How to Catch a (Rock) Star (The Dead Hour #1) (25 page)

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

Johnny had only been with Lil for two days when Jed made a phone call to him. Of course, he had planned to wait for Johnny to call him but after the first photos had started appearing on the internet, he’d felt an overwhelming urge to speak to him and set some things straight.

What the fuck did Johnny think he was doing hugging Lillie like that? He was supposed to be helping her write songs, not trying to get into her bed. He gripped his phone tightly and finished his drink. Stabbing at the keys, he called Johnny. It rang twice before he hung up. He lit a cigarette, savouring the burn in his throat. Better calm down before he spoke to him.

He took a few more drags before stubbing his cigarette out and pressed redial. It rang and rang, finally going to voice mail. He listened to Johnny’s irritatingly chirpy message, announcing he was in England visiting his favourite girl. Jed clamped his teeth together and breathed out hard through his nose.

‘Hey, man. It’s me. Just, uuh, wondering how things are going over there, you know, the writing and shit. So, yeah.
Call me back dude. You know, whenever. Oh yeah, happy New
Year.’

He hung up and shook his head. Shit. Maybe he should try Kate’s landline. No. Lillie might answer.

He stared at his phone for a while, willing Johnny to call him back. Sighing, he gave up on trying to reach Johnny with the power of his mind and picked up a guitar. His fingers hovered over the strings but his head was full of visions of Lillie. This was how it had been for weeks. The label had been asking to see some of the songs for the new album but he was totally blocked. Even being back in New York hadn’t inspired him.

He found his fingers moving over the strings, strumming out the first song he’d written about Lillie. The lyrics ran through his head, jolting him into the realisation that he had to see her. Explain things. He owed her that. Beg her to forgive him for being such an asshole.

He didn’t care if she had slept with Steve. He’d pushed her into it. It was his fault and he was a complete idiot for pushing her away and making her leave. She wasn’t Sarah. He loved her with every inch of himself and he wasn’t going to let that prick Steve stop him from being with her. He was done with being a coward.

He turned to his laptop and found a travel website, impatiently searching for the first flight he could conceivably get on. Tomorrow. Well, it would have to do. He was searching for his credit card, praying he still had some money left on it when his phone rang. Johnny.

‘Hey, man. What’re you up to?’ He hoped he sounded casual.

‘We’re just about to go out, Lil’s in the shower.’

Jed tightened his grip on the phone and clenched his jaw.

‘Uh huh, where are you going?’ He tried to keep the tension out of his voice.

‘Oh, you know, just down the pub. There’s a band playing tonight, so we’re just gonna check them out, have a few drinks, see the New Year in. How about you?’

Jed flinched at Johnny’s easy use of the word ‘we’ to describe him and Lil.

‘Jed? You still there?’

‘What? Yeah, yeah, I think I lost you for a bit there. I’m, uuuuh, I might go out myself. Haven’t decided yet.’

‘Right, sure.’

Jed thought he heard a mocking disbelief in Johnny’s voice.

‘How’s the writing going?’ He changed the subject quickly. Johnny laughed.

‘It’s only been two days, man! I’m just settling in first, you know how it is.’ He laughed again.

Yeah, Jed thought, I do know how it is. You’ve had plenty of time for hugging and kissing according to the photos on the internet. Bastard. He tipped a cigarette out of the packet and lit up.

‘Yeah, sure,’ he said to Johnny, watching the smoke shoot out of his mouth. ‘So, uuuhhh, how is she? Lil, I mean?’

Johnny didn’t answer straight away and when he did, he spoke in a low, angry voice.

‘She’s pretending she’s okay but she’s screwed up, man, what do you think?’

Jed sat up straight at the vicious quality in Johnny’s voice.

‘What the hell were you doing calling her?’

Jed took a sharp drag of his cigarette.

‘What? How do you know –’

Johnny cut him off, hissing down the phone.

‘She kept your message. God knows how many times she’s listened to it. You ended it, man. Leave her alone. Let her get on with her life.’

Jed stood up, rage taking over.

‘Oh, what, with you? You fucking –’

‘Fuck you, Jed. You made your decision. You can’t take it back now. So just leave her alone.’

Jed gaped in shock as the line went dead, dropping the cigarette to the floor, sparks and ash spilling over the wood. Douchebag. He redialled, ready to give Johnny some shit back. Straight to voicemail.

