Grady picked up his beer and drained it. "She probably won't agree, anyway. I think she still lives in LA and has some sort of fitness studios or something," he said, but he did know. Her business was called Hip, Hop, Health, and it was expanding, apparently because it was doing very well. "And I couldn't see her wanting to come to a sleepy little town like Sea Breeze, Florida." After they'd ended Heartbeat, the brothers had all moved back to their seaside hometown to be close to their mother when her health took a turn for the worse.
"We can at least ask," Oliver suggested. "I agree with Jimmy and Jesse that you need to put the past aside for this."
Grady wished that he could, but he knew it would be impossible. "We don't need her. We already know all the dance moves and routines. We could do them in our sleep."
///
"Seriously?" Jesse asked. "It's been a damned decade. And I don't think I can duplicate the same moves I could do as a teenager."
Grady doubted that he could remember the choreography either, but he shrugged.
"I can." Oliver stood up and did a spot-on spin move and then bowed.
Jesse laughed. "Just because you practice in front of the mirror every night doesn't mean the rest of us do. You're such a tool."
Oliver performed another classic Heartbeat shoulder-shimmy dance move. "You're just jealous."
"Right." Jesse shrugged. "Wanna have a dance-off?"
Oliver patted his bare chest. "Bring it on, bro."
Grady watched Jesse jump to his feet, knowing full well what was going to happen. He arched an eyebrow at Jimmy, who seemed to see it coming too. Oliver, however, did not, and a moment later Jesse pushed his brother into the pool.
Oliver broke the water sputtering, cursing a blue streak. "I'm gonna kick your ass all the way into next fucking week!"
Jesse laughed. "You wanna try?"
Oliver answered by flipping him off.
"Dude, come on, you had to see that coming," Jesse said. "It was classic."
"Jump in here and tell me that." Oliver sent a splash in Jesse's direction.
"Okay, but remember, you asked for it!" Jesse jumped in and the water fight began.
Glancing at Jimmy, Grady had to grin. "Some things never change."
"Yep." Jimmy nodded and then chuckled. "You know every boy band has to have the baby and the crazy one. And you still carry the torch as the bad boy."
"I think that's kinda unfair. Most of the stuff in the tabloids about me isn't true."
"Most?"
"Some," Grady admitted. As both the oldest and the front man for Heartbeat, Grady had been the biggest target of the paparazzi. Arabella had tamed his wild ways when they were together, but when she left without a glance back, Grady had felt the need to prove publicly that life would go on just fine without her. He only wished it actually had.
"Luckily, I'm the quiet voice of reason," Jimmy said. "The glue holding all of you crazy asses together."
Grady laughed because Jimmy was pretty much right. "So, do you think we can pull this reunion thing off without completely embarrassing ourselves?"
"Yeah." Jimmy took a swig of his beer and then nodded. "I sure as hell hope so, anyway."
"I'm not so sure that was the answer I was looking for." Opening the cooler, Grady dipped his hand in the ice for a fresh beer. While the boy-band thing had been a wild four-year ride for them as teens and then young adults, it sure had stifled their careers as serious musicians. It used to bug the shit out of him, but now, after all these years, he didn't care anymore. "It will take a lot of work, but I don't see any reason we can't do this, especially since it's for Mom and not our egos," he said, even though he wasn't being completely truthful.
"Yeah." Jimmy nodded. "I still can't believe how long Mom waited before she told us how bad she'd gotten. Think about how much more time we would have gotten with her if we'd ended the tour sooner."
"I hear ya," Grady said, "but you know why she did it. Mom wanted us to see the world. And, really, how often do you get the opportunity to go on a world tour as a band with your brothers?" She had been proud of them, and she'd sure as hell deserved any joy she could get. And honestly, he didn't think she'd wanted them to see how much pain she had to endure.
"You have an amazing voice, Grady," Jimmy said. "You could have gone solo. After the boy-band thing faded you would have had a chance at going all Justin Timberlake on us if you'd wanted to."