Rock Star: The Contest (Book 2 of a Bad Boy Romance) (2 page)

I sighed. “That’s the thing. I’m the one struggling now to write.”

He backed up ever so slightly as if trying to take me in. “Are you serious?”

“I don’t know, whether it was just beginner’s luck writing that last song. Or whether I’m just a one-hit wonder. It happens, right? I mean artists knock one out of the park, but then keep swinging and don’t hit the ball again.”

“Yeah, but—”

“There is pressure this time. I feel it.” I got up and walked the full length of the room, running a hand through my hair. “For the first time I think I feel what you must have the day you arrived here.”

He about to open his mouth and say something, when there was a knock at the door. I opened it up.

It was Mia.

“
Y
ou cannot be serious
? Chase.” She looked at him as if she was a disappointed mother who had caught her teenage son with a girl for the first time. She didn’t wait to be let in, she pushed past me as though I wasn’t even there. Her gaze was fixed on him.

“So this is how it’s going to be?”

He rose to his feet.

“Settle down, Mia, have a drink.”

He reached into the fridge and pulled out two cold beers and offered her one. She shook her head and he redirected the offer to me. I took it. I could use one after seeing this cow show up. A hiss came from the bottle as I twisted off the metal cap.

“You do know that if Parker finds out about your little rendezvous here, he will probably boot her out of the competition and replace you?”

“But he won’t find out. Will he, Mia?”

“Chase.”

“Mia.”

She stood with her hands on her hips all defiant. She cast a glance over at me and shook her head. Clearly she didn’t like me. I didn’t like her.

“Why are you following me anyway?”

“Because I know you are going to screw this up. Just like you did in Atlanta.”

“Atlanta?” I asked.

Mia laughed. “Oh, he hasn’t told you?”

Chase rolled his eyes as if the world was caving in on him and he’d spent too long trying to crawl his way out.

Mia brushed passed me. “I’ll leave you to tell her.”

With that she slammed door excessively and it bounced back open. I closed it and turned waiting for him to explain.

“I guess you want to know.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything. In fact, I would rather you didn’t.”

His eyes flicked up to mine. “She’s right. I can’t do this. At least right now. There’s too much at stake riding on this. Your career being one of them.”

“My career? Have you heard the people I am up against? Have you seen the talent that is in the room with me? I don’t stand a chance against them. They are like seasoned veterans.”

“Meghan, they’re newbies. Completely new to this.”

“Have you talked with any of them?”

“I’ve seen their profiles.”

“Most of them are people whose parents have been in the business for years. They grew up in it.”

“You have as much chance as anyone else. Just write another song like the last one.”

“Can you hear yourself? You sound like Mia. Remember how hard that was for you?”

He took a long pull on the bottle.

“Well this is it, Meghan. This is your shot. You can gripe about it. Or you can step up to the plate.”

“Thanks for the pep talk but you’re not listening. Then again, that’s just like you.”

I turned and walked toward the door.

“Don’t walk away from me. You know what I had to do to get you into the contest?”

I spun around, I could begin to feel myself fuming. Yet I wasn’t entirely sure why. A mixture of Mia showing up, his history with women. Our past interaction and the way things were left.

“I never asked you to do that. You did it. Don’t spin this around and try to make out yourself to be the martyr here. You want me to say thank you? I already have. But let’s not forget that was my song.”

“Our song.”

“I wrote most of it.”

“Oh, so you are a songwriter now, are you?”

I didn’t care for his tone. In fact I didn’t care for being here, or answering that.

“I don’t have to justify myself to you. Yeah, it’s probably best we don’t see each other.”

I stormed out, not even bothering to close the door.

I heard him saying something but it was lost in the wind that was now nipping at my ears. I hopped in my truck and backed out, nearly hitting the corner of his truck in the process. I wished I had hit it.

A
part
of me wanted to walk away from the contest. Return to my coffee shop and forget all about singing as a career. I didn’t need the extra hassle. I had enough coping with the day-to-day running of a business. With the other coffee shop closed across the street, I was the only café in town besides the gas station whose vending machine coffee was like mud. No one liked it.

Sophie and Spike could sense my frustration from the moment I entered. I trudged upstairs, my desire to sing that evening had dwindled. I was struggling to find motivation to write and tired of the games that Chase was playing.

“Meghan, someone here to see you.”

If that was Mia, I was liable to slap her. I couldn’t take any more of her asinine behavior.

Venturing downstairs, I carried all the enthusiasm of a gnat. When I turned the corner, I wasn’t sure whether to cry or laugh. It was Luke Claybourne. The grin on his face said everything.

“Have you heard?”

“What?”

