Among The Stars: A Shooting Stars Novella

by Osburn, Terri

  Cam dropped a kiss along the top of her breast. “Was that Beethoven?”

  Veronica smiled but kept her eyes closed. “It was.”

  “Nice choice.”

  The song blared again, and the same name appeared on the screen. “This better be an emergency.” She swiped the other way. “What?”

  “I can’t do it,” Ash said, clearly in a panic.

  “It’s cold feet,” Veronica replied. “Happens all the time. You’ll be fine.”

  “I don’t mean that. I can’t write this song.”

  He’d called her over a damn song? “What are you talking about?”

  Cam tugged the sheet down and flicked her nipple with his tongue. “Hang up.”

  The gasp crossed her lips before she could stop it, and Ash said, “Are you okay? Did you stub your toe or something?”

  “Or something,” she mumbled. Cam’s thigh covered hers, and he pressed his knee between her legs. “Can I call you back?”

  “Ronnie, this is an emergency. I’m trying to write a song for Jesse, and I can’t make it work. I need your help.”

  For fuck’s sake. “You’ve written a million songs. Pick one of those.” Cam kissed the spot behind her ear, and Veronica nearly dropped the phone.

  “This is a song for my wedding. I can’t flip through the archives and pick just anything.”

  Referencing the wedding as if it was his only wedding annoyed her. Pressing a finger against Cam’s lips, she mouthed, “One minute.” His face turned to stone. As he spun away, Veronica grabbed his hand. Cam looked back, and she whispered, “I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

  He surrendered with a nod, but as he settled back on his pillow, another cell phone went off, this time with an actual ring. Cam rolled his eyes and left the bed to find his phone, which he located in his pants pocket. Watching him stand at the foot of her bed, stark naked and looking like a masterpiece carved by Michelangelo himself, stole her breath away.

  “Ronnie, are you listening to me?”

  “I’m here,” she said, only half listening. Cam answered his call, and she was curious who was on the other end.

  “Can you come over here?” Ash asked.

  “Today?” Veronica had earned this day off, and she’d much rather spend it exploring the gorgeous man pacing around her bedroom than her needy ex-husband.

  “Yes, today. The wedding is two days away.” As if she needed to be reminded of that.

  “We can’t wait until Tuesday,” Cam snapped to his caller. “We need that cheese on Monday night.”

  Uh-oh. Monday was the wedding. With a Mexican buffet. Veronica knew things had been going too smoothly.

  “Have you called anyone else?” she said to Ash. You couldn’t swing a hula hoop in this town without hitting a songwriter, and Ash knew all the best ones. Surely someone else could help him.

  “This is too important. I can come over there if that helps.”

  “No,” she said. “Don’t come over here. I’ll come there.”

  “I’ll be there in an hour,” Cam said and ended his call.

  So much for her afternoon plans.

  “Give me an hour,” she said to Ash.

  “Thanks, buddy.”

  As Cam gathered his clothes, Veronica climbed from the bed. “You owe me,” she muttered into her cell, and then ended the call. Snagging her robe, she said, “Is everything okay?”

  Cam pulled his boxer briefs into place. “Our distributor has a shortage of cheese.”

  “Tacos and burritos require cheese,” she pointed out.

  “Exactly.” His pants went on next, and she lamented the loss of her beautiful view. “Since tomorrow is a Sunday, and we’re running into the holiday, I need to handle this now.” He nodded toward her phone. “Did I hear the groom has cold feet?”

  “No. Ash is struggling to write a song for Jesse. He says he needs my help.”

  Dark brows arched. “You write songs, too?”

  “On occasion. It’s part of being a producer.”

  He pulled his T-shirt over his head and tucked it into his pants. “I’d like to hear more about what you do.”

  Men rarely took an interest in Veronica’s work. They either dismissed her talent or preferred to talk about themselves. “Name the time.”

  Cam shook out the wrinkled button-down. “You could come to my place tonight.” Holding her gaze, he slipped his dress shirt on, awaiting her reply.

