“Heck yes, sista.” Melanie bumped her shoulder in solidarity. Despite their ten year age gap, Piper always considered Melanie a friend. She was sanity in this otherwise bonkers world of rockstars and fame.
“I’ll pay you more,” a voice whispered in her ear.
Piper jumped, her elbow shoving back on instinct and connecting with a hard stomach.
Drew let out a grunt. “Remind me not to scare you again.”
Her entire face reddened as she turned. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
He rubbed the place she’d hit. “I think I’ll live.”
Without thinking, she reached out to touch the spot, feeling his lean muscles underneath. “I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Melanie’s chuckling reached Piper, and she realized she was basically feeling Drew up. She yanked her hand back. “Sorry.”
“Darlin’ you can continue if you want.” One corner of his mouth curved up.
“Drew.” Melanie laughed. “I keep telling you, no one will believe you’re a southern gentleman. Stop using the word darlin’.”
His brow creased. “I’m from Gulf City. Florida is in the south.”
“Yes, but it’s not Southern. At least, not this part of Florida.”
“That makes zero sense, Mel, but whatever the publicist says.” He flashed her a grin.
It wasn’t the first time Piper had crossed paths with Drew Stone. He did a tour with Fate two years ago, and she’d become friends with his assistant, Matt, even dated him for a second there. Now, Matt had been offered a job at the label and needed a replacement.
“Anyone seen Drew?” Matt’s voice came through Piper’s headset.
She raised a brow at Drew. Seems someone had slipped his assistant. “He’s right in front of me. Should I tie him up to hold him until you get to us?”
Matt laughed. “Probably. You near the stage?”
“Yep.”
The charity event was sort of Matt’s big farewell to Drew. Along with help from the label, he’d organized it and relied a lot on the other assistants to keep everything running smoothly.
“Uh oh.” Drew smirked. “I’m in trouble. But he just kept going on and on about what’s going to happen once he’s gone.”
Through all his bravado, she heard the fear in his voice. Just like Piper was to Fate, Matt was a part of Drew’s team. He directed him, his career. “You’re scared to lose him.”
“I wouldn’t be if I had the right assistant to replace him.” He grinned, his blue eyes sparkling.
“Drew.” She sighed. It was tempting, so tempting. Working for Quinn was hard. Her sister had no respect, no appreciation. She paid her less than Piper deserved, but Piper let her get away with it because they needed each other. Her eyes drifted back to the stage where Ben stood with his eyes closed as the music poured from him. Quinn wasn’t the only reason she stayed. Somewhere along the way, Ben and even Conner had become family too. She might not walk out on stage with them, but Piper was a part of Fate.
She didn’t realize how long she’d been quiet until Drew hummed in the back of his throat. “They’re good, aren’t they?”
“The best.” The words popped out before she could stop them, and her cheeks heated. “I mean… just…”
Drew only laughed. “It’s okay to like your sister more than me.”
But it wasn’t Quinn’s voice that had always filled Piper’s mind. Her earliest memory of Ben singing was right after her parents died. He’d found her hiding from everyone else in the woods behind the Evans’ house. He’d played his guitar and sang until she agreed to come out.
“Think I could pull off the shirtless concert thing?” Drew lifted the edge of his shirt to look down at himself, consternation marring his face.
Piper shared a look with Melanie, and they both cracked up. It was much more of a Drew thing than Ben. In fact, she was pretty sure he went shirtless a few times on his tour with Fate.
Piper thought for a long moment. She’d needed a change in her life for a while now. She wasn’t meant to pick up her sister’s dry cleaning or make constant coffee runs. Yet, going back to college held no appeal either. “Okay, Drew.”
“Okay… what?”
“Matt has my email address. Send me the job description, what you expect from it. And the numbers. I’ll consider your offer.” Her heart squeezed at her own words, but it was time she did something for herself. “I’m going to be in Gulf City with the band for the next three months. I can meet with you while I’m here.” She looked sideways at him. “But it has to be a secret.”
