by Lisa Cardiff
Alec smirked. “You mean the cheesy one about redemption?”
Taylor planted her hands on her hips. “Alec, you better take that back.”
“Or what?”
“I won’t help you.”
His eyes narrowed. “You play dirty.”
She shrugged. “I learned from the best.”
“Who me?”
“No, Cam.”
Alec laughed. “Oh please, give me a break.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“You better not leave me,” Violet said, clutching Annette’s hand in the lobby of a hotel smack-dab in the center of Beverly Hills.
“You’re going to be fine,” Annette said absently, her eyes trained on the steady stream of people walking toward the ballroom.
“No, I’m not. Have you looked, I mean really looked, at the people going to this event?” Violet whispered as she inspected her silver cocktail dress with an off the shoulder neckline and a scalloped hem for the hundredth time. She may look the part, but at the end of the day she was just a small town girl who worked for a charity and lived paycheck to paycheck. “I don’t belong here.”
Annette’s eyes flickered over her dress. “With how much you spent on that dress yesterday, nobody would ever guess that you don’t attend these things all the time. You look absolutely beautiful.”
Her hands shaking imperceptibly from her frazzled nerves, Violet smoothed the front of her dress as she bit her lip. “Do you think I spent too much?” She looked down at her strappy sling back, crystal covered heels. They were way out of her budget, but she felt like a princess the minute she slid them on her feet and she couldn’t say no. Where did the practical Violet go?
Annette rolled her eyes. “No. You look perfect. Stop overthinking everything.”
“I can’t.” As they stepped into the ballroom, Violet froze while she scanned the crowd. She didn’t recognize anyone. Not that she was surprised. She didn’t recognize Alec either when she first encountered him in the Foundation’s parking lot. When it came to celebrities, she was hopelessly unschooled. She hadn’t been to a movie in nearly two years and she couldn’t remember the last time she took the time to investigate a band or singer. Annette, on the other hand, regularly devoured gossip magazines and websites.
The ballroom was almost as intimidating as the people inhabiting it. The way they held themselves combined with the look on Annette’s face screamed that they were people she should recognize, but that wasn’t what drew her attention at the moment.
Her mouth nearly fell open at the grandness of the party. The last time the Foundation held a fundraiser, it was in a windowless conference room at the University and the decorations consisted of donated colorful tablecloths, balloons, and sunflowers from her parents’ garden.
That wasn’t the case tonight. The otherwise generic hotel ballroom had been transformed into a glittering fairytale with white linens, white flowers, and white candles that created a warm, intimate glow in an otherwise overwhelming room. Soft white chiffon draped the walls and ceilings, hiding twinkling fairy lights in their folds. Waiters in formal white tuxedos carried circular, white lacquer trays with champagne flutes and appetizers that looked like works of art rather than food. At the far end of the ballroom, the same white chiffon draped the walls behind an elevated stage.
It seemed a little formal for a kids’ charity event, but then she spotted the crystal-framed pictures on the tables. Every table had one picture of a kid from the Foundation with a short story below. She loved that everything came back to the kids.
Still wholly unprepared to see Alec, she pulled Annette toward the bar. Over the last month, she realized that regardless of the fact that Alec lied about his career, he shared all the things that counted with her, which gave her hope that they could make something work. She wanted Alec and she had never walked away from something she wanted before. She resisted her parents’ demands that she attend law school right after college and she didn’t give up on the Foundation even when they couldn’t afford her salary, so she sure as hell wouldn’t give up on Alec without trying. “Let’s get a drink.”
Annette nodded. “This is beautiful.”
“I know. It’s a far cry from the fundraiser I put together.”
“Not even in the same league,” Annette agreed, unable to pull her eyes away from the scene.
“You’re pretty quiet,” Violet said, studying her normally outgoing friend.
“I’m star struck,” Annette whispered. “It’s like being at the music awards without having to listen to the ‘I’m so honored to have been nominated’ bullshit.”
“I guess being ignorant of who’s who isn’t so bad after all. I don’t recognize a single person.”
“Good point,” Annette agreed.
“What do you want to drink?”
“Vodka,” Annette answered, her eyes darting around the room.
“Are you hungry?”
“No.”
“Have you seen Alec?” Violet asked, handing Annette her drink and taking a sip of her glass of white wine.
“No. You?”
“Can you string a full sentence together?” Violet asked, rolling her eyes.
“No.”
“I can see you’re going to be a lot of help. Remind me why I brought you.”
Annette finally turned her attention to Violet, smiling softly. “Because you love me and you wouldn’t want me to miss this. It’s a once in a lifetime event, at least for me. Now if you and Alec became a couple, this would be totally repetitive within a few months.”
Violet laughed, her nerves finally relaxing. She could do this. Drink in hand; she pulled Annette through the room, her eyes scanning every face as they passed. Now that her confidence had returned, she wanted to find Alec and get the whole thing over with so she didn’t give in to the temptation to chew the polish off her freshly manicured nails. Just as she was about to give up, the crowd shifted and she spotted Alec standing in the corner.
