Never Trust a Rockstar

by Sarah Darlington

  Today was Luce’s day off, and her turn to stay home with Mom. So I wasn’t sure why she’d be here in the middle of my shift.

  “You won,” she repeated.

  “Won what?”

  She started to answer. But I couldn’t listen because—dammit. I’d overpoured on the vodka in the drink I was fixing. Rhett kept hassling me about overpouring. Because each time I did, it would cost the bar money. He came over, using a mini-straw, taste-testing my drink. “No. It’s fine. Keep going. What comes next?”

  “The lime juice and the garnish.”

  “Perfect, kid. You’re a natural at this.”

  Thank God. I successfully finished one drink. First of the day.

  “YOU WON THE DATE WITH OLLIE MILLS!” Luce suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs.

  The entire room froze. I froze. Rhett froze. I hadn’t meant to ignore her just a moment ago. I knew she kept saying I won something. But I’d been focused on getting my drink correct, figuring she meant I won lunch at Chipotle from some radio station contest I’d also entered recently, and the dots never connected.

  I stared at her in total shock.

  “You won the date with—” she tried repeating again.

  “I heard you,” I choked out.

  “No freaking way!” Rhett shouted. He’d been friends with my aunt for about as long as I could remember. At one point I think they even dated, so Rhett was practically a big brother to me. He slapped my back. “That’s amazing, kiddo. Hell, I wish I won.”

  “And, guess what,” Luce went on. “Ollie Mills... he’s an asshole. A pretentious douche canoe. I spoke with him, and some other people—I don’t know who was who—for only about thirty seconds. But that was all it took for me to realize he’s going to be a total dick on your date. Under no circumstance can you sleep with him. I mean, go, have a good time and all, order tons of room service. But… I know his type. And I can tell he goes through women faster than even Rhett use to.”

  “Hey now,” Rhett retorted. He was back to making drinks again at his normal inhuman speed. “I’m a changed man.”

  “I know,” Luce told her best friend sincerely. “I know you changed. But you’re the exception to that rule.”

  “True.”

  “Hey guys, I need a minute,” I told them, as the room started to spin around me. “I’ll be right back.”

  I removed my apron, leaving it on top of the bar, and ducked down under the partition.

  Half of the restaurant had retractable windows that opened onto the sand dunes. I cut through tables, and plastic lawn chairs, and folks cracking crab legs, and rushed out into the hot, sticky air.

  I ran across the boarded walkway that cut through the dunes to the beach. I stopped at the end. Watching the waves slap against the sand, I sucked in as deep a breath as possible.

  It was happening.

  Fate was happening.

  I was finally going to meet the love of my life, Ollie Mills.

  There was a quote from a movie I always liked. “Fate only takes you so far. You have to do the rest.” So fate… fate got me this date with Ollie. And now I’d have to do the rest. I’d have to impress him when I met him, sweep him off his Rockstar feet with my charm and wit. Only… I wasn’t exactly all that charming or witty. But at least now, I would have this chance.

  “Hey, babe.”

  I jumped a little in my skin as a pair of strong-man arms slipped around my waist. It took me a moment to realize it was Nick, my boyfriend. Oh yeah, that’s right. He said he’d stop by and visit me at work today.

  I turned and let him plant his lips on mine. He smelled like fresh soap. Kissing him was comfortable and familiar. But the words, “I want to break up,” were swirling, like they always did when we kissed, through my head.

  Why? Why couldn’t I love him?

  He worked for the Aquatic Preservation Society of North Carolina. He saved whales, and babies turtles, and cared about our environment. He had a nice family who adored me. He remembered birthdays and always knew exactly what to say to my mom to make her feel better. Not to mention, the man was smoking hot. He had this classic, all-American smile that could melt a girl’s heart. Just not my heart.

  He was perfect.

  What was wrong with me?

