Love is a Lyric (Rockstars Anonymous)

by Michelle MacQueen

  Ben couldn’t help but laugh. “I knew the rift was bull.” A Twitter war wouldn’t have kept Noah out of a concert. Besides, that was all for publicity.

  “I didn’t perform.” Dax Nelson spoke up from his spot on the couch.

  Jo grunted. “But you never perform.” It was true. Dax was a musical prodigy whose talent with any instrument he picked up shot him up the charts and into stardom. But his fans didn’t even know what he looked like. He refused every public appearance, despite being the most famous of them.

  Melanie joined Dax on the couch. “Come on, Jo. Calm down. Now that Ben has finally graced us with his presence, we can begin.”

  “Is there more coffee?” Ben asked.

  “Sorry, bro.” Drew offered him a smile. “We finished it off. Too bad I don’t have a Piper living with me. Matt insists on not being with me all the time for some reason.”

  “I wonder why.” Melanie rolled her eyes. “Everyone, sit. We got up early the day after a concert for a reason.”

  She was right. It had been almost a year since their last meeting because they were all busy with tours and recording. Drew’s benefit concert was the reason they all needed to be in the same place at the same time. The place? Drew’s house in his home town. His turf.

  Each person here had a rivalry with the others but not while they were in this room. Ben dropped into a leather recliner and regarded the men and women he’d grudgingly come to think of as friends. There was Drew Stone, all-American boy who’d chosen to pursue music instead of signing with the NHL team that drafted him.

  Noah Clarke and Jo Jackson were a pair, one never performing without the other. They were known to hire other band members, but those came and went while the two of them remained.

  Dax Nelson and his dedication to the music and only the music.

  And Ben, the newest member to their group, though it had been five years now. At first, he hadn’t known where he fit. Their only connection was through Melanie, but that no longer mattered.

  Melanie smiled at she crossed her arms. “Welcome back, boys—and girl. You’ve all had quite the year, and through it all, I’m glad you’re still here, still you.”

  She always began the meeting with something cheesy.

  Her smile widened. “Rockstars Anonymous lives.”

  A collective groan wound through the room. Melanie had been calling their group Rockstars Anonymous for years, like they were some kind of addiction group. Ben guessed they were. Addicted to the lifestyle, to fame. She wanted to keep them grounded, to make sure they didn’t get too full of themselves. Ben hated to break it to her, but it was too late for some of them.

  “Let’s talk about the past year. Tell us your triumphs and maybe your failures.”

  “We really are in a self-help group,” Jo grumbled.

  “Josephine Jackson, you have had a harder time of it than any of us lately, so you have to start.”

  Jo shot her a scowl and shook her head, crossing one leather-clad leg over the other.

  Melanie pursed her lips and turned her gaze on Noah.

  He shrugged. “We had a pretty successful US tour.” His accent was the kind his fans dreamed about. Ben and Drew imitated it just to annoy him. “Failure… well, when I found out—” Jo cut him off with a scowl.

  Ben didn’t know what was going on, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

  Dax leaned forward. “I had a good sales year.”

  Ben laughed. “Just good?” Dax outsold all of them and then some. The mystery of who he was only spurred the excitement.

  Dax spread his hands as if he didn’t know what to say.

  “Oh.” Drew pointed to himself. “Pick me.”

  “You can pick yourself, doofus.” Jo smirked.

  “I think I found my replacement for Matt, and she’s perfect.” He sent a wink Ben’s way.

  Ben’s chest tightened as foreboding filled him. What did Drew know that he didn’t? No… he couldn’t mean… Piper? Had she said yes? All eyes fell to him, but no words came when he opened his mouth.

  “Oh, I know!” Melanie perked up. “Ben, does a certain rumor happen to be true?”

  He knew which rumor she meant. One of the tabloids printed that he’d proposed to Quinn, a thought that made his heart race and not in a good way.

  The guys perked up and started congratulating him.

  “Better you than me.” Drew clapped him on the back.

