“It’s weird, I’m just glad I have it established who my friends are already. I want to see the pictures after I get some coffee,” I answer.
“Have a seat, I’ll get the coffee. I have some sites up if you want to take a look.”
I sit down at the table and start scrolling through the site that he has up. There are a few photos of me. One of me and Ryder behind the stadium kissing, one of us talking and smiling, another of us hugging backstage and one of Camden and me walking to the bus. I decide to read the article below, hoping that they were nice to me.
Just a day after being arrested for assault, it appears that bad boy Ryder Kinick might have found a new love interest. While in Chicago, getting ready to kick off his new tour with his band, Line 9, Kinick was spotted with a new mystery woman. Sources say that she showed up at his concert in a limo and Kinick came to greet her before the show. The two looked very cozy. The two were also seen getting cozy backstage after the concert. Later, the beautiful, blonde mystery woman was spotted getting on his tour bus. Looks like this bad boy might just be ready to settle down. Only time will tell if Kinick is ready to change his ways and keep out of trouble. Our sources have confirmed that the man that Kinick beat up at a bar on Saturday is now out of a coma and will be released from the hospital by the end of the week. The date of Kinick’s hearing is still pending.
“That wasn’t too bad; at least they called me beautiful. I wish I knew what the fans were talking about though.” I say to Camden as I scroll down to the bottom to read some of the comments left on the article.
“This girl isn’t Ryder’s type, I know he is just settling until we can meet and I can have his babies. - LineLover999
“Hope the hottie is in the band’s next music video in a bikini”- Rockgod56
“I think this girl is amazing and gorgeous any guy would be lucky to have her.”- Amylove3045
I stop reading though there are several more comments. “Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have read the comments.” These fans can be intense, but I can’t help but smile at Amy’s response.
“Don’t listen to any of those, let’s do something else,” he says as he sets my coffee in front of me, made just the way I like it. He must have been watching me yesterday morning in my kitchen. This thought gives me a small thrill until I remember; he’s probably just paying attention to me because he’s in charge of keeping me happy.
“Like what?”
“Do you know any travel games?” he says with a big grin that shows off his dimples.
“Travel games? What are we ten?” I laugh. He just looks at me waiting, so I think about it. “Ok, my brother and I used to play a game, I called it “Blue Q‘s“. Yeah, I know stupid name, but I was like five when I came up with it. One person gets to ask the other one questions and they have to answer with the first thought that pops into their head and when we spot a blue car, it switches and the other gets to ask questions. I know it sounds stupid but…” I say.
He smiles, “No, it sounds fun. Let’s play. You can start.”
“What did you want to be when you grew up?”
“A football player.”
“Did you ever play football?”
“Yes, in high school.”
“Why did you quit?”
“Not so fast, I see a blue truck, it is my turn. What is your favorite childhood memory?” he asks.
“Playing football with my brother and his friends in the corn field behind our house. This was the only time he would let me play with him because he always needed one more person. He always made me be on his team because if we lost, he could blame it on me and if we won, he could rub it in his friends’ faces that they were beat by a girl.” I tear up a little thinking about Braden. “There is another blue car, my turn.” I say quickly changing the subject. “Small town or big city?”
“I’ve lived in LA my whole life and while I love the city and all there is to do but I’ve always been curious to see what it would be like to live in a place more remote. Blue Car! You said you are from a small town, what is your favorite thing about it?”
“I knew all my neighbors and could ride my bike around town without worrying about strangers or getting lost. At night when the stars come out, I could just lie outside and study them. I missed that most when I moved to Chicago, there are always too many lights to see the stars.”
“That sounds nice; maybe we can do that sometime. Umm, you know you could do that when we stop for the night some time,” he says, as he sounds a little embarrassed by suggesting we should do something together.
“That sounds perfect,” I tell him.
We spend the rest of the morning talking and laughing. He really makes me feel at ease and he’s very funny.
At about 12:00, Ryder stumbles out of the bedroom, his eyes are a little bloodshot. He must have gone back out last night after I went to bed.
“What’s so damn funny out here? Some of us were still trying to sleep,” he mumbles.
“Sorry,” we both say at the same time and both start to laugh again.
Ryder just rolls his eyes and goes over to the coffee pot to pour himself a cup.
“Would you like something to eat?” I ask him while getting up and going to the kitchen. Yesterday afternoon I realized that having me on the bus might be inconvenient for the rest of the band and I don’t want to put them out, so I decided that I could do the cooking for the guys. I’m a fairly good cook, my mom taught me a lot before she died. Which is good because, Karen doesn’t know her way around the kitchen.
“That would be amazing,” Alex says as he walks up behind me. “We never get a home cooked meal anymore.”
“Okay, I’ll get something started,” I say as I looked in the fridge to see what I could make. Beer. That is the only thing in the fridge. Oh wait; I also see a few bottles of water.
“Really, Cam?” I ask looking at him, “Beer and water, is the only thing you brought?”
“None of us know how to cook and I wasn’t going to ask you to do it,” he replies with a shrug.