  But just like always, I couldn’t break up with him. I wanted to. I needed to. But I hesitated. I think it came down to my mom. She’d be crushed if I dumped him. I couldn’t do that to her.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” I said, breaking my lips from his lips. “I won a date with Ollie Mills.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “He’s a member of the band Sunset Revival. I won a date with him in this contest, but it changes nothing between us.”

  ~ CHAPTER 4 ~

  EMMA

  Two Weeks Later

  Breathe. Breathe. I reminded myself.

  “Oh, Lord, not turbulence,” Rhett gasped. This was my first flight ever and Rhett wasn’t helping me feel any better. He gripped the armrests on his seat until his knuckles turned white. His girlfriend, Sydney—her parents were wealthy, and Rhett went on vacations with them all the time. To places I’d only ever dreamed about. I thought that meant he’d be an experienced travel companion.

  I thought wrong.

  Turns out, it terrified him to fly. The flight was only an hour long, but he’d been squirming in his seat since the wheels left North Carolina. His nervousness wasn’t doing anything for my own nerves. With each bump of turbulence we hit, we both yelped a little. Until finally, the plane touched down in Tennessee.

  “Thank you, Jesus,” Rhett said aloud, relaxing his death-grip on the seats.

  Luce was supposed to be with me on this trip. As part of my prize, I could bring a guest. All the same accommodations that I received; my guest would receive as well. I wanted to bring Luce along. Michelle, the publicist and manager of Sunset Revival, the woman who’d been coordinating this, encouraged me to bring Luce. But one of us needed to stay at home. We couldn’t both feasibly leave my mom for four days.

  Rhett, having overheard our conversation about it at work, volunteered immediately. He told Luce he’d play chaperone. His exact words were, “I’ll cock-block that Ollie Mills kid. I don’t care that he’s famous.”

  Really, I think Rhett just wanted a free trip to Nashville out of this. His girlfriend Sydney was flying in from New York to meet us. But I didn’t mind the two of them coming along. I was happy to have company on the trip. Plus, Sydney was a friend.

  “That was a lot scarier than I thought it would be,” I told Rhett, now that we were safely on flat ground again.

  “Right? That’s what I’ve been saying my whole life.”

  “How hard would it be to rent a car and drive home after this is over?”

  In a second, Rhett had his phone out, researching my very question. “It’s only eight hours. I’m down to drive if you’re down to drive.”

  “Deal.” We shook on it, and I wiped away the beads of sweat that had formed on my forehead.

  Never doing that again.

  As we exited the plane, Sydney surprised us at our gate. She stood there, in a long black dress and boots, her backpack on her shoulders, and her flowing blonde hair styled perfectly. “I caught an earlier flight,” she said, shrugging. “How was your flight?”

  Rhett didn’t answer her. Instead, he dropped his bag to the floor and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He held on tight as if he’d just arrived home from Iraq or something. The emotion radiating off him made my stomach swirl.

  I wanted that. I wanted a love as strong as the love they shared. Watching him hold her tight, it made me a little desperate for it.

  From the rumors I’d heard, Rhett slept around a lot in his younger days. But he stopped it all after meeting Sydney. Maybe Ollie Mills...maybe he slept around a lot too. Maybe we’d meet and we’d form an unbreakable bond like the bond they shared.

  After another minute, after they parted, Sydney gave m
e a hug next. “I’m so excited for you,” she murmured. “I’m so happy you let us come with you.”

  “I’m going to need your help. With makeup. With my hair. With everything.”

  “Of course, I’ll help you. I brought all the supplies we will need.”

  “Thank you.” I squeezed her hand. Sydney knew. Sydney knew exactly what I needed help with most. Of every girl I’d ever met, she was the only one who could help me with my biggest flaw. My freckles. I had millions of them.

  After baggage claim, we went outside to the taxi area where we found a big burly man with a handwritten sign that read, “Emma Winchester.” He stood waiting in the hot sun for us.

  “That’s me,” I told him, unable to hide my developing giddy grin. Reality was setting it. In twenty-four hours, I’d be meeting Ollie.

