A Is for Abstinence (24 page)

Brody glared at the ball in his lap as if he were offended by the offer, but it was too good to pass up. After a moment, he sat up straight and gave me another wary look as he spun the ball in his fingertips. “You’d really help me?”

“Sure. One condition. You give my girl Val a chance.”

I got pissed when he scoffed. “This wasn’t her fault, either,” I said. “She didn’t seek out your mom; your mom went looking for
her
. Your mom’s the one who decided to make her connection to Val public. It’s her fault your friends are teasing you; not your sister’s.”

If looks could kill, the blazing glare Brody gave me would have fried me on the spot. “She’s not my sister.”

I didn’t back down. “She wants to be. She doesn’t have any other siblings. She was excited when she learned she had a brother, and you’re an ungrateful idiot if you can’t appreciate that there’s an amazing person who wants the chance to be a part of your life. Don’t be such a selfish prick, man.”

I propped my elbows up on the back of the bench, content to chill there staring Brody down all night even if he never said another word. He was quiet for a minute, but he eventually smirked. “You’re kind of a jerk.”

I smiled. “Takes one to know one.”

Brody finally laughed. “Okay, fine. I’ll cut her some slack. But she better not turn out to be a total buzzkill.”

“Dude.” I got to my feet and stretched as I turned to face Brody. “I’m a freaking superstar. I could get as many women in the world as I want, including your mom. You think I’d tie myself down to just one woman and give up sex for her if she wasn’t the coolest chick on the planet?”

Without warning, Brody threw the ball at my face. I barely caught it in time to keep my nose intact. “Stay away from my mom, you jackass,” he warned.

He was trying to give me a tough guy stare down, but he couldn’t hold it. I laughed when he cracked a smile. I glanced over my shoulder at the pickup game going on behind me and said, “You know those guys?”

He followed my gaze and nodded. “Some of them. A couple of them are on my team.”

“What about them?” I nodded toward the group of girls who’d followed me across the park as if they suddenly had the deepest desire to ditch the festival and watch a random pickup basketball game.

This time, when Brody scanned the crowd I was looking at, his cheeks turned slightly pink. “I recognize most of them from school, but I don’t know them. They’re older. Popular girls.”

“Perfect.”

I flashed Brody a wicked grin that made the blood drain from his face. “What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I’m going to solve your bully problem by making you too cool to pick on.”

“Wait a minute,” he said, hopping to his feet. “I have to go to school with these people. I don’t think—”

I quit listening to him and headed for the basketball court currently not in use. The gaggle of girls tittered with excitement as I shot—and luckily made—a basket from the free throw line.

I got in a layup as well before Brody finally caught up to me. I threw him the ball—with a lot less hostility this time. “First to twenty-one wins. Call your own fouls.”

“You want to play ball?” Brody asked, confused.

I cast a glance at the girls who were already moving from their place on the sidelines of the pickup game to sit along the edge of our court. Brody realized what was happening and blushed again. The poor kid had no game—at least not with the ladies. Basketball wise, though, he was going to wipe the floor with me. “Or we could go back to the fair,” I suggested, “and you could apologize to your mom and start kissing up to your sister instead.”

Brody snuck another look at the girls before tossing the ball back to me, a confident smirk finally spreading across his face. “I’ll let you tip-off. You’re going down,
superstar
.”

Atta boy,
I thought.
Show those ladies you’ve got confidence.

I set the ball on the ground and bent over to touch my toes. “It’s on,” I said, “just as soon as I stretch.”

“For real?” Brody asked, but I noticed he’d pulled one of his arms back behind his head.

“Yeah, for real. Do you know what my personal trainer would do to me if I pulled a hamstring in a random pickup game?”

“You have your own personal trainer?”

I laughed. “Dude. Being famous isn’t all parties and women. I mean, it
mostly
is, but a body like this—” I pulled my shirt off and threw it aside, winking at the group of girls when they all squealed. “—doesn’t come naturally. I spend two torturous hours every single day with my trainer and that’s
after
he makes me run a two-mile warm-up.”

Brody blinked at me, bewildered, and finished his stretching in silence. Then, as predicted, he proceeded to cream me in a game of one-on-one. He was good, but the fact that I sucked only made him that much more impressive. By the end of our game, the girls on the sidelines had become his personal cheering section, and the guys playing on the court next to us had stopped to see what all the hype was about.

I gave it my best, though, and by the end of the game I was sweaty and exhausted. Once the winning two points were scored, I crashed down onto the grass not far from the crowd in an attempt to cool off and catch my breath.

Brody, after shyly accepting a round of congratulations, sat down beside me and whispered, “Did you let me win?”

I chuckled and didn’t bother to lower my voice. “I wish. I’m a singer, not a baller. I genuinely suck that badly at all sports. What’s worse is your sister said I’ll have to play volleyball with her at that beach barbecue we’ve got coming up in a couple weeks—you are coming to that, right?”

My parents had decided it was time to meet Val. They could never do anything simple without having the chance to show off, so they decided to invite Val’s family—birth and adopted—to their country club in Huntington Beach for a barbecue. I could tell from the guilty look on Brody’s face that he’d been planning to skip it until now.

“Yeah, I think my mom said we were going.”

“Good. Then you can play Val for me and spare me the humiliation of getting schooled by my own girlfriend.”

