Rock Star: The Contest (Book 2 of a Bad Boy Romance) (14 page)

I
woke
from a deep sleep and reached over to the other side of the bed for Chase, but he was gone. I lifted myself out of bed, and padded over to the door. The room was dark. Light filtered through a crack in the curtains, letting me know it was morning. I pulled them open and felt the early morning sun sting my eyes. Walking out of the bedroom into the living area, I found Chase writing.

“Morning,” he said, looking up all dreamy eyed.

“What are you up to?”

“I couldn’t sleep, decided to do a little writing. I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“No.” I stretched my arms out, feeling my muscles unwind.

“So today is the big day. The finals. You nervous?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t even begun to think about that. But I’m sure the jitters will show up soon. Right now I need some coffee. What about you?”

“Actually I just made some, there is a pot ready to go over there.”

I ambled into the kitchen and slowly poured a cup of coffee. It was the only way I was able to kick start my day. Among the perks of running a coffee shop, you never run out of coffee. I came back over to him and swung my leg around his back. I settled in behind him resting my head on his back while gripping him with my legs. I peered over his shoulder at the lyrics.

“I don’t know what it is when I’m around you but lyrics just seem to flow. The music, everything about what I do feels easier. Like you bring out some deep layer of creativity,” Chase said.

“Likewise,” I said.

I kissed him on the back of the neck. I placed my drink down and wrapped my arms around his waist. Many guys by now would have had rolls of fat when they sat down. Not Chase. His stomach was rock hard. It was like a washboard you could have cleaned your clothes on. How he managed to keep it like that was beyond me. He ate like a horse and I had never seen him work out. Though he did say he had a trainer when he was on the road.

“So what’s the plan this morning?”

“I’m going to shoot over and check in on Spike. Need to make sure he’s doing OK. You?”

“I need to meet with the other judges to discuss this evening and what changes have been made in light of the whole incident with Maisey.”

“Yeah, that’s going to really shake things up.”

“They won’t tell the public.”

“Ah, but it will get out.”

“Of course, but not before they finish this season. Tonight is the final day. They want to put this in the bag. They know they aren’t going to get a season four. There is no way on God’s green earth that is going to happen. Not after all the crap that went down this season.”

I got up. “There is a time for everything.”

“You want to take a shower?”

I raised my eyebrows. “With you? Of course.”

He smiled. Even though I knew the day was going to be filled with a lot of work, I relished what little time we had left together. Truth was, tonight would determine a lot. Where Chase would go next, where I would go. What would happen to the coffee shop and my friendships with Sophie and Spike? I could feel change in the air. Though I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad.

* * *

A
fter Chase left
, I made my way over to Lakeside Hospital. It was quiet. Nurses and doctors moved from room to room as I entered Spike’s little cubicle. He was upright today, which was a good sign. The TV was on and he was tapping the clicker.

“No good shows on TV.”

He threw the remote down and grinned.

“Nice to see you too, Spike.”

I leaned over and gave him a hug, he groaned.

“Is it painful?”

“A little, though they have me pumped with every drug under the sun. So I am flying as high as a kite right now.”

I took a seat beside him and brought it in close.

“So you ready for tonight?” he asked.

“I think so. What have I got to lose? I win either way. If I win the contest, I get to do what I always wanted to do. If I lose, I get to hang out with you guys here, and that suits me fine.”

He laughed. “You always were a bad liar, Meghan.”

“What?”

“You want this badly. I know you might miss us, but you can’t stick around here, if doors open up for you. How many others get a chance like that?”

I shrugged.

“How am I going to do this without you beside me?” I asked.

“I know, I know. You’re going to miss old Spike, and land on your ass.”

He let out a laugh. “But you don’t need me for this. You’ve got the talent.”

“Do you want me to get you a coffee?”

“No I had one today, it was like sludge. Horrid stuff.”

There was a pause. Silence.

“You think Sophie is really into that Teddy guy?”

“Why? I don’t know. She seems happy.”

“It’s just that she spent the entire day here yesterday. I had to convince her to go home.”

“She was worried. We all are.”

“No, I mean, I asked her about Teddy and she didn’t seem as interested.”

“Do you have feelings for her?”

“I think I do. I mean, it’s not the same, but yeah. Being apart from her has been odd.”

“Maybe she feels the same.”

We sat for another hour chatting, and then I told him I would try and drop in some time in the afternoon if I got a chance. It was going to be busy, and there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to do much of anything.

When I left there, I bumped into Leanne on the way out. I had to say I was a little surprised to see her, and cautious.

“Leanne.”

“Meghan.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I thought I would stop by and see your friend Spike.”

“Listen, if you are here to cause any more trouble. I will see to it…”

“No. I’m not. I…”

There was a pause.

“Meghan. I think we got off on the wrong foot. I know I’ve been a bit of a bitch. I can tend to be that way sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

“OK. Most of the time. But I wouldn’t have shown that photo. I was just pissed you had developed a relationship with Chase. I couldn’t live with myself if I saw his career affected by my actions.”

“So it was just a game you were playing?”

“Sort of.”

