Jay laughed. "My lifestyle, as you call it, isn't as glamorous as you think. But I meant the pearl farm, on the mainland. Yeah, they have luxury accommodation, but they also have a bush camp they run with one of the tour companies in town. It's pretty basic, but it's a step up from the old pearl divers' camp that used to be there."
Paige stared at him incredulously. "You, the rock star, would go camping?"
"Sure. I've been meaning to check it out. If I record a new album next year, I was thinking of setting some of the music videos out there."
Now it was Xan's turn to stare. "You mean you're coming out of retirement?"
Jay shrugged. "It's been a year. I don't think I'm old enough to retire. And I still got a bit of music in me. I just need to talk the girls into getting the band back together, or find someone to replace them, if they won't. I figured I'd wait until after Angel's wedding, and hit them up then. I was talking to my agent this week, and some of the offers she's had since this whole press storm with that mining billionaire are...pretty fucking awesome. I figure a season of reality TV might up the offers enough to buy me another island."
He wasn't joking, Xan realised. It made no sense, but that was Jay all over.
"So I'll run it by the studio, and if they accept, I'll speak to the sponsors, to see if they're willing to offer a bit more for the dates and such. I mean, we kept everything pretty low-key for the farmers, but a rock star would get the VIP treatment, all the way," Paige said eagerly. "We might have to change the name a bit, though, seeing as you're not really a farmer."
"Got that right. I wouldn't know what to do with a sheep, let alone a whole flock. How about Rock Star Wants A Wife?
Paige nodded. "I'll get right onto it. We could even use that video you recorded yesterday..."
Jay laughed. "So you did record it! I wondered." He leaned forward. "I'll have some conditions, though. Seeing as I'm saving your show and all."
Paige bit her lip, waving at him to keep talking.
"You're not putting me through the same shit you do to the normal blokes. I want access to all the footage, including your private interviews with the girls. I want to see everything before it goes to air, even if it isn't going to air."
Paige shook her head. "The studio will never go for that. If you know what's going on, there won't be any drama. And with more girls, and only one of you, we'll need way more filler to make the show. Instead of just two weeks, we'll have to stretch it out to four. You won't have time to watch everything. And we'll be sending it back to the studio for editing, not doing it here. I can't – "
"Sure you can. Set up a temporary studio here. I'm sure the IT guys would love to hook you up with whatever equipment you need. I'll use it for music videos later, so it's no big deal to me. But I won't do it if I can't see the video. You can air whatever you like, as long as it meets with Xan's privacy guidelines for the resort...oh, wait. If we do most of the filming at Shenton Camp, we won't have to worry about that, will we? Right. I'll have access to all the video you take during the four weeks, so I can make my decision with as much background on the girls as I need."
"But the show needs drama," Paige insisted. "You won't – "
"What if I promise to propose in the final episode?" Jay demanded.
Paige seemed lost for words.
"All the drama you want. You can set up the girls' stories any way you like for the show. I'm not asking to be able to veto shit, or even try to censor it. I'm only asking to see the raw stuff, so I can make a decision on who I ask to marry me." From the triumph in Jay's eyes, he knew he had her.
"I'll have to ask the studio..." Paige said, looking doubtful.
Jay jumped to his feet. "When they agree, give Xan the schedule. This'll be fun!"
NINE
Paige left the office, muttering to herself, leaving Xan alone with Jay.
"Why?" Xan blurted out.
"Why what?" There was an edge to Jay's tone. A hostile one that told her not to pry.
Xan ignored it. "Why do you want a wife? From a reality TV show, of all things!"
Jay shrugged. "Nothing else has worked. Figured I'd try my luck. You never know." He jammed his lips shut.
"But a wife? Since I met you, you've been trying every trope in the book...no, the whole damn library, to find yourself a wife. What I don't understand is why."
Another shrug. "Angel, one of the girls in the band, is getting married. If she's doing it, then I figure it's time. The media seem to think so, too, after the way they jumped on the story Gaia fed them."
"And the reality TV angle?" Xan pressed.
