One More Night (Backstage Pass Book 1)

by Ali Parker

  Caleb snorted. “I’m sure you know where you stand, but this is going to end badly, bro.”

  “Why are you so sure?”

  Brown eyes raking mine, I could see every bit of truth and sincerity shining from his, as well as a flash of anger festering right beneath the surface. “Why am I so sure? I’m so sure because you’re you, Jared. It’s going to end badly, and that’s going to impact all of us.”

  A part of me wanted to rip my brother’s throat out, but another understood where he was coming from. I’d never wanted to be that guy, but I was. And now that I was, I didn’t know how to just let it go.

  “Maybe, or maybe not. I just don’t care. I’m having fun. I’m enjoying the ride.”

  “Maybe not?” Caleb scoffed. “How does ‘I’m having fun’ translate into it not ending badly? I know you think you have an understanding with her, but get real for a second, man. That shit is bound to hit the fan eventually.”

  “I have gotten real. I realized that the having fun thing wasn’t working anymore, so I changed it up.”

  Caleb choked on the sip of beer he was taking, and his eyebrows jumped up. “Are you serious? You’re, like, legit dating now?”

  Dom looked between the two of us and held his hands up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. One of you needs to back the fuck up. What’s this about dating?”

  “I’m dating Alicia.” I shrugged.

  Matt look surprised, but then came over to clap me on the back. “You’re actually dating someone? I wonder if the souls in hell were prepared when it froze over, but congrats, man. She’s hot.”

  Dom shrugged off his surprise and pointed his bottle at me. “Good luck with that. I think you’re going to need it. She’s a firecracker, that one.”

  I smirked and arched a brow at him. “You don’t know the half of it.”

  “And that’s exactly why this is going to end badly,” Caleb said, shaking his head as he sipped his beer. “You don’t know the first thing about being in a relationship. Lesson one. Girlfriends don’t like it when you make comments loaded with sexual innuendo about them, like the one you just made.”

  Dom laughed, but nodded. “This is one conversation I never thought would see the light of day. Jared getting schooled on how to actually date a woman.”

  “I’m not getting schooled. I know how to keep my woman happy.” I winked, causing Caleb to shake his head at me again. Dom joined in this time.

  “In my wildest dreams, I never thought you would be the first one to fall,” Nick lamented, eyebrows drawn together as he pouted unhappily.

  “Amen to that.” Matt grinned, making Nick seem even more depressed.

  “I thought for sure it was going to be one of those two,” he jerked his head toward Caleb and Dom, “who were going to be the first to ruin our lifestyle. But you? Thought you were in it for the long haul, just like I am.”

  “Ruin our lifestyle?” I scoffed, pointing my thumb at my chest. “How am I ruining the lifestyle?”

  “Easy. First of all, you won’t be able to come out with us at night. No more spontaneous, drunken road trips to Vegas or anywhere else. She’ll go with us on tour, and we won’t be able to walk around naked on the bus.”

  “Dude.” Matt laughed, gesturing toward Nick’s groin. “We’ve had this talk before. Nobody wants that thing out on the bus.”

  “I definitely agree with Matt on that one,” I said, then argued my case. “For the record, I will be able to go out with you and do all that other shit if I want to. Alicia’s not like that. It just so happens that I’d rather spend time with her pretty face than your obnoxious asses right now. And this particular woman was going to come on tour with us anyway.”

  “Yeah, but she wasn’t going to be on our bus,” Nick grumbled. “And you wanting to spend time with her proves my point. With each man that falls, we’re just going to get more boring. We’re going to go soft.”

  “Trust me, there is nothing soft about me when I’m around her.” I was about to launch into graphic detail, despite Caleb’s warning look, when my phone rang with an unknown number. “I gotta get this. Matt, do me a favor and convince him I’m not going soft or boring.”

  Crossing the floor, I ducked out of the studio and answered the phone. “This is Jared.”

  There was rustling at the other end of the line before a breathy, tearful voice came on. “Jared?”