  Noah lifted a fist for Ben to bump. “Good job on that one, man. If I had to marry anyone, it would be a woman like Quinn Hayes.” His fist dropped when Ben didn’t respond.

  Dax only studied him.

  Jo was his savior. “I’m pregnant!”

  Everyone froze, but as Ben looked at the surrounding faces, only Dax seemed surprised. The rest already knew.

  A smile broke out over Ben’s face. “Congratulations.”

  “It’s not a good thing, doofus.” She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.

  “Why?” Ben looked around at the rockstars surrounding him, wondering how they got here. Five years ago, when Melanie forced them all into this as relative strangers and rivals, they’d never have imagined sitting around sharing secrets they couldn’t tell anyone in their real lives. It was like everything said between them didn’t exist once they stepped outside.

  Noah growled as he ripped his eyes from his drummer. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him.”

  “Wait.” Drew’s eyes flashed dangerously. “When Noah said you weren’t feeling up to performing last night, I knew it was the pregnancy thing, but he didn’t say who…”

  It was like everyone in the room held their collective breaths in anticipation because they knew whatever was coming couldn’t be good.

  Jo stood. “No, you guys will kill him.” She walked into the kitchen.

  The boys stared at each other before getting up to follow. Melanie hung back with a sigh. They found Jo with her elbows on the counter and her head in her hands. Her back shook, and Noah pulled her into his arms. “You might as well tell them.”

  She wiped her face. “It was Blake.”

  Blake Coleman.

  Despite the efforts he seemed to go through to brand himself as a bad guy, Blake was a big seller. Maybe not as big as some in this room, but his sales numbers gave him protection in the form of Melanie who was supposed to craft his reputation. Ben, Drew, Noah, and Dax had become grudging friends, a sort of brotherhood along with Jo and Mel. But Blake had no interest in joining them.

  Every eye in the room fell on Melanie.

  Melanie sighed. “There’s nothing I can do. He’s denying it.”

  Ben met Drew’s gaze. They might be rivals, but in protecting Jo, they were together. “We’ll take care of it.”

  “No, you boys most definitely won’t. Jo can fight her own battles. I don’t want any of your careers ending because you’re in jail.”

  “Where is he?” Drew growled. “I can have us on a jet in an hour.”

  Melanie ran a tired hand over her face. “Hong Kong.”

  “Of course, he is.” Noah snorted. “Don’t worry, Joey girl. We’ll get the yank.”

  “Just stop.” The words burst out of Jo. “Y’all are worse than a bunch of dads.”

  “We’ll be the dads if we need to.” Drew offered her a smile, as if it was a perfectly normal thing to say.

  The others nodded. The corner of Ben’s mouth lifted. “I haven’t changed a diaper since I was like ten and had my baby brother, but a little poo never scared me.”

  “Oh my gosh, don’t say poo.” Jo covered her face with her hands. “It makes you sound eighty, and you’re a rockstar for freak’s sake. None of you will be changing any diapers. We aren’t friends. This Rockstars Anonymous stuff doesn’t come with us when we leave these meetings. We’re rivals, meant to war on Twitter and make snide comments when we cross paths on tour. Stop acting like we’re a family.”

  The words struck Ben, and he tried not to let them hurt. She wasn’t wrong. They we
ren’t supposed to know each other outside this group. It wasn’t friends getting together to hang out. Yet, somehow over the years, he’d forgotten that.

  The truth was, he wanted them to be a family, to be allies in this world of fame that few people understood.

  Jo’s words broke the group apart, and they wandered back into the living room, deflated. As Ben once again took his seat in Drew’s expensive recliner, he erected a wall in his mind. If this group insisted on being separate from real life, he’d keep it that way.

  After an hour of talking about things Ben couldn’t even remember, they walked out to their cars. No one knew when the next meeting would be, but that was how they’d always operated.

  Drew stopped next to Ben as he opened the driver’s side door of his car. “Is Piper staying in Gulf City for this vacation of yours?”

  Ben shrugged. “Of course.”

  Drew shook his head. “Do you guys ever give her time off? Isn’t this supposed to be vacation? Let me guess, she’s still making the coffee and answering to Quinn’s every whim.”