"I'm used to being in the limelight. This should put paid to the rumours about me and Gaia. Figure this'll test the waters, too, see if the public's ready for me to make a comeback tour. Maybe see if they're ready to make me the rightful king of rock again." Jay's rueful grin didn't look particularly optimistic.
The strangest thought came into her head, and Xan burst out laughing. "You're on a quest!" she gasped out. "A quest to regain your throne, but first you're looking for the golden fleece!"
"I'm what?"
"Jason! Your given name is Jason, right? It's Jason and the Argonauts, with one hell of a modern spin. He climbed aboard the Argo with all his hero mates and headed off in search of the golden fleece to win back his throne." Xan snorted. "Bet you pick a blonde."
"I haven't read that one," Jay said. "Heard of it, yeah, but that's all. Did he get the throne, the fleece, and maybe a girl?"
Xan sobered. "Yes, but there were a few women along the way. More than one. Jason was a cheating bastard, but his wife was a witch, so she had her revenge."
Jay shivered. "Maybe it's a good thing I'm not him, then."
Now Xan had him talking, she figured she'd attempt to learn some more about her employer. "What's the deal with you and Paige?"
"We were together for a while, before Chaya made it big," Jay said curtly.
"Then you dumped her?" Xan guessed, disgust rising up the back of her throat.
"No." Jay's gaze dropped to his clenched fists. "She was the news anchor on my first interview, the one that went viral and started it all. The band's career launched that night, and afterwards, Paige and I...well, I wasn't a rock star then. We dated for a while, like normal people, but her social media just blew up. Death threats, hate mail...there was a whole group of arseholes who sent her hourly messages about how she should kill herself. Detailed messages. Pictures and descriptions and...fuck, it's no wonder she considered it." He glanced around. "You got anything to drink?"
Xan held out her half-drunk bottle of water.
Jay waved it away. "Nah, something stronger. I need a real drink."
"I have some rum at my house," Xan began reluctantly. She pressed her lips together before she invited him home. The last place she wanted Jay to get drunk was her tiny unit.
"Me, too. Meet you on the Penguin Jetty? I'll bring the bottle." Jay strode out the door without waiting for her response.
"And glasses!" Xan shouted after him.
Jay waved to acknowledge that he'd heard, but he didn't slow.
TEN
Xan reached the jetty first. The tide was on its way in, licking hungrily at the jetty pylons. Xan's belly rumbled a response – she should have stopped to grab a bite to eat. The last thing she needed was to drink half a bottle of rum on an empty stomach.
"You hungry?"
Jay stood at the head of the jetty, with a room service tray in his arms. Xan could have hugged him. If he weren't her employer and the bane of her existence, of course.
"Yes," she admitted.
"Good. I got some fishy bite things from Catering. It said panko crumbs, prawns, squid, scallops and stuff on the menu." Jay peered under the cover. "You do eat seafood, right? I can call them and get you something else."
"I'm fine with seafood," Xan replied, catching a whiff of what Jay held. If it was the seafood tasting platter from the room service menu, there'd be fresh lobster in there somewhere. S
he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she'd eaten lobster. She'd even forgive Jay for forgetting the glasses.
He set the tray on the jetty and Xan realised she'd underestimated him, yet again. Dangling from his arm was a bucket of ice, which held the rum and two glasses.
"Wow," she whispered as Jay set out the impromptu picnic. He didn't seem to hear, so she settled cross-legged on the jetty and reached for a crumbed prawn. She crunched into the morsel. "Oh, that's good."
"Really? I never tried it before. I just asked for something that goes well with rum." Jay perched on the edge of the jetty and dangled his legs over the end. Reaching back, he poured two generous glasses of rum.
Xan took hers and sipped cautiously. Yes, this was Meier's expensive rum. Like burned sugar, searing her throat all the way down as it tasted of fairy floss. She raised her glass. "To the sad stories we need a drink to tell."
Jay snorted, but he drank to her toast. "You really want to know about me and Paige?"