  “I already said that. Who is this?” My question was answered by sniffling, and my stomach clenched, bile rising at the same time that a bolt of irritation ran through me. “Madison? I mean Jenny?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “You shouldn’t be calling me. I have nothing to say to you.” I snapped, gripping my hair in annoyance.

  “Don’t hang up, Jared. Please. You and I, we’re destined to be together. The two of us, with our baby.”

  This chick was insane. That was the only explanation for it. “There is no baby. And you and I aren’t destined to be anything but over.”

  “There was a baby, Jared. I’m sure of it. I must’ve just miscarried and not recognized it for what it was. Just come to me. We can try again.”

  An incredulous laugh burst from me. “Are you crazy? I mean, for real? You’re a gold-digging bitch, sure. But I never thought you’d go this far.”

  I was being rather rude, but I’d had enough of this woman. Jenny apparently didn’t feel the same way. “I’m crazy about you, Jared. Don’t you see that? We’re meant to be together. I know that. If you would just see me, if you would just give me a chance, I know you’ll feel it, too.”

  “I’m not going to see you. Never again. In case you were thinking about showing up uninvited at my place again, you should know that I have a ton of security around me now, and that if I so much as think I see you around my house, you will be arrested. And on top of that, I will sue you this time.”

  “But you and I—”

  It was time for her unhinged rant to be over. She was mellowing the high I was on from finishing the album, and trying to talk her down was a bad idea. It would probably give her the impression that I gave a fuck about her, which I didn’t.

  Not a one.

  “You and I nothing. Don’t ever call me again.” Pulling my phone away from my ear, I jabbed the end call button, blocked the number for good measure, and shoved my phone in my pocket.

  The guys were laughing when I walked back into the studio, and I didn’t want to harsh the celebratory vibe, so when Caleb turned to me with a questioning look and asked about the call, I smirked and made up a lie.

  This whole thing had caused all of us enough stress as it was.

  “It was nothing. I thought it might be Alicia calling from one of her office lines, but it was a sales call.”

  Putting the phone call behind me and the fucked-up Madison drama behind me, I walked to my half-empty beer and joined the guys in celebrating a job well done. This was the album we’d been working toward making our entire careers, and nothing was going to get in the way of my memorializing this moment like it deserved to be.

  Especially not Madison Green. Jenny Green.

  Who-the-fuck-ever she was.

  CHAPTER 28

  ALICIA

  “Finally, I get to see my sister,” Kelly complained with a teasing smile as I opened my door.

  “I just saw you the other day.” Thinking about it, I realized it had been a little bit longer since I’d last seen her than I thought.

  Kelly rolled her eyes and followed me inside, making our way to my kitchen as we talked. “It was not just the other day. You’ve been spending all your time with your new boyfriend. I mean, I get it. He’s gorgeous, but I guess it’s just annoying that he cuts into so much of my sister time. Plus, it’s also jealousy because you get to spend so much time with that man.”

  I leaned up to grab us each a wine glass and looked back at her over my shoulder. “He doesn’t cut into that much of your sister time. You’re here with me right now, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, I
guess I am, but since you only texted me this afternoon, I can only stay for this one glass. After that, I’m off to an event I have to cover tonight. What’s he busy with tonight, anyway?”

  “Who says he’s busy?” I asked as I poured some merlot and held up a glass for her.

  “Oh, please,” Kelly scoffed. “You’ve been with him every night since you two started dating. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you took the night off from him to see me if he’s not busy?”

  “I do, actually. He’s out celebrating with the guys. He invited me, but I wanted to see you.”

  We carried our wine to the living room and sank into our usual positions on my couches. I pulled a pillow onto my lap and sat back.

  “He’s out celebrating?” she asked, apprehension clear in her eyes. “Don’t you think you should be with him?”

  “You’re confusing me. One second you’re complaining that I’m not spending enough time with you, and the next, you’re telling me that I should be with him?” The crisp merlot was cool and just what I needed for my own mini-celebration with my sister.