A grin spread across his lips. “I can do secrets.”
“That sounded slimy.”
He shrugged and threw an arm over her shoulders. “We’re going to make a good pair.”
“I haven’t said yes.”
“You will.”
She should have felt a bit of excitement with her decision. After all, she’d finally thought of herself before anyone else. Instead, as she met Melanie’s concerned gaze, the only emotion swirling through her mind was an immense guilt.
Matt jogged toward them and held out a fist for Piper to bump before crossing his arms over his chest and staring at Drew. “You’re an assistant’s worst nightmare.”
That was why Drew paid so well. He constantly ducked his assistants, was late to everything, and preferred sleeping in to the early meetings he had to attend. What he didn’t get was assistants talk. If he wanted her to take the job, he’d have to make some changes.
She hadn’t realized the music stopped until Ben said goodbye to the audience and ran off stage, stopping when he found Drew with his arm around her. Piper shrugged off Drew, but Ben had already moved on, greeting Melanie before wiping his face on a towel she handed him and walking away.
“That was interesting.” Drew chuckled.
Once Quinn and Conner followed Ben, Piper gave Drew one last look. “None of them can know. Not yet.”
He mimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key.
Time to get back to work. She hustled toward the dressing room and threw the door open. Quinn shed her clothes behind a screen while the boys lounged on the couch in their smeared makeup.
Piper grabbed two bottles of water from the mini fridge and threw one at each of the guys before retrieving a seltzer for Quinn. “Get changed. You’re officially on vacation.”
Conner let out a whoop of excitement and jumped up, shimmying out of his tight pants without caring she still stood there. Ben was slower, moving to the mirror to start removing the makeup she knew he hated. He hadn’t said anything since finding her with Drew.
She’d told them about Drew’s initial offer. Did they suspect she was considering it? Would Ben understand? Quinn wouldn’t, but that couldn’t be helped.
Quinn appeared from behind the screen, a shirt dress replacing the shorts and tank she’d worn on stage. “Is there something you aren’t telling us, Piper?” She ran her fingers through her long dark hair before piling it on top of her head and securing it in place.
Piper’s heart hammered in her chest. How could she admit to lying to Quinn? To telling her she was considering leaving her after everything they’d been through? “N-no.”
Ben shot her a look over his shoulder that said he didn’t believe her.
To Piper’s surprise, Quinn grinned. “It looked like you were pretty cozy with Drew Stone.” She sighed. “He’s so perfect.”
Ben growled and tore himself away from the mirror. “Stay away from Drew, Piper.”
Did they really think… oh wow, they did. Ben and Quinn thought little Piper had a thing with a rockstar. A laugh burst out of her. It was ridiculous. Rockstars dated girls like Quinn with their long legs, perfect hair, and white teeth.
Piper glanced down at the jeans that rose over the small stomach roll and the button-down shirt that was probably soaked under her arms from the blasted hot arena. She laughed harder. “Drew and I? Me and Drew Stone? Are you out of your minds?”
Quinn smiled like she too realized how ridiculous it was, but Ben only frowned.
She kept laughing. “You don’t have to worry, Quinn. Girls like me aren’t suddenly getting the rockstar.” His assistant, maybe. But her relationship with Matt hadn’t gone anywhere, and now they were just friends.
Crisis averted, Quinn worked to remove her makeup while Ben stepped behind the screen to change. When he emerged once more, gone was the rocker except some remaining gel in his hair. Before her stood Ben Evans, just Benji with his loose nerd-shirt—as she called them—that featured a quote from Game of Thrones. His eyes were visible once more without all the makeup.
He stumbled as he stepped forward, and she snatched his glasses off the table to hand them to him. “What would we do without you taking care of us?” He set the glasses on his nose, turning himself from the famous lead singer into the normal guy.
“Well, you’d probably run into a lot of walls.”
Conner laughed. Piper had almost forgotten he was there, and she used the distraction to tear her eyes from Ben’s.
Quinn took Ben’s arm and wrapped it around her. “We ready to go?”
