The Pop Star Next Door

by Aleah Barley

  “It’s going to sound a little different, so I want you all to withhold judgment until it’s over.” Her gaze flicked sideways, settling on Nick for one long moment. “I want to dedicate this performance to a boy I used to know. A boy who had no responsibilities. And—”

  Her lips pursed, slightly, like she was kissing the air. Her breath came a little faster. If her fans didn’t like her new sound then she’d live, she’d survive. Her earlier music would endure, and maybe she’d like a quiet retirement. Maybe. Nick had to like the new stuff; he had to understand that she was more than a couple of pop albums. Sweet dreams and chart toppers.

  “And this is for a man I’m still coming to understand. A man with no regrets and a boy he calls his own.”

  ‘Baby, Be Mine’ was her first hit, one of the first songs she’d ever written, but she’d never sung it this way before. Soft, low. The audience strained in their seats, faces blank, struggling to hear the familiar dance tune reworked as a lullaby. A love song for the new generation, staring up into their parents eyes. It had started out as a quick exercise, a way to get Adam to sleep, but now she couldn’t imagine singing the song any other way.

  People were smiling now. Her voice grew stronger in response to the positive reaction, stretching to reach notes that weren’t in her usual range. Drawing out lyrics that she was used to singing fast and hard.

  When the last note finally rang out across the amphitheater the world was still. A small round of clapping, echoing in the large space. Another. A third, a fourth, and then a tidal wave of applause.

  Men, women, and children of all ages.

  Even the twelve to twenty-year-old girls who made up her usual demographic.

  They pushed themselves up onto their feet, giving her a standing ovation, screaming her name as they pushed forward. Struggling to hear what she had to sing next.

  Anna took a deep breath and put down her guitar. “Alright.” She nodded at her lead guitarist. “Let’s get this thing started.”

  An hour and twenty-two minutes later, after giving more encores than she could count, Anna walked offstage exhausted and happier than she’d been in years. “They liked me!”

  The hugs were quick, impulsive. One for every member of the band who’d worked for two days solid. Helping her turn so many new songs from melodic ditties into instant rock classics. Hugs for all the people who’d helped her get ready. A quick squeeze for Adam, who seemed to have found a stash of chocolate cake, and then Darryl was holding her tight.

  “You were right to try something new.” The man who’d been a father to her for so many years staring down at her like he was seeing her for the first time all over again. “We should have done this a long time ago. That was real special, baby girl.”

  “Anna.” A quick spin and she was looking up into Nick’s deep ooey-gooey dark chocolate eyes. “We need to talk.”

  “Sure.” A kiss, quick and impulsive.

  Forcing herself up onto her tiptoes to reach his mouth. Another kiss, deeper this time. Tasting him, unflavored Chapstick and pure masculinity. His arm didn’t curl comfortably around her waist. He didn’t kiss her back.

  “Why don’t you grab Adam? I’ll get Darryl and collect Leroy. We’ll go out for ice cream sundaes.”

  “No—”

  “Sundaes are traditional after a good show.”

  “No, it’s not about sundaes. I like sundaes.” His cheeks flushed a bright, heated, red. “We need to talk.” An ominous pause. “You and me. Alone.”

  We need to talk. Anna might not be an expert on relationships, but she’d seen enough romantic comedies to know that those four little words were never a good sign. A moment earlier, this was the happiest night of her life, debuting her new music in front of the people she cared about most, but there was something about Nick’s wooden expression that had her blood running cold.

  “Fine.” Anna forced a smile.

  The news couldn’t be too bad. He’d flown all the way to Los Angeles to come to her concert—to be with her—maybe even to get her back. Everything was going to be fine. They just needed to talk.

  “We’ll go to my dressing room.” She raised her voice, calling across the crowded backstage area, “Darryl, can you watch Adam?”

  “Fine,” A growl from the man who’d watched over her almost every night of her teenage years. “Don’t make this a regular occurrence, I’m not a babysitter.”