“Well, I’m not going to live off beer and takeout for the next few months. Would we be able to go the store?” I ask.
“Hey Mike,” Cam calls up to the driver, “find a grocery store and stop please.” I blush because up until that point, I hadn’t even thought about the fact that there was someone else in the room that could have heard my conversation with Cam this morning.
“Sure thing,” Mike calls back.
We pull into the parking lot of a grocery store in a small town in Ohio. As I go to grab my shoes and purse, I notice all the guys pulling on shoes and hats as well.
“What are you guys doing?” I ask.
“We are going in with you,” Ryder replies, “we want food too, especially if you are going to make it for us.”
“I’m not going into a grocery store with a group of rock stars. Won’t it get a little crazy if your fans see you?”
“Relax, baby, we’re good at lying low, no one is going to recognize us at a small town in the middle of nowhere.”
“Fine, let’s go,” I concede.
We get into the store and each member of the band grabs a cart and immediately starts filling it with junk food. Camden grabs a cart and walks with me while I go through a mental list of things that I will need for my favorite meals to make. The band is a few aisles away and I can hear Eric and Alex arguing over the last box of Twinkies. Neither one of them want to share it.
“Are they always like this?” I ask Camden.
“You have no idea. I better go over there before we get kicked out; that will definitely draw attention to them.” He rolls his eyes and heads in the direction of the sound of what I think are boxes being thrown.
I finish my shopping and make my way to the registers. I notice a guy about my age on his phone and looking at me funny. I’m becoming paranoid.
I’m standing in line trying to ignore him, so I watch as the young, female cashier fumbles through a transaction and hear the
frustrated sigh of the old man in front of me trying to tell her what his change should be.
“What are you doing, Ellie?” a male voice says in my ear and I jump.
“Oh my god, Ryder, you almost gave me a heart attack. What does it look like I’m doing?”
“It looks like you were going to pay for the food.”
“And I always thought that you weren’t very bright. Yes, that is what people do at a grocery store. I realize that big, famous rock stars might not always do their own shopping, so they don’t understand the process. Usually after you pick out the food that you want, you get into a line to pay for these things.”
“Ouch, and I made the mistake of thinking that you were nice. Give the cart to Cam and he will take care of it. Let’s go back to the bus.”
“I’m not going to let him do all the work.”
“Cam just pointed out that we’re gaining some attention.” He whispered in my ear and he glanced up at the young, female cashier. She is texting someone now and her fingers are fumbling over the buttons. Her hands are shaking. Clearly, Ryder has been recognized.
Camden walks up behind us and takes the cart from me, the rest of the guys’ carts are behind him. “You guys better get back to the bus. I’ll pay and get Mike to help me bring everything in. The rest of the guys already left.”
I nod at him then follow Ryder to the bus. I glance back at Cam and see the guy that was looking at me earlier with his phone up and see a flash. Great, more photos.
Chapter 12
Camden
Once back on the bus I start putting food away and Elaina gets to work making sandwiches for the guys. Once I’m done with the last of the boxes, I help Elaina take food to the guys, who are all sitting on the couch or in front of it and playing video games. Personally, I think they could all get up off their asses and make their own damn sandwiches, but Elaina insisted that she do it for them and I couldn’t let her do it by herself.
As Elaina and I sit at the table on opposite sides to eat. There are a few minutes of comfortable silence before she speaks.
“What is your family like?” she asks me and her face softens. I wonder if she is thinking of her own family.
“Mom’s a typical mom I guess. She stayed home with us; she cooked dinners and took us to all of our activities. I have a sister, Isabel, she can be a pain, but we really are close. There weren’t many kids our age in the neighborhood, so we had to entertain each other. My dad worked a lot, but he made sure he was home every night. He managed Ryder’s dad’s band, Sinister Dream. Now he manages Line 9.”
“So that is how you met Ryder?” she tilts her head and is staring at me as if I’m a puzzle that she is trying to piece together. I like that she’s so interested.
“Yeah, we’ve been friends since we were young. My mom thinks of him as one of her own. His parents were gone a lot, so he would stay with us.” I peek over my shoulder at Ryder, I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate me telling her this much. He isn’t paying attention; he’s too busy trying to kick some zombie ass in his video game.
“That’s nice of your mom to do so much for him,” she says as she smiles.
“That is just the kind of person that she is. She likes everyone. I think she would love you.”
“Maybe I’ll get to meet her someday.” For some reason, I smile at the thought of introducing Elaina to my family.
“What’s your family like? You said that you moved to Chicago with your Aunt Karen when you were thirteen?” I’m curious why her family didn’t move there too.
“Well, my mom was a lot like your mom. She stayed home with us, but when I started school, she went back to teaching. She was the kind of mom that made dinner, helped with homework and volunteered at all of our school activities. Dad was a vet in town. He was kind of a big kid. Dad, my brother and I would always play pranks on each other. It drove my mom crazy. My brother, Braden was one of my best friends, even though he was a few years older than I was, he always made time for me. And nobody ever bothered me, because they didn’t want to deal with Braden. He was very protective.” She smiles at the memories, but I can see that her eyes are starting to shimmer with unshed tears.