The phone hit the wall with a satisfying crack, smashing into pieces. How many phones was that now? His chest was heaving, his breathing too fast. Fury pushed the idea of flying to London out of his head and he grabbed a jacket and his carton of cigarettes, glancing at the clock on the wall. Three o’clock. He figured the earlier he blacked out the better. Tomorrow would be another day. A new fucking year.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

Lillie shared a look with Johnny, the band was far too loud to allow talking. They weren’t bad, she thought, for a tribute band. Johnny had commandeered a corner table and they were sat tightly pressed together, sharing a bottle of champagne. Johnny had insisted. He had been recognised by a small group of fans and so had she. They had been mercifully courteous, not even asking her about her sudden departure from the band. Some autographs, some photos and they were gone. Leaving her and Johnny alone in the corner to celebrate the New Year together.

The band was nearly finished as was the bottle of champagne. After the singer said their goodnight, Johnny joined the crowd at the bar, leaving Lillie alone. She pulled her phone out of her bag to check it for the thousandth time. Always surreptitiously, of course, she didn’t want Johnny to confiscate it. Two texts. She held her breath and opened her inbox and breathed out in disappointment, immediately feeling guilty. One from Tess, one from Kate. There was still time, she thought to herself. Ten minutes until midnight. Her phone beeped through another message and her heart pounded. Mum and Dad.

She looked up and saw Johnny pushing his way through people, carrying another bottle of champagne and two fresh glasses. He stopped to talk to two very pretty girls and she watched as he shook his head and then looked over at her. He smiled and nodded at her before presumably saying goodbye and continuing his mission to get to her.

Finally, with five minutes left of the year, he sat down next to her, popped open the champagne and poured two frothy glasses out, holding one out to her. He looked at her and she thought briefly what nice eyes he had, the darkest brown, framed with the kind of eyelashes that women paid a lot of money to imitate .

‘Let’s toast to you having a massive year as the hottest new solo artist, yeah?’ He clinked her glass and Lillie nodded and joined him in draining their glasses. He refilled them just as the pub crowd started counting down. Johnny pulled her up to standing, shouting out the numbers.

‘Four, three, two, one,’ he turned and opened his arms. ‘Happy New Year, Lil,’ he said, smiling at her.

‘Happy New Year, Johnny. I hope this year brings you everything you want,’ she said, stepping into his embrace.

‘Me too, babe, me too,’ he muttered into her hair. He squeezed her tightly, only letting go when she pulled away. He kept his arms around her waist, giving her a sad smile. She reached up and cupped his face for a moment. It wasn’t right for such a whirlwind of a person to have such sadness in their face and she felt she was to blame for it.

‘Thank you so much for coming here to be with me,’ she said, returning his smile.

‘It’s my pleasure,’ he said, before dipping his head slightly to kiss her on the mouth. He left his lips touching hers for a second before pulling back and downing his champagne. He let her go, picking up the bottle and refilling his glass, his eyes avoiding hers.

Lillie took a drink, confused about the kiss. Non-kiss. Her body was aching for a male touch, even though she couldn’t imagine letting anyone near her other than Jed. Interesting. She could say his name in her head without feeling that wrench.

Maybe she and Johnny... No, that was only because he was here, unwittingly being her Jed replacement. She knew she had been way more tactile with him than she had been before. Desperate for human contact. Even more desperate for strong, protective, masculine type contact. She wouldn’t have blamed him for getting the wrong idea.

She tapped Johnny on the arm and told him she was going to the bar for something stronger and he nodded before turning back to the guy he was chatting to now.

At the bar, she dug her phone out of her bag, checking for messages. Nothing. A bloke next to her tried to make conversation briefly before giving up and turning to the girl on his other side. Lillie breathed a sigh of relief and tried to concentrate on getting the bar staff’s attention.

She felt her hair being brushed aside and froze, her heart beating far too fast. It couldn’t be, she thought, desperately hoping it was. At the sound of the voice, she closed her eyes in pain. Of course it wasn’t. She didn’t even look at the hair mover, just shoved her way back through to Johnny, frantic to be at home.

She barely noticed the change on Johnny’s face as she neared him, didn’t register the alarm in his voice as he asked her what was wrong.

‘Nothing, nothing. I just – can we go home now?’ she said, wanting to be out of there.

‘Sure, babe. Did someone say something to you?’ He reached back and grabbed their jackets, helping her into hers.

‘No, no. I’m just tired. I guess I’m not used to being around these people.’

Johnny gave her a look like he didn’t believe her but didn’t press it. He grabbed her hand and pulled her through the drunk crowd into the dark cold of the night, stopping just outside the doors. He took her face in his hands and looked at her.