Piper looked around at the messy room. “I need to pack you all up, but if you head toward the back entrance of the arena, Melanie arranged for a driver to take us to Gulf City.”
Conner skipped from the room and Quinn tried to drag Ben out, but he pulled her back. “Do you need help, Piper?”
She gave him a tight smile. “This is my job. Go.”
Indecision warred in his gaze, and still, he didn’t move. Quinn tugged on his hand. “We pay her for this. Let’s go. I’m tired, and we still have an hour drive to the beach house. Drew’s people are going that way too. Piper can grab a ride with Matt.”
Quinn hadn’t asked, but that wasn’t what she did. Piper assumed they’d wait for her, but it was their choice. Her sister was right. She worked for them. As much as she’d felt like a part of the band before, she wasn’t one of them.
Lifting her gaze, she looked to Ben. “Go. I’ll be fine.” She pressed a button on her headset. “Yo, Matt. Can I hitch a ride to Gulf City tonight?”
Matt responded immediately. “Of course. I can’t leave for a while though.”
She didn’t relay that last part to Ben. “Matt says he can take me. I’ll see you guys at the house. I sent you the information to get there.”
He blew out a breath. “Fine. Okay. Let us know when you leave.”
She lifted two fingers in a salute before they shut the door. If she went to work for Drew, this part of her job wouldn’t change.
Maybe she didn’t need a different employer, but a different life entirely.
3
Ben
Morning came way too early. It was nearly midnight by the time the band got to the house in Gulf City that Piper had picked out for the next three months.
And another two hours until Piper walked in. With Quinn asleep in bed beside him, Ben had stayed up reading as he waited for the second Hayes sister to get there. He didn’t tell her he’d waited. She’d have groused about him being too protective, too much like the older brother he wasn’t. But he couldn’t help himself.
And now, at eight in the morning with sun streaming across the white tile floor, all he wanted to do was go back to sleep. His phone chimed with a text message.
Mel: Don’t even think about sleeping in.
She knew him too well. The band kept the same publicist since first signing with the label, and he couldn’t imagine anyone else doing the job. Even when she made him get up early to attend a meeting he didn’t tell the rest of the band about.
Coffee. He needed coffee.
As he rolled out from under Quinn’s arm, he groaned. Months on the road made him feel like the old man he was becoming. Everything hurt. His bare feet hit the cool floor, and he slipped into a pair of sweat pants before heading into the hall.
Massive windows spanning one wall greeted him as he stepped into the living room. The night before, they’d barely looked around the house except to find the bedrooms to crash. But now, he saw why Piper chose it for them. Beyond the gleaming glass was a sight that would inspire music for the new album. The ocean shimmered like a diamond under the early morning sun.
White sand stretched the length of the beach where seagulls were the sea’s only companion on land.
Reluctantly, he turned toward the kitchen, surprised to see a spread of breakfast along the island counter. How did Piper do that? They’d only gotten in last night and already the house was stocked.
He went straight for the coffee pot. Three mugs sat next to it. One empty, one with a spoonful of Splenda in it, and the other with a mound of sugar. He chuckled as he took the cup with sugar and poured coffee into it. Sipping it, he sighed. Perfection.
Laughter came from beyond the sliding glass doors leading out to the pool deck overlooking the ocean. Piper sat on a deck chair with her hands curled around a mug and her phone balanced on the chair beside her.
As Ben walked outside and neared her, he heard his brother’s voice coming from the speaker on the phone.
Piper didn’t notice him at first. “You should have seen it, Chase. He looked ridiculous.”
Ben froze.
“He’s a rockstar, Pipes. He’s paid to look ridiculous.”
Piper shook her head, her gaze catching on Ben. She let out a squeak but didn’t greet him.
Chase kept talking. “I’m going to guess by that sound he just heard you.”
Ben sat on the chair next to Piper’s. “You’d guess right.”