A few people passed us, making their way into the hospital.

“OK.”

“Friends?”

She extended her hand. I hesitated.

“You have a strange way of making friends.”

“I know.”

With that she continued on her way. I returned to my truck. As I did, I saw Sophie pull in. Oh, this was going to be good. Let’s find out how much she is in love with Spike.

“Hey Sophie,” I waved to her. She looked a little disoriented, but she finally spotted me.

“Oh hey.”

We had decided to keep the café closed for a couple of days just until the contest was over.

“How is he?”

“Seemed good to me. Oh and I just saw Leanne head in to see Spike.”

“What? What does she want?”

“Not sure. But I think she might be taking a liking to ol’ Spike.”

Sophie’s expression turned from sour to angry in a flash. Oh yeah, she was still in love with him. Her eyes narrowed.

“OK, time I had a little word with that bitch.”

She turned to leave. I touched her arm.

“Sophie. Go easy on her. She might not know about your history with Spike.”

Her eyebrows raised. “Really? You want to give her a free pass? You buds with her now?”

I laughed. “I’ll see you later.”

I wasn’t going to get into it. Once Sophie got on the warpath you just got the hell out of the way.

As I drove back through the town, I thought about what the odds were of me winning. Teddy, Luke, Leanne and me. We were the only ones left now. The chances had increased. Though all of them were amazing singers. I passed by stores and allowed my mind to wander. If I won, what would I do? Close the shop? Hand it over to Sophie to run? I would be swept up in a media storm and wouldn’t be able to remain here, let alone have time to run a shop.

If I was honest, I was excited. A part of me felt like a kid again, entering a competition, hoping that I would win. When I arrived back the coffee store, I took some time to catch a few more hours of sleep.

* * *

I
entered
the offices that had been temporarily set up while the contest was taking place. Amber and Brad were yakking on a conference call with the suits. When I came into the room, they glared at me.

“Here he is now.”

“Did I miss anything?”

I was meant to be there ten minutes ago, but had got held up in traffic. The town had swelled in size with a new influx of people wanting to see the live show tonight. I couldn’t believe how clogged the streets had become. I took a shortcut, thinking I would be able to bypass some of it, but only ended up getting stuck behind a garbage truck that crawled along in front of me for what seemed like forever.

Over the speaker, Tom Watts, another coordinator for the show, spoke. “Mr. Bryan. Seems that there is no end to the mess you folks have experienced.”

“I can’t say that we are to blame. We show up and judge, we don’t babysit these people,” I said.

“It’s your job to make sure they don’t get out of hand. That the media doesn’t paint them in a bad light. We have ratings, advertising and large sums of money invested in this show.”

“Yeah, and we have had two kids in the hospital, and one taken away by the police.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means ratings and money aren’t everything. We are dealing with people’s lives here, you are dealing with numbers. Give us a break.”

“I knew hiring you for this gig was a bad idea.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Don’t think we don’t know about your extracurricular activities.”

“What the hell has what I do outside of this show got to do with you?”

“Calm down, guys,” Amber said. “We have one more night and then you can all go back to your pissing match after that.”

Then tension was riding high in the room. I stormed out of there. Brad followed in step.

“Chase. You know how these suits are. They are all hot air. Just let it go, bud. Tomorrow you and I can go back to doing what we do best. I for one am glad they aren’t doing a season four. I wouldn’t do it no matter how much money they chucked at me.”

I laughed. We both realized what a bad mistake it was to get involved in a talent show contest. It wasn’t just the fact that the suits had been riding my tail since I had started the show, but it was Mia too. She had become overbearing and had her nose into every little detail of my life. I even had started to wonder if she was behind the media showing up in Atlanta.

Atlanta had been a hellish nightmare. A woman I could barely remember came forward saying I was the father of her child. According to her, she had been a groupie back in my early years on the road. In a time when drugs and booze were flowing freely. To this day I still have little recollection of who I met, or where I went. I just know from videos that I played in certain places. It was a rite of passage, some would say. Every rocker went through it. A time when you reveled in the booty calls backstage and being able to have you pick of any woman. I was such an idiot back then. But being young does allow for a lot of mistakes to be made.

The media firestorm that broke after this woman went to one of the tabloids was on a level that I still haven’t seen to date. She claimed her kid was mine, and the tabloids said I was denying her any child support. But I was pretty damn sure that I hadn’t knocked anyone up. Though my management at the time said I was out of it most of the time.

The woman had tried to be clever, but once it reached the courts and they requested official testing, she caved in and said it was made up. She ended up with a fine and walked away from it with a little bit of fame. I walked away from it still marred by it. They never forget. Even years later, I still had people come up to me and ask if the kid was mine.

Anyway, it had pissed Mia off to no end. When she took over as my manager, her job was cleaning up my act. She did a good job of it too. Somehow she managed to get most of the old stories about me taken down from the internet. She pursued legal action against any website that posted fake information about me or photos that wouldn’t help my career. In many ways she had done what a financial advisor did for someone in debt. She reorganized my life and got things in order. She took over control of some parts of it to make sure that nothing went south.