The Plan: A Sweet and Sexy Rock Star Romantic Comedy (The Creek Water Series Book 3)

by Whitney Dineen

  As we approach the park, I say, “The Arch was built to commemorate Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase and the expansion of the west. It’s often called the Gateway to the West.” I continue my tour guide monologue, “It’s sixty-three stories high and they say in strong winds it can sway as much as a foot and a half.” That last fact makes me queasy to even think about.

  “Can we go to the top?” Huck asks excitedly.

  “You can,” I emphasize so he won’t think I’ll be joining him.

  Huck looks at his daughter. “What do think, Mags? You want to go?”

  “How do you get up there?” she asks nervously.

  “They have elevators,” I tell her. “I understand that once you get to the top, there’s an observation deck. They say that on clear days you can see as far away as thirty miles.”

  Maggie is weighing her decision carefully. “How long does it take to get to the top?”

  “I don’t know,” I tell her. Being that I have no intention of going to the top, I never bothered to look that up.

  “How many people fit in the elevator?” she asks.

  “I have no idea.”

  “Has anyone ever died in one?” she wants to know.

  “Not that I know of,” I manage, but I now have an overwhelming urge to find out.

  “Amelia,” Maggie says, “how did your anxiety start?”

  Oh, my gosh, there’s no way I can tell her without potentially adding to her own burden. While I don’t want to keep secrets from her, I certainly don’t want to give her something else to fear. “It’s just one of those things, I guess. How about you? Do you know why yours started?”

  She sighs deeply. “I don’t think it was one thing. I just started to feel like life was so big and scary that I didn’t want to leave home. But Dad and Aunt Claire took me to a therapist, and she started to find ways to help me.”

  Maggie takes my hand in hers as we approach the entrance to the arch. Very seriously, she says, “Amelia, sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do just to prove to yourself that you can do them.”

  “That’s right, honey, you do.” I currently feel like Wonder Woman as I reminisce about how I just went two miles outside of my comfort zone.

  “Dr. Philpott says that if you’re afraid the Boogey Man is under your bed, then you have to hang over the side and look.”

  “Sound advice,” I tell her.

  “Which is why we’re going to the top of that thing with Dad.”

  Say what? “If that’s what you want to do,” I encourage her, “then you definitely should.”

  She shakes her head. “Not me, we. As in you and me.”

  My pulse jacks up like it’s preparing to launch me into outer space. “I don’t think so, honey. You and your daddy go, and I’ll wait for you down here.”

  “I’m not going up there unless you go with me, Amelia.”

  That’s emotional blackmail. I’m trying to encourage this child to be adventurous and push her beyond her comfort zone, but I can’t go up there. I just went two whole miles beyond what I thought I could do. I’m done for the day, maybe even for the year.

  “Maggie,” I tell her, “you’re braver than me. You can do this. I promise you’ll be proud of yourself when you get up there.”

  “You’re brave too, Amelia. As far as you know, nobody ever died up there, so what’s the worst thing that could happen?”

  If she only knew. I could hyperventilate, cry like a baby, and maybe even go insane. There’s no way I can risk any of those things.

  Huck drops back a few paces as his daughter continues to work on me. “We can do it, Amelia. I believe in us.”

  Dammit. I’m not a cusser by nature but a slew of foul words start to run through my head like a litany of despair. Why is she doing this to me?

  “I make no promises,” I finally say to her. “I’ll walk in with y’all, but I retain the right to bail at any time.”

  Maggie performs a jump for joy that signals Huck to catch up with us. “I mean it,” I tell her. “All I’m promising is that I’ll try. I’m not guaranteeing I’ll succeed.”

  “If at first you don’t succeed,” she recites that stinken’ old adage parents love so much, “try, try again.” She explains, “That means that if you can’t do it today, we’ll come back next weekend and try again.”

  Margaret Joan Wiley is an evil genius. Governments could hire her as an agent of torture. She knows full well what she’s doing. She knows that I want to come back here about as much as I want to jump out of an airplane stark naked on the Fourth of July with sparklers in my teeth.

