by Jessie Cooke
I slid my arm around Lynn. I felt her melt into me and I smiled at her again. “Are you ladies ready?”
Lynn said something unintelligible and Rose rolled her eyes. Mick stepped up next to her and she gave him a very clear warning look with her eyes. She wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to take the liberty of touching her the way I had Lynn.
We led the girls to the back of the building and then security herded us all out to the bus that we’d be taking to our hotel, the Trump suites on 5th Avenue. As we passed the three trucks that tour with us, I saw the broken-down stage already being loaded. They were fast. The show hadn’t been over for an hour yet. Our last show is in Connecticut. By the time we got there our second stage would already be assembled.
My travel set-up included the two stages and two crews. One crew stayed with us and the other one advanced onto our next venue. The two stages afforded us convenience and safety when it came to the advanced pyrotechnics. We had two buses for the band and the crew that stayed with us...I’d also incorporated travel into Mick’s contract when he agreed to tour with us so there was another private bus for him and his crew.
Originally tonight my plan was to see the girls through a drink or two and sneak off into my own suite for the night…but even with the attitude, the little blue-eyed angel was going to make that hard on me…or make me hard…or both…
Lynn talked non-stop on the bus on the way to the hotel. She introduced herself to the rest of the band and then she and Guy…my bass player, realized they’d both gone to the same school in Brooklyn…P.S. something or another. They started talking about that and people they knew, so I slipped out and moved up front where little miss sunshine was sitting all alone with her arms folded over her chest…and what a nice chest it was if I did say so.
“How are you doing, Rose?” I asked, slipping into the seat next to hers. She shot me a sideways look and said,
“I’m fine.”
“I’m guessing this whole concert and party thing was Lynn’s idea?”
“You’re guessing correctly.”
“So why did you agree to come? Was it my irresistible good looks…or my stunning voice…?”
She snorted and said, “None of the above.”
Trying not to laugh I asked her, “My magnetic personality?”
She looked at me again. Her eyes took up a third of her face. It was impossible not to be drawn into them. Hardly,” she said.
That time I did laugh. “You’re hard on a man’s ego,” I told her.
Still looking at me and making it harder to think clearly since all of the blood from my brain was racing to other parts of my body she said, “I doubt if I had a jackhammer I could chip your ego.”
“Nice, I like a girl who refuses to conform.”
“Conform to what, exactly?”
“To the norm. Most women in your position would be doing cartwheels. A night of endless possibilities with one of the biggest names in the business.”
“Wow…congratulations.”
I smiled again, “For what?”
“On being your own best cheerleader. I bet you can even bend far enough over to kiss your own ass.”
I cracked up at that one. She was one sarcastic bitch…I liked it. “I probably could,” I told her. “But I don’t have to. Anyone on this bus would do it for me…except you. You’re a little rebel, aren’t you?” She just shook her head at me. We were pulling up behind the Trump Hotel and into the garage where the VIP entrance is. There was a small group of girls standing near that door and giggling and talking. I wasn’t surprised by that. Getting girls for the after party was part of my PR guys’ job, and it was a job he did well. With Hank in my corner I was never left without a warm, sexy body in my bed. It was just too bad that it was never the one I wanted. I glanced across the bus at Mick. He was on the phone. He’d be polite to our fans at the party, but he never touched one of them. Sometimes when I was feeling like an ass I wished that he would. Then I could play the hero and tell Skye her man was cheating…and then I could pick up the pieces.
When we got off the bus, Lynn turned her attention from Guy to me and walked with me until we came to the group of party girls. I stopped to greet them and out of the corner of my eye I saw Rose grab Lynn’s arm and pull her towards her. I couldn’t see what was being said, but I suspected that Lynn was getting an ass chewing. It was obvious that Rose would have already left if not for the “girl code” that said you didn’t leave one of your girls behind.
When we got to the room I stood back and let the girls “Ooh and Ahh” over it. Most of the girls that got invited to these after parties didn’t have a lot of money so a place like this was a novelty to them. I stood against the granite counter that separated the gourmet kitchen from the sitting area and watched as they looked out the 10ft. floor to ceiling windows at the city lights.
The kitchen I was standing in front of was a fully equipped European-style kitchen with all of the appliances you would need. The refrigerator was stocked with what the owner of the room… in this case Guy and one of Mick’s boys wanted. Bobby and my drummer were sharing the room next door and Mick and his drummer the one next to that. I had my own room…I was the star after all.
One of the guys passed beers around for the girls. I noticed that the angry little angel passed. When the others turned on the 55’ television and started playing video games I went to the refrigerator, pulled out two Ginger Ales and held one up in her direction. At first, I thought she was going to say no just to spite me. Her thirst must have been too strong though because reluctantly she came over. I waited until she was there to watch me open the can and pour it over the ice in the glass on the counter. I’d been accused of drugging girls in the past…I was a little hyper-sensitive about it.
I handed her the soda. She took it and gave me a grudging, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. So, Rose, what do you do?”
She looked at me suspiciously like I’d asked for her social security number and then she said, “I write.”
“Cool. Anything I may have read?”
