Rocking Standby

by Cassandra Lawson

  “What diagnosis?” I demanded.

  My mom fell silent.

  “What diagnosis, Mom?” I pushed.

  “Brain cancer,” she whispered. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you.”

  “Sonofabitch,” I muttered. I wasn’t sure which pissed me off more—my mom failing to tell me this as soon as I’d arrived, or Colin asking her to hide it from me.

  “And this Bentley woman is after his money,” she added angrily. “You have to stop her.”

  I shrugged. “Let her have it.” While it bothered me that Bentley had fooled me on the flight, I wasn’t sure it was my place to get involved in any of this mess. Even if she was using Colin, he seemed happy. Why shouldn’t he get to have a beautiful woman by his side while he was going through all of this? If he weren’t sick, I’d be more inclined to tell him about the kiss. Now, I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do.

  “Do you want Colin’s whore owning the record label you’re signed with?” my mom asked.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. She couldn’t possibly mean what I thought she meant.

  “Colin bought Mooncast Records before they signed you,” she explained.

  “And no one thought to tell me this?” I demanded.

  We’d been signed with a much smaller label for the last few years. They’d gotten us some exposure, but we were still struggling. An offer had come in from another record label about six months ago, and we’d been about to sign when Mooncast offered us a better deal.

  “Colin asked me to keep it from you,” she explained. “He was certain you’d refuse to sign if you knew he was involved. I disagreed, but he thought you’d be too proud to take his help.”

  “He was right,” I told her. “Neither of you should have kept this from me.”

  “I just want you to be happy,” she replied with a sniffle.

  My mom wasn’t lying about wanting me to be happy, and it’s the reason I didn’t storm out of the condo and head straight back to the Bay Area to confront my brother. “I thought we were signed because of our talent, not because my brother felt sorry for me.”

  “You deserve this,” my mom argued. “You’ve already told me your new single is selling well. A lot of people get their big break because of who they know.”

  I let out a frustrated sigh. She was right, but I was still annoyed that they’d both lied to me for so long. “This is a mess,” I grumbled.

  “You can fix this by talking to Colin,” she insisted. “I’m sure he’ll talk to you.”

  “I met this woman on my flight,” I admitted. When my mom looked confused, I pointed at the magazine. “I met Colin’s fiancée.”

  “You did?” my mom asked with wide eyes.

  “Yeah, she seemed nice,” I told her, leaving out the part about me giving her my number and kissing her. Pushing thoughts of Bentley to the back of my mind, I decided to focus on what was important. I needed to talk to my brother about his cancer. “I’ll go visit Colin.”

  “Now?” she asked.

  I shook my head before responding. “No. I’ll stay here tonight and see if I can get a flight to the Bay Area tomorrow. Colin won’t respond well to me just showing up at his place. I need to make sure he’s okay with me stopping by first.” My brother had always been a control freak, but he’d gotten worse since his accident.

  “Why not just talk to him about all of this when you call him?” she asked.

  “No,” I insisted. “I need to talk to him in person.”

  “But you need to get him away from that whore today,” my mom argued.

  “I’m not my brother’s keeper,” I reminded her. “I plan to talk to him about his prognosis and the record label.” Before my mom could argue more, I continued. “Have you eaten?”

  “Not yet,” she replied.

  “Let’s go have some dinner,” I suggested. “No more talk about Colin tonight.” I was also hoping to put thoughts of Bentley out of my mind, but it seemed unlikely I’d succeed at that goal.

  Chapter 8

  Bentley

  After dealing with my stolen phone and then warning my cousin about her loser ex-husband, I’d been much too tired to meet with James and Colin, my bosses. Technically, I was James’ assistant, but I’d also worked with Colin since his accident. Colin’s own assistant had left shortly before his accident, and they didn’t want to hire someone new until Colin returned to work full-time. Then the panic attacks had started, and my degree in clinical psychology had come in handy. I attended all business functions with Colin and James just in case Colin had a problem. On the days when he came into the office, instead of working from home, I worked closely with him. His anxiety had improved a lot, thanks to his therapist. With any luck, he’d be ready to return to the office full-time and hire his own assistant soon. While I liked having a busy workday, it was getting to be too much for me.

  Since Colin still worked from home more often than not, I wasn’t surprised that we were meeting there. I still had no clue what the big emergency was—a fact that annoyed me.

  James met me at the door with a genial smile. He looked good at forty. Though his thick black hair was dusted with gray, his mocha skin was still unlined.

  “I’m glad you made it back safely, Marie,” he told me by way of greeting. When I’d first met James, he’d called me Bentley. Now, he used my middle name like everyone else at work. “Have you been contacted by the press yet?”

  As I walked past James, I shook my head. “Not yet, but I haven’t had a chance to check my office voicemail for today. What’s going on?” With James acting as CEO, I got calls from the press when there was interesting news involving the company. That didn’t happen often. Since we were basically a staffing company, we kept a low-profile. News went out when we opened a new office, but it was generally a small piece.

  James let out a weary sigh. “Why don’t we head into the kitchen? Colin’s waiting for us in there,” he told me.

