Rick looked cool and composed. Long gone was the nervous boy who stepped onto that stage on Week One. This Rick Rogers radiated confidence and attitude. He flashed his trademark cocky grin and tossed the blond hair out of his clear blue eyes, then bumped fists with Jonathan. “Thanks for the kind words, Jonathan. You’re a class act and Rock Idol is lucky to have you. But you made one mistake. I sang the perfect song tonight! And I’m glad all of you,” he pointed across the stage at the audience, “were here to enjoy it with me.”
The crowd roared again, and King had to wait for them to quiet before he could speak again. It didn’t happen quickly. Fans leapt up from their seats, stomping their feet and clapping their hands while shouting their approval of Rick.
“That’s great!” King said, struggling to be heard over the noise and reclaim the stage. Ember could see in his eyes that he knew the show was in trouble. Rick had broken the rules but the crowd was telling them they’d loved what he did. No one watching that reaction expected Rick Rogers to get voted off. Now there would be a genuine scandal if Fox Atwood did as he should and ejected him from the competition.
“That’s great!” King repeated. He was shouting himself to be heard over the roar. “But let’s hear what the judges have to say about it.”
“That won’t be necessary!” Rick interrupted. “I’m quitting Rock Idol tonight so the comments of the judges are completely irrelevant.”
At the sound of the word quitting, a wave of protest welled up out of the audience—louder than the first two rounds of applause. Rick’s fans—female and male—were definitely not happy to hear this.
Once again, King had to wait so that his questions could be heard over the din. “Quitting?” he finally asked. “What are you thinking, man? You’ve got the crowd on fire tonight! You can’t walk away from this!”
“I have to,” Rick said. “I can’t be part of an organization that would treat Ember Blaze as poorly as Rock Idol did this week. Correct me if I’m wrong,” he said to the fans, “but to my eyes, Ember Blaze sat there week after week and called them like she saw them. She always had something good to say about our performances, but she also always offered some constructive criticism. She wanted to see us perfect our art, and frankly, the feelings she and I developed for each other never came close to interfering with her professional opinions. Am I wrong?”
Ember instinctively cringed at the question, but the audience immediately shouted in support of her. “NO!”
“Should Ember have been fired?” Rick shouted.
“NO!”
“Do we want Ember back?” Rick yelled.
“YES!”
Rick waited a few seconds for the shouting to dwindle. “I can’t bring Ember back, but I can voice my disapproval over what happened here. Thank you all for the love and support you’ve showered on me these past ten weeks. The next time you hear from me, I’ll be singing with Ember.”
He tossed his microphone to King and walked off the stage.
The crowd went crazy behind him—so crazy that Ember almost missed Mitch’s final comment. “Ironically,” the judge announced, “I was going to tell him he’d finally given a star class performance.”
Four Months Later
“Ember! How does it feel to be top of the charts again?”
“Ember! Smile for the camera!”
“Ember! Where’s Rick? What’s your next project together?”
“Are you going to do a whole album?”
Ember smiled pleasantly but kept her mouth closed as she walked into the restaurant. The hostess immediately stepped up to her to direct her to her table. “It’s good to see you again, Ms. Blaze. You’re party is already waiting for you. Can you come this way please?”
Ember did as she was asked while supplying the hostess with important information. “My boyfriend will be joining us in a few minutes. Would you bring him back to our table when he arrives?”
The hostess smiled beneath her brown curls “Of course, Ms. Blaze, it will be my pleasure.”
They maneuvered between the tables with Ember stopping twice to sign autographs. That felt good too. The duet with Rick might be a remake but it had inspired a deluge of new attention and interest in her whole career.
She caught sight of Fox Atwood waiting patiently for her. She was still angry with him, but her recent post-Rock Idol successes had taken the edge off her temper and she truly believed in the maxim: Never close a door!
Fox leapt to his feet as she approached and came around the table to kiss her cheek. “Ember, you look marvelous! It’s so good to see you again!”
Ember submitted to the kiss and let him help her into her seat. Fox then returned to his own chair and picked a bottle of Bollinger out of an ice bucket. “We’re going to have to start with a toast,” he said as he popped the cork and poured foaming champagne into two glasses. “To your first number one hit in twenty-two years. I can’t tell you how delighted I was when you topped the Billboard Charts.”
That was probably true, Ember thought. As Fox had helped make her twice, he would doubtless always feel a proprietary interest in her success. She lifted the champagne to her lips but didn’t drink it. You didn’t stay on top of your drug addictions by switching to alcohol, and she wasn’t going to mess up everything that was going right in her life for a short-term buzz.