Leaning against the wall, he stood with one hand shoved in the pocket of his pants and the other wrapped around a champagne flute. In a black tuxedo with a black shirt and tie, he looked better than she would have imagined. His fingers were still lined with his heavy metal rings, but his lip ring was absent.
Smiling, she took a step forward and then stopped dead as he wrapped his arm around a beautiful woman in a floor length red dress. The front of her almost black hair was liberally streaked red and styled into a complicated updo that managed to be both fresh and sophisticated. Grinning playfully, Alec brushed his lips across the top of the woman’s head. The sinking sensation in her stomach threatened to consume her as she watched her hopes for the night fizzle and die a fiery death.
“Oh shit,” Annette whispered, her eyebrows climbing the length of her forehead.
Before Violet could consider what she was doing, she took a few steps back. She suddenly felt uncertain again and for good reason. Trying to expel her racing thoughts, her hand moved feebly through the loose strands of her hair. “Maybe we should go. I don’t think I can do this.”
She felt a light touch on her elbow. “Aren’t you supposed to say something about the Foundation before the band plays?” Annette said, her voice soft and laced with pity—the last emotion she liked directed at her in any circumstance, but even more so at that moment. It made her feel naïve all over again for believing she could just walk right back into Alec’s life and reclaim him after of month of not returning his calls.
“I’ll email Alec’s sister my speech. She can do it. She planned everything else.” She’d been talking to Alec’s sister, Taylor, almost daily to orchestrate this event, which she dismissed as meaningless at the time, but maybe that was a giant hint that Alec wasn’t interested in her anymore. He was just fulfilling a promise to the Foundation.
Sure, Alec had called and texted her several times the week after he went back to LA. Her parents’ ranch didn’t have the best reception so she didn’t receive any of them u
ntil she got home. Admittedly, she could have driven a couple miles closer to town, but she needed to clear her head before she listened to anything he had to say.
On her first day back to the Foundation after a two-week vacation, Taylor called, offering to coordinate this benefit. According to her, Alec wanted the proceeds to go to the purchase of the Foundation building so they didn’t have to worry about paying rent in the future.
Even though Alec hadn’t tried to call her again, she thought she still had time to decide whether she wanted to pursue something with him. His last text said to call him if she changed her mind about being with him, but she hadn’t responded. In her mind, she rationalized that whatever happened needed to be done in person. Apparently, he didn’t feel the same way. The tender look on his face as his eyes scanned the woman next to him told her he had moved on, which made sense. Her Google search of Alec showed him with a different woman in every picture. She should have known better, but acknowledging that fact didn’t improve her free-falling mood.
Annette wrapped her hand around her wrist. “Don’t run. He knows you’re coming. Don’t let him think you’re too afraid or too hurt to fulfill your end of the bargain. If he moved on, then he wasn’t worth your time, anyway.”
Violet turned to the side, so she didn’t have to watch him with that woman for one more instant. She’d been delusional to convince herself that the mysterious Alec Reed—as dubbed by countless websites she read over the last month—would be waiting for her with bated breath to come back into his life.
The idea was so ridiculously convoluted that she’d laugh if she didn’t think the show of emotion would somehow twist into a total emotional breakdown. There was just something about the way Alec looked at her and talked to her before everything fell apart that made her want to believe that they could put everything behind them and start over. She was wrong.
“I don’t care what he thinks,” she said as she glanced over her shoulder. She needed to sear the memory of him with that woman into her mind. He looked glamorous and unobtainable. The next time she second-guessed her decision to leave him, this memory would remind her that she made the right decision. “I’m not going to paint a smile on my face all night while he gropes some other woman in front of me.”
“It’s hardly a grope.”
“There’s still time.”
“You’re no fun. At least you could let us stay for Chasing Ruin’s performance. They’re playing songs from their unreleased record.”
“You’re welcome to stay. I just can’t do it.” Her voice broke on the last word. Watching him play the drums would inevitably remind her of the day she and Alec set up the music room at the Foundation. She groaned inwardly. She couldn’t believe she actually complimented him on his drum playing abilities. He must have had a chuckle at her expense later that night. Asshole.
Annette studied her face. “No, I’m coming with you. I came to support you, not to listen to the band or gawk at celebrities.”
“Really? Because I was starting to wonder.”
Annette playfully hit her arm. “Hey, I got lost for a few minutes there, but I’m over my star gawking phase and back to being your one and only best friend.” She wrapped her arm around Violet’s shoulder, pulling her close for a quick hug. “Let’s get out of here and go out to dinner and then dancing.” She bumped her hip into Violet’s side.
“No way. I’ve had enough action for one night.” She wanted to crawl into the bed in their hotel room and watch movies and eat junk food. She couldn’t imagine pretending it didn’t hurt that Alec moved on so quickly. She wanted to kick herself for having such high expectations for this night in spite of reality.
“Are you kidding? We’re not going to waste our pretty,” Annette said, waving her hands in front of them like some sort of Vanna White impersonator.
Violet sighed. “Fine.” They had an early flight back tomorrow morning so the evening couldn’t last that long and this was Annette’s vacation, too.