‘Are you sure nothing’s wrong, Lil?’

Not trusting herself to speak, Lillie nodded whilst looking at his chest. She knew if she looked at him, she’d burst into tears.

‘Okay,’ Johnny breathed out. ‘Let’s go home’ he said.

Lillie smiled at him and closed her eyes as he kissed her forehead, fighting back tears at the gesture. Such a Jed thing to do. His lips lingered on her skin and as he stepped back he took her hand. They walked home in silence. Johnny made a cup of tea for them both whilst Lillie found something to watch on TV.

It wasn’t the evening he had planned for but he hoped it would do.

CHAPTER FORTY THREE

Jed woke up on New Year’s day with the worst hangover he’d ever experienced in his life. He looked around him trying to focus. What the fuck?

He sat up, immediately regretting it as his head span violently, pain pulsing around his skull and he closed his eyes in an attempt to stop it, sitting very still. He opened one eye. Okay, that seemed to be okay. He let the other eye open too. So this wasn’t his room. That might be okay. Very slowly, he looked down. He was dressed. Fully dressed. That was very okay.

He slowly lifted his head back up, crashing waves of pain flooding his body. He sat still as a statue until it subsided. Looked around the room for signs of who might inhabit it. Not a girl. That much was clear. He forced himself up to standing, holding onto the bed head for much needed support.

Water, he needed water. Bathroom. Faucets meant water.

Damn, he really could not remember a thing past, oh about nine p.m. He slid along the wall at a snail’s pace, opening two doors before he found a bathroom.

Carefully, he lowered his hand and scooped ice cold water into his mouth. Mouthful after mouthful until the inside of him felt freezing cold, making his head hurt even more. He hadn’t even thought that would be possible.

He lowered himself onto the toilet seat and held his throbbing head in his hands. Who the hell’s house was he in? He sat, pondering aimlessly for a few minutes, before pulling himself to his feet.

He made his way along the hall again, taking it super slow down the stairs, every step making him flinch in pain as the movement jolted through his body to take up residence in his head. Thank God it wasn’t a long staircase he thought, inching his way along the downstairs hallway towards a far too loud clatter of china. With a superhero’s willpower, he reached out and opened the door behind which lay all the noise.

‘Hey, man! You’re up already! I thought you’d be out all day!’

Jed swayed in the doorway and stared at the man in the dressing gown, paused in the act of pouring coffee. He closed his eyes and counted to ten in his head before opening them again.

Yeah, he was still there. That lying, cheating motherfucker.

‘Hey, man, are you okay? You gonna puke?’ Steve looked concerned for his floor.

‘What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing. Here?’ Jed said, fists clenched.

‘Uuuh, dude. I live here,’ Steve said, apparently satisfied that Jed wasn’t going to cover his wood floor with vomit. He poured a cup of coffee, the bitter smell making Jed’s stomach twist. Steve held out the coffee pot, ‘Want some?’

Jed shook his head. ‘I need painkillers,’ he said, stepping into the kitchen and shuffling into a chair.

‘Yeah, ‘course. Coming up,’ Steve pulled a drawer open and threw a packet of pain killers at Jed. They hit him in the chest and dropped to the floor. Jed sighed at the thought of bending forwards to pick them up. He stared at them for a few seconds, willing them to levitate up to his lap but they stubbornly remained on the floor, daring him to make his move. He readied himself for the onslaught of agony and reached his hand down to the floor, trying to keep his head high. His fingers groped around for them. He could feel Steve’s little bastard eyes on him. His heart jumped in relief as his fingertips grazed plastic. He grunted his reluctant gratitude as Steve put a glass of water in front of him, patting his shoulder.

‘Man, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one person drink so much. You’re a legend, dude!’ he laughed and retreated back across the kitchen.

Jed managed to give him what he hoped was a threatening glare before popping out four aspirin. He swallowed them one by one and leant back in his chair. Steve started talking again, asking him if he wanted food, babbling on about three bottles of Jack Daniels, blah, blah, blah.

Oh just fuck off, Jed thought to himself.

‘Man, I thought you were gonna kill me when I first saw you. I just wanna say thanks for giving me a chance to explain the whole Lillie misunderstanding.’

Jed whipped around to stare at Steve,

‘What?’

Steve went white and pressed himself against the counter, holding his hands up in front of him. Jed was confused at his reaction until he realised he was standing up.