Fox drank heavily, as if fortifying his courage. When he finished, he picked up the menu. “What will you have?” he asked.
“I’m afraid I can’t stay for lunch,” Ember told him. “Rick and I have a business meeting in a little less than an hour and I don’t want to be late. I only squeezed you in today because when you called last night you said it was urgent.”
Fox Atwood was clearly unused to people not having time for him, but he didn’t get angry, he grew concerned. He put down his champagne glass and focused his whole attention on Ember. “Well, let me get right down to business then. I want you back on Rock Idol. I admit it was a terrible lapse in judgment to let you go. I’d like to make it up to you. We’ll give you a five year contract this time and a substantial increase in salary.”
Ember shook her head. Fox hadn’t let her go, he had fired her, but with her duet with Rick having hit number one she just didn’t hold the distinction against him. Not that she was going to go back to him.
“I’m afraid that won’t work for me, Fox,” she said. “I just signed a three album deal this morning with a forty city concert tour and an option to go international. I don’t see how I can fit judging Rock Idol into that.”
For a moment, Fox Atwood looked utterly crestfallen, then he rallied, rolling with the punch. “Three albums? Forty cities? This calls for another toast.” He refilled his glass with champagne and touched Ember’s with another drop or two.
He drank heavily, draining his glass.
Ember began to feel sorry for him—not that he’d have trouble finding someone to replace her. “Well you still have Mitch and Fawn,” she reminded him.
“Fawn’s gone! I refused to renew her contract.” Fox said.
Ember felt a rush of satisfaction at the words but kept the feelings off her face.
“If I was going to fire someone to begin with it should have been her and not you. She was never any good at critiquing the contestants anyway and I’m pretty certain she was the force behind Hillary Tempest’s story.”
Ember believed that too, but letting Fawn go did put Fox in a bad place. Replacing two out of three judges would completely change the chemistry of the show, unless…
“What about Mitch?”
“Mitch?” Fox seemed surprised that the name had surfaced. “Mitch is staying. It wouldn’t be Rock Idol without Mitch. You don’t think he’s a problem, do you?”
“No, of course not,” Ember said. “Mitch is a wonderful asset to the show.”
“Good!” Fox actually seemed relieved Ember agreed with him. He began to fidget with his napkin. “You’re sure there’s nothing I can do to coax you back?”
> Never close a door, Ember reminded herself. “Well, I couldn’t possibly do the show full time, but I’m sure Rick and I could squeeze in a return as a guest act.”
Fox brightened considerably. “That’s a great idea! Think of the ratings. Ember Blaze returns to Rock Idol!”
Ember did like the idea. That show had been part of her life for three seasons and she really did enjoy sitting on the panel of judges.
“And maybe, if you’d like to, you could introduce guest judges for the second half of the season and—”
“Guest judges!” Fox interrupted. “What a phenomenal idea! We could have the contestants sing their music and let them critique the performances.”
Well, yeah, Ember thought. You weren’t going to bring in Pete Townshend as a judge and have the contestants sing Bon Jovi.
A disturbance at the front of the restaurant caught her attention. Rick had arrived and half the women in the restaurant seemed to have suddenly flocked around him. They ranged in age from a twelve year old to a woman old enough to be Ember’s grandmother. Rick smiled and said something chatty, but the only autograph he took the time to sign was for the child.
He caught her eyes from across the restaurant and his smile blossomed into his trademark cocky grin. He excused himself from his fans and began to make his way to Ember.
“You really are in love with him, aren’t you?” Fox asked.
“Yes,” Ember said. “I really am.” She could admit that now. Their four months together had been heavenly.
Fans cut Rick off again and he paused to politely fend them off.
“I’m happy for you,” Fox said. “Love hasn’t been working out for me so well lately.”
Ember looked away from Rick to give her complete attention to Fox. “I hadn’t been aware you were seeing anyone.”
“She wanted it that way,” Fox said. “I thought that was actually a sign she was serious about me, not trying to use me for my wealth and connections.”
Ember reached across the table and put her hand on Fox’s forearm. “I’m so sorry. What happened?”
“I had to let her go,” Fox said. The euphemism was not lost on Ember. He’d broken up with her; the woman hadn’t walked out on him.
“What happened?” Ember asked again.
“She convinced me to fire you,” Fox said. He looked embarrassed at the admission.
“What?”
“I think that she was jealous,” Fox explained. “I’ve always been so proud of you, Ember, and I guess I talk about you too much. But I discovered you, watched you soar to the top of the charts and was so unbelievably happy for you when you put your life back together and made a new name for yourself on my show.”