  My skin grows colder and clammier the closer we get to our destination. As our belongings run through the x-ray machine to make sure we aren’t carrying bombs or anything, I start to see stars in front of my eyes. I take slow deep breaths, so I don’t lose consciousness and make a giant fool of myself.

  Maggie leans in to me and starts to count, “One … three … five … seven …”

  Huck joins in, “Nine … eleven … thirteen …”

  Finally, I pick up the rhythm and we approach the elevator. “Fifteen … seventeen … nineteen … twenty-one …” We walk through the retracting doors, and Huck and I have to crouch down to get inside. It’s like a little alien pod or something. Twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-three … There are five seats and we take three of them. I’m still thinking about how I can jump ship when two more people join us. Forty-five, forty-seven, forty-nine …

  As if today couldn’t get any more stressful, one of those people is Aiden Quinn. The other one is a gorgeous brunette named Lane.

  Chapter 37

  “Aiden?” I gasp in surprise.

  “Amelia? What are you doing here?” He’d previously tried to get me to go up in the arch with him, but I soundly refused.

  “I’m being adventurous,” I tell him. The only reason I’m still sitting here and not running for the hills is because I’m beyond astounded that he’s here. What are the chances that Aiden would be here on the same day, at the same time, and in the same elevator as I am? God must have a sick sense of humor.

  I recognize his companion from the last office Christmas party I went to with him. Lane spent the whole evening trying to invent work-related excuses in order to talk with him privately. He spent the whole evening fending her off.

  Her grasp on Aiden’s arm is so tight you’d think I was about to steal him away from her. “Lane,” I greet, temporarily forgetting my terror at being in this elevator. “How are you?” I couldn’t care less, but good manners were beaten into me as a child. Also, I feel like Aiden and I have been staring at each other like we’re apparitions for long enough, and it’s getting a little weird.

  “I’m fine, Amelia,” she says haughtily. “You look well,” she says begrudgingly like she’d rather I’d lost all my teeth and gained fifty pounds. She looks good, too. Lane is one of those women who’s so polished you’d think she’d been assembled in a factory in Stepford, Connecticut. She and Aiden sit down on the remaining two seats.

  “Thank you,” I manage as the elevator doors close. Son of corn, I’m stuck now. I try to remember which number I was on before Aiden and Lane joined us in this little pod of terror.

  “Who’s your friend?” Lane asks, staring at Huck.

  I purposely ignore the person she’s inquiring about and reach out to hold Maggie’s hand. She looks as pale I probably am as the elevator starts to rise. “This is Maggie,” I force myself to say. “She’s one of my beading students.” Then I take a deep breath and release it slowly, so I don’t get light-headed.

  Aiden looks at Huck and guesses, “You must be Maggie’s dad.” He extends a hand. “I’m Aiden.”

  Huck takes the offered appendage enthusiastically and replies, “Huck Wiley, pleased to meet you.”

  “Huck Wiley?” Aiden asks. Darn it, why didn’t he say Mason Finch instead of using his real name?

  “That’s right,” Huck answers while grabbing my free
hand in a proprietary fashion. What is he doing? It’s like he’s staking a claim or something. I try to pull away, but he just grips it tighter. He’s going to break bones if I don’t stop struggling.

  “How did you and Amelia meet?” Aiden asks, clearly startled to be in the presence of a world-class rock star.

  “We met on a website called RockMyWorld.com.” Why is Huck telling him that? Not only is it a lie, but it makes me look tawdry. I want to curl up into a ball and die.

  “So, you’re a couple?” my ex asks, looking seven shades of angry.

  Huck says, “Yep,” at the same time I say, “We’re just friends.” Guess which one of us Aiden believes?

  Lane tries to regain the upper hand. “Aiden and I are celebrating our anniversary next month. We’re taking a take a trip to Spain.”

