She tried to remind herself that this separation was necessary to do her job. And keep her job. But yeah, it sucked completely to lose out on the connection they had been forming. It felt like a new friendship had been ripped away from her. And the hope of something more. The irony was that she needed Sterling to like her so that if she quit her job, she could count on his recommendation. Would Sterling have anything good to say about her?
Maybe this was God’s way of guarding her heart. She didn’t know where Sterling stood in terms of his faith. And it’s not like she had given much indication of hers. Reese had a Bible in her bunk and read it most mornings, but it’s not like he saw that. It was the kind of thing she should probably have brought up before, but she hadn’t thought of a good conversation starter or segue that didn’t sound weird or awkward.
As the sun began to reach that intense light as it neared the horizon, crowds began to filter into the amphitheater. Reese did a panoramic shot of the mostly-empty seats. She would come back later and do another once the sold-out crowd filled in. Now that the tour dates were all sold out, she had been sending people to Sterling’s mailing list. It had grown by ten thousand since the tour started.
Most people obsessed over social media since that was public facing, the shiny number of followers right out front. But Reese knew that getting subscribers onto an email list had greater value. More sales were made over email than any other medium. She hadn’t talked with Sterling about this, but had created a nurturing email sequence for new fans. If he wanted to go out on his own rather than stay with his label, he’d have a solid email list to sell to right off the bat.
Kevin had been pleased when he called for an update earlier that day. He brushed off the email list bit, as he definitely cared more about public numbers, but loved everything else.
“You really locked this down,” he had said.
“Thanks?” Reese hadn’t quite understood that phrasing as it related to her work.
“You’re just starting the tour, though, so make sure you keep it up. Long game, Montgomery. I need you to impress me for months, not a week. This has set the bar high. Hope you can keep it up.”
Reese had no response to that, which was fine since Kevin hung up after that last comment. After that conversation she bought a domain name and messaged a web designer who owed her a favor to get Reese Montgomery Social Management set up. Privately, just in case Kevin had some kind of weird radar for her or something. But that was the first step toward actually moving on. Too bad she couldn’t give her notice before the tour ended so she wouldn’t have to ever set foot in the office again. But Kevin would likely pull her off the tour the second she did anything to make him mad. Which would include quitting.
The crowd was starting to get louder and Reese ducked to the side backstage, moderating comments on the video she’d posted earlier. She should probably hire a virtual assistant to handle simple things like deleting comments from trolls or the occasional self-promotional comment from trolls.
Reese had her face in her phone, which is how she missed Sterling standing there with his shirt off.
“Hey,” he said and she literally jumped back a step.
Four words. That was her very first thought: he had now spoken four words to her in the last few days. Then she realized he was shirtless.
“What? Hey,” Reese said.
Her eyes fell to his bare torso, but she jerked her gaze away immediately. He probably thought she was responding to him shirtless, but the truth was that Reese had simply been so focused on the phone that any person would have startled her.
Though Sterling James shirtless was enough to send a woman off-balance. Even with that quick glance, she could see that his broad build had solid definition. The kind that could have been immortalized on a calendar or something, even though as far as she knew, Sterling had never been shirtless on any kind of promotional photos. Maybe because of the scar across his chest? She had seen the long white line as she dragged her eyes away. She fought the desire to run her fingers along it. Or to ask where he got it.
“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t realize you were changing here. Why are you changing here?”
She forced her eyes back to his face so she could have a conversation like a normal person and not like some fan ogling his bare chest. He had just pulled on another black T-shirt and ran a hand over his hair.
“Morgan leaves shirts for me when it’s hot. I thought there was one in the green room, but they were all up here so I just changed here.”
“Oh.”
“I’m not a diva. I just don’t like getting sweat all over my guitars. It’s hot.” He smirked.
Reese couldn’t help but smile back, like she had just been waiting days for this chance. Basically, she had. “I never said you were a diva. I think you’re the furthest thing from a diva, actually. I’m sure your guitars appreciate it.”
He blinked at her. “Was that a joke?”
“A bad one, apparently. Sorry, I had my head buried in this.” Reese waved the phone at him. “I’m better at conversations I can plan and type out than ones in person where I have to think on my feet. I get all rambly or confuse people.”
“I think you’re a fine conversationalist,” Sterling said.
The correct response would have been “thank you,” but Reese couldn’t get the words out, so she simply stood there, trying to get her bearings.
“Speaking of all that social media stuff, thank you. Morgan said we sold out the rest of the tour.”
Reese grinned. “It’s pretty amazing. Though that’s really all on you. The stuff I’m doing is just showcasing you better to people. It’s packaging. You’re the package. Not that you’re an object. I’m not objectifying you. Wow, I should really stop talking now.”
Snapping her mouth shut, Reese put her hand over it. She was horrified at the words that seemed to keep falling out of her mouth. She was a smart girl. Despite the things that happened when she opened her mouth.
Sterling began to laugh. He laughed so hard that he bent over at the waist, putting his hands on his knees. Reese didn’t know if he was laughing at her or with her. She wasn’t laughing, so it had to be at her. Though it didn’t feel mean-spirited.
