“Hey, Mom,” she said as quietly as she could. “We’re all in the middle of dinner right now. Is everything okay?”

“Brooke! Julian’s on right now and he’s incredible! He looks adorable, and the band is playing perfectly, and my god, you just want to eat him up. I think it’s the best he’s ever been.” Her mother’s words tumbled out in a frantic jumble, and it was all Brooke could do to put the pieces together.

She glanced at her watch. Nine twenty California time, which meant The Tonight Show was airing that very second up and down the East Coast. “Really? He looks good?” Brooke asked.

This got everyone’s attention.

“Of course, it’s airing on the East Coast now,” Samara said, pulling out her BlackBerry. Sure enough, it was vibrating with the intensity of a washing machine.

“Amazing,” her mother was saying through the receiver. “He looks absolutely amazing. And Jay gave him a really nice introduction. Wait—he’s just finishing up the song now.”

“Mom, I’ll call you later, okay? I’m being really rude right now.”

“All right, honey. It’s late here so call me in the morning. And congratulate Julian for me.”

Brooke clicked to disconnect the call, but her phone instantly rang again. Nola. She glanced around the table and noticed that with the exception of Jon, who had wandered over to say hello to another group, everyone else was on the phone, too.

“Hey, can I call you later? We’re just eating.”

“He’s ridiculously good!” Nola screeched.

Brooke smiled. Nola had never before been that enthusiastic about any of Julian’s performances, not even close. “I know.”

“Holy shit, Brooke, I’m like at the edge of my seat. When he really lets go and sings that last stanza or whatever you call it, with his eyes closed and his head back like that? Good god, it gave me the chills.”

“I’ve told you. He’s the real deal.”

Brooke overheard Julian thanking someone with an embarrassed but proud smile. Leo was shouting something about Julian being “fucking awesome,” and Samara was saying that she’d check on Julian’s availability and call back in the morning. Brooke’s phone was blowing up with incoming text messages and e-mails, little notifications popping up on her screen even as she talked to Nola.

“Look, I’ve got to run right now, things are crazy here. Are you up for another hour?” She lowered her voice to a barely discernible whisper. “I’m having dinner at the Chateau with Jon Bon Jovi. And apparently, he loves redheads.”

“Shut up. Shut. The. Hell. Up!” Nola hissed into the phone. “First of all, when on earth did my best friend become so fabulous? ‘Dinner at the Chateau’? Are you kidding me? And second . . . I need to hang up right this second so I have enough time to book a flight to L.A. and then dye my hair red.”

Brooke laughed.

“Seriously, Brooke, don’t be surprised if I show up there first thing tomorrow morning, ginger hair and all, and crash on your couch. Consider yourself warned.”

“I love you, Nol. I’ll call you in a little.”

She hung up, but it didn’t matter. Each of their phones kept ringing, buzzing, and singing, and each of them kept answering, eager to hear the next round of praise and adulation. By far the winning e-mail of the evening came from Julian’s mother, addressed to both of them, which simply read: Your father and I saw you on Leno this evening. While we weren’t impressed with the other guests he interviewed, we thought your performance was quite good. Of course, with the kind of opportunities and support you’ve had since childhood, we knew anything was possible. Congratulations on your accomplishment! Brooke and Julian read it at the same time on different devices and laughed so hard they couldn’t speak for many minutes.

It was only after another hour that things calmed down, and by then, Jon had wandered back to them, Samara had booked Julian on two other shows, and Leo had ordered their third bottle of champagne. Julian just sat back in his chair, looking equal parts stunned and elated.

“Thank you guys so much,” he finally said, holding his flute up and nodding to each of them. “I can’t even find the words, but this, this is, uh, just the most amazing night ever.”

Leo cleared his throat and held up his own glass. “Sorry, buddy, but I think you’re wrong there,” he said with a wink to the rest of them. “This night is just the beginning.”

5

They’ll Swoon for You

IT wasn’t yet ten thirty on a late May morning and already the Texas heat was crushing. Julian had already sweated through his T-shirt and Brooke was chugging water by the liter, convinced they were both seriously dehydrated. She’d tried to go for her run that morning but had given up after ten minutes when she felt light-headed, starving, and nauseated at the same time. When Julian had suggested for possibly the very first time in five years of marriage that they spend a couple hours shopping, she couldn’t climb into the ugly green rental car fast enough. Shopping meant air-conditioning, and she’d take it.

They drove first through the hotel’s residential neighborhood, followed by a long stretch of highway, and then, after nearly twenty minutes, a few miles down a winding country road that was paved in some parts and little more than dust and gravel in others. All through the trip Brooke begged to be told where they were going, and each time Julian smiled wider and refused to answer her.

“Would you have ever guessed it looks like this just ten minutes outside of Austin?” Brooke asked as they passed fields of wildflowers and, on the other side of it, a dilapidated barn.

“Never. It’s straight out of a movie for how you’d envision a rural Texas ranchers’ town, not a suburb of a major cosmopolitan city. But I guess that’s exactly why they film here.”

“Yeah, no one at work believed they shoot Friday Night Lights here.”

Julian turned to look at her. “Everything okay at work? You haven’t said much about it lately.”

“For the most part everything’s good. You know the patient at Huntley, the freshman scholarship student? Remember, the one who has a totally different background from most of the other girls? Well, she feels like she doesn’t fit in, in a million ways, but the one that’s the hardest for her is the weight. She’s now convinced she’s morbidly obese, even though she’s pretty close to normal.”