“Wait,” a voice yelled after them as they stepped into the lobby.
Violet spun around. The woman in the red dress stumbled toward them, nearly tripping over the hem of her dress. Sadly, she took a little bit of delight from the fact that the woman wasn’t much better at walking in high heels than Violet.
“Are you leaving?” the woman asked, a look of panic shooting across her face.
“Excuse me?” Violet said, frowning. “Do I know you?”
The woman frowned. “You’re Violet Emerson, right?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank God I caught you. You have to speak in ten minutes.”
“Who are you?” Violet repeated, thinking the woman’s voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it.
The woman laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot that part. Taylor Reed,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m such an idiot sometimes. I recognized you from your picture on the Foundation website, but I guess you’ve never seen a picture of me or anything.”
As she shook her hand, Violet took in Taylor’s dark blue eyes, so similar to Alec’s that her heart squeezed uncomfortably. “I can see the resemblance.”
Taylor shrugged. “I guess, but I just learned we’re only half-siblings and cousins or something totally fucked up like that.”
“Alec told you about that?”
Taylor laughed again, her light melodic laugh that made her even more approachable and likable. “I can’t believe he thought it was some dark, ugly secret he needed to protect me from. He can be so overbearing and know-it-allish, but with the best possible intentions.”
Annette cleared her throat and elbowed Violet in her side. “This is Annette, my best friend from home.”
“Nice to meet you,” Taylor said. “I’m Alec’s sister.”
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Taylor’s eyes flickered back to Violet. “Now I know why you wanted two tickets.”
“I told you I wanted to bring somebody.”
“Right, but I didn’t like that answer…and neither did Alec.” She tossed a coy wink in Violet’s direction.
Annette raised her eyebrows comically. “See. He thought the same—”
“Shut up,” Violet said under her breath. She didn’t want Annette to reveal her jealous filled retreat from the ballroom when she assumed Taylor was Alec’s date.
“What?” Taylor said, looking back and forth between Annette and Violet.
Violet gave Annette the evil eye, but apparently she didn’t care.
“Violet thought you were Alec’s date. She didn’t want to stay.”
Taylor bit on her lower lip to hold in a chuckle.
“You’re going to lose your best friend status,” Violet said under her breath.
Taylor looked at her watch and then pointed toward the ballroom “We have to go. It’s show time.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
When Violet’s fifteen-minute speech about the worthiness of Foundation ended, she stepped off stage, walking toward him just like Taylor instructed her. Violet sounded nervous the first couple minutes, but as she shared Dean’s story, she hit her stride and no one could tell that she didn’t give speeches in front of a bunch of self-important people every week.
“Hey,” Alec said as she parted the chiffon drapes.
“Hi,” she replied, running one of her slim hands along the length of her neck. It was long, smooth and glowing, just as he remembered, but somehow better. He barely suppressed the urge to push her fingers away so he could trace his fingers along the silken skin starting beneath her earlobe, pausing to feel her pulse fluttering beneath the surface and then to the top of her collarbone.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he took a couple steps toward her. “I thought we could talk after I finish playing. It’s only two songs. You can watch the performance back here and then we could talk here or in the lobby. It’s up to you…” His voice trailed off, waiting for her answer, hoping she was here to give him another chance rather than
solely to represent the Foundation.
Violet smiled and his heart expanded in his chest. He missed her angelic smile and her two perfectly matched dimples more than his next breath. “I’d like to, but I brought Annette and I feel bad leaving her alone.”
“Taylor will hang out with her.”
“Don’t volunteer my girlfriend,” Cam yelled.
“She’s my sister,” Alec shot back. “That takes precedence.”
“We’ll see,” Cam said, turning his back to him.
“Don’t listen to Cam,” Alec cautioned. “I don’t.”
“Fuck you,” Cam shot back. “I can hear you.”
“Anyway,” Alec said, clearing his throat, “Give me fifteen minutes of your time. We don’t have to go anywhere. The lobby will work. I want to clear the air.”
“Okay,” she agreed, squeezing his hand briefly. “I’ll be here.”
“Alec,” Jax yelled. “Are you ready?”
Alec’s eyes darted in Jax’s direction before returning to Violet. “I’ll see you in ten minutes.
Her pale blue eyes locked on his and she nodded.
He gave her one last, lingering look and walked on the stage. He loved performing, but right now he’d love to cancel the whole thing. He’d throw Violet and her sinful, curve-hugging dress over his shoulder and bring her back to his place. For the first time in his life, playing the drums felt like an interruption rather than the point of his existence. When he played the drums, he could trick himself into believing he was happy, but when he was around Violet, he didn’t have to pretend. He was happy.
***
Chasing Ruin stepped on the stage to applause and shouts, but nothing like the videos she glimpsed on YouTube. Apparently, that’s the response when the room was filled with self-important people rather than band-crazed groupies and band super fans.
Standing on the side of the stage was amazing. She couldn’t see the people in the ballroom so she felt a little like a voyeur sneaking into Chasing Ruin’s practice session.