  The buzz around the album was at an all-time high, and I was proud of having achieved what I had.

  She sighed, folding her legs under her as she got comfortable. “I know. I know. But aren’t you worried about what he’s going to get up to out there, alone with the guys?”

  Echoing her sigh, I nodded. “A little, but I need to learn to trust him if this is going to work.”

  “I guess, but with a history as sordid as his, do you trust him?”

  Pressing my lips together, I rolled my head from shoulder to shoulder as I thought, bringing up my free hand to massage the muscles in my neck. “I have to. Or, at least, I have to try. There’s no way I’m babysitting him around the clock to make sure he keeps it in his pants. He needs to be able to navigate that aspect of his life as a taken man without my holding his hand every step of the way if it’s going to work between us.”

  “Jared Larsen as a taken man. Now there’s a foreign concept. You keep saying if this is going to work. Do you think it won’t?” She took a swig of wine as she waited for my answer.

  “I don’t know. I guess you never know at the beginning of a new relationship whether it has staying potential long-term, but I honestly just don’t know whether he really is ready for anything serious in the long run. A part of me keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to realize that dating me really means no more one-night stands with supermodels, and then he’ll run away screaming.”

  “If anyone is worth giving that up for, it’s you,” Kelly assured me. “He’s gone this far with you. I don’t remember there being a time when he was photographed with any woman more than once, and I know that it hasn’t been official for all this time. He’s been only with you for what? Going on two months now?”

  I nodded and took another sip of my wine. “Just about. It’s not like he hasn’t partied or been out with the guys since we met, but tonight is the first time since we made it official, so I guess this will be a good test for his self-control. His first taste of having to hang back and watch the others pick the women they’ll go home with while knowing he’s going home alone. I don’t know how that’s going to go down.”

  “You think he’ll be able to control himself?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know. I think that man can do anything he sets his mind to. The question is whether he really has set his mind to this, or whether reality’s going to slap me in the face tonight.”

  She picked a piece of lint off the red couch and mirrored my position by placing a pillow in her lap and hugging it to her chest. The wording on her pillow was faced toward me, and I chuckled softly when I read the “Live the Life you Love” quote on it. It seemed fitting for this conversation.

  “Ironic you should have chosen that one.”

  Kelly’s eyes followed mine and dropped to the pillow. She giggled and squeezed it. “Yeah, I guess it is. Jared does seem to live the life he loves, doesn’t he?”

  “That he does. I just wonder if he’s going to love this part of it.”

  “You seem to be loving this part of yours,” Kelly observed, and I smiled. Despite my uncertainty about our future, I really was loving everything about my life at the moment.

  “I am. Say what you will about Jared’s self-control, but he’s been teaching me when it’s okay for me to let go of mine.”

  “He actually manages to get you to loosen up and let go sometimes?” she asked, her manicured eyebrows rising as if she didn’t believe me.

  “He does. It’s been fun. Everything about being with him has been fun. He’s been really good about showing me how to just get out of my head sometimes and enjoy life.” Thinking about Jared was making me miss him. It was crazy, since I’d woken up beside him just this morning, but I couldn’t help it.

  Kelly’s lips spread into a wide, genuinely happy smile as she watched mine do the same thing. “I’m so freaking jealous of you right now, but you deserve every ounce of the happiness he’s making you feel.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “Enough about me. What’s going on with you?”

  Kelly played with a strand of her hair, rolling it around her finger, and chewed on her bottom lip. “Not much. The blog has gained another hundred or so subscribers. No doubt it will explode if, and when, it comes out that my sister is dating the Jared Larsen.”

  Rolling my eyes, I chucked a pillow at her, and she squealed, but caught it. “Don’t you dare say anything. I want to keep it quiet, at least until the announcements about the album are done. The media needs to be focused on the music, not Jared’s love life.”