  “I don’t know,” Nick said. Earlier, he’d been emphatic. They needed to talk alone. Now, he was shifting on his heels. The action nervous, uncertain. “Are you sure it’s okay? I don’t like leaving Adam with people I haven’t met before.”

  “Darryl practically raised me,” Anna said. When that didn’t have the desired effect, she tried another tactic. “Look, if you don’t want Darryl to watch Adam then, I can ask Trevor—”

  “Darryl will be fine.” A dry, emphatic statement.

  With that settled, Anna led the way back to her dressing room. It was smaller than most dressing rooms that she used on tour but larger than some of the places she’d been packed into over the years. Sizes, shapes, wall color. It all changed. The furnishings remained the same. A dressing screen with painted turtledoves that had been a gift from Papa Billy after the first time he’d come to one of her concerts.

  The overstuffed chair that Darryl had given her for her sixteenth birthday. Because she saw it in a shop and she wanted it, no matter how silly it looked.

  Flowers—the flowers changed—lilies, begonias, and roses, more of them if she’d just released a CD. After her divorce, they’d poured in by the thousands. Well-meant condolences that she’d donated to every hospital in town.

  Anna fell to her knees as she walked into the room, unbuckling the sky-high heels that hobbled her every time she walked across the stage. Placing them neatly on the table beside the flower arrangements, she took off her earrings and tucked them into her bra for safe keeping. The same simple ceremony she performed after every show.

  “What do you want to talk about?”

  “Us,” Nick said. “We need to talk about us.”

  Anna nodded slowly, pushing herself up onto her tiptoes. Stretching. Relaxing. Reaching behind her to lift the hair off the back of her neck. “Can you undo my dress?”

  “You want me to unzip your dress.”

  “Unfasten. This dress doesn’t have a zipper.” She spun slightly until her back was to him, giving him easy access. “It’s got a million tiny buttons. It took two assistants to do me up, but you’re pretty good at taking off women’s clothes.”

  It was supposed to be a joke, but Nick wasn’t laughing.

  Nimble fingers skimmed her back, starting at the base of her neck, working down her spine. His touch made her heart flutter in her chest like a caged bird struggling to get free.

  “This is a beautiful dress,” he murmured, his breath hot against her collarbone, “But you’re always gorgeous. In rags and tatters,” Every breath brought them closer together, sending pleasure deep into her belly, every word was like a caress, “Naked.”

  “What do you want to talk about?” Anna repeated the question, hoping that it was something simple. Easy. The way she’d looked at him backstage… No one would come looking for them for a while, and there were so many other things that they could be doing. Joyous things. Naked things.

  “Seeing you here, seeing all those people,” Nick’s voice was little more than a whisper she had to strain to hear. “I thought you were happy in Mill City. I thought you could be happy. Seeing you here,” a rasping sigh, “I know I was wrong. You could never be at peace in some small town, with some small town guy like me. Someone who can’t give you the things you deserve—diamonds and dresses—”

  The more he talked, the more it felt like goodbye. A finality that would send her spiraling back into the gloomy funk that had been with her ever since she’d left the hospital eight days earlier.

  “You could never feel about me the same way that I feel about you.”


  How did he feel about her? Anna wanted to ask, to beg, to scream. Her breath was coming faster, her knees wavering. Leaving Mill City had been so hard—the hardest thing she’d ever done—and then she’d looked up to see Adam throwing his arms around her, grinning, to feel Nick kissing her, holding her tight. Like nothing had changed.

  “There’s a little boy outside who thinks the world of you. Not because you’re famous, but because you sang him to sleep at night. Because you danced with him barefoot in the yard.” Nick stood up to go. “You need to let him down easy, even if you can’t love me.”

  He reached for the door to the dressing room. It was time to leave, before he embarrassed himself any further.

  “I do love you.” Three little words like jewels dancing in the air. Her head whipped around until she was staring up into his eyes. “Of course I love you.” Words weren’t enough. There was no way to express how she felt. “I love you both, you and Adam.”