  “I’d like that. I’m sorry we didn’t get to stay in bed a little longer, though.”

  “I’d have had to leave anyway. Fiona has to be fed.”

  Veronica tensed. “Excuse me? Fiona?”

  Putting the deadly dimples on full display, he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Fiona is a cat.”

  She could not have heard that right. “I’m sorry. You have a cat?”

  “I do.”

  “There was no cat in your apartment.”

  “Yes, there was.”

  “Why didn’t I see her?”

  He pulled Veronica into his arms, sliding his hands inside the robe. “Because Fiona doesn’t like people.” She wasn’t sure if she believed him, but his hands were sliding up her ribcage, and the matter of the mystery feline seemed less important. “I can leave the club by ten. How does a later supper sound?”

  His thumbs glanced her nipples, and she leaned into him. “Followed by a late-night snack?” she asked.

  “Anything you want.”

  She wanted to drag his clothes back off and fuck him senseless for the rest of the day. Screw the damn cheese.

  “We could have an appetizer right now.”

  Cam lifted her against him and ravaged her mouth. By the time he was finished, Veronica was delirious with need.

  “I need to go,” he sighed.

  The jerk was doing it again. “But—”

  In her ear he whispered, “Think about me all day. Touching you. Inside you. Making you scream my name.”

  Veronica grew wet from the words alone. “That isn’t fair.”

  “No, but you’ll thank me tonight.”

  Of that she had no doubt.

  * * *

  Cam knew the moment he entered his apartment that he wasn’t alone.

  “Did you feed that cat,” he called as he dropped his keys in the bowl. Fiona was Janie’s pet, after all. The feline only lived with him because his sister’s vagabond lifestyle didn’t suit the cat’s temperament.

  “I did,” Janie said, appearing from the spare bedroom. “Someone didn’t sleep in his own bed last night.”

  “When did you get in?”

  “Around midnight.”

  “I’d have picked you up from the bus station if you’d called me.” He’d have gone back to Veronica’s after, but he’d have picked her up.

  Janie shrugged. Eleven years his junior and wiser than any twenty-five-year-old should be, she’d been popping in and out of his life for the last seven years. They weren’t technically related. Cam’s father had married Janie’s mother when their kids were thirteen and two respectively. He’d always wanted to be a big brother, and Cam took on the duty of protecting the toddler from the day they met. Blond and happy, she’d been unprepared for the terror entering her life.

  When Cam ran off at sixteen, his first stop had been to Janie’s birth father. He made sure the man knew what was going on in the Rhodes home, and within months, word had reached him that Janie was living with her dad full time. What Cam hadn’t known was that Harlan Tapper had a heroin addiction that would put Janie right back in harm’s way. He never forgave himself for leaving her behind, despite the reality that a life with him on the streets wouldn’t have been any better.

  “How’s Colorado?” he asked, retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge. Chinese take-out boxes covered the top shelf. “I see you ordered in.”

  “I had to. You’ve got nothing here.”

  He’d been busy this week. “Put in a grocery order with Marissa downstairs, a
nd she’ll have it delivered.”

  “Already done.

  “Colorado?” Cam repeated. He liked to keep tabs on her as much as possible, but that only worked when he knew where she was.

  “The gig ended at Christmas. I got a lead on giving surf lessons in Hermosa Beach, so I’ll head that way next.” California was expensive. He’d make sure she had extra cash in her account. “You going to tell me who the new woman is?”

  They weren’t the discuss-their-love-lives kind of siblings. “No.”

  “I hope she’s less of a bitch than the last one was.”

  Janie had been visiting when Cam’s engagement came to an abrupt end. “Samantha isn’t a bitch.”

  “She dumped your ass for no good reason.”

  There’d been a reason. “We didn’t agree on everything that a couple getting married should.”

  “Why do people want kids anyway? Half the ones already here are starving, ignored, or both.”