“I’ve missed talking to you,” Sterling said.
Reese was glad he was not looking at her. She might not be able to take the intensity of his eyes paired with a statement like that. Because that’s all it took to get her heart melting for him once again, tossing out all logical reasons that she should resist the feeling.
Should she say that she missed talking to him too? It was the truth, but you didn’t always have to speak the truth. Sometimes you definitely shouldn’t and this seemed like that kind of situation. Not speaking the truth wasn’t exactly lying. It was withholding.
When he stood up again and met her eyes, all her words disappeared anyway. Sterling had a wistfulness in his eyes that made her feel sad. He had blown through several emotions really quickly, from the laughter to whatever this feeling was that was laid out in his eyes.
“I bought you a ticket,” he said. He held a sweaty T-shirt in his hands. It must have been the one he just took off.
“What?”
“A plane ticket. I bought one for you. If you still want to come with me to L.A. this week. We’ll fly out from Kansas City and then back to Denver.”
Reese froze. She had felt so sure that Sterling had changed his mind that she had not even thought about going to L.A. with him after the exchange at the back of the bus. Knowing that he bought her a ticket liquefied her thoughts. She knew she was staring, mouth partly open.
His eyes grew distant and he shifted, still twisting the sweaty T-shirt in his hands. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it if you don’t want to come.” Sterling started to move away.
“I want to go with you,” Reese said, hoping her voice didn’t express just how much she wanted to go with him and how thrilled she was at the thought of traveling with him alone.
He paused, said, “Good,” without looking at her again, and walked away. She thought she caught a small lift to his mouth: he had smiled.
Reese leaned back against a wall nearby, needing something sure and firm to hold her up. Her mind was filled with questions. When had he bought her ticket? After she hugged him out on the balcony? That would make the most sense. Or did he still buy it after she told him that their relationship needed to be professional? Why wasn’t he taking Morgan? They grew up together. She already knew his family. He let her sleep in his bed.
She had to get over that. Nothing was going on between him and Morgan. It would be way too hard to hide that on a tour bus. Though she still caught Morgan staring longingly at Sterling sometimes when he wasn’t looking. She and Morgan still didn’t talk about it, but Morgan probably knew Reese had feelings for him too.
The noise from the crowd was getting louder, overpowering the sound of the rock playing over the speakers. As they always did, her nerves started singing. Reese may not have been the one playing for the crowds and she didn’t know if Sterling got nervous before a show, but she got nervous for him.
Tonight her nervousness mixed with the reality of what she had just agreed to: a two-day trip to L.A. with Sterling. That sounded more intense than any performance ever. And she couldn’t wait.
Chapter Fourteen
Reese didn’t know if her exhaustion was simply par for the course on a tour, or if it came from the emotional overload of knowing she would be leaving with Sterling in two days. They were in a hotel after another packed and amazing show in Dallas. Reese had sent a text to Staci that morning, telling her they needed to talk, but now she was too tired. She had on pajamas, watching HGTV and decompressing in the hotel room. After sleeping in the tiny bunk on the bus, she slept in the very center of the hotel room bed, spreading her arms and legs out as far as she could like she was making a snow angel in the sheets.
That’s where she was when someone started banging on her hotel room door at the same time as her phone started blowing up. As she got up, Reese glanced at the phone in her hand, still vibrating, and saw the last in a stream of texts from Staci.
Staci: Sterling is a BABY DADDY? Call me, girl
The cocktail of emotions that hit her bloodstream were muddled, but they were all bad. Reese hadn’t even thought to check the peephole to see who was on the other side, assuming it would be Morgan. She was surprised to see Sterling with her. They both wore serious, angry faces. Without speaking, Reese stepped aside so they could come in.
Morgan stepped in easily, her mouth a hard line. Sterling hesitated for a second, his dark eyes fiery on Reese, then walked right in. His cologne or deodorant or whatever pheromones made him smell amazing went right into her nose and then right to the part of her that couldn’t seem to dial back the heart palpitations. His fierce look helped temper the feeling some. Dark Sterling had definitely showed up tonight.
Morgan flopped down on the queen-sized bed, eyes going to the TV. The two Property Brothers were just telling the couple the exorbitant price of their dream house, so that they would understand renovating a dump was their only option. Sterling stood in the corner, looking like he didn’t know where to place himself. Reese didn’t miss the way Sterling’s eyes were all over the room, finally settling on the bed, where the top blanket that hotels never washed had been shoved to the floor and the sheets were completely pulled away as though two people were sleeping there. Reese felt oddly exposed having him in her space, even if it was a hotel room, not a bedroom. He finally sat down at the small table by the window.
The fact that no one was speaking unnerved Reese. “Tell me.”
Morgan put the TV on mute, but didn’t turn it off. “You didn’t already hear?”
“Isn’t this your job?” Sterling asked.