“You and I are going to be duet partners.”

Oh, kill me now, where I stand.

I had barely got to know the other contestants. At this point in the game, we hadn’t had enough time to get to know each other. However, I had heard that Luke was a bit of a pain in the ass. Laid-back, and taking the whole contest in his stride. He was like one of those kids who never studied at school but would always get high marks once exam time came around. It was good for him, but annoying to others who had to work twice as hard to get even mediocre results.

“You own this place?”

I nodded

“Well, whip me up a latte and let’s get started.”

“What?”

“You do know you were meant to be there this morning? The coordinator wasn’t exactly happy that you didn’t show up.”

“No one told me.”

“Anyway, I covered for you. I said you had an urgent emergency and had to leave pronto.”

“Emergency?”

“Uh,” he nodded, continuing looking around, picking up napkins and tossing them back down.

“What kind?”

“Something to do with…” He muttered and I never caught the last word.

“What?”

“All right, I said you had irritable bowel syndrome and if you didn’t get to the toilet fast, they were going to be mopping up yesterday’s lunch.”

My eyes bulged.

“You are kidding, right?”

“No. But they bought it.”

“Oh my god, could this day get any worse?”

“Worse? Darlin’, you are going to be co-writing with me, it just got better.”

I excused myself, to which he made another crack about was I visiting the bathroom?

* * *

T
hat afternoon Luke
and I went over a song he had written that we would be singing together. I told him that I hadn’t been able to write in the last few days. I wasn’t sure what was causing the block but if it didn’t sort itself out soon, I wouldn’t be in the contest long.

“You need a little fun. That’s all.”

“And you’re an expert at that?”

“C’mon, let’s get out of this stuffy old apartment. It’s giving me vertigo.”

I hadn’t a clue what he meant. He was so off-the-wall in his conversations. One moment he would be highly focused on singing, then he was like a dog that had seen a squirrel.

“So what are some of the good places around this town?”

“You are standing in it. I don’t know where you are from but this is about the extent of the fun in this town. A coffee shop that hosts the Dancing Jelly Babies every Friday night.”

“The dancing who?”

“Forget it.”

We jumped in my truck and I took him out to Rice Lake. It was just beyond the outskirts of Lakeside. I didn’t really like the idea of taking him up to where I had spent time with Chase. I could see him looking around the floor at all the empty coffee cups, half-eaten muffins and papers that were rolling around the truck.

“So where are you from?”

“Kentucky. Born and raised.”

“Farmer?”

“Third generation.”

I would never have guessed, I thought as he put his boots out the window and tapped the mirror with his foot.

“So how did you get into this?” I asked.

“I love farming but singing is my passion. We have a karaoke bar in my town and someone sent in a video of me one night when I was singing.”

“Seems people have a knack of doing stuff like that.”

We pulled into a parking spot just in front of the lake. In the middle was a huge fountain that sprayed water in the air. It was just for appearances, but definitely unique. Rice Lake was at one time going to merge with Lakeside. It would have brought more business and tourists to the area, but for whatever reason they decided against it.

After we jumped out, Luke hopped up onto the hood of the truck, nearly putting a large dent in it. Not that it mattered. It was a heap of junk and it would be the first thing I would replace if I won this contest.

The water was busy today. There were boats and kayaks that were going around the fountain. All of them looked brand-new. It seemed I was surrounded by people with money but had very little myself. A Jet Ski whizzed past kicking up water that nearly covered us. Further down the lake I could see about ten people swimming in the water. Others bobbed along with kids. Flocks of geese were driven in all directions. There seemed to be no one watching over the safety of people. If someone had trouble swimming, there were no lifeguards on duty to save them.

“They don’t have any lakes where I am. It’s all fields for miles.”

“Are you serious?”

He nodded.

Along the banks were tiny little cottages. Most were dilapidated, only a few looked modern. The air was fresh and despite the season, today was unusually warm. That was one of the things I loved about where I lived. The weather could change at any minute. When it did, people made the most of it. Tiny secluded beaches around lakes were full.

“You getting hungry?”

The smell of food lingered in the air. Someone had started a barbecue nearby. It wasn’t uncommon to see people picnicking, lighting fires and roasting marshmallows at all times of the year. Several families camping nearby had brought out their grills and smoke was rising and wafting over, making my stomach grumble.

“Yeah, I could use a bite.”

We stayed for about another fifteen minutes before I took him down to a local burger joint where I got the largest burger and fries I could stomach.

“That’s what I like to see, a girl with an appetite.”

I spoke with my mouth full. “What? Girls don’t eat where you come from?”

“A whole lot of them are like rakes, afraid to get their mouth around a good bit of meat.”