“Hey, bro. You going to come home on this vaca at all?” Chase was just like his parents. They’d continued bugging him to visit Ohio now that he would be back stateside. The truth was he couldn’t wait to see them, but Fate had a grand total of zero songs for the new album, and the weight of that hung around his neck.
“If I don’t, Mom will probably show up in Florida to murder me.”
Chase laughed. “Probably. Look, I gotta get to work. Take care of Piper for me.”
“Always.”
Piper bristled at that. “I don’t need taken care of but okay. Later, Chase.” She hung up and sat back against the chair.
Ben stared at her over the rim of his mug as he sipped the coffee. “Thanks for the coffee.”
She only shrugged. “It’s my job.”
“You got in at like two in the morning. How is it we have a fully stocked kitchen?”
“I’m not going to ask why you know when I got in, Dad, but I ordered a grocery delivery for this morning. I know you won’t eat any of the breakfast I worked hard to make, so I got some Pop-Tarts.”
His lips curled up. “Don’t tell Quinn.”
“Definitely not. I put them in the highest cabinet. She won’t look, anyway. She’ll just ask me whenever she wants anything to eat.”
A grown man shouldn’t like Pop-Tarts, but it was the only way to get actual food into Ben in the morning when he was too wired to eat. The adrenaline from a show hit him hardest the next day.
“Thanks.” He took another sip.
“Like I said, it’s my job.” She checked the time on her phone. “It’s also my job to remind you of whatever meeting Melanie set up that she won’t tell me about. I don’t expect you will?”
He drained the rest of his coffee and grinned. “Not a chance, Piper.” This was his secret.
“Didn’t think so.”
He stood and stretched. “Can you make something up to tell Quinn? If she hears the word meeting, she’ll be mad I went without her.”
“Can you promise me this doesn’t affect her?”
Ben met her gaze, wondering how she could be so loyal to her sister. He saw the way Quinn treated Piper, yet Piper was always there willing to take it.
“Yeah, I promise.”
She nodded. “Then, go. Keep your secrets, Benjamin Evans.”
He shot her a wink before re-entering the house, dumping his mug in the
sink, and reaching for a blueberry Pop-Tart. That girl was his savior. He spared one more glance over his shoulder, but she didn’t look his way. Throwing on some clothes, he did his best not to wake Quinn and have to answer her questions.
As he stepped out the front door, a feeling of freedom assaulted him. A rental car had been dropped off sometime in the night, and he couldn’t remember the last time he drove himself anywhere. He slid into the car and laughed when he noticed a hat on the passenger’s seat. Piper was always a million steps ahead of the rest of them.
Pulling the hat low on his head, he slid his prescription sunglasses into place and fixed the rearview mirror before pulling out into the streets of Gulf City, Florida. It was a cute little beach town, one he’d learned of on recommendation from Drew Stone of all people.
Italian-styled buildings lined the wide roads, arched salmon roofs lifting to the blazing sun.
He opened the Pop-Tarts with one hand as he pulled into the gated community his GPS directed him to. A sign read “Wentwood.” He punched in the code he’d been given, and the gates swung open.
When he reached his destination, it looked like he was the last one there. He parked in the long driveway leading up to the columned, yellow concrete house. Sprinklers spritzed over the manicured lawn as Ben weaved his way between cars on the drive. He didn’t knock at the door; instead, he pushed it open to be immediately assaulted with an argument.
“We should have been there.” Jo Jackson, one of the most famous drummers in the world at present, tapped her boot-clad foot as she faced off with their publicist.
Melanie sighed. “You weren’t in any condition…”
“You don’t get to decide that for me!”
Ben shut the door behind him, walking right into the lion’s den. “Whoa, what’s going on? This is supposed to be a no-fighting zone.”
Jo ran a hand through her pink-tipped hair as Drew Stone and Noah Clarke walked in carrying giant mugs of coffee. Jo pointed from the boys to Melanie. “Noah and I were supposed to perform at the benefit last night with the rest of you, but these three decided I wasn’t up for it.”
Love is a Lyric (Rockstars Anonymous) Page 2