Sienna rolled her eyes. “God, that nickname. It’s awful, isn’t it?”
I smiled, feeling relieved for the first time. Since I felt we were being honest, I told her, “I’m afraid to touch him when we’re around other people. I’m afraid we’ll be discovered, and the fans will turn on me.” Sighing, I asked her, “What do you think they would do if they knew about me?”
She shrugged, not too worried. “Bitch, moan, and crucify you online. I seriously doubt they would come after you with pitchforks or anything.” Her expression turned thoughtful and a knot formed in my stomach. With a wave of her hand, she told me, “I doubt it would affect your relationship as negatively as you think.” Rubbing my arm, she gave me a best-friend smile. “The fans would get over it. They love Kellan too much to dwell for long.”
She winked at me and then twisted to walk over to a vanity that had been set up for her. Picking up a tube of lipstick from the table, she leaned over and stared at her reflection. “I’ll ease up on the cuddling, if it really bothers you that much.” She looked at me in the mirror, her gaze questioning.
“We would appreciate it . . . thank you.” She was consenting to our wishes, but it didn’t feel like a victory. I hesitated, then decided to ask her what I really wanted to ask her. “Will you please say something to your fans? Tell them that Kellan is in a relationship? Don’t mention my name or anything,” I quickly added, “just help us try and stop the rumor mill?”
Sienna took an inordinately long time applying a layer of deep red around her plump lips. When she was finished, she rubbed her lips together. “Sure thing, love.”
Thinking our meeting was over, I turned to leave as she gave herself one last look over. Her voice stopped me, though. “I’ve seen you writing backstage. How is your book coming?”
Not realizing she’d seen that, I told her, “I’m just about done with it.”
Twisting to me, she sat on her vanity and stretched her arms out behind her. The mirror gave me a full shot of her outfit; the counter was pulling down the already low back of her jumpsuit, so I could see the top of her ass. “I know people in the industry. Perhaps they could look at it when you’re finished?”
I sort of felt like accepting any help from Sienna would come with huge strings attached—cable-sized strings—and all of them would be tied to Kellan. So I only smiled and said, “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Sienna dismissed me with a friendly wave, and I left her room not quite sure if that conversation had gone well or not.
Shoving her to the back of my mind, I set off to find my favorite rock star. When I did find him, what he was doing surprised me a little. The crew hadn’t finished setting the instruments up on the stage yet. In the prep area behind the stage, there were various lonely instruments in and out of their cases—a guitar here, a microphone there. A full drum set was resting peacefully in the organized chaos. Kellan was behind them, attempting to play a D-Bags song while Evan laughed at him mercilessly.
I’d never seen Kellan behind the drums before. The sight was both odd and natural—a beautiful blue jay gliding across a lake instead of soaring through the clouds. It was clearly something that was not his specialty, and he was biting his lip as he concentrated on the complicated rhythms. Watching him focus so intently on something was intoxicating, and I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. A small circle of people were gathered around us, listening to him play—rather, try to play.
Evan spotted me and came over to wrap his arm around me. He was still laughing, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he watched Kellan fumble over a beat and nearly drop one of his sticks. “It’s nice to know I’m better at something than Kellan,” he told me.
I laughed as I watched Kellan curse and shake his head. He was losing the rhythm fast; I could barely recognize the song I knew he was trying to play. “His talent lies elsewhere,” I murmured. Evan chuckled at me, squeezing me tight, and I realized my statement could be taken as dirty talk. “You know, singing and such.”
He laughed a little harder. “Yeah, I figured that’s what you meant.”
When his attention shifted to Kellan again, I asked him, “What’s with the Jujubes box?” I hadn’t been going to pry, but darn if I hadn’t been curious for months.
Evan looked down, a touch of embarrassment darkening his cheeks. “Oh, that. Ah, Jenny and me, the first time we . . . you know, we’d been snacking on those and the box . . . got squished . . . in the process.” He peeked up at me. “I didn’t know she kept the box.” He smiled, a wide, lovesick, satisfied smile. “Sentimental girl.”
My heart warmed for my friends. “Most of us are.”