But also… Aston Rogue came to see me!
She was pretty sure Colton knew exactly what she was thinking because she caught him rolling his eyes in the rearview mirror. Just before he turned into the sheriff’s office parking lot. “What are you doing?” She leaned forward until her hands rested against the partition. “Why did you bring us here?”
Home sounded so very appealing. She’d moved back into their old childhood house a few years ago when their mom had retired and moved away. She’d shared the house with Colton up until recently when he’d moved in with his fiancée. Now she lived there alone, and some alone time sounded like heaven after the morning she’d just had.
She looked up at the sheriff’s office with a frown. “Can’t you just take me home?”
Colton parked the car and swiveled in his seat to face her. “No, Gina, I can’t.”
His voice was angry, but his eyes were so full of concern it made her panic swell instantly. “Why not?” she whispered.
Colton grimaced. “Because there are reporters swarming the house.”
“What?” It seemed screeching in disbelief was all she was capable of today. So that was cool. Super helpful.
Aston cleared his throat and when she glanced over he handed her his phone.
I’m holding Aston Rogue’s phone!
She shook her head. Stupid brain. She really needed to get over her starstruck state ASAP.
Her gaze focused on the screen. He’d called up an article and—
“Sweet cheese and crackers!” She didn’t mean for those words to come out. But also...
Good gravy, this was insane.
It was her brother’s growl from up front that had her head coming up and her gaze darting over to Aston to see why her brother was so mad. The reason was instantly clear and her mouth fell open with a gasp.
“Are you laughing at me?” she demanded.
Aston shook his head, but his lips were pressed together in an odd way. This was definitely not the aw shucks smile, it was the look of a man who was trying valiantly to hold back a giant guffaw of laughter.
She frowned. “You are laughing.”
His amusement faded fast. “No. Seriously, I’m not laughing at this scenario, it’s just…” He cleared his throat, totally sober now and no doubt aware of the fact that Colton had turned in his seat to give him a death glare. “I’ve just never heard anyone say sweet cheese and crackers before, that’s all.”
Silence fell as she and Colton regarded him.
Gina realized this was not the time to argue the merits of curse alternatives. Pick your battles, her mother would say. Of course, her mother was also known to say sweet cheese and crackers.
Her mother.
Oh garbage, her mother!
Her eyes widened, wild with panic. “Mom?” she said to Colton.
Their mother lived in Florida now with her new boyfriend, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t see the news.
“Handled,” Colton said. “Addison talked to her a few minutes ago and told her it was all a big misunderstanding.”
Aston pointed from Gina to Colton and back again. “Are you two related?”
This was met with another stare from the Parker siblings. Really? That’s what Aston wanted to discuss right now? Gina broke the silence. “Yes. Big brother.” She jabbed a finger at Colton. “But more importantly…” She held Aston’s phone up, her eyes wide with another surge of panic. “What exactly is happening here?”
“I am so sorry,” he said.
She narrowed her eyes. He didn’t sound sorry. He sounded guilty. “For what? Did you do this?”
“Um…” He scratched the back of his neck. A lifetime of knowing her brother made this an easy gesture to read.
“What did you do?” she snapped.
Funny how a little thing like having your life flipped upside down and your face splattered on an entertainment news site did wonders to help that starstruck state disappear. It may not have been gone for good, but for right now it was overshadowed by a million other emotions.
“I, uh...well, I sang to you,” he said, giving her a prompting look like maybe she’d forgotten that the love of her teen years had singled her out for a song during the worst moment of her life.
Correction. Worst moment of her life as of yesterday. The events of this morning were in serious competition for that title.
“I remember,” she said through gritted teeth. It was hard to keep the sarcasm at bay, and Colton gave a little snort of amusement in response.
“Right, well, it seems some people took that the wrong way,” he said.
And that was it. She waited for him to continue, but it seemed he was done.
“Some people took it the wrong way?” she repeated in disbelief.
“Mmhmm.” He held eye contact. The guy actually had the nerve to meet her gaze head on like he had nothing to hide.
She felt a stab of pain as her mind screamed, Aston Rogue is lying to me!
Somehow the fangirl portion of her brain was even excited about that. Fangirl Gina couldn’t seem to determine between good Aston Rogue news and the bad.
And this? This was bad. Beyond disappointing. She almost felt...hurt.
Which was stupid, obviously.
She cleared her throat and looked down at the article. She’d only read snippets, but it was enough to know that this was not an accident. It was staged. “There are quotes.” She looked back up to meet his gaze. “Lies.”
“Yes, well…” He cleared his throat. “Some things were obviously taken out of context, and—”
“And now I’m the sweetheart who tamed you,” she finished in a low voice, any hint of that starstruck fool dead in her voice.
“It would appear so.” And then, there it was. The humble smile she’d always loved so much. But right now, it just made her stomach sink further. He’d taken off his sunglasses when they’d gotten in the car, and this close she could see the truth.
It wasn’t genuine.
Maybe she should have known that. Maybe it was naive for a grown woman to still believe in the fairytale of her first crush. Especially when that first crush was a celebrity. But her heart felt like it was breaking all over again nonetheless.
