2
It had taken four days for Brendan to make the drive from LA to Atlanta. He had rented a car because he didn’t want to be bothered with the hassle of public appearances in an airport. He hadn’t thought he would ever get tired of signing autographs, and in truth, he hadn’t because he appreciated his adoring fans. What he hadn’t counted on, was the scrutinizing gazes, curious glances, and the inquiries into his private life since those photos of he and Misty had been leaked.
As he pulled up to the gated community, his phone buzzed on the dashboard.
“Brendan?”
“Misty! Hey, stranger.” Brendan rolled the window of his rental car down and punched the code into the keypad.
“I’m sorry. I know I’ve been incognito lately, and except for the call the day those photos were leaked, I haven’t been in touch. I just wanted to apologize again for pulling you into this mess.”
“Pssh! You didn’t pull me into anything, Misty. It wasn’t you; it’s these piranhas. Those vultures that like to call themselves the paparazzi,” he replied, pulling through the gates and slowly cruising through the upscale neighborhood with its lighted sconces at the edge of every driveway and elegantly manicured lawns.
“Yeah, I know, but still…” her voice had gone soft, as her words trailed off.
“No, but still, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. You’re my friend, and that’s what friends do.”
“I just wish they wouldn’t bash you. Why didn’t you defend yourself when you had the chance to do so in the interview, Bren?”
“Misty, they’re going to think what they want to think regardless. I’m not giving them fodder for another story. Besides, if I explained what was really happening in those pictures, they’d be all over you worse than they are now. You and I both know that.”
“Yeah, but they’ve pretty much figured it out anyway. It won’t be much longer before it is splashed all over the news.”
“Maybe so, but at least this buys you a little time.”
“So, I heard from Rick that you decided to return home to Atlanta. I thought you’d be flying back to your place in New York,” Misty stated, switching the subject.
He released a sigh, as he pulled into the driveway and cut his lights. “Nah, I need some serious downtime. And I won’t get that in the city.”
“Atlanta isn’t really a small town, you know,” she teased.
“No, it’s not, but it’s nothing like New York. I just need a break from the tabloids and the media following me all around.”
“And you don’t think that’ll happen there?”
“Not on the same scale. Besides, I needed to see my grandparents. It’s been almost a year since we’ve had time together.”
“Awww, I know how much they mean to you. Give them hugs and kisses for me when you see them. By the way, are you staying with them while you’re in town?”
“Nah, I’m not. I’m staying with my best friend, Keith and his wife, Roxi. My grandparents downgraded into a small two-bedroom apartment a couple of months ago.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. They just didn’t need all the space anymore, you know? Since Drew and I have grown up and it’s just the two of them, it didn’t make sense to have that huge space and all that land. Granddad can’t take care of it anymore, and he refused to allow me to hire anyone to maintain it for him. Grandma said it was his pride.”
“Who moved all of their stuff?”
Brendan chuckled, his eyes narrowing in the dark of the night as the front door opened. “They did allow me to hire a company of movers to pack and move their stuff. Drew oversaw the move to make sure it went smoothly.”
“I know you’re glad your brother is close by for the two of them since you can’t always be.”
“Uh…yeah, I am. Hey, Misty?”
“Yes?”
“I just pulled up to the house, and I have a welcoming committee waiting for me with open arms. Can I call you back after I get settled?” he asked, turning off the ignition, pushing the door open, and swinging his long, muscular legs down to the ground.
“Yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hold you up. Take your time and enjoy your vacation. We’ll have plenty of chances to talk. Love you, Bren.”
Closing the door, he replied, “Okay. Love you, too, Misty.” He clicked the phone off, a smirk turning his lips upwards as he stared at the sight before him.
“Well, well, well. Aren’t you a sight to behold,” he noted, staring at the figure before him.
“Brendan.” He was taken aback by the coldness of her tone, so unlike her usual warmth and friendliness.
“Ava?”
The last time he saw Ava had been two years ago when he’d returned to Atlanta to visit his grandparents for the Christmas holiday. At the time, she hadn’t changed much since her high school years. She’d worn the same bland ponytail with every strand of her long, dark brunette hair pulled tightly away from her face. She had upgraded her thick, brown glasses to a pair of red-framed cat-eyed ones, which made her look nerdier than before in Brendan’s opinion.
As he looked at her now, she appeared to have dropped a couple of pounds since college—when she still had the excess weight that was a carryover from her youth. It was difficult for him to tell how much she had lost in the dark of the evening. Besides, she wore baggy sweatpants and a hoodie, that were not exactly form-fitting. Her red cat-eye glasses had been exchanged for a similar pair, but the frames were green.
Tonight, she stood angrily before him, her arms crossed over her breasts, glaring at him. Gone was the happy, fun-loving young girl he used to know. If he didn’t know any better, he would swear he had personally done something to her. Keith had phoned him an hour before, telling him that he had taken his wife out for the evening, but Ava would be there upon his arrival.
He had expected a warm welcome from Ava. She had always been excited to see him and the first to come running out of the house whenever he arrived at their home. Tonight, it seemed as if he were in some alternate reality where someone else had taken her place. The sullen young woman standing here was not the Ava of old, and it left him confused and wary.
“Well, are you gonna come in or stand there with your mouth hanging open wide enough to catch a few flies?” Ava asked, her tongue slicker than it had ever been.
“Um…yeah. Sure, let me just get my bags out of the car,” he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder and turning towards the car.
Popping the trunk, Brendan scratched the back of his neck.
A slight lift twisted her pouty lips into a smirk, as she shook her head and turned away from him when he turned back to face her.
Brendan swiftly followed behind her, as she led him through the house and up the stairs to the bedroom he would be occupying for the next few weeks.
“I’m sure Keith already told you that he and Roxanne are out for the night. They’ve been gone about three hours now, so I’m not sure when they’ll be back.”
“Yeah, he called and said something about that.”
“I know you’ll probably want to get cleaned up after that long road trip. Roxanne made sure the bathroom was fully stocked with supplies for you. Fresh towels, washcloths, soap, and your favorite grooming items can all be found in that bathroom,” she stated, pointing a long finger behind him.
Brendan noticed the way she spoke was with a slight air of disgust, as though he didn’t deserve Roxanne’s consideration.
“Wow! She didn’t have to go out of her way to do all that.”
“Yeah? Well, she did. So…you should have everything you need to make yourself comfortable.”
“Thanks, it really means a lot to me.”
“Thank Roxanne. She’s the one that did it. When you’re settled here, there’s food downstairs in the kitchen,” Ava called over her shoulder, leaving the room and heading down the hall.
Plopping down on the soft bed, Brendan dropped his head into his hands and blew out a rush of air. He
was curious. What had happened? How had her attitude toward him changed so drastically? Had something happened that he was unaware of? He tried racking his brain but could come up with nothing Keith might have warned him about.
Pushing off the bed, he made his way into the adjacent bathroom to shower before heading downstairs for a meal. Perhaps, a cool shower would be just what he needed to calm the turbulent emotions he was experiencing over the drastic change in an old friend.
“Sorry I missed your graduation,” Brendan mumbled around the taco he had just taken a large bite from. Brendan spent the entire time in the shower trying to decipher Ava’s mood swing. The only thing he could come up with was that she had personally sent him an invitation to her graduation, and he had not been able to make it.
“No need to apologize.” Ava bustled around the kitchen, cleaning up the remnants of their Mexican dinner that she had ordered not long before his arrival.
As much as he tried, it was hard for Brendan to keep his eyes from the