“They sound great. What about Karen and Jackson?” I assume that she lost her family since she keeps referring to them in the past tense, but don’t really think she will share anymore about them. She has only known me for a few days; she has no reason to trust me
“Karen is amazing. She’s fun and crazy, but so caring.”
“You must’ve gotten that from her,” I tell her. “Can I ask, what happened to Jackson? The crutches, I mean.”
“A few months ago, he was riding his bike to school and some jerk taxi driver, ran a red light and clipped him. He broke his leg in two places. He’s had to have physical therapy. The crutches have really sucked with all the stairs in our building and no working elevator.”
“I can imagine, I had to use crutches in high school, it sucked.”
“What happened?”
“Football injury.”
Then I feel something hit me on the back of the head. I look down and see a wadded up paper plate in front of me.
“Hey,” Ryder says. “I’ve been trying to get your attention. What’s for dinner? We’re starving.”
I grit my teeth and turn around. “You just had lunch an hour ago.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll get something started. It might take a while.” Elaina says. “What do you guys want?”
“Chicken!”
“Mashed potatoes!”
“Cake!”
“Spaghetti!”
“Um… okay. How about Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti, mashed potatoes and cake for dessert?”
“Yes!” Ryder says then turns back to his game.
“Okay, I guess it’s settled,” I say, “What can I help with?”
“You’re going to help? I thought you said that you can’t cook.” She gives me a dubious look.
“I can’t cook, but I’m sure I can follow simple instructions. How hard can it be?”
She got to work boiling noodles, preparing the chicken, and mixing the cake batter from scratch. She finished all that in the time it took me to just finish peeling the potatoes. She showed me how to cook the potatoes, drain them and put them in a bowl to mash them. She hands me the mixer and I turn it on. When I think they are done, I remove the mixer to turn it off.
“Don’t…” she yells, just as the potatoes fly everywhere.
I look up and she has a big glob of potatoes on her face. “Um….sorry.” I say, but have to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing.
She wipes her face and looks at her hand before she flings it right back in my face. I blink before I decide that at least, mine was on accident. Without even cleaning my face, I grab a few of the noodles already covered in sauce and throw them at her.
She stares at me in shock before she grabs some and flings it back at me. Before I know it, we are both throwing food and covered head to toe.
We hear someone clearing their throat and turn around to see Ryder standing there. “Dude, now what are we going to have for dinner?”
Elaina is next to me and out of the corner of my eye, I can see her face turn bright red under all the food. She’s looking down, but I think she’s biting her lip trying not to laugh. It’s cute.
“Sorry,” she says. “I’m sure that some of it can be salvaged. Just let me get cleaned up first.”
I follow her back and let her get cleaned up first. I grab a towel and wipe off my hands and face. I go into my bunk and see that I have a missed call from my mom. I decide that I have a few minutes until Elaina is out, so I call her back.
“Cam! How are you?”
“Good. How are things there?”
“Well, you know your father, he’s a little stressed out, but other than that, things are wonderful. Your father told me about the girl that you found. Sweetie, I really hope that you guys are treating her right. I’m worried about her.”
“Yes, Mom. I’m trying to keep the guys in line and I actually missed your call because I was helping her cook dinner and didn’t hear the phone.”
“You helped make dinner?” she laughs. “How did that go?”
“Well, she handed me the mixer and I covered her in mashed potatoes. She got me back and now we are both wearing more food that what was left in the bowls. I think she won the fight.”
Mom laughs and says, “Well at least she can handle you boys. I think I’m going to like this girl.”
I hang up soon after that with a promise to call again tomorrow to let her know how things are going.
Elaina comes out of the bathroom, now in a pair of short cotton shorts and a tight t-shirt, her still damp hair in a braid. I quickly realize that my shower is going to be a cold one.
After my cold shower, I enter the kitchen area and see Alex and Eric scrubbing the floor. What just happened? I’ve never seen either one of them clean anything.
Elaina is standing at the counter stirring the potatoes. I walk up behind her and whisper, “What the hell did you do with Alex and Eric and who are these guys?”
Elaina jumps and turns to look at me. “I just asked them to help clean up while I salvaged dinner. I might have also promised pie tomorrow since the cake batter got ruined tonight.” I look over at the cake batter and there is spaghetti in the bowl.
We laugh and I help her carry the plates to the table. The food is good, this girl can cook. Eric makes comments the entire meal about stealing her away from Ryder and marrying her. These guys need to back off, or they are going to scare her off.
Around 9:00, we finally get to Washington DC. “Hey, Ellie, we are going to find a bar, you wanna go along?” Alex asks.
“No, I think I’ll stay here and get caught up on some sleep,” she says with a yawn and heads back towards her bunk. “Good night guys.”
For Now (Forever Book 1) Page 5