“Look,” he continued, reaching for her hand. “I’ll make this right. That’s what I came to tell you.”
“Make this right?” she repeated, her voice rising in disbelief. “You could have ruined my relationship with Billy.”
He stared at her in clear confusion. “He was cheating on you.”
“I know,” she said quickly, “But you didn’t know that until this morning.”
“Billy cheated on you?” Colton’s voice was a slap.
Crap on a cracker. How had she forgotten he was there? This wasn’t how she’d wanted him to find out.
But, on the bright side, at least the whole town wasn’t talking about how she’d been a loser in love yet again.
Yay for silver linings.
“I’ll tell you about it later,” she said to Colton. Turning back to Aston, her brows drew down in anger. “But you,” she said through clenched teeth. “You messed with my life, you—”
“Uh, Gina?” Colton said. “Much as I’d love to watch you ream out this pretty boy musician here, I think maybe we should take this inside.”
Gina turned to look out the window and gasped. There were several passersby inching toward them, cameras up and at the ready.
She winced. “Did they follow us?”
“Does it matter?” Colton shot back.
“I guess not,” she mumbled.
All three of them climbed out of the car and Colton hurried them into the sheriff’s office. Tina, the longtime office receptionist, shouted out a hello to Gina, followed by a ridiculously loud stage whisper to the world at large announcing that Aston Rogue was in the building. Twenty-four hours ago, Gina likely would have had the same response.
But right now, when she glanced over at the charming rockstar with the e
asy smile for Tina and everyone who was looking their way, the only urge she had was to smack that grin right off his face.
“This way,” Colton said, his normally laid back smile flattened into a disturbingly grim line as he led them back toward an interrogation room.
“I guess now I know how criminals feel when you haul them in,” she muttered.
Aston chuckled, but he stopped quickly when she shot him a sidelong glare.
I just glared at Aston Rogue!
A low growl escaped as she shook her head at her own idiocy. Would that starstruck portion of her brain ever totally fade?
Man, she hoped so. It was getting pretty dang annoying.
They’d only just entered the relative peace of the interrogation room when the door opened with a bang and the sheriff himself came barging in. “Gina,” Trent said, ignoring the rock star as he stormed past him to sweep Gina into a big bear hug.
Gina patted his back. Trent was just as much of a worrywart as her brother. “It’s okay, Trent. I’m okay.”
Or she would be okay. Just as soon as a certain rockstar explained what exactly was going on and how he was going to fix it.
Trent released her quickly and turned to face Aston. Colton was already facing off with him, his arms crossed and his glare terrifying.
She didn’t envy Aston.
But then again, she didn’t pity him either.
“If I were you, I’d start talking,” Colton said.
“Right.” Aston nodded, his gaze flickering around this dingy gray room like he was wondering where exactly his life had taken such a drastic turn for the worse.
“Join the club,” she muttered.
All eyes shifted to her. “What’s that?” Trent asked.
“Nothing, just…” She sighed. “Nothing.” Narrowing her eyes, she turned her glare on Aston. “I think perhaps you’d better explain.”
“Right. Well, you see, it seems people got the wrong impression when I sang to you—”
“Why did you sing to her?” Colton asked. He immediately turned to Gina with a furrowed brow. “Why did he sing to you?”
She shrugged.
“She was crying,” Aston said. As if that was a legitimate reason.
Maybe it was. Maybe he always sang to women he spotted weeping in the VIP section.
Her insides wilted as any joy she might have clung to from that brief, surreal moment straight out of her dreams withered and died.
“You were crying? Why?” Trent was giving her that concerned look now and she couldn’t quite meet his gaze.
Just once she’d appreciate it if she wasn’t the pathetic loser in this little trio of theirs. How come she was always the one with the bad luck in love?
“Billy cheated on her.” Colton’s voice came out so thick and through such gritted teeth, it sounded more like a growl.
“He what?” Trent said. And then, to her horror— “Again?”
She dropped her head. She loved her brother and his best friend, but they were not helping matters.
“Again?” It was Aston interrogating her now, his brow furrowed in anger. “That idiot cheated on you before? And you went back to him?”
Her mouth opened and closed several times as she met the stares of these three exasperating men. “It’s none of your business,” she finally sputtered.
Colton’s features screwed up and she just knew he was about to bombard her with more questions about Billy’s cheating.
“Trent wasn’t talking about Billy,” she said to her brother. “He meant Eddie.”
The other boyfriend who’d cheated on her.
“Oh.” Colton nodded with a grimace. “Right.”
“Who the heck is Eddie?” Aston asked.
He sounded so angry that she, Colton, and Trent stared at him in shock.
“Her last boyfriend,” Trent said.
“No, the one before last,” Colton felt compelled to point out. She started to shake her head in a silent warning but he didn’t seem to notice. “The last one was Tommy.”
“Oh yeah.” Trent’s classically handsome features darkened dangerously.
“Dare I ask?” Aston said. He was talking to Trent and Colton.
These three jerks were having a conversation about her love life like she wasn’t even here.