Reese tried not to show the way his harsh tone cut into her. Since the conversation they’d had backstage when she said yes to going to LA, their relationship had gone right back to where it was, as though her freak-out over Morgan in his bed hadn’t happened. Now he was acting worse than he had when he first saw her on the tour bus. It made her angry.
“Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a machine, up all night monitoring what the internet is saying about Sterling James,” she snapped.
“Sterling,” Morgan said, shooting him a look. He crossed his arms. Morgan looked back at Reese. “There’s a girl—woman, I guess. Girl would be worse.” She gave a harsh laugh. “She claims that Sterling is the father of her unborn child.”
Reese pulled out her laptop while Morgan talked. She sat down at the table across from Sterling, wishing for more space between them. From the look on his face, you’d think this whole thing was her fault. She was going to get whiplash from how quickly he changed moods toward her.
But even his angry face was attractive. Reese realized that she had on non-matching pajamas from Target, no bra, and no makeup. A hand flew to her hair, half-falling out of a messy bun. She cleared her throat and looked at Morgan. “Fill me in. I’m pulling up sites now. DNA test?”
“No baby yet. She’s pregnant.”
“They can do in utero tests.” Reese said. “Right? Can’t they?” She realized that for the most part, her knowledge about pregnancy and babies came from television shows and medical dramas. Her sister Rachel didn’t talk to her that often and hadn’t shared a lot of pregnancy details with her. Plus, it wasn’t like she and her husband had been concerned about DNA tests when she was pregnant.
Morgan sighed. “They can, but any of those kinds of tests have added risks during pregnancy. She’s refusing.”
“You’ve already talked to her?”
“I reached out to her people,” Morgan said.
Reese nodded. “Good. The fact that she has people is the first sign that this isn’t for real. It’s something else.” It took three seconds to find a slew of articles and social posts. “Wow, she went straight to Talk Life, huh? Classy.”
Of all the tabloids, Talk Life was the one that took on the most absurd and usually untrue stories. They were constantly fighting legal battles. No one really believed their stories, but that didn’t matter. Talk Life acted simply as the gateway for rumors. And they made bank on taking these risks. Once stories moved through that gate, they flooded social media and smaller sites and became the things that everyone was talking about.
“Okay, we can handle this. There are worse things. Right? And I mean, it’s not true. Do we know it’s not true?” Reese risked a look at Sterling. “I have to ask. Sorry.”
His dark look intensified, sending a shudder through her that she hoped he didn’t see. “I’ve never seen her before in my life. I definitely did not sleep with her.”
Reese tried not to think about the relief she felt hearing his answer. She scanned the article while braiding her hair into something that would look a little more polished.
“You’re doing hair right now? Really?” Sterling said. Whatever she had imagined passed between them earlier was gone. He spoke with a harsh disdain that squeezed her heart with disappointment.
She thought about calling him on it, just asking him why he was being such a jerk. But she needed to focus on this right now, not her relationship with Sterling. Any minute now, Kevin would be calling and she wanted to have a plan. She couldn’t show Sterling how much it hurt that he flipped the switch. Not for the first time, she thought about how accurate the Night and Day Sterling moniker was.
“I’m multitasking,” Reese said, flicking her eyes back to the screen.
“We can fight the whole DNA thing once the baby’s born if she refuses to do it now,” Morgan said. “But it will hang over us until then, right? This chick is everywhere, not just Talk Life. Money says she’s on all the morning talk shows. She has pictures.”
“Which is impossible, since I’ve never met the girl,” Sterling said, his voice practically a growl.
“Give me a minute,” Reese said. She finished reading the Life Talk article and then fl
ipped around the internet for a bit, taking mental notes. “These are clearly photoshopped.” She turned the computer sideways so Sterling could see and angled her chair a little closer to him. Morgan got up and stood by them, looking on. On the screen was a picture of the girl, making a kissy face next to Sterling. He was smiling and had his arm around her.
“How?” Morgan said. “I believe you, but this looks real to me.”
Reese pointed to Sterling’s jaw. His strong, manly, attractive jaw. Focus.
“See the light there? Now look at her face. The lighting is off. Check his hand on her shoulder. It’s small since it’s in the background, but that looks like a woman’s hand. It’s well done. She either knows her way around these programs or she hired someone. She’s a party planner, so I’m guessing she hired someone.”
“Why does that matter that she’s a party planner?” Sterling asked, for the first time not in a snippy tone of voice.
“It may not, but some jobs would make knowing how to do that easier. I could do that, for example. If she was a photographer or big blogger or worked in design or something, I’d be more certain she did it herself because many of those people are familiar with the programs. This is looking more and more like a pro job. She planned it and she hired it out. Or someone hired her.”
“People do that?” Sterling asked.
Morgan laughed. “I swear, sometimes it’s like you haven’t been in this industry for years.”
Sterling glared. “I focus on the music, not all this other stuff.”
“People say and do and sell all kinds of stories,” Reese said. She had seen a lot of that kind in Azul, which is one reason she was so good at identifying it.
Managing The Rock Star (Not So Bad Boys Book 1) Page 13