  “If you love us,” Emotion made Nick’s voice crack, “then why did you leave?”

  Hands wavering, blinking back tears, Anna swallowed, hard, “I was so afraid. I just—what if I did something? What if something happened to Adam? Falling out of the holly tree. He could have been hurt. He could have been killed.”

  “Anna.” Callused fingers brushed against her cheek, wiping away her tears. The action small and delicate. “What you’re feeling now, that’s what being a parent is all about. If you really love someone then you don’t leave. You stay. No matter what happens you stay.” He dragged in a breath, “You love us enough to run away. The question is, do you love us enough to come back?”

  “Of course I’ll come back.” Nothing could stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks, blinding her, or the kisses that she was peppering Nick with.

  “I love you more than anything.” Her hands were tugging on his clothes, desperate to feel his skin against hers. “I love you more than diamonds and dresses. More than sweet dreams and chart toppers.”

  There, she’d told him how she felt. Now all he had to do was respond in kind, to tell her that he loved her, and they could be on the next flight to the east coast.

  The only response she got was a kiss. A long, luxurious kiss that made her blood boil and her toes curl. Not the words she needed to hear.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” His hands fumbled with her tight dress, long fingers curling in the silky fabric. The buttons were only half undone, but one sharp tug and Anna could hear cloth tearing. Another tug and the dress was gone, silvery material pooling at her feet leaving her exposed in a pair of sky blue silk panties and nothing else.

  “Damn—” Nick stopped short, his gaze roving across her exposed skin. “You take my breath away.”

  “I—” Anna couldn’t believe it. After a long concert under the hot lights, she was covered in sweat, her makeup melting down her face. “I’m a mess.”

  “You’re beautiful.” His lips twisted into a lustful smile. “Beautiful. What does that even mean? I’m sure everyone says that. A thousand voices heaping praise at your feet. All those warm curves. Peaches and cream skin.”

  His hands were moving across her body, the rough touch of his callused fingers making her shudder with anticipation.

  “You never step away from a challenge. You’re the strongest woman I know. You insist on living by some strange set of rules that I don’t understand. Sometimes I feel like I know everything about you, like you’re the same girl that I was—that I was falling in love with ten years earlier. Then you do something to send me spinning.”

  His mouth skimmed down her neck, taunting her, teasing her. “All I know for sure is that I can’t live without you.”

  One hand dropped to fumble in his back pocket, and then he was holding something out to her. Small, delicate. Carefully cradled in his hands.

  A ring. A diamond ring.

  “Anna Howard,” Nick said. “Will you do me the honor of—” A sharp intake of breath. “This isn’t coming out right. I don’t know how to say it.”

  Anna picked up the ring. A thin gold band with a spidery pattern of flowers. The diamond glowed with some sort of interior fire. Hands shaking she slipped it onto her ring finger, trying it on for size. The ring felt like it had been made for her, but she couldn’t keep it.

  Not unless she heard him say the words, “Do you love me?”

  “Oh,” A gasp. “Haven’t I told you?”

  “No, you haven’t.”

  Nick raised his head, straightening until he was looking straight into her eyes. A serious expression on his face. “Anna Howard, I love you more than I’ve ever loved any woman in my entire life. Will you do me the great honor of being my wife?”

  The serious expression was gone, replaced by the same twisted grin she’d fallen in love with ten years earlier. “If only to save me the embarrassment of becoming a celebrity stalker.”

  Finally. Anna let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. It was a good thing that he’d said the words ‘I love you’ because she wasn’t giving the ring back. She wasn’t taking it off ever again, as long as she lived. “Of course I’ll marry you.”

  This time when they kissed neither one of them was pulling away. Anna’s hand fumbled with Nick’s shirt, tugging at his collar, trying to undo his buttons. Gasping, panting. Desperate to get closer.

  Only, they didn’t have to be desperate. There was no reason to hurry. They were going to have years together. Decades. An entire lifetime spent loving each other, building a family. Anna, Nick, and Adam.