Brody laughed and nodded his head. “I suppose I could do that. I’m pretty decent at sand volleyball.”

I waited a moment and louder than necessary said, “So, Mr. Basketball, are you a Lakers fan?”

Brody raised a brow at me. “Is my sister a virgin?”

I chuckled. He actually wasn’t too bad when he wasn’t being a whiny brat. “It just so happens that I am also a huge Lakers fan. I happen to be a season ticket holder, and I’m not talking the nosebleeds. My seats are spitball distance from Jack Nicholson’s.”

“No freaking way!” Brody shouted. He shook his head with a small measure of disgust. “It pays to be rich and famous.”

I threw my arm over Brody’s shoulder. “It also pays to know the rich and famous. I’m going to miss a lot of the games next season because I’ll be on tour. I thought maybe you could keep my seats warm for me while I’m gone.”

Brody’s jaw fell open, and for a moment he was completely speechless. After the shock wore off, he shouted again. “Are you freaking
serious
?”

“I don’t joke about the Lakers, kid,” I said solemnly. “You should take your mom sometimes, or maybe your girlfriend…”

Brody ducked his head a little to hide his blushing cheeks. “I don’t have a girlfriend,” he mumbled.

“What? No girlfriend?” I practically shouted it, and I glanced around, making eye contact with several cute girls. “Well, we’ll have to fix that, and soon. Are you coming to my album release party?”

“Uh…yeah?”

He glanced at the crowd and blushed again. There must have been thirty or forty kids standing around listening to our conversation and all of them were now gaping at Brody in shock.

“Awesome. Anyone you want me to add to the guest list? Any particular starlet you’d like to meet?”

Brody looked up at me with eyes that seemed to ask if I was serious. “Uh…”

“I’ve got A-list access, dude. Take advantage.”

“Um.” He thought for a moment and said, “Miley?”

I couldn’t help bursting into laughter. “Aiming high, huh? I like it. I always say go big or go home.”

I got to my feet and held out a hand to help Brody up. “Miley’s already RSVP’d,” I said as I brushed some grass off my pants. I snatched the ball from Brody’s hands. “She’ll be there. Unfortunately for you, your sister would
kill
me if I hooked you up with her. How do you feel about Bella Thorne, though? I’ve heard she’s a sweetheart.”

Brody’s pout melted into a hopeful grin. “Bella Thorne? Hell yeah.”

“Done.” I shook my head. “And speaking of your scary sister who holds the leash to my invisible collar, we should go find her before I get in trouble for ditching her all night.”

I grumbled as I tugged
at my shirt collar, and secretly cursed the people who’d made it necessary for me to wear a tie. My album release party was a little too swanky for my taste. My managers had chosen to have it at this new hipster sushi restaurant, so while it wasn’t a black-tie event, it was all cocktails and raw fish. I’d have killed for a cheeseburger, but I couldn’t complain about the night too much because the little black dress Valerie wore made it worth it.

The décor of the place was pretty cool; I’d give them that. Aquariums throughout the building gave it a very under the sea, mysterious, romantic feel. They’d even gotten some fog machines going along the floors, so we were all walking around in a sea of clouds. The atmosphere was great, they were pumping my new album through the speakers, and I’d had final say over the guest list, so the company was great. If not for the stupid tie, uncomfortable shoes, and fancy food, the party would have been perfect.

“Let me guess,” Val whispered as she finally found her way back to my side. The woman was a born mingler and had been a very popular guest tonight. “Right now, you’re wondering how rude it would be if you took off your tie and ordered some pizzas.”

She won. I smiled. She watched my pout disappear and bent forward to kiss my grin. “That’s a much better look on you,” she teased.

I wrapped my arms around her before she could pull away. “If you want it to stay, then you can’t keep wandering off on me.”

“I’m just being a good hostess. You’re the one who keeps hiding from your own guests.”

“I’m not hiding from my guests. I was just trying to lure you into this dark corner. And look! My evil plan has finally worked. It took a while, but the wait was worth it.”

I adjusted Val so that she was sitting on my lap. She gave me a look that I ignored, and I kissed her again. The blessed woman indulged me more than I thought she would and for a minute we made out like a couple of teenagers.

Energy renewed, I finally got up and dragged Val back into the foray. I had a surprise for Val, and he had just texted me that he’d arrived. “Congressman Richards is that guy you like, right?”

Val blinked and gave me an odd look. “Random. How did you know that?”

I grinned. “My good friend Google seems to know you pretty well.”

“You Googled me?”

I was hoping to find some nude pictures but—”

“Kyle!”

I laughed. She was just too easy. “Anyway,” I said, lacing her hand in mine. “Did you know that our wonderful congressman’s youngest daughter is fifteen years old and happens to be a big Kyle Hamilton fan?”

“I did know that Congressman Richards had a teenage daughter, and I could have guessed she was a fan—most teenage girls are—though I’m wondering how
you
know that.”

I led Val through the crowd where I saw the congressman and his starry-eyed daughter walk through the front door. “I know that because when I called to invite her father to this thing tonight he told me I take up more space on his daughter’s bedroom walls than One Direction.”

Val gasped mockingly. “More than
One Direction
? That’s impressive—wait, did you just say when you called to invite him here tonight?”