  Cam froze with the water bottle halfway to his mouth. “What did you say?”

  She slid past him to retrieve her leftovers from the refrigerator, then grabbed a fork from the silverware drawer. “I heard the fight. And before you accuse me, I wasn’t eavesdropping. I had my door shut and everything.”

  He didn’t remember his and Samantha’s final conversation being that loud. They’d dated for nine months before Cam bought the ring. Marriage had felt like a natural next step in the relationship. A corporate merger of sorts. As one of the top managers in country music, Samantha needed a place to develop talent, and Cam had just opened the tavern. They’d both built their careers from nothing and shared a common work ethic. Then there’d been their shared experiences as children. Always.

  He’d also believed they shared the same views on having a family. But Samantha had wanted children, and to her surprise, Cam did not.

  The image of Veronica smiling up at him filled Cam’s mind, and he remembered what she’d said on Christmas Day about wanting a family. To his own surprise, his stance wavered. He imagined her carrying his child and pride list through him seconds before the breathtaking fear.

  “Dude,” Janie said. “You’re all pale and shit. Are you okay?”

  If he was thinking about having children with a woman he’d known for only thirty-six hours, Cam was definitely not okay.

  “I need to shower.”

  Cam stalked into his bedroom. After turning the shower on full blast, he undressed, catching the scent of Veronica as the T-shirt went over his head. His body hardened, and his parting words came back to haunt him.

  Think about me touching you.

  His dick came to full attention, ready to perform. With a growl, Cam reached for his cell and typed out a message.

  I want you.

  A message came back.

  I offered.

  I should have stayed.

  Yes.

  Cam imagined her purring that word while he buried himself deep inside her. As the bathroom filled with steam, he typed one word.

  Tonight.

  Tonight.

  Removing the rest of his clothes, he stepped into the shower and leaned an arm on the wall, allowing the state-of-the-art system to ease his fatigued muscles. Closing his eyes, he pictured Veronica kneeling before him, licking her lips in anticipation. And then he took himself in hand to provide much needed relief.

  * * *

  “Just put a yeah there,” Veronica suggested. She was so over this damn song.

  Ash tapped his pencil against his chin. He’d been hunched over the yellow legal pad for an hour now. If he didn’t straighten up soon, he’d walk down the aisle looking like Quasimodo. They were in the studio he’d built in a spare bedroom in his house. This was the house they’d lived in together, a rundown shack when they bought it a few months after the wedding. The renovation had been Ash’s passion project, so when they’d gone their separate ways, letting him keep it made sense.

  “Maybe I need to change the line before it.”

  Veronica made stabbing motions behind his back. Why the hell was she here? He’d dismissed every suggestion she’d made. She got it. This was his love song to his true love. But why did Veronica have to be tortured in the process. Wasn’t she being tortured enough?

  Speaking of. The one good thing about Ash ignoring her was that it gave her time to obsessively check her phone for more texts from Cam. As far as sexting went, the simple I want you was base level at best. Based on his parting words this morning, she knew he could do better. Tired of waiting, she took the texting bull by the horns and started something herself.

  I’m still sore from last night.

  She read the words back and realized the statement wasn’t remotely sexy. Deleting the message, she tried again.

  I can still smell you.

  Holy shit, did she suck at this. Veronica put a little more thought into the next one.

  “This whole verse is wrong,” Ash announced, and she quickly tucked her phone beneath her leg.

  “You’re overthinking it,” she said. “Read me what you have again.”

  “I’m telling you. It’s wrong.”

  “Read,” she demanded.

  Ash sighed. “Life ain’t always easy, And it isn’t always fair, Finding the girl you were meant to find, Is precious and it’s rare, To lose her once you’ve found her, Takes a special kind of fool, I can’t believe I get a second chance, To spend my life with you.”

  Veronica absorbed the words, waiting for the twinge of regret that her ex-husband was waxing poetic about another woman. But that twinge never came. Nor did the gut-eating jealousy she’d been wallowing in since Halloween.