  Imagining the expression on Adam’s face when he found out that Anna was marrying her father had a giggle escaping her lips. Then another one. Big blue eyes, pink cheeks, and an open mouth hanging down towards the ground. Anna convulsed, trying to bite back the laughter. There would be noise. With Adam, there was always noise. Singing, laughter, and cheers of joy. Anna couldn’t fight the laughter now, huge peals, making her entire body shake.

  “Honey.” Nick pulled away slightly, “There are a lot of ways to torture a man. Laughing at him after he’s just proposed marriage is just plain mean.”

  “I was just thinking about Adam.” Anna grinned happily. Adam dancing silly in the backyard, painting his face with chocolate puddings and racing across the yard with Leroy. “About what he was going to say when we told him the news.”

  Then they were both laughing, and there was something right about that too. Something warm and loving. Something that told her everything was going to be alright. Nick was going to take care of her for the rest of her life, but that was okay because she was going to take care of him too.

  Epilogue

  “Anna! Have you seen it? Have you seen my new bike?” Cold air and excitement combined to make Adam’s cheeks a bright red. It was late autumn in Mill City, and the entire town seemed to have turned out for the party. Adam’s birthday. The boy was seven years old—old enough to eat as much chocolate cake as he wanted, he claimed—and he couldn’t be more excited about his new bike if it was made out of solid gold.

  “It looks great. Don’t forget to wear your helmet!” Anna called from the front porch swing at Papa Billy’s. After much deliberation, she’d moved into Nick’s house two months earlier, but that hadn’t lessened the pace of renovations any. The old place was almost finished. It was the perfect studio for her to record her latest album. Entirely new material, all done in the new sound that was gaining her fans of all ages.

  When they’d finished renovating the kitchen, it would also be the perfect guest house for visiting musicians and family members. Darryl had already staked out the bedroom at the top of the stairs. He was calling it his new ‘retirement plan.’

  “The bike was a great choice.” Nick’s lips brushed against her cheek. “Thank you so much for picking it out.”

  “My pleasure.” Anna’s heart skipped a beat. Leaning back into his arms, she couldn’t stop herself from beaming. Everything was turning out just right. She’d found new joy in her career,
a new community full of people who accepted her just the way she was, and a family who loved her more than anything. A man and a young boy who didn’t care if she ever sold another record, as long as she remembered to make it home in time for dinner. “You’ve got a great kid, Nick.”

  “We’ve got a great kid.”

  “We’ve got a great kid.” Her hand covered Nick’s, lacing her fingers together with his as they watched all the kids racing up and down the street. The adults were gathered around the barbecue on the other front lawn. All their friends and family. Myrna was drinking a coke and giving Trevor advice on how to work the barbecue, while Jemmie and Darryl debated the finer points of dog grooming with Leroy stretched out on the ground between them. Even Mrs. O’Reilly was getting into the spirit. Apparently, the old biddy was a closet horror fan, she’d cornered Rebecca Blake and was demanding to know exactly what ingredients were used to make fake brains.

  “So, when are you going to make an honest woman out of me?” Anna snuggled closer to Nick. Allowing the warmth of his body to protect her from the crisp fall air. Her engagement ring glinted on her fingertip, but with one thing and another they still hadn’t gotten around to making wedding plans.

  “Whenever you have time in your schedule.”

  “How about tomorrow?”

  Nick sucked in his breath. “Tomorrow?”

  “If you don’t mind just going down to the courthouse.”

  “Of course, but I thought you’d want some big fairytale wedding out in California.”

  “I don’t care how I get married. As long as I’m marrying you.” Anna waited a beat, enjoying the sounds of children playing in the distance. The gentle laughter of all the people she loved coming together. “Besides, the tabloids would have a field day if they found out we’d waited to tie the knot until after the baby was born—”

  “The baby.” Nick stared down at her in disbelief. Dark eyes widened. Disheveled walnut curls going every which way. His crooked grin—the one that had her reaching for him every time she saw it—was plastered to his face. “What baby? What—” His voice cracked. “Our baby?”