I nearly choked. He burst out laughing. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

We both snorted and I took a sip of my milkshake.

“Got a girl at home?”

He licked tomato sauce off his finger. “Had one.”

“What happened?”

“She thought I was a big joke. You know, becoming a singer and such. Her ideal was having a guy working on a farm. Lugging hay barrels and coming in the door late at night with your hands dirty. It’s not that I have a problem with that, but we only get eighty years to live, right? Why do something if you are good at something else?”

“I couldn’t agree more. Well, too bad for her.”

He nodded with a smile. “Right.”

There were several times we caught each other’s eye. I felt comfortable around Luke. He didn’t carry the large persona that Chase did. It was nice to hang out with a guy who was on the same page as me.

“So what’s the deal with you and Chase?”

I nearly spat my mouthful of fries on the table.

“Like it’s no mystery you and him had a thing. It was front page news for a while in the tabloids.”

They knew about this down in Kentucky? I chewed hard and fast on my food, partly hoping he would change the subject. But I also wanted to leave. I didn’t want to get into talks about Chase. The last thing I wanted was word to spread that we were seeing each other again. Well, actually that wouldn’t be accurate. He was obviously siding with Mia. I shook my head. Why bring his name up? I was enjoying the afternoon. For a short while I had stopped thinking about him and his rock-hard abs, and killer smile. God, I wanted to hate him, and another part wanted to tear his clothes off and go places in my mind that would have made my mother blush.

I decided I would just take a direct approach.

“We had a thing. It’s over.”

“So you aren’t seeing anyone?”

I thought about lying for a second. Maybe using Spike as a scapegoat but decided against it.

“No. I’m too damn busy for a relationship.”

He laughed, leaning back in his seat and taking a swig of his milkshake.

“What’s so funny?”

“People say that all the time. It’s such a lie.”

“It’s true. With this contest and running my business, where do I have time to be with a guy?”

He raised his hands as if to gesture, hello. You are with one right now.

“Ok. Sure, here and now but that’s different. It’s too distracting is what I’m saying.”

“Ah…” he smirked. “So I’m not distracting?”

I shoveled four more fries into my mouth, wondering how many I could fit in so that I didn’t have to answer that.

I took another swig of my milkshake, not caring if half of it was dribbling down my face. I saw that look in his eyes. I knew it well. It was the one guys got when they were interested. When they were even just looking to score some ass, or start something that would only end up with me in tears, and eating my way through two tubs of ice cream. No thank you.

“You’re twisting my words.”

“Twisting?”

“Putting things in it that I wouldn’t have.”

He started laughing again. I rolled my eyes. Everything was sexual innuendos with him. What did they feed these Kentucky boys? As he leaned forward and took a bite of his burger I saw down his open shirt and had an image in my mind of rolling around in the hay with him. Me with Daisy Duke shorts on and him pinning me down.

“Check!” I muttered between food and milkshake sloshing around in my mouth. The waitress shot a look at me as if I was a demented patient on a day out with my caregiver.

As we left there that day and returned to the café, I had to admit I enjoyed hanging out with Luke. He was amusing, down-to-earth and definitely eye candy that I could get used to.

* * *

B
ack at the café
, Spike was in the middle of his usual Tom Cruise routine of spinning bottles and throwing them underneath his leg. The same music from the movie
Cocktail
was playing and the crowd of people inside were lapping it up. He was worth his weight in gold. I should have hired him a long time ago.

At the jingle of the bell, he caught my eye and saw Luke and dropped one of the glass bottles filled with flavoring for coffee. It shattered and the crowd roared again. Success or failure, they loved it.

“I’ll clear that up,” Sophie said. She had become used to Spike’s momentary brain lapses when I was around. It was strange to see someone that I had grown up with now having feelings for me. Feelings that I couldn’t return. I loved him as a friend, but that was it. There was no attraction beyond that. How do you tell someone that? How do you break their heart? I had been there one time before, when I was in high school. His name was Adam. That kid did a number on my heart. He was in my English and Spanish classes. He was the guy that the most popular girl in the school dated. I had never seen him date any lower-class bottom feeders as my group was referred to. Yes, schools had their social classes, and I was in the bottom one. The only guys interested in me, were the likes of Kyle. Thank God that never happened.

Which reminded me, I hadn’t seen Kyle in a while. A couple of his buddies would show up occasionally but they all seemed to be either busy with work or no longer in touch with Kyle. It was if he had disappeared off the map. I knew he had gone into rehab, but that was it.

Spike approached me and Luke at a table.

“Can I get you anything?” He smiled.

“Yeah, whip me up one of your finest lattes, my good man.”