“I doubt it,” she said, “I haven’t written anything for Rolling Stone or Maxim yet.”
“Ouch!” I put my hand over my heart.
She almost smiled. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be such a bitch to you. I just really don’t want to be here. That’s not your fault though.” She looked over at Lynn with narrowed eyes. Lynn was oblivious. She and Guy seemed to really be hitting it off.
“So if you so badly didn’t want to be here, how did your friend talk you into coming?”
“She’s not my friend. She’s my little sister. Today is her birthday.”
“Oh, now it all makes sense. Family guilt.”
She smiled for real that time. She was so pretty my heart sped up. “Yeah, my family has lots of that. How about yours?”
“I don’t have much of a family, unless you count these idiots.”
“Oh…I’m sorry,” she said.
I smiled, she felt bad. Somewhere underneath all that attitude was a nice girl. “It’s okay. I was an only child…kind of. I had a brother but he died when I was little. My parents are still living, but I’ve repeatedly disappointed them, so we’re not all that close.” To say my mother never recovered from my brother’s death was a bit of an understatement. He drowned in the pond on the Rez when he was five; I was two at the time so I don’t really remember him. Mom still goes out there and prays over the water every day. My father did a better job getting past it. I wouldn’t ever say he was over it…but he’d been able to move forward.
“Oh…how long have you been a rock star?”
Laughing I said, “I have been playing the guitar and singing since I was five, but I guess my “star” status came about around sixteen.”
“Wow, that’s young.”
My teenage fame was the stuff the tabloids were made of…even now, ten years later. I was surprised she didn’t know the story. “I was ‘discovered’ at a casino in R
eno where my Mom was working as a housekeeper. I went to help her one day because she needed someone to move beds around for her while she cleaned. I was singing and there happened to be a producer in the hallway. I had a record deal two weeks later. Everything happened kind of fast after that.” Within a year, I was linked to every wild party in Hollywood, Vegas and New York. I used every drug available, I drank everything I could get my hands on and by the next year I was so strung out it was affecting my music. That time I was sent to rehab by my producers. I stayed clean for a few years before the temptations became too much again…and then there was the incident when I was home on the Rez. That kid had died shooting up heroin that I’d bought and paid for. Not a single day went by when I didn’t think about him. Not that it did him any good. He was still just as dead. “So Rose, you want to check out the balcony with me? I need some air.”
She again looked at me warily, but the guys had lit up their fat blunts and it was getting smoky in the room. The idea of spending time alone with me was at least preferable to that. “Okay,” she said. I tried to take her hand and lead her out but she pulled it back. I resisted the urge to smile.
The balcony was huge and overlooked Central Park. We just stood out there for a while and breathed in the fresh air and soaked up the essence of the night. She broke the silence first by saying, “Do you ever get tired of it all?”
“You mean the fame?”
She smirked. She found my self-confidence amusing. “Yeah, that and all the traveling, living in hotel rooms.”
“Sometimes,” I told her, honestly. “But for the most part, it’s all I really know. I’ve been doing it for ten years now.”
“That would have to make it hard to have a relationship, huh?”
I nodded. “I haven’t really got to that point in my life yet though.” The only woman I ever even considered having a “relationship” with was Skye. I was too late on that one though, she was already head over heels for the giant when I met her. “What about you, Rose?”
“What about me, what?”
“Do you have a guy waiting at home for you?”
She looked like she was thinking over the question and then she said, “Not tonight.” I wasn’t sure what that meant. She glanced inside and saw her sister making out with Guy. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Is he a decent guy?”
He was, but he wasn’t what a girl would call a keeper. Guy had three serious relationships since I’d known him. He’d lost all three because it was virtually impossible for him to keep his dick in his pants. “Yeah, he’s a decent guy.” She gave me the narrow-eyed look again and said,
“Would he be good enough for your sister?”
For some reason, lying for my boy was suddenly not as important to me as telling this pretty blue-eyed woman the truth. “No, definitely not good enough for my sister.” Within the hour, Rose was dragging her sister out practically by the ear. Lynn left her number with Guy, but ten minutes after she was gone, he was making out with one of the other girls. I tried to get Rose to give me her number, but she wasn’t having any of me. She politely thanked me, took her sister by the ear and left. Something about that made my cock stretch even tighter in my pants. I picked out one of the “Party Girls” and retired to my own suite for the rest of the night…or morning, whatever you want to call it.
3
Rose
“Rose? Honey is everything okay?” It was Sunday morning and I was helping my mom make breakfast for the big, Italian family that was about to descend upon her. Every Sunday she made breakfast…most of the time, everyone showed up.
“Yeah, everything is fine, Ma. Why?”
“You seem about a million miles away.”
“I’m sorry. I was just thinking about a story I started last night.” I was thinking about Kyle Case.
“You can talk to me if you need to.”
I smiled at her. My mother was the epitome of motherly. I’d gotten lucky in that respect. She was Italian and came from a huge family. Food was always a part of their traditions and that was how she’d raised me and my siblings and our Sunday morning breakfasts and once a month dinners were all tools for keeping us close.
“I don’t have anything I need to talk about Ma, but if I did, you would be the first person I come to.”