  With a nod, I followed James into the kitchen where Colin was seated at the breakfast nook.

  “Good morning, Colin,” I greeted him as I entered.

  “If you say so,” Colin grumbled with a scowl, a typical morning reaction for Colin. He was never cheerful before noon. His pale blond hair was getting long. When he’d been coming into the office on a regular basis, it had always been neatly trimmed. With vivid blue eyes and strong features, he’d always turned women’s heads, in and out of the office. Over the years, I’d listened to many break room discussions about seducing Colin. Those conversations always amused me. I wasn’t sure how anyone with eyes could miss the fact that Colin was in love. Those women didn’t have a chance with him.

  “Have you eaten?” James asked as he took his seat beside Colin. “I picked up breakfast on the way over here, enough for three.”

  “I ate before I left home,” I assured him. “What’s going on? And why are you so worried about telling me?”

  “I got a call from my stepmom a few days ago,” Colin began. “She was asking me about my engagement.”

  “Engagement?” I asked in genuine surprise. Colin and James had been seeing each other for several years, but they’d never mentioned anything about marriage. Few people even knew they were a couple.

  “We haven’t gone public with it yet. I want to marry James to make sure he gets my shares of the company if I die,” Colin explained.

  “Who said romance is dead?” James muttered.

  Colin reached out to place his hand on James’. It was a rare display of affection. There were times when I wondered how they made things work. They were very different people. “I love you, James,” he said softly.

  “I know,” James told him, his eyes warming. “Marriage was never important to either of us.”

  “I still shouldn’t have put it that way,” Colin admitted. “I’m an ass sometimes.”

  “Yes, you are,” James agreed. “I also think you need to stop worrying about dying.”

  I disagreed. Colin had co
me very close to dying a little over a year ago. It made sense that he’d want to make sure James was taken care of.

  “How did your stepmom find out about the engagement?” I asked.

  “That’s the part that gets messy,” Colin began. “I didn’t go into many details, but I promised to explain everything later. She didn’t like that answer and accused me of being a fool for getting involved with a money-grabbing whore.”

  Now, I was really confused. James could hardly be described as a money-grabbing whore. Unlike Colin, James came from a very wealthy family. It made no sense that anyone would accuse him of marrying Colin for his money.

  “We had no idea what she was talking about until shortly after Colin got off the phone with her,” James added.

  “You need to understand that my stepmom has a history of mental illness,” Colin explained. “I assumed she was having a problem, so I’d planned to call my brother to tell him what was going on. She didn’t seem to be any danger to herself, so I decided it could wait until later that day.”

  “Your brother?” I asked. This was my day for surprises.

  “Technically, Gage is my half-brother,” Colin clarified.

  Unease crept up my spine at the mention of his brother being named Gage. It could be a coincidence. There was no reason to assume it was the same Gage I’d met on my flight. Sure, it was an uncommon name, but that didn’t mean anything. “I take it your half-brother and stepmom don’t live in the area,” I stated, hoping he’d correct me.

  “My stepmom lives in Portland,” Colin began. “Gage lives in Los Angeles. You may have heard of him. He’s the lead guitarist for Reckless Release.”

  Gage Addison. I’d been flirting with Gage Addison.

  “Are you okay, Marie?” James asked, getting to his feet and walking toward me.

  I nodded. “I’m fine,” I assured him. “So, what do you need me to do? This sounds like a family matter.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not the worst of it,” Colin admitted, giving me a sympathetic smile. “This mess involves you.”

  “The problem is related to a picture that ended up in a gossip magazine,” James began. “With only one tabloid article, we expect things will quickly die down, but it may create some problems for you until then.”

  “Why would this create problems for me?” I asked in confusion.

  “It was a picture of me holding your hand,” Colin explained.

  I scrunched my brow, trying to remember when the picture could have been taken. While I was close to James and Colin in many ways, I never lost sight of the fact that they were my employers. James had a tendency to cross that line more frequently because we’d dated briefly many years ago, but holding hands? Colin was hardly the hand-holding type.

  James slid the magazine across the table. I was, in fact, on the front cover at a charity event, with Colin’s hand resting on mine. I’d been to several events since Colin’s accident. He didn’t want others to know about his struggles with anxiety, so I came along to help him. This photo had been taken when he’d placed his hand on mine for a brief moment. It was a signal we often used when his anxiety was becoming a problem.

  There weren’t many details about me in the article, likely because I’m not very interesting. I was essentially described as the bimbo on Colin’s arm. The article referred to me as a secretary who was trying to sleep her way to the top. I wasn’t sure if I was more annoyed about being called a whore or a secretary.

  “This is ridiculous,” I muttered.

  “I believe we should issue a statement denying any involvement between the two of you,” James stated.

  Colin let out a bark of laughter. “That won’t be enough with these vultures.”

  “What do you think we should do?” I asked Colin.

  “We should let it blow over,” Colin began. “None of the major news outlets seem interested in the story. I’m not exactly exciting. If we ignore this, the rest of the media will continue to ignore it. This is a low circulation gossip magazine. There’s also been some social media attention. That could become a problem.”

