Troublemaker (Songbird #6)

by Melissa Pearl

  I threw the pen down. It rolled to the middle of the table, stopped by the glass fruit bowl in the middle. I didn’t understand why my nerves were fraying. It was a personal assistant job, for crying out loud. I was capable of doing it. I just never expected to be offered the chance. With a sigh, I snatched the pen back and poised it over the paper again.

  A key jiggled in the lock. I glanced up as Isla walked through the door. Her smile was bright and radiant. It had been since the day Logan proposed.

  “Hey, lady.” The tip of her tongue poked out between her teeth. It always did that when she smiled big. Dumping her book bag on the table, she slumped into the chair opposite me and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  I made a face then pushed the contract across the table. Her eyes scanned the document before rounding large. “You got the job?”

  “Okay, the magnitude of your surprise is actually insulting.”

  Isla giggled, tipping her head back and letting out a loud guffaw. She was the most inelegant laugher I knew. When she really got going, the weirdest noises came out of her. I slapped my hand over the contract and snatched it back before she got that far.

  Restraining herself—sort of—she giggled her way into the kitchen and pulled out the bottle of wine we’d started the night before. “Well, I think it’s great. Have you told Scarlett?”

  “Not yet. I want to wait until I’ve actually signed the thing.”

  Isla reached for two glasses, her green eyes sparkling. “Did you see Chaos?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “As if I ever will. The interview was conducted in a very sedate office. If I sign, I’ll be working on the lower executive floor with the managers and marketing department. I won’t be seeing any rock stars.”

  “You never know. Rock stars might visit their managers.” Isla tipped her head in time with the wine.

  The dark red liquid sloshed into the glasses and my mouth watered.

  “So, tell me about it. What will you be doing?”

  “Um.” I scratched my right eyebrow and gazed at the contract. “I’d be working for a few of the band managers—travel arrangements, admin type stuff, just general assistant responsibilities…whatever they ask me to do really.”

  Isla placed a glass in front of me and sat down. “Sounds cool.”

  “Yeah, it could be okay. The guy who interviewed me seemed nice enough. He’d be one of the guys I’d be working for.”

  “Is he cute?” She waggled her pale eyebrows at me.

  “Isla.” I scowled at her giggling face and sipped my wine. It slid down my throat easily, bringing instant comfort.

  “Come on, tell me about him.”

  I huffed and swirled my wine. “Okay, he was short with light brown hair and a nice smile. Hazel eyes. Decent suit. He was…” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Not ugly, but hardly a looker. He’s so not my type.”

  Isla’s lips quirked, her eyes narrowing at the corners as she scrutinized my expression.

  I widened my eyes and tipped my head, letting her know I was telling the one-hundred-percent truth.

  “Name?”

  “Marcus Chapman.”

  “No way!” Isla slapped the glass table. “Are you kidding me? Do you think it’s the same guy?”

  “What are you talking about?” I placed my glass on the coaster and started fidgeting with the pen.

  “You know!” She twirled her hands in the air, her ginger curls dancing around her face. “The guy who couldn’t leave you alone in high school.”

  She was way too excited about this. Her eyes were so large and dazzling, she looked like a Disney princess.

  I wrinkled my nose, forcing my mind back to high school. I had a lot of guys dogging me throughout my teenage years, but there was one guy in particular…

  My breath caught in my throat as I pictured the pathetic puppy and his numerous attempts to ask me out. It had been totally humiliating. Oh man, his goofy smile and wild laughter…and his jokes that I couldn’t admit to anyone were actually kind of funny.

  But he’d been relentless.

  An image of his hazel eyes, gazing at me with unchecked affection, crystallized in my mind.

  “O. M. G.” I dropped the pen and froze. Those hazel eyes. Those…he was…I couldn’t…

  “It was him?” Isla giggled.

  I closed my eyes and rested my head on top of the contract. “How am I supposed to sign now?”

  “Oh, come on.” Isla lightly tugged my hair. “Sit up and stop being such a baby. Does it really matter if it is him? I’m sure he’s moved on from his high school crush.”