  “I’m Frank. I’ll be your driver today. Follow me.”

  “Hi, Frank.”

  The crazy thing was—I was twenty-two, and I’d never done anything like this.

  Traveled.

  Been to a big city.

  Stayed in a hotel that didn’t look like a scene from a horror movie.

  Frank drove us to Union Station Hotel, a gorgeous historical hotel in downtown Nashville, and my heart skipped a beat at the first sight of it. From the outside, it looked like a castle with a giant clock tower. Once we were inside the hotel, it was like traveling back in time.

  I guess I’d been staring up at the ceiling, lost in my wonder, because as we came inside, Frank said, “it used to be a railroad terminal. Built in the early 1900s.”

  “It’s amazing.”

  It was crazy that seeing this hotel—brick and cement—was already making me feel more than I ever felt with Nick. I guess it was a bad sign if a building got you more excited than your boyfriend did.

  Rhett left with Frank to go get us checked into our room. And it was at that moment that I first spotted one of the Mills brothers.

  By the elevators there were a few women gathered around someone. And I knew...I just knew it was him. Ollie Mills. And my heart started to hammer like it never had before. Over the head of a blonde who had her hand on his chest, I could see his rich chocolate-brown colored hair. Then the woman moved. And I realized it wasn’t Ollie. It was Caleb, the middle brother.

  There was Luke, Caleb, and Ollie. And then their cousin Dani, the drummer, she made number four. Caleb was the lead singer. And to be honest, I didn’t know much more than that about him. He didn’t have Twitter. And his Instagram account was set to private. He purposely stayed out of the spotlight as much as possible.

  The whole family had that same brown hair and similar looks, so it was easy to mistake one brother for another. From across the room, I wasn’t sure what made him look over at the exact moment that he did, but his eyes connected with mine. Like the super-dork, fan-girl that I was, I smiled ear to ear.

  Caleb even returned my smile before he disappeared onto the elevator.

  Omigosh…this was really happening!

  ~ CHAPTER 5 ~

  CALEB

  “So the neck tattoo girl didn’t come,” Ollie complained to Michelle. He sounded disappointed, pouting like a child in his two-thousand-dollar suit. “I paid for the extra person, not that I care about the money, and she didn’t even come.”

  “Luce Winchester, that’s Emma’s aunt’s name,” Michelle clarified. “But no, Luce won’t be joining us tonight.”

  We were all sitting in the limo, the band plus Michelle, while we waited on the girl named Emma to come meet us. Tonight was the Christopher Scott Gala. Tonight was the date she’d won.

  “Michelle, you know what, I’m really starting to question your value. I don’t understand how it could be all that hard to convince someone to come on a free trip. Did you even try? Are you trying to work against me?” Ollie crossed his arms over his chest and slumped back in his seat. “I really wanted—”

  “Really wanted what?” Luke jumped in to say, surprising me because he hardly ever spoke up to Ollie. We all just let him bitch like this most of the time. “You really wanted her to suck your dick. Is that it? Just shut up about the neck tattoo girl. Nobody fucking cares when you get laid. Certainly not me. And Michelle is the best publicist/manager out there. I’d rather have her in the car with us than you most days. You know what—I can’t do this.”

  Luke opened his door and jumped out of the parked limo.

  I immediately reached over and slapped Ollie across the back of his thick head. Because now I had to do damage control with Luke, plus deal with him. I exited the limo the same way my older brother had gone.

  Thankfully, he hadn’t gone far. Just outside the door. Standing curbside to the hotel.

  Luke breathed out slowly. We didn’t exchange any words, but I stood there beside him while he cooled off.

  This was his band—he and I started this band together. I guess neither of us ever expected it to take off like it had. And now that we were here, it was hard to deal with the magnitude of what we had become. I understood what Luke was going through. I just didn’t know how to help him.