  I quickly do the math and realize that if they’re celebrating their one-year anniversary, they must have been seeing each other while we were still together. Aiden watches as I master the simple arithmetic. “Next month will mark our six-month anniversary,” he offers, softening the blow.

  Relief floods through me. I didn’t think Aiden was a cheater. “Congratulations,” I say somewhat insincerely. Even though I’m the one who walked away from him, it still smarts to see that he’s moved on, especially with the likes of Miss Snooty Pants.

  “Amelia is going to join me and Maggie in France for the summer,” Huck volunteers.

  Maggie wants in on the action and adds, “Dad bought a castle.”

  Lane’s eyes nearly pop out of her head. She’s not one who likes to be outdone. For that reason alone, I don’t set them straight and tell them that I will be happily living my life in Creek Water, Missouri, all summer long.

  The four minutes it takes to get to the top of the arch feels like four weeks. By the time we finally exit onto the observation deck, I forget all about being scared. Huck pulls me close and hugs me. “Congratulations, you made it to the top.” Then he picks up Maggie. “You girls are pretty impressive up here on top of the world.”

  Maggie smiles like she can’t believe we did it. Then she reaches out to me. “We are pretty awesome, aren’t we, Amelia?”

  “You bet we are!” I want to enjoy this moment with her before I tell Huck, “I need to talk to Aiden privately. Could you find a way to entertain Lane?”

  Maggie huffs, “I don’t like her.”

  “You don’t know her,” Huck says.

  “I don’t like the way she looks at Amelia. She looks like she wants to scratch her eyes out or something.”

  “You know how vicious girls are,” he teases. “Come on, Squirt, let’s go make a new friend.” Then he squeezes my hand as though offering me courage before walking away.

  After Huck and Maggie start a conversation with Lane, I approach Aidan who’s walked a little too close to the observation window for my comfort. “You got a second?” I ask.

  He looks down at me, confusion furrowing his brow. He asks exactly what I expected him to, “How could you break up with me because I didn’t want to live in Creek Water and then take up with a guy who lives on the other side of the country? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Huck and I aren’t dating, Aiden. He wants to, but I said no. I told him the same thing that I told you. I have no plans of ever living anywhere other than my hometown.”

  “Huck Wiley is never going to move to Creek Water, Missouri,” he spits.

  “Probably not.” For the first time today, I start to feel despair creep in. “Aiden, I’m really sorry,” I tell him, thinking about how he was going to ask me to marry him.

  “Don’t be.” Then he unkindly adds, “As far as I’m concerned, you did me a favor.” He looks over at his new girlfriend. “Lane is a much better fit for me than you ever were.” He walks away without a backward glance.

  Chapter 38

  Aiden and Lane take the next elevator down. I couldn’t care less about her, but I feel horrible about him. Watching him walk away is like witnessing what could have been. Had we not broken up, Emmie and I would both be planning our weddings right now.

  But Aiden is over me. He’s moved on. I wonder if by letting him go I missed my opportunity at happiness. Would he have stayed if I’d asked?

  Maggie approaches me once they’re gone. “Was he your boyfriend or something?”

  “We dated for a year,” I tell her.

  Huck is still staring out the window at Illinois when we walk up behind him. He doesn’t say anything, he just reaches out and takes Maggie’s hand before grabbing mine. It feels good and doesn’t matter that he’s not going to be a long-term fixture in my life. Right now, I need comfort.

  Maggie announces, “Amelia and I deserve a reward for conquering our fears. What are you going to do for us, Dad?”

  “Reward?” He takes a minute to think. “I suppose I could take you to France,” he says playfully.

  Maggie groans. “You’re already going to do that. I want something today. How about ice cream or cotton candy or something?”

  “What do you think, Amelia?” Huck asks. “Do you think you and Maggie have earned a treat?”

  “I think lunch is in order. Maybe even a manicure.” I add the last part to tease Huck.

  “Your cuticles are looking a little shabby, Dad,” Maggie giggles.

  He pulls his phone out of his jacket pocket and starts looking for places to go. “Have you ever been to the Shaved Duck?” he asks me.