“Tommy didn’t cheat on her,” Colton admitted.
“No, he just took the little money she had stashed in savings and ran,” Trent reminded Colton.
Aston’s gaze swung back to her and Gina prayed for a hole. A sinkhole. A sewer hole. A fiery burning hellhole. Any sort of hole would do just so long as it swallowed her up and helped her escape this mortification.
“If you boys are done rehashing my love life,” she said to Colton and Trent. “I believe we were waiting for Aston here to explain just how he was going to fix this.”
“Er, right.” Aston scrubbed the back of his neck. “First of all, you should know that I am going to fix this.”
“Yeah, you are,” Colton growled.
“How?” Gina demanded.
He cleared his throat. “This was all my PR guy’s fault. This was his misguided attempt at fixing my reputation, and, obviously, he went about it all wrong.”
“Obviously,” she echoed. That inner fangirl didn’t stand a chance now that anger was setting in once more.
She couldn’t even go to her home because of this guy. And yes, fine, she’d been planning on breaking up with Billy today, but Aston Rogue hadn’t known that. His selfish, thoughtless actions could have ruined a great relationship. Hypothetically.
“I’ll have my PR guy reach out and—”
“No need.” Trent was on his phone. “She has her own PR team.” To Gina, he added, “Vanessa’s on her way.”
Gina nodded, relief flooding through her. Vanessa would know how to handle this. She was in public relations and nothing ever fazed her.
Well, nothing except for Trent. But honestly, that was just kind of cute to watch. Seeing the chic, sophisticated city girl lose her cool because she was still smitten with her high school crush was like witnessing Superman around green kryptonite.
“Right, okay.” Aston sounded a little surprised to know she had her own PR team. Not surprisingly. “Then we’ll let the professionals come up with a good way to end this so no one gets hurt.”
Her gaze snapped to his as her brows lowered.
“Any more than they already were,” he added, his tone far more hesitant.
She sighed. “I guess.”
“We don’t need PR teams,” Colton said. He had that big brother look going on. The one he used to scare off the guys who’d hurt her when they came begging for a second chance. “What she needs is a lawyer.”
Aston winced with a hiss.
And much as Gina knew her brother meant well, she shook her head quickly. “No. No lawyers. That’ll just make a bigger deal of this than it is. The quicker that article is called out as fiction and forgotten, the better for everyone.”
Silence fell at that and she felt Aston’s eyes on her.
But she didn’t want to make eye contact with Aston. Bad things happened when she made direct eye contact with this guy. Like, for example, her inner fangirl could come out of her cage and start shrieking.
“I am sorry, Gina,” Aston said. “I never meant to cause you so much trouble.”
She nodded, still not meeting his gaze. “I know. I was just some girl crying in the front row. You were only trying to be nice.”
And if that didn’t make her feel even more pathetic, she didn’t know what would.
The sound of Aston’s phone ringing gave them all a start. “I’d better take this,” he said. “It’s my manager and I’ll make sure he handles this quickly.”
She finally met his gaze then and for the first time since they’d met, she was almost certain this small smile was sincere.
“I will take care of this Gina. I’ll make sure we end it before it gets out of hand.”
Six
<
br /> With his promise still ringing in the room behind him, Aston walked into the hallway for some privacy and answered Toby’s call on the third ring. “What now?”
“Whatever you do,” Toby said, his tone dire. “Do not end this fake relationship with the coffee shop girl.”
Aston stared at the ugly faded green paint on the hallway walls around him. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I already told you, I’m not dragging some—”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re a real Prince Charming,” Toby deadpanned. “But trust me, you’re gonna have a change of heart when I tell you what the record execs just told me.”
A few minutes later, Aston walked back into the interrogation room.
The room fell into silence so fast, it didn’t take a genius to know they’d been talking about him. He’d venture a guess they hadn’t been singing his praises, either.
His heart was still hammering in his throat, but he did what he did best. He smiled. And he played it cool. “Miss me?” he teased.
He was met with three unimpressed stares.
“So?” Gina said, her brows arching. “Did you handle it?”
Like you said you would. She didn’t say it, but he heard it.
“Actually…”
All three faces turned dark with that one word. He turned to the guys, who, oddly enough, were not nearly as intimidating as the pint-sized brunette who showed her every emotion in those big brown eyes of hers. “Could I have a word alone with Gina, please?”
As one, they turned to her. She nodded, and the two men filed out, but not without a few warning glares and a promise of death if any harm came to the girl.
No, the woman. She might be small and cute, but she had the self-possession of a woman. Even now her shoulders were thrust back and her head held high as she waited for him to speak.
He perched on the edge of the interrogation table and tried not to imagine that the spotlight was on him, though he was starting to sweat like he truly was under investigation.
“I’ve been giving it some thought and I think perhaps we should let this story play out a bit,” he said, his gaze thoughtful like this was a new idea he was tossing around and not a desperate attempt to stop his career from ending overnight.
Her brows knit together in confusion. “Why would we do that?”
Fake Dating My Rockstar Roommate: A Sweet Standalone Romance (Fake Dates Book 3) Page 5