Xan nodded, her mouth too full of lobster to say anything else.
"You won't repeat any of this, right? Romance Island Resort secrets and all? What happens on the island stays on the island?"
Xan nodded again.
"She nearly died because of me. Our first album was rocketing up the charts. We were booking concerts for a tour of the east coast and getting offers to tour the US. I was so busy with the band, I barely had time to see her, so I didn't realise." Jay took a deep draught from his glass. "She showed me the first hate messages, and we laughed about them. Trolls will be trolls, she said. I didn't know she kept on getting them, and how much worse they got. One day, she rocked up at my place. I barely recognised her. I don't think she'd slept for days, and she looked a mess. She barely looked at me as she said we had to end it. Our relationship. I was gutted. It was my first real one, you know? Back then, I knew she was out of my league, or that's what I thought. She was so famous, and I was just some struggling musician." Jay shook his head. "Fuck, look at us now. Six years later. I never thought..."
Xan swallowed the last bit of lobster. "So she dumped you?" She almost laughed, but Jay's grave expression stopped her. "What?"
"Yeah, I guess she did dump me, but I was in love with her. I wanted her to give me another chance. So after a lot to drink, I stumbled over to her place and hammered on the door until she let me in. Fuck, if I'd been a minute later...she had all these pills, lined up on the table, ready to take. I grabbed this big, ugly bowl she had sitting on the table, swept all the pills into it and flushed the lot down the loo. Then I made her tell me everything. Show me everything. All those thousands of fucked-up messages, day in, day out. She got them on social media. They filled up her email inbox and some people had started sending her letters, old-school style, at the studio. They looked like fan mail, but they fucking weren't. She'd stopped going to work because she couldn't face any more of it. So she figured that so many people couldn't be wrong, and she almost...fuck." Jay swiped at his eyes and gave a huge sniff.
Mr Rock Star, crying? Xan kept her eyes on her drink, while Jay got a hold of himself.
"I stayed over that night, but she was adamant. We had to break up, because she couldn't take it any more. If I left her alone, maybe the haters would, too. So I left, making her promise to call me if she so much as thought about suicide again. And she didn't, so I figured she was okay."
Xan's brow furrowed. "But you said your band was on the rise. You were really famous by then, right? If she'd tried to call you, would she have even managed to contact you?"
"Bingo." Jay hunched his shoulders. "I was busy with the band, so I sort of forgot about her. Plenty of girls did want to be with me, so many fans, but I didn't want anyone to have to deal with the sort of attention Paige got, so it was easier just to give the girls one night. One night with a rock star, you know? Something to remember, but too quick for the media to get hold of them. And too many for them to focus on one."
For a moment, Xan wondered if that was Jay's true motivation in his succession of one-night stands. He was famous for them, after all. No one could catch the eligible rock star. In a weird, twisted way, it made a perverse sort of sense. But it wouldn't look that way to the girl he'd left behind.
"What did Paige think of your groupies?" Xan asked.
Jay stared at the waves beneath his feet. "I thought she wouldn't care. After all, she'd said she didn't want me any more. But last night...she said that's what made her try again. Not pills this time. Her wrists. She managed to slice one, but it hurt so much she couldn't go through with it. She called an ambulance and spent a few days in hospital. That's when her work found out. They didn't know, either, because she hadn't told anyone. Anyone except me, that is." Jay bit down on a prawn.
"What happened then?"
Jay swallowed, then washed the prawn down with a gulp of rum. "They were actually pretty good about it, she said. They took her offscreen and gave her a production job. She was behind the scenes, so no one saw her, and gradually the messages died down. It helped that she didn't have to be on social media any more. She got a PA who dealt with that. She did mostly reality TV, working her way up to production manager. Usually she does cooking shows, but the host of Farmer Bags A Bride ended up in rehab, so she agreed to do a season. The network told her it'll be the final season, as the popularity's dropping off, so it's about as low-key as you can get. Normally there's six farmers, but with budget cuts, she only got two. Not that she's complaining. Less work, she said, with only two storylines to set up."