  “I wouldn’t change a word,” she said, and meant it. “That’s beautiful.”

  “You think so?” He stared at the words with a total lack of confidence.

  She rolled her chair up to his and made him look up. “You could sing her the alphabet, and Jesse would love it. The day is going to be perfect, and you two are going to live happily ever after. Relax. You’ve got this, buddy.”

  “Thank you.” Taking Veronica’s hand, he kissed her knuckles. Something he did often. “I’m sorry about all the craziness. This isn’t too weird for you, is it? I just couldn’t imagine doing it without you.”

  Going for honesty, she said, “There is a certain amount of weirdness involved in helping my ex-husband marry another woman, but I want you to be happy. If marrying Jesse makes you happy, then I’m with you every step of the way.” She leaned back in her chair. “I take that back. I’ll help you throw this wedding, but you’re on your own for the honeymoon.”

  “Yeah,” he laughed, “I think I’ve got that part.”

  Taking a breath, Veronica felt a shift. Like a gear falling back into place. This was the way it was always supposed to be—Ash and Jesse together. Their story started long before he met Veronica, and she would be lucky to watch the rest of it play out. “I’m happy for you, bud.”

  “I’m happy for you, too,” Ash replied. “Cam seems like a nice guy.”

  Veronica didn’t know where things were going with the new man in her life. Their relationship had escalated quickly, to say the least, but it could burn out just as fast. She hoped not, but Cam wasn’t an easy man to figure out. He was complicated, guarded, and more damaged than any guy she’d ever dated. But she’d made him smile, and with Cam, that alone was a victory.

  Her sister’s words about nice guys came back to her and Veronica said, “Nice isn’t the word I would use.”

  Ash went on alert. “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing bad,” she assured him. “Cam is just… different.”

  “Different?”

  “Yeah.” Veronica struggled to explain. “He’s serious and strong, but then not at the same time.”

  “He sounds like a riddle,” Ash said with a chuckle.

  Leave it to the songwriter to find the right word. “Yes. Cam is a riddle. A riddle I’m still trying to figure out.”

  Ri
sing from his chair, he tucked the pencil behind his ear. “I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not.”

  Neither could she. “It’s been good so far.” An understatement if there ever was one.

  “Then I hope it stays that way. What do you say we record this and see how it sounds?”

  “We can do that.”

  Ash left the notepad on his chair and crossed to the far wall to pick out a guitar. The man had a collection that would make any avid musician jealous. She slid her chair in front of the small control board and felt the phone buzz against her leg. Checking the screen, she found the message she’d been hoping for.

  I can’t stop thinking about you.

  Heat warmed her cheeks as she contemplated a response.

  Thinking about me doing what?

  Seconds passed before an answer came.

  Sucking me dry.

  And we have sexting. She knew he’d be good at this. Wanting more, she went with another question.

  You liked that?

  Yes.

  What else are you thinking about?

  Being inside you. Making you scream.

  It was suddenly really warm in this studio.

  “You ready?” Ash asked, settling on the edge of his seat with a beautiful Gibson balanced on his knee. “Why are you all red?”

  “I just need to answer this,” Veronica said, ignoring the second question.

  Keep thinking about that. I’ll see you tonight.

  She put the phone on the desk and kept her eyes on the computer monitor to the right of the board. “Okay. Time to record.”

  “Do I even want to know what those texts look like?” he asked in a teasing tone.

  “Nope. But if you ever need sexting lessons, I know a guy who’s really good at it.”

  Ash burst out laughing while Veronica opened the recording program on the computer. They needed to get this over with. She had more sexy underwear to buy.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cam should have known that the last Saturday of the year would be a fucking nightmare. The band broke up during their set, leaving him without an act on the main floor. Then the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission picked tonight to do a house check. That pulled Cam away from the band debacle to prove that his permits and liquor license were in order. The clincher was the plague that appeared to be running through his staff. He’d had to send three home sick after another two called out.