  “Ugh!” I sat up and slapped my hand on the contract. “Do you think that’s why he offered me the job?”

  “No!” Isla brushed her hand through the air. “He can’t hire you for your looks. His job would be on the line.”

  I made a face. “Then why did he offer it to me?”

  Isla shot me a reprimanding scowl. “Because you’re an intelligent woman who can do this.”

  Resting my elbows on the table, I covered my face and sighed. Being the wealthy daughter of a model made it really hard to read people’s true intentions. The amount of times I’d been burned by my looks or status… People were assholes.

  “Kel.” Isla’s voice was soft and serious. I looked up, letting her really see me. She and Scarlett were the only ones who were ever allowed to. “You need this job. Scarlett and I weren’t kidding around. You have to start moving forward. In three days’ time, you’ll be living on your own. You can’t spend it watching soap operas and shopping with your mother while she tries to organize your life. If you don’t want to work for your dad, then work for someone else. Torrence is a cool company, and I know you’ll be in the exec offices, but you may still get to meet Chaos.” She winked.

  I snickered. “If I did, Scarlett would shatter every window in this apartment with her screaming.”

  “For that reason alone, you must do this.” Isla’s serious expression made me laugh. She joined me and we were soon giggling like tweens. It took me back to high school and my laughter faded.

  Isla shook her head. “This Marcus thing was years ago. He’s probably totally over you and living with his girlfriend.”

  I sighed and slowly reached for the pen. “Yeah, well, he’s definitely lost his geek factor, so him actually having a girlfriend is probably quite plausible.”

  Isla twirled the stem of her glass with a sly smile. “He was good-looking, wasn’t he?”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Not my type.”

  Her smile was all-knowing and I gave her a warning look that told her not to go there. Marcus Chapman was seriously not my type. He never had been. I liked tall, dark, and sophisticated, not short, scruffy goofballs. I waggled the pen again and gazed down at the dotted line.

  “Trust me. You want to do this.” My best friend’s intense gaze held so much. She was the only one who knew the whole truth, the entire heartache…my utter disgust and despair.

  I swallowed and she nodded again.

  “It’s your life, Kelly. It’s time to start owning it.”

  Chapter Five

  Marcus

  The back kitchen door jammed like it always did. I jiggled my key and used my shoulder to nudge it open. The second the hinges creaked I was greeted by two dancing kittens.

  “Hey, guys.” I chuckled while they scampered around my feet. “Slow down, I’ll give you cuddles in a second.”

  Dumping my satchel on the kitchen table, I shrugged out of my jacket then crouched down to greet my little buddies. Pumpkin, an orange ball of fluff with blue eyes and the sweetest face in the world, nestled against my leg, purring softly. Flash, the dark gray streak of lightning, bolted between my legs then dug his claws into my trousers.

  “I missed you, too.” I petted between his ears and he meowed. “Hungry?”

  He meowed again.

  “Of course you are.”

  Standing tall, I collected one in each hand and let them play with my collar
and sniff my neck while I walked toward the pantry. Nina, the housekeeper I shared with Chaos, had left my place immaculate as always. If only she wasn’t happily married with grandkids. The way she looked after me, I’d snatch her up in a moment.

  I laughed at myself, pulling out the kitty biscuits then placing my furry friends on the feeding mat. They pranced around me while I shook some food into their bowls. I’d been hesitant to get kittens at first. My job was insanely busy and I really didn’t have time, but my sister, Felicity, volunteered at an animal shelter and she’d told me about these two strays that no one wanted. I couldn’t resist and ended up adopting the two buddies who acted more like brother and sister the longer they lived with me.

  Nina had promised to check on them daily, and so far they hadn’t torn my house to shreds or peed on every exposed piece of carpet. The kids next door really loved them, and I’d given one of them a spare key so she could pop in and play with the kittens after school.

  It was working out well, and it meant that I wasn’t coming home to an empty bungalow every night.

  My lips pulled into a pout. Was I pathetic?

  Most probably.