  Ben’s grip on the door tightened. “How is that any of your business?”

  Drew lifted a hand in surrender. “I’m just saying, you might want to realize what it is you have before you lose her.” He winked before turning away. “Tell her to call me.”

  Ben hated that guy. He slumped into the car, feeling no better than he had before the meeting. A sudden thought came to him as he started the car. How did Piper have Drew Stone’s phone number?

  And had she used it before?

  His hands clenched around the steering wheel as he thought of Piper going to work for that guy. She was like a sister to Ben, and no sister of his was going anywhere near Drew.

  4

  Piper

  Quinn was going to be the death of her.

  Piper stared down at the printed schedule in her lap as she sat on the edge of the pool with her feet in the water. Quinn floated on a raft, her face lifted to the sun.

  “I need you to get my laundry done today.” Quinn didn’t even look at her as she issued more directions.

  In that moment, Piper was only an assistant, not a sister. Would she have to do laundry if she went to work for Drew? Probably not.

  “Laundry.” Piper scribbled a note in the notebook. “Got it.”

  “I’m also going to need an appointment for this afternoon at a tanning bed. You’ll have to arrange for the place to be empty so I don’t have to sign any autographs.”

  “A tanning bed?” Piper scanned their surroundings, from the pool to the beach across the deck. Today was a perfect day with brilliant blue skies and the kind of heat she’d always loved.

  Quinn sighed as if annoyed she had to explain herself. “I can’t go to the beach until I have a tan. There could be paparazzi there.”

  “Paparazzi? Quinn, we’re in a small beach town in Florida, and no one even knows we’re here.”

  “You just don’t understand what it’s like to be famous.”

  Piper couldn’t contain the eye roll. If having to tan before hitting the beach was what it meant to be a star, she’d gladly hide in the shadows. “Sure, Quinny. I’ll get it set up.”

  “Ugh, don’t call me that. It’s a child’s name.”

  Piper’s hand froze mid-sentence as she took notes. Their dad called Quinn Quinny just like he called Piper Peter like the old rhyme. She hadn’t loved the nickname when she was little, especially after some neighborhood kids made fun of her for it—until Chase stopped them. But she’d give anything to hear the nickname again, to hear the affection in her dad’s voice when he said it.

  Piper’s phone rang, and she lifted it from the concrete beside her to see Julia Evan’s face flash across the screen. She was so distracted, she didn’t hear her sister speaking.

  “Piper,” Quinn snapped. “You’re working. You can take calls later.”

  She was right, of course. No matter who Quinn was to Piper, this was still a job, and it was the only one she had for now.

  Her phone rang again, and she smiled when she saw Matt’s name. He’d be trying to woo her to the dark side no doubt.

  “Piper.” Quinn sat up so suddenly, it threw her off balance, and she fell off the raft with her arms flailing. She emerged sputtering, her hair hanging limp over her shoulders.

  Piper covered a laugh with a cough. “You okay, sis?”

  Quinn climbed the steps until she stood with water dripping down on Piper. “No, I am not okay. My sister is too distracted to do her job. My boyfriend left this morning without telling me where on earth he could have gone. Ugh, I’m going to find Conner. At least one person in this house won’t disappoint me.”

  “Uh, okay. I’ll just get on this list then.” She got to her feet, snatched up her phone, and retreated to her room for a few moments of peace.

  What would their parents think of them now? They’d be proud of Quinn no doubt, their famous daughter. And Piper? The one who left college because she couldn’t stand to be there alone anymore? That was the problem, wasn’t it? Since the day she learned of her parents’ deaths, Piper held on to everything she had left with an iron fist.

  It was why she put up with Quinn’s demands. Because if she left Quinn, if she took that job with Drew, she would be truly on her own. It was a nice dream to think of calling Matt and telling him she’d replace him, but even Quinn knew Piper didn’t have the courage to leave.

  She threw the notebook on the bedside table and collapsed onto her bed, pulling up her favorites list on her phone. The phone rang once before Julia’s voice came through. “Piper.” She sounded so happy to hear from her, Piper’s eyes watered.