“And that made her jealous?” Ember asked.
“I think she had difficulty differentiating between a father’s and a lover’s pride,” Fox said. “You know I’ve always felt paternal toward you, Ember. You were only a teenager when I discovered you so we never got together. But in all fairness to Gwen, I have always been attracted to younger women.”
The idea that Fox’s Gwen could think her man was interested in forty-two year old Ember was so ridiculous that she started laughing again.
Fox began to laugh too. “I know. It’s utterly ridiculous. I’ve never dated a girl over twenty-five in my life.”
Ember calmed a bit. Considering his interests, it really was amazing Fox hadn’t made a play for her in the old days. In his heart of hearts, he really wasn’t a bad man. There were limits to how young his interests lay. “So she told you to fire me,” she prompted.
“It really wasn’t that simple. Gwen has a holy roller streak in her,” Fox explained. “Some sort of born again, I think, on a mission to clean up Hollywood.”
“And she was dating you?” Ember laughed again.
Rick finally arrived at the table and placed his hand on her shoulder. She reached up and touched his fingers.
“I know,” Fox said, “but she was always going on about corruption and scandal and how there were no truly family-oriented shows in Hollywood.” He stood up and offered Rick his hand. “How are you, Rick? It looks like life is being good to you. I’m glad to see that America still supports a man who can stand up for his principles!”
“It’s good to see you, Mr. Atwood—”
“Fox, Rick, it’s Fox. If you’re going to be dating my old friend, we should be on a first name basis.”
Ember stood. “Not to mention working together again.”
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten,” Fox said.
Ember kissed Rick on the cheek. “It’s good to see you, sweetie. How are we doing for time?”
“We’ve got a few more minutes,” Rick said. He shifted his attention to Fox. “We have to go interview some musicians. Did Ember tell you we signed record deals this morning? She got me a two album deal and I’m going to open for her on concert.”
“I didn’t get you that deal,” Ember said. “You earned it.”
“Right,” Rick teased before kissing her long and sweet.
A camera flashed, but Ember didn’t mind.
“The news just keeps getting better,” Fox said. “Ember and I were discussing the two of you returning to Rock Idol as guest stars.”
Rick elevated a questioning eyebrow at Ember but his words were completely supportive. “I’m glad to hear it! I love Rock Idol. Without it I would never have met Ember.”
She slipped her arm around Rick’s back. “Fox, I’m sorry, I know it’s none of my business, but I have to ask. A holy roller? She wasn’t even sleeping with you?”
Fox laughed. “Oh, she wasn’t that holy. In fact, she was disturbingly talented in that department now that I think about it.”
Ember laughed.
Fox stepped forward and offered Ember his hand. “Look, I know the two of you have to get going. I’ll have my people get in touch with yours to work out the details.”
Ember accepted his hand and let him kiss her on the cheek again, then she turned with Rick and started away.
“And Ember,” Fox called out behind her.
She paused and turned back to look at him.
“It really is good to see you so happy again!”
She smiled. “It wouldn’t have happened, Fox, if you hadn’t given me a second chance.”
Other Books by Veronica Tower and Red Rose Publishing
Blind Date
Christmas Wagers
House Rules
My Son’s Roommate
Not Another Dateless Valentine’s Day
One Night Stand
One Night Stand 2 Tricky Business
The Runaway
Strip Poker
Tricks
Healing (forthcoming)
Please Stop Filming (forthcoming)
Rock Idol (forthcoming)
The Snowbound Series
Snowbound 1 Snowbound Christmas
Snowbound 2 Snowbound New Year
Snowbound 3 Snowbound Valentine’s Day
Snowbound 4 Snowbound Vacation
Snowbound 5 Snowbound Treat
Snowbound 6 Snowbound Summer
Snowbound 7 Another Snowbound Christmas
Snowbound 8 Another Snowbound New Year
Snowbound 9 Snowbound Date
Snowbound 10 Snowbound Games
Snowbound 11 Snowbound Ink (forthcoming)
In Print from Red Rose Publishing
Christmas Wagers
House Rules
One Night Stand
Tricks
One Night Stand 2 Tricky Business (forthcoming)
My Son’s Roommate (forthcoming)
Not Another Dateless Valentine’s Day (forthcoming)
Snowbound 1 Snowbound Christmas (forthcoming)
Snowbound 2 Snowbound New Year (forthcoming)
Snowbound 3 Snowbound Valentine’s Day (forthcoming)
Snowbound 4 Snowbound Vacation (forthcoming)
Snowbound 5 Snowbound Treat (forthcoming)
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Rock Idol (Reality With a Twist Series) Page 11