‘I, I, I thought you said we were good,’ Steve stammered as Jed took several steps towards him, satisfied with his cowering.

‘Do you really think I would ever forgive you for what you did, you little fucking prick?’

Steve tried to shrink away from Jed but he was already leaning as far away from him as his spine would physically allow.

‘But we talked about this last night, you said you would let me live if I made it right, so –’ He stopped talking.

Jed was in his face now, hissing from between clenched teeth.

‘Well, I lied then. You can’t ever make it right. You slept with Lillie, you –’

‘What? No. we talked about this last –’

Jed narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.

‘I mean, well, I tried, you can’t blame me for trying,’ he tried out a laugh, stopping abruptly when it was apparent Jed didn’t think he was funny.

‘Okay, okay, I shouldn’t have even tried but, you know what, even if Lillie had gone along with it, I don’t think I could have actually gone through -’

‘Shut. Up.’

Steve closed his mouth and nodded.

‘What, exactly, are you trying to tell me?’

Steve furrowed his brow, confused and Jed stepped into his personal space.

‘You’d better speak soon, Steve.’

‘I didn’t sleep with Lillie,’ Steve blurted out. ‘I mean, technically, I did sleep with her, we were in the same room but I took the sofa.’

Jed glared at him.

‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman,’ Steve said in his best Bill Clinton voice and Jed glared at him for two seconds before all the rage of the last few months exploded out of his fist and into Steve’s face.

‘You goddamn cocksucker.’

Steve looked up at him from his position on the floor, blood streaking out of his nose.

‘I should kill you for what you’ve done.’

‘Wait, wait,’ Steve held out his hands in front of him. ‘I can fix this, I can.’

Jed raised an eyebrow.

‘No, no. Trust me, I can sort this whole misunderstanding out.’ Steve pulled himself up and carefully wiped blood from his face with his hand. ‘You and Lillie can pay for my nose when you’re back together,’ he muttered.

‘What are you talking about?’ Jed said, shaking out his hand. The adrenalin had abandoned him and now his hand was joining his head in trying to provide more pain than a human body could rightfully handle.

‘Well, between you and Lillie, you’ve broken my nose in several places.’

Jed grinned.

‘She hit you?’ he said, pride in his voice and Steve rolled his eyes.

‘Yeah, right after you left the room. I was gonna tell her that nothing had happened and then she punched me in the face, so…’ he trailed off.

‘So, you let her believe she’d had sex with you just because she broke your nose. You are seriously fucked up.’ Jed turned away, not wanting to lose control again. He already felt bad for punching Steve, deserving of it as he was.

Steve shrugged and went to inspect his face in the mirror.

‘Look, Jed. I’ll tell her the truth but what are you gonna do for me?’

‘How about me and Johnny don’t beat you to within an inch of your life,’ Jed said, anger flaring again. ‘And Chris.’

‘Yeah, that sounds fair, I guess. So shall I call her, tell her the good news?’

‘Don’t get cocky, Steve. No. I don’t want you to call her. I want you to call Johnny instead.’

Steve twisted his face in surprise and then understanding.

‘Riiiight, yeah. You want him to stop putting the moves on her. Yeah, those photos are pretty damning.’

Jed frowned at him.

‘The ones on the internet this morning – you know, Lil and Johnny having a New Year’s kiss –’

He was across the room in a nanosecond, grabbing Steve by the arm and demanding to see them.

‘Okay, man,’ Steve yelped. ‘Just let me get the laptop,’ he said, looking down at Jed’s fingers wrapped around his upper arm.

The laptop took eons to boot up and when it finally creaked into life, Jed pushed Steve out of the way to quickly tap in Lillie and Johnny’s names. Heart in his throat, he stared at a selection of photos – one of them holding hands, another of them kissing, yet another of Johnny kissing Lillie’s forehead, one more of them hugging.

He slammed the lid down, making Steve squeak in indignation. Leaning against the counter, he tapped his fingers on the cold granite, thoughts running through his head. He slammed the heel of his hand down on the smooth surface.

‘Screw it. I don’t give a shit. They could just be, you know, a friend comforting another friend type photos.’

‘Uh, yeah, sure. Why not?’ Steve said, doing a bad job of hiding his scepticism.

‘Okay, so you’ll call Johnny. Tell him you’re a lying little shit and that you and Lillie never had sex. Then he’ll be clear that whatever he’s up to, he should stop. And then –’ Jed stopped.

And then? There was nothing else to do. He was going to get his girl back.