Xan choked on her rum. "Set up? I thought the whole point of reality TV is that it's reality, not scripted!"
Jay laughed. "Oh, it's not scripted. Well, not really. But the show's producers manipulate the people in it, putting them in situations where they're on edge and more likely to snap. They want kisses and tears and outbursts, Paige said. But being a dating show, it's different to the cooking competitions she's done before. She has to invent pressure to put these people under, if competing for the same bachelor isn't enough to do it. Making the blokes line the girls up, then publicly reject one, like one of those shows where people get voted off. Only there's just the bachelor doing the voting, and the girls don't have a say. Not really."
Xan didn't have time for much TV, but she resolved to avoid reality shows like the plague after hearing that. "That's awful."
"Not as bad as the cooking show. When the producer couldn't think of anything else to do, he had one of the techs sabotage some of the appliances, so there'd be an explosion on the show. The company that made it are still trying to get it back, so they can work out what went wrong. She had to smuggle the wreckage home and into her own rubbish bin."
"Was anyone hurt?"
"Nah," Jay replied. "It just made a big mess. And got them a bigger audience for the show, of course. Danger gets them, every time, she said." He drained his glass. "That's why she wanted the show set here. The wildness of the Kimberley, with its crocodiles and tides and huge, isolated stations, instead of the tamed vineyards where they usually host the show. She wanted to do a sort of survivor angle to this show to shake things up a bit, she said. Made me promise not to tell the farmers, though. She wanted to surprise them so she gets genuine reactions when the camera's rolling. Funny. I tried to warn her, but she didn't believe me that the guys were gay. So the surprise was on her."
But Jay and Paige had barely looked at one another yesterday. When had they had time to discuss the show in such depth? "When did she tell you this?" Xan demanded.
"Last night, after a few drinks," Jay drawled, stretching out on the boards. He grinned up at the sky.
Suspicion darkened Xan's thoughts. "You mean you two spent the night together? That's what you meant about what happens on the island, staying on the island? You two hooked up where the media won't find out?" She couldn't keep the disgust out of her tone. He'd slept with Paige hours before agreeing to propose marriage to someone else.
"Nah." Jay didn't sound ruf
fled. "She wasn't interested. We just drank and talked, really. Catching up. I can survive a night without sex, you know. I think I managed a whole week once."
Xan wasn't sure what to say to that. So she changed the subject. "She's the reason you're doing this, isn't she? You don't really want a wife. You're just doing a girl a favour."
Jay jolted to his feet. "I sure as fuck do want a wife. When I go to Angel's wedding, I won't be going alone. Fuck that for a joke!" He grabbed the rum bottle and swigged from it.
Xan sighed. The arsehole rock star was back with a vengeance. "Thank you for the drink and dinner. I have to work early tomorrow, so I'd best be getting back." She rose, stretched and started back toward the beach.
When she reached the path, she glanced back. Jay stood at the end of the jetty, bottle in hand, muttering. He could take care of himself, she decided, and headed home to bed.
ELEVEN
Penny hunted through every cooking show website she could find, but none of them were calling for entrants at the moment. Frustrated, Penny returned to the site of the show she wanted most. Unlike the others, this wasn't just cooking in front of other chefs. This one was more of a business start-up competition, which made the prize much bigger. Reign of Restaurants was its name. The competition started with a massive cook-off, like the others, but the top cooks got to open restaurants in one of the country's capital cities. They got to pick their own menu and serve it to customers for a month, with people voting and reviewing their meals. Sometimes the customers were chefs in disguise, though the cameras kind of gave it away, as there weren't film crews in the restaurant every day.
The restaurant had to host a special banquet for the show's host, Paige, and her team of judges, which got scored. Added to the reviews, ratings and the dollar turnover of the restaurant during the month they were open...and one restaurant would reign supreme, with the show letting the winning cook or cooks have the place. If Penny could get on that programme, and show people just how good she was in the kitchen, she knew she'd be set for life.
The Rock Star Wants a Wife Page 3