  “No.” With a name like that, I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of food they serve other than duck.

  “Good,” he says before placing a call and reserving a table for noon. After he’s secured a reservation, he asks the person on the end of the line, “I don’t suppose you could recommend a place nearby to get a manicure?”

  He listens closely before saying, “Thank you so much. We’ll see you soon.” Then he addresses Maggie and me. “They said we should go to a place called Ten Little Piggies. All we need to decide is if we’re getting manicures and pedicures or just manicures.”

  Maggie rolls her eyes. “Like you have to ask.”

  Huck immediately gets on his phone and makes an appointment for three for mani/pedi combos before turning his attention back to his daughter. “Will that suffice as a reward, madam?”

  “It’s a good start,” she informs him.

  As she inches closer to the window, Huck tells me, “I’m proud of you.”

  “I would have gotten off the elevator had Aiden not walked in,” I confess.

  “Do you still love him?”

  I shrug my shoulders as I’ve clearly been wondering the same thing. But even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. “Aiden and I are very different.”

  “How so?” Huck prods.

  “For one thing, he wants to live in St. Louis.”

  “What else?”

  “He’s on the fast track at his law firm, so he works a lot. I want to be with someone who has time for me and isn’t always canceling plans because they have to give a deposition or something.”

  Huck scoots closer to me which causes me to get all fidgety. To distract myself from his nearness, I keep talking. “Aiden likes to go to the opera and to wine tastings.”

  “Not rock concerts and beer?” Huck feigns shock.

  “Nope. I’ve never been to a rock concert, so I don’t know whether I like them or not, but I did go to the opera with Aiden once and I swear I nearly died from boredom.”

  “I’m going to take you to a rock concert,” Huck promises. “One of mine.”

  The thought of watching Huck sing on stage sends a jolt of pure adrenaline through me. It excites me, panics me, and leaves me exhausted all at once. “I don’t like crowds,” I tell him.

  “You’ll be backstage, so it won’t matter.”

  “I will, huh?” I don’t know why I don’t tell him that I have no intention of going to see him in concert, but I don’t. I’m definitely softening to the idea of actually dating this rock star. I can’t imagine how it c
ould ever be more than anything casual though, as I still have every intention of staying in Creek Water. Having said that, I did just go two miles farther than I’ve ever gone before and I went to the top of Gateway Arch. My word, if I keep up this pace, I might actually get on an airplane someday. That thought causes my pulse to pick up speed. “I think I'm ready to go down now,” I tell him. I’m pretty sure I’ve had enough excitement to last me for one day.

  While I try to absorb the magnitude of my accomplishments, I hear Myrah’s voice in my head. Don’t put the cart before the horse, child. Don’t go worryin’ about somethin’ that isn’t even somethin’ yet.

  Part of me can’t wait to tell Myrah about my day, but another part doesn’t want to. Once my old friend knows what I just did, she’s going to think I can do more.

  Chapter 39

  The first thing I do when I get back home is to call Emmie. I need to tell someone who’s known me forever about my day so they can celebrate with me.

  ‘“Guess what I just did?” I ask as soon as she answers the phone.

  “I have no idea. What did you just do?”

  “No, ma’am, you gotta guess. I just did something worthy of your playing along.”

  “You slept with Huck Wiley,” she suggests wickedly.

  “Nope. Try again.”

  “Is it better or worse?” she asks. I wonder what in the world she thinks could be better than sleeping with Huck.

  “It’s totally different,” I tell her.

  “You made a peanut butter sandwich.”

  “You have to try,” I nearly yell.

  “Amelia, I’m never gonna guess. Just tell me.”

  “I went to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. How ’bout them apples?” I demand.

  “Did Huck kidnap you?” she wants to know. When I don’t answer right away, she says, “Oh, my gosh, I didn’t mean to say that.”

  “It’s okay,” I eventually respond, but the words get caught in my throat and sound like they’re strangling me. Beads of sweat form on my forehead as I unintentionally stop breathing.