  I was twenty-three years old. I’d broken up with my college girlfriend, Allison, in my senior year, and I replaced that hole in my life with kittens.

  “You are a sad little man,” I muttered.

  Shaking my head, I pulled out the leftover lasagna mom sent me home with the night before and set about heating it in the microwave. It was already eight o’clock, and I wanted to be at the gym by five the next morning. I had another full day ahead of me…including a meeting with Caris.

  “Oh joy.”

  The microwave beeped. I snatched a fork from the drawer and perched on the kitchen table to eat. My leg swung idly as I stuffed my face and watched my kitties finish up their dinner.

  It was in the quiet moments that I often wondered if I’d made a mistake breaking up with Alli. But she’d wanted to move to the East Coast to pursue her masters in psychology. She’d managed to score a really great opportunity working with some professor who liked her thesis proposal. I didn’t want to head east. I wanted to stay in LA and find a job. Those student loans had no intention of paying themselves.

  When the Torrence Records gig came up, I couldn’t help wondering if it was a sign that I’d made the right decision…but I still missed her sometimes. She’d been a great friend, a good lover, and we’d had fun together. She’d never turned my insides to hot spaghetti like Kelly did, but at least she’d been in my league. I didn’t need mush. I just wanted to love someone and have that someone love me back with the same passion.

  I scraped the lasagna bowl clean then rinsed it in the sink. Pumpkin and Flash were back to dancing around my feet, trying to trip me up as I headed into the living room. Flopping onto the couch, I grabbed the remote and flicked on the TV. The kittens crawled up to join me, snuggling against my legs while I pulled the laptop out of my bag. This was our evening ritual. Some inane TV show would play in the background while I worked and the kittens fell asleep against me. I’d usually hit a wall around ten and drag my sorry ass to bed, falling into oblivion before a new day surfaced.

  As I opened my inbox, my mind jumped to Kelly. It’d been doing that all day. The way she looked standing in my office door had been enough to paralyze me. She’d grown more beautiful…more unattainable.

  I scanned the emails, checking for her name. Marcia had cc’d me on the contract email, and I was impatiently waiting for any kind of response. So far—nada.

  Running my tongue over my upper teeth, I shook off the disappointment and got to work. There were five emails to do with Caris. Two were complaints from the sound techs, one was a vent from the songwriter she was working with, and two were freaking encyclopedias from Caris’s mother waffling on about how sensitive her daughter was. The flowery prose was peppered with veiled demands that I would have to try to meet while also protecting Torrence. The Caris gig was going to be a real bitch.

  I was tempted to slap my laptop closed and deal with it in the morning, but a ding sounded. The box popped up and my heart stopped for a second as I recognized Kelly’s email address.

  My eyes devoured the words of her message, a broad smile growing on my lips until I let out a loud whoop that scared the crap out of my kittens.

  “Sorry, guys.” I petted Pumpkin’s head and ran my fingers down Flash’s back. “She signed. She freaking signed! Kelly DeMarco is my new personal assistant.”

  Pumpkin blinked at me, her large eyes looking mystified. I smiled at my sweet little girl and scratched behind her ear.

  “I haven’t told you the story yet, but when Daddy was in high school, he fell in love with a beautiful girl.”

  Flash scratched the couch, his claws digging into the fabric.

  “Hey, stop that.” I grabbed his paw and gave it a rub. “I know you’re not interested, but Pumpkin wants to hear.” I winked at my ginger fluff-ball. “Anyway, this girl was a dream come true. She’s got this magical smile that hardly anyone has seen. She grew up in the limelight so she’s always putting on this show, right? But if you catch her off-guard and manage to glimpse the girl…the real Kelly…it’s a thing of absolute beauty. She’s strong and sweet and caring and fun…” I shook my head, that goofy grin spreading across my face again. “She’s like dignified royalty with a bubblegum center. I tried everything I could to get her to open up to me—Valentine’s cards, funny notes in her locker, goofy grins in the hallway. I even offered to help her study, not that she needed it. But I was a desperate mule, convinced I could be the one to truly make her happy.”