  The shitty night kind of went forgotten though. Because the most gorgeous woman in a mint-blue gown approached us and the limo. She instantly reminded me of Cinderella, a movie that had been Dani’s favorite growing up. The blue dress. The way her blonde hair was styled on top of her head. The neckline of her gown scooped low over her chest, showing off the swell of her perfect breasts. But it was her eyes I couldn’t pull myself from. They were a pale color that almost matched her dress. I’d seen this woman before, in the lobby of the hotel the day before. She’d smiled at me yesterday.

  She smiled at me now.

  I wasn’t sure if she was coming up to me initially. I mean, I wasn’t nearly as handsome as either of my brothers, so sometimes it still surprised me when women approached me over them. But no, she walked straight toward me and offered her hand to shake.

  “I’m Emma,” her pretty mouth said.

  “Hi Emma.” I took her hand in mine. I was no idiot. I even brought it to my lips and gently kissed her knuckles before letting it slip away. That got an even bigger smile out of her. I knew she was smiling at “Caleb Mills—Sunset Revival lead vocals” and not necessarily at me, but I liked it just the same.

  “Well,” Luke said, as she shook his hand too, “Ollie will be in a better mood now.”

  Her smile grew to enormous proportions at the mention of Ollie’s name.

  “Are you excited to meet Ollie?” I asked.

  The eagerness on her face and in her eyes was undeniable. She was here for Ollie, not necessarily us. “Yes,” she muttered.

  “Do you need a minute?”

  “Yes.”

  Luke got back in the car. But I remained in place with her outside in the night air for another moment. I could tell, despite her infectious excitement, she was more nervous than she’d probably ever been in her life. I understood she needed a moment to compose herself. And she understood that I understood that. There was just something about her that I felt instantly in sync with.

  “I saw you yesterday. In the hotel lobby.”

  “You remember me? Oh gosh.”

  “Yes. You were with a friend. Is she coming tonight too?” I really didn’t care about her friend. I just wanted my moment alone with this girl to continue on for as long as it could.

  “She’s...um.” She took a deep breath and smiled up at me again, struggling to finish her sentence.

  “It’s okay, take your time.”

  “Sorry...I’m—” She shook both her hands out for a second, as if to shake off her nervousness. “Yes, my friend and her boyfriend are coming to the gala too. They’ll be there later.”

  I figured a second person would be with her now. Ollie, trying to get her aunt out here, had scored an additional ticket to this gala for her. But...a third? “Your friend has two tickets?” I wanted to make sure she understood.

  “Yes.”

  I wondered how she’d m
anaged that. Maybe she was one of those big donors. Because the way that Omaze worked, the more money you donated to the charity of our choice, the more entries you had toward the main prize—the date with Ollie.

  How much had she paid to meet my brother?

  “I think I’m ready now.” Her voice came out perfectly even this time. And I would soon learn that confident Emma was a force to be reckoned with. I was damn thankful Luke had hopped out of the car the moment he had, giving me the chance to speak to her first and see this slightly less-composed side of her.

  “Thank you for standing with me, Caleb.”

  “No problem.”

  I opened the limo door and we climbed inside. For the first time in my life, I was jealous of my little brother.

  ~ CHAPTER 6 ~

  EMMA

  This was it! Ollie Mills in the flesh! On the inside, I was screaming at the top on my lungs. On the outside, I tried to keep steady and cool as I followed Caleb into the limo. I thought there was supposed to be a horse drawn carriage, but I didn’t comment on it. I didn’t need a horse and a carriage to feel like a princess.

  As Caleb moved inside the limo, he bent over and quickly whispered something to Ollie. Then Caleb sat.

  I had my choice of seats in this limo. The interior was bigger than my bedroom at home—all black leather and mahogany wood paneling. There was an empty spot next to Ollie. I could have sat there, but I was just a touch terrified, so instead I chose to sit beside Caleb—the safer option.

  Fate only gets you so far, I reminded myself, swallowing hard enough as if to swallow all my anxieties down.