  “Hey, Julia.”

  “Hold on, I’m going to FaceTime.”

  A moment later, Julia’s kind eyes looked back at her. The woman had been her mom’s best friend in college and beyond. She’d felt the pain of her death right alongside Piper.

  “Oh dear, are you okay?” Julia’s gaze softened.

  Piper wiped her eyes. “I’m fine. Just dealing with Quinn today.”

  Julia sighed. She loved Quinn as much as she loved Piper, but they all knew what Quinn could be like. “Don’t let her beat you down. Do you hear me? Just because people scream her name does not mean she is more important than you.”

  “I know. I do… it’s just… never mind. I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I think I’m just tired from the tour.”

  Julia let the matter drop, but Piper knew it wouldn’t be for long. “Are you going to convince that boy of mine to come home?”

  “I’m trying. The band has a lot of work to do before they can get into the recording studio again.”

  “Mmhmm… the band has work.” Julia gave her a look that said she knew everything Piper hadn’t told anyone. That the words Quinn sang weren’t Quinn’s words at all.

  Piper didn’t have to respond because Jonathan Evans appeared on the screen behind his wife. “Hey, Piper! How’s it hangin’, girl?”

  Piper laughed at his attempt to be cool. “I miss you guys.” She hadn’t been home to Columbus in almost a year.

  “We miss you more than you know.” Julia winked.

  “We love you, Piper.” Jonathan smiled. “You keep my son in line, yeah?”

  “I’ll try.” She laughed. It had always amazed her how quickly the Evans family could turn her mood around. They were the one bright spot in her life during the years after the accident. While Quinn and Ben went off to college and then on their first tour, Piper became part of a family with Julia, Jonathan, and Chase. They held her together when her entire world fell apart.

  “Bye, kiddo.”

  She smiled at the term. “Bye.”

  As she hung up, she laid back on the bed to stare at the ceiling, wishing she was back in Columbus instead of in some vacation house in a town that wasn’t home.

  “Was that my parents?”

  She looked up to find Ben leaning in the doorway and offered him a smile. “They said hi.”
<
br />   He laughed. “No, they didn’t. They called to talk to you, not me. I think they like you more than me.”

  Her smile widened. “Probably. But that’s because I actually keep in touch with them when I’m not there.”

  “I keep in touch.”

  She lifted a brow.

  He pushed out a breath. “Okay, fine. I’m terrible at calling people.”

  “Try to be better.”

  His face sobered. “So…” His voice hitched, and he looked like he wanted to say more but held the words back.

  She scooted to the end of her bed. “Meeting go well?”

  “Meeting? Oh, yeah. It was fine.”

  There was something he wasn’t telling her, but he didn’t owe her his secrets. “You should go see Quinn. She’s kind of in a mood because of you.”

  They shared a look, both knowing Quinn was usually in a mood. Piper never understood what someone as laid back as Ben saw in her sister. Quinn was more suited for a playboy like Conner, not the more normal Ben. Well, as normal as a rockstar could be.

  He pushed his glasses into his hair and rubbed his eyes.

  “You should also try to get some rest.” She leaned sideways to grab her notebook. The tour was hard on all of them, and now they could relax… well, everyone except Piper.

  He eyed the notebook he knew all too well. It kept her organized, controlled her life. The band joked about it sometimes, not realizing they were the reason she had to schedule everything down to the minute. She was Quinn’s assistant, but in reality, she worked for all of them.

  “I hope you’re going to take a break too.” He nodded toward the book.

  She shrugged. “You know me. No rest for the wicked.”

  “I thought the wicked was already resting.” He cracked a smile at his own joke, but she knew he didn’t mean it. He loved her sister, always had.

  “Just go.” She laughed. “I have a date with a washing machine.”

  He looked to her open suitcase where neatly folded clothes sat clean, and his face darkened as he must have realized whose laundry she’d be doing on the first day of vacation.

  “It’s okay.” She stood and shoved him out the door. “Really.”