  I let out a loud, dramatic sigh and ran my finger around the corner of my laptop screen. “I couldn’t do it, though. That girl has a knack for decorum. Breaking through that was like an impossible dream. See, she’s cool by default—rich, beautiful—so of course she hung out with the dignitaries of Beverly Hills High, but…” I shook my head. “I always felt like she ended up with the wrong kind of guys. The good-looking jocks who were boring as hell. I just know, I mean I know I could be the right man for her. I could make her laugh and smile. She could be herself around me. I’d look after her.”

  I stared at the email, not reading the words. Instead, I was remembering Kelly at my senior prom. She’d been there with some good-looking dickhead who spent the night showing her off then groping her on the dance floor. She didn’t smile the whole time. She was far too classy to be treated that way. Even she knew it. In the end, she’d left with her two best friends. I’d secretly followed them into a dance club and watched her face grow radiant as she spent the rest of the night partying with her girls.

  “So beautiful,” I whispered. “A smile to die for.”

  Man, I wanted a chance with her. But how was that even possible? She’d snubbed me so many times in high school. I’d trailed her around like the loser I was, hoping my witty charm would somehow win her over, but if anything, it simply put her off.

  Why the hell did I think things could be any different this time around?

  I shook my head with a wry grin that quickly faded.

  “Man up, Chapman.”

  I was acting like I’d lost before I’d even started.

  Kelly didn’t remember who I was, and I’d changed since then. I didn’t have to be the kid who tripped over his shoelaces trying to say hello to her. I was Marcus Chapman now, manager of artists like Chaos and Dion Bonnet. Kelly worked for me now. It was my chance. I couldn’t let self-doubt kick my ass.

  Chapter Six

  Kelly

  My fingers were sweating again. Seriously!

  I gripped the handle of my new light-oak satchel. I bought it a few months back but hadn’t had the chance to use it. The chic Tory Burch bag matched my oatmeal skinny pants that tapered just above my ankle. I matched the fitted trousers with a scoop-neck top and a fitted black jacket that ended mid-thigh.

  Isla had moved out on Saturday. She and Logan were all smiles and excited ki
sses while I helped in morose silence. After they left, I wanted to curl into a ball and cry, but Scarlett wouldn’t let me. She opened a bottle of Pinot Noir and got busy designing the perfect outfit for me to wear to work come Monday.

  “You want to say professional, yet sexy.” Her long fingers spread wide as she presented her pitch like the marketing guru she was training to be.

  I rolled my eyes. “Sexy? Really?”

  My platinum-blond friend bobbed her head and jumped over to my computer, finding “Sexy Lady” by Jessie J. The music started pumping and she danced around my room, jumping onto my bed and mouthing the words while I stood on the floor trying not to laugh. In the end, I was pulled into her antics and hauled up on the bed with her. We hollered the words and shook our asses until the song finished, and we slumped onto the pillows in a fit of giggles.

  Five minutes later, Scarlett’s boyfriend called and she was out the door.

  “He’s mixing at the club tonight. Like hell I’m missing that.”

  She hadn’t invited me, which meant she planned on spending the night up at his console, dancing and making out with him.

  It took all my willpower to finish off the ensemble Scarlett started for me, but I played “Sexy Lady” until it was embedded in my brain.

  I stepped into the elevator and glanced down at my nude pumps. They finished off the outfit perfectly, and I did look damn sexy. I needed to; it was the only thing giving me any kind of confidence as I walked into a job I was unprepared for. I hummed the tune in my head as I ascended to the eighth floor. It didn’t help my nerves. My fingers were still slick as the doors dinged open and I strode into my new workplace.

  “Kelly.” The receptionist smiled at me. “Welcome.”

  “Hi.” I shot out my hand, once again doing my best to put on a show of confidence. The woman looked me up and down before tucking a lock of hair behind her ear and reaching for my hand.

  “I’m Marcia. I take care of the exec floors and you’ll be working beside me…filling in during my lunch break, that kind of thing.”