  “If we announce our engagement, it will stop all gossip about you and Colin,” James added.

  “Are you ready to announce your engagement?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” Colin admitted.

  “We should do nothing,” I said with a sigh. “It’s annoying, but the people I care about know I’m not sleeping with Colin. They also aren’t likely to read this magazine. When you’re ready to announce your engagement, this magazine will look ridiculous for publishing this story.”

  “This doesn’t bother you?” James asked.

  I hesitated in answering. I didn’t like being the center of a tabloid story. “It bothers me,” I admitted. “But Colin is right about waiting it out.”

  “Are you sure you can deal with this?” James asked, looking concerned.

  “I’ll be fine. Like Colin said, it’s just the one tabloid article and some social media gossip,” I stated. “Is this the big emergency?”

  “I was worried it would be upsetting for you,” James explained.

  “I told him you’d be fine,” Colin added.

  “Have you cleared things up with your stepmom?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” Colin began. “I told her the article is a lie, but I’m not sure she believes me. She doesn’t know about my sexual preference.”

  I nodded my understanding. Colin clearly wasn’t ready to have that talk with her.

  “I met your brother,” I blurted out.

  “You met Gage?” Colin asked.

  “On my flight back here,” I explained. “He was on his way to see your stepmom. I didn’t realize he was your brother.”

  “That’s a strange coincidence,” James mused. “I suppose this means your assurances that the tabloid article is a lie didn’t reassure your stepmom.”

  Colin shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Gage might have simply been heading up there for a visit.”

  “He mentioned his mom needed him,” I added. “He seemed worried about her. Did you call him about all of this?”

  “No,” Colin replied with a sigh. “After I realized why my stepmom thought I was engaged, I didn’t think it was necessary.”

  “It might have saved him a lot of worry,” I pointed out. In my opinion, Colin should have at least told Gage his mom was mistaken about the article. Then Gage would have known what was going on with her.

  “You two talked a lot on the flight,” Colin remarked.

  “We were sitting next to each other,” I explained.

  “It would be okay with me if you dated my brother,” Colin stated.

  “No!” I said quickly. “I’m not dating Gage. Even if I had time to date, I don’t date musicians.”

  Colin simply nodded his understanding. “Now that we’ve decided how to handle this article, we should all get to work.”

  He was right. I needed to head into the office and get caught up. Work would also be a great way to keep my mind off Gage Addison.

  Chapter 9

  Gage

  After changing the time of my return flight from Friday at noon to Thursday at six in the morning, I’d messaged everyone in the band, telling them we needed to meet. No one had been happy about my suggestion that we have this meeting right after my return, but they’d all reluctantly agreed when I told them it was urgent.

  “You’d better have a good reason for making me get out bed this early,” Xander grumbled as he sat across from me in our favorite coffee shop. He’d stopped at the counter to grab a cup and a pot of coffee on the way to the table. Xander didn’t drink or do drugs, but he took his coffee very seriously. He’d clearly just climbed out of bed. His black hair was sticking up in places.

  Austin mumbled his agreement while remaining slumped over the table with his long blond hair falling forward to hide his face. My friends definitely weren’t happy about being up early. All except Harley, who was smiling and humming. Her bright pink hair was secured in
a high ponytail, and her pale green eyes were alert.

  “Are you okay, Harley?” I asked cautiously.

  Seeing Harley this happy made me wonder if she was either on drugs or cheerfully contemplating my demise. The latter was the most likely scenario.

  “You are acting strange,” Austin added as he pushed his hair out of his eyes.

  “I’m a morning person,” she admitted, still grinning.

  “Since when?” I asked.

  “When I don’t have to stay up late with you idiots, I get a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed,” she explained. “We’ve known each other how many years?”

  I shrugged. “About ten.”

  “And it’s taken you this long to realize I’m a morning person,” she said with a laugh.

  “You were never a morning person before,” Austin argued.

  “I was!” she insisted. “You’ve only spent mornings with me on tour. It’s hard to be in a good mood when I’m sleeping in a van most nights. Just wait until we’re on the bus together. When we don’t have shows the night before, we can all get up early. It will be fun.”

  “Hell no! That sounds beyond boring, Harley,” Xander told her. “Why would you want to wake up early? Don’t give me any crap about the early bird getting the worm. We’re not birds.”

  “He’s right,” Austin agreed. “You’re a badass rocker.”

  “You should be up partying all night,” Xander added.

  I laughed along with Harley at Xander’s claim.

  “What would you know about partying?” she asked. “Your idea of an exciting nightlife is finding an all night diner that serves coffee and waffles.”

  Waffles were another addiction of Xander’s.

  Austin chuckled, the banter clearly helping him wake up. “She’s got you there.”

  “Speaking of waffles,” Xander began, his attention having shifted to our waitress. “There’s my girl now.”

  “Did you call ahead to order waffles?” I asked.

  “If I’ve gotta be up at this hour, there had better be some waffles sitting in front of me,” he stated.