  “But his love life is so much more interesting,” she teased and took another sip of wine. “You know I won’t say anything. Do you think you could get that beautiful boyfriend of yours to agree to give me an interview, though?”

  I giggled a little at her tenacity, but then I nodded. “I’ll talk to him about it. It’s up to him whether he wants to do it or not. Otherwise, you’ll have to go through the proper channels just like everyone else.”

  She dropped her chin to give me a pointed look. “Going through you is going through the proper channels.”

  “I know, but if he doesn’t agree to your unofficial request, you know the drill,” I told her.

  She nodded, but then grinned wickedly. “You could, you know, use your influence on him to agree to an interview with me.”

  “And what exactly is it that you would have me do?”

  She pretended to study her fingernails nonchalantly, then laughed as she widened her eyes innocently. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you could withhold sex from him until he agrees.”

  “That’s not happening. He’d probably turn you down on principle if he knew that you even suggested it. So, I’m going to do you a favor and not tell him. If he agrees, and if it fits into my promotional strategy, we’ll set it up sometime.”

  I tried my best to keep my voice stern, but I failed, smiling all the way through. Kelly nodded, turning her wrist to check the time on her watch. “Crap. I’ve got to go.”

  Downing the last few sips of wine, she gathered her purse from the kitchen where she’d left it and rushed to my door, pausing to give me a quick hug before she was gone.

  I exhaled a deep sigh and locked my door behind my sister. I’d been hoping to spend a bit more time with Kelly tonight, but she was right about my invitation having been last-minute. I padded to my bedroom to change into my pajamas, and once I was back on my couch, settled in with a fresh glass of wine and my e-reader, I fired off a text to Kelly to thank her for coming for her quick visit.

  It had been good to see her, however briefly it might have been. My phone still in hand, I decided to send a quick text to Jared, too. I didn’t want to check up on him or anything. I just missed him, and I wanted him to know.

  Me: Hope you’re having fun. I am.

  Snapping a quick picture from my tummy down. It showed my e-reader, wine, and my legs with my Batm
an pajama shorts hitting just above mid-thigh. I attached it to my text and sent it off.

  A couple of pages into my new mystery novel, my phone buzzed on my stomach, and I smiled when I saw that it was a reply from him, even though he was out with the band.

  Jared: You just had to include those legs, didn’t you? I want them wrapped around me. Would’ve been having more fun if they were.

  Clearly unable to help himself, he ended the text with a series of rather suggestive emojis. I laughed out loud and opened the picture he’d attached. It was a selfie of him with his bottom lip sticking out as he wagged a finger at me.

  It was adorable. How was it possible that he managed to make my heart beat faster without even being with me?

  Dancing blue bubbles at the top of my screen told me that he was typing again, and his message popped up a couple of seconds later.

  Jared: I gotta go. Nick’s making me take a shot for being boring. See you tomorrow? Sleep well, honey.

  Me: Boring? Do I even want to know? Actually, no. I don’t. FYI, honey doesn’t work either. Neither does sweetheart. All of the above are for use by parents or if you don’t know someone’s name. Sorry. Sleep well, rock star.

  His next reply came in lightning fast. I barely pressed the button to bring my reader back to life when my phone went off again.

  Jared: You have issues. That’s 2 shots for me now. Thanks for that. Rock star?? Only if you mean in bed… Good night, Alicia. (See, I know your name ;-))

  Me: Better not make it 3 shots. Have fun… You know, the monogamous kind… xoxo

  He replied with a picture of his ring adorned thumb up, but it looked like he’d taken the picture under the table. Lord only knew what those guys were feeding him for texting with me.

  I rolled my eyes and laughed at their antics. I hoped said antics wouldn’t be the reason for another late night/early morning call, and I got back to my book.

  An hour or so later, my eyelids were heavy, and I decided it was time for bed. It was still early, but an early night for a change was exactly what I needed. As I was getting ready for bed, cleansing my face from the remnants of the day with a soft makeup wipe, I swore I heard a scraping noise.