She smiled warmly. “You’re a good kid, Rose, unlike your sister who has yet to make an appearance.”
I looked at the time. I didn’t tell Ma because she would freak out, but Lynn drove to Connecticut the night before for another Stone Mother concert. Apparently Guy, the one she’d been sucking face with all night at the party I went to with her had sent her tickets. I wasn’t happy about it either, but she didn’t care about that the way she did about upsetting Ma. I wasn’t happy with myself this week. I’d spent a big chunk of it thinking about Kyle Case.
The day after the party I’d spent an hour online researching him. I perused all the photos I could find of him and read the articles. From that timeline, it seemed like he dated a different girl every week. There were pictures of him in a suit and tie, looking dapper. There were pictures in a swim suit and pictures of him in his rocker gear…surprisingly, that was the look that left me on fire from the inside out. I needed to shake the lust so I read about him doing two different stints in rehab. There was also an article that talked about someone overdosing at one of his parties pretty recently. He was bad news and I told myself that once I’d found all of that out, it would make it easier to put him out of my mind. I was wrong. Several times the rest of the week I would be in the middle of something and find my mind drifting away to picture that fat bottom lip of his…it’s so sexy. That night when he was close to me I had to mentally restrain myself. I wanted to run my tongue across it so badly. Then there were those deep chocolate eyes of his that made me want to drown myself in them. He was so far from my usual type that I couldn’t even believe I was having those thoughts…but it had been almost three years since I’d had sex…that could explain a lot.
“Mama!” I smiled at the sound of my little man’s voice. I thought about Kyle again. I’m sure that I’m not his type either…a twenty-seven-year-old unwed mother with a toddler was not exactly a prize catch. I grabbed Carlo up in my arms and swung him in the air. He giggled as I caught him and stood him back down on his feet. My heart swelled ten sizes just at the sight of him and any problems I may have were washed away with one glance at his perfect face.
“Hi baby! Did you and Uncle Tommy have fun?” my brother is a cop. This week he was assigned to the park on a horse. Today was his day off, but he’d promised Carlo a ride on the horse so he took him out as soon as we got there this morning.
“I rode a horsy.”
“You did? What a big boy! Was it a pretty horse, a big one?”
“It was huge!” he said with a smile and spreading his little chubby arms out to show me just how big.
“Wow that is huge! What color was he?”
“Blue!” Carlo didn’t know all his colors yet so anything dark in color was blue to him. “Well, that was a horse of a different color wasn’t it?” I ruffled his blonde hair and he took off again to go play with my brother’s kids. Tommy came through the door then and wrapped me in a bear hug from behind. “Hey Gumba! I can’t breathe!” He squeezed me tighter. “Ma!”
“Tommy, let go of your sister!” He let go but punched me in the arm. The man is thirty years old, he’s been married twice and he has three kids…you’d think he’d be grown up by now.
“Where’s Lynnie?” he asked as he grabbed a piece of bacon and popped it into his mouth.
“She should be here soon,” I said. When he turned around to talk to Ma I slid my phone out of my pocket and looked at it. I was getting a little bit worried. She’d text me last night to say she was staying in Connecticut for the night but I haven’t heard from her since. I still didn’t have a message from her so I slipped out while Ma and Tommy were still busy. I stood underneath the stairs and called her. The phone rang about four
times and just as I thought she wasn’t going to answer, it was picked up.
“Hello?” A sleepy male voice answered.
“Who is this?”
The voice sounded more alert and familiar as it said, “Who is this?”
“This is Rose and that’s my sister’s phone. Where is she?”
“Rose? Hey, it’s Kyle.” My stomach was suddenly in my throat. Lynn spent the night with Kyle? So what if she had…it wasn’t like I was ever going to see him again. I was suddenly angry, at him. It was stupid and I told myself so but it didn’t do any good.
“What are you doing with Lynn’s phone?”
“I have no fucking clue. You woke me up.”
“Maybe you should check the bed next to you and see if she’s there.”
The bastard laughed. “There’s no one here but me Rose, but it’s nice to know you care.”
“I care about my sister.” Why was I so relieved that there was no one in Kyle’s bed? “Where is she?”
“My guess would be in Guy’s room. They partied in here last night until I threw them out…she probably just left her phone.”
“In your bed?”
He laughed again. “It sounds an awful lot like you care who has been in my bed. Do you want to talk about that, Rose?”
“No, but I do want you to get your hungover ass out of that bed and go look for my sister.” Damn! I shouldn’t have said “ass.” Now I’m picturing how hot his looked in those tight black pants he was wearing the other night.
“You’re kind of grumpy in the morning.”
“I’m not grumpy. I’m worried about my sister.”
“Okay doll face. Give me a few minutes and I’ll go see if she’s in with Guy and I’ll call you back.”
“Have her call me!”
“Yes ma’am.”
I hung up and said, “Dick weed!”
“What’s a dick weed Mama?”
Shit! I looked down and my sweet boy was at my feet. I knelt down and said, “Mama said a very bad word, honey. Please don’t say that again. If you won’t, I won’t, I promise.”