At the end of July, Kellan and the boys were done with their portion of the album; the mixing men would finish the rest. All the guys had left to do was have their photo taken for the album cover. Kellan was morose about it on the drive to the studio. “I don’t see why we have to be on the cover. Couldn’t it be some generic photo of . . . a duck or something?”
“A duck? Really?” I questioned as I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear that the wind was continuously whipping into my mouth. Darn convertible.
“What? Ducks are sexy . . . right?” Kellan gave me a sly grin. I rolled my eyes and he chuckled. “They’ve got those long, flat bills, plump bellies, wide, webbed feet.” Still grinning, he brought his eyes back to the road. “What could be hotter than that?”
Staring at the way his dark sunglasses framed his face, amplifying his attractiveness, my immediate thought was,You. Smiling at his ridiculous suggestion, I laughed out loud. “Um, just about anything.”
His perfect face swung my way. “We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one.”
I was just about to tell him that he would be all alone on his side of the argument when my cell phone rang. Quickly digging it out of my bag, I glanced at the screen before answering it. “Hey, Denny. How are you?”
Kellan’s eyes shifted to the front as he turned the radio down. I played with the guitar-shaped necklace around my throat while I waited for Denny’s response. It was long in coming. “I’m fine. How are you?” The concern in his accent was clear, and confusing.
“I’m great. Why do you sound weird?”
As Kellan pulled onto a side street, he flashed me a brief questioning glance. I shrugged, not knowing any more than he did. In my ear, Denny’s warm voice asked, “You’re okay . . . really okay?”
“Of course.” Dread started filling my stomach. “Why? Did something happen?” My thoughts immediately went to my sister and my unborn nephew. “Is Anna okay? Is the baby?” Fear seeped into my stomach, and I tried to squelch it. Surely Anna, Kate, or Jenny would have called me if something had happened to the baby.
Denny immediately sputtered, “No, no, they’re fine. It’s nothing like that. It’s just . . . have you seen the tabloids recently? Been on any gossip sites?”
Relief immediately flooded me. I shook my head at Kellan’s concerned face, letting him know that everything was fine with Anna. Focusing on the first part of his reply, I told Denny, “Oh good, you freaked me out.” I frowned as I puzzled his question. Tabloids? “No, I’ve been way too busy for that. Why would I care about tabloids and gossip sites?”
Denny sighed. “Crap. I would’ve called you sooner, but I just noticed today. It’s still pretty quiet around here, and I don’t think anyone’s put two and two together yet, but I thought you should know what’s out there, so you could be prepared.”
More confused than before, I tentatively asked, “Prepared for what?”
Denny paused again, and my anxiety started resurfacing. “You mentioned earlier in the month that the guys were doing a collaboration with Sienna Sexton.”
His voice held a trace of awe and wonder in it, a feeling I completely understood; it sort of blew me away too. But I didn’t understand why he was changing the subject, and my voice came out agitated. “Yeah, what does that have to do with tabloids, though?”
As I watched Kellan swerving his way through traffic, a slight frown on his lips as he listened, Denny said, “Does Kellan . . . hang out with her?”
My frown deepened. “No. She’s not even here. She went back to London after recording her part of the song.” Pulling my gaze from Kellan, I bluntly asked my ex, “What’s going on, Denny?”
He sighed. “There’s a picture of Sienna and Kellan that’s circulating the Internet. It’s all over the magazines too. No one seems to know who Kellan is yet. It’s mainly his back in the photo, but there is some serious buzz about Sienna and her new mysterious . . . boyfriend.”
My jaw dropped so far I thought it might have to be surgically reattached. “Boyfriend? Wait, what picture?”
Denny’s exhale was sympathetic. “I don’t know. Looks like they’re walking into a restaurant together. She’s holding onto his arm. He’s smiling and looking down at her. It’s all very . . . convincing. Are you okay?”
My mind blanked, then I remembered the photographers outside of the place we had gone with Sienna for dinner. They’d been snapping pictures of all three of us as we’d been walking into the restaurant. Sienna had invaded Kellan’s personal space a bit before we’d walked through the doors, but I’d been in the picture too; Kellan was holding my hand the entire time. But of course they wouldn’t show that. I was a nobody. Sienna was a celebrity. And Kellan was now her new mysterious boyfriend. They were already linked . . . and no one knew about the single yet. What would happen when they did know? My stomach dropped as the car pulled to a stop.