their encounter that seems to catch O’Reilly by surprise despite the fact that they’ve rehearsed their routine many times.

  The production is personal for Matheson and Griffiths. The creators are determined to show society, once and for all, that love is love, no matter what form it takes. I spoke with the two men at length just before the show’s debut in Hollywood.

  “I almost lost everything because of intolerance and ignorance. I’ve come to realize that I had just as much intolerance and ignorance within myself, and together with my partner, Jude, I’m learning how to accept what I don’t understand and to teach others that same acceptance. My grandfather’s music laid the foundation for the story, and the rest came from, well, experience.”

  Reese’s grandfather, Thomas Matheson, was a pianist for Frank Sinatra. He wrote the music decades ago, and Matheson and Griffiths pieced it together to create the score for their musical. The elder Mr. Matheson, 87, is recovering from a fall he took back in November. He also suffers from Alzheimer’s and was unable to contribute to this article. The show is dedicated to him.

  Griffiths had this to say about the show’s purpose. “As a teen growing up gay in conservative Orange County, I experienced a lot of hate and was the victim of violence more than once. Reese was one of my first friends in college, and he saw me as more than just the queer boy who liked to sing. We’ve been making music together ever since. I’ve been looking for a way to express my feelings about my past for a long time, and when Reese decided to take this direction with the show, I was totally on board. And he was in love. Someone had to have a level head!”

  Levelheadedness might be questionable with these two. They decided not to wait for producers to take on their labor of love, and did it themselves with the help of some very influential celebrity friends. But it almost fell apart over the casting of De La Torre, a seventeen-year-old high school student and the younger brother of Reese’s partner, Jude De La Torre. When Jude discovered Bailey had been cutting school to audition, they discussed it with their families. The De La Torres forbid Bailey to miss school, and he was ready to refuse the role until choreographer Jesse Martin-Black, a former teacher in Hollywood, stepped in and agreed to homeschool him while the show has its run. His family agreed, and the show will go on.

  “This show is important to me for so many reasons,” said Bailey when we sat down after rehearsal. “My brother has always encouraged me in dance and he’s been a father figure to me for many years. Our culture has a difficult time accepting homosexuality because of our Catholic beliefs. But I love my brother, I love his partner Reese, and I don’t think it’s right that they, or anyone else, ever has to hide who they are from their loved ones. Love is love.”

  Feedback Magazine is a proud sponsor of The Boy on the Corner and the subsequent print project, the proceeds of which will go to benefit GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which works to make schools safe for all children, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification. This magazine has made it a priority to bring attention to issues that affect our music community. After the suicide of guitarist Jody Freeman from the metal band Hush and the beating of Maggie’s Bones’ guitar tech Knuckles Franklin outside of a gay bar in Dallas, Texas, it’s time more of us enter this conversation. Be a part of the change. #loveislove

  Once upon a time… a teacher, tattoo collector, mom, and rock ’n’ roll kinda gal opened up a doc and started purging her demons. Several self-published books and a debut gay roma
nce with Dreamspinner Press later, R.L. MERRILL is still striving to find that perfect balance between real life and happily ever after. She writes stories set in the places she loves most—Hollywood, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Northern California, and Iowa. Ro also loves connecting with other authors online, at the annual Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, and chapter meetings for the Romance Writers of America—she’s been a member since 2014.

  A sucker for underdogs, Ro has adopted a wide variety of pets, including cats, dogs, rats, snakes, fish, and a chameleon named Godzilla. Her love of horror is evident the moment you walk in her door and find yourself surrounded by decorative skulls and quirky artwork from around the world. You can find her lurking on social media, where she loves connecting with readers, or educating America’s youth, being a mom taxi to two busy kids, sitting in the tattoo chair desperately trying to get that back piece finished, or head-banging at a rock show near her home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

  Connect with Ro:

  Website: www.rlmerrillauthor.com

  Twitter: @rlmerrillauthor

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/rowritesrocknromance

  Stay Tuned for more Rock ’n’ Romance.

  By R.L. Merrill

  Hurricane Reese

  Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  Published by

  DREAMSPINNER PRESS

  5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

  www.dreamspinnerpress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Hurricane Reese

  © 2018 R.L. Merrill.

  Cover Art

  © 2018 Kanaxa.

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-176-9

  Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64080-175-2

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER: 2017913960

  Digital published January 2018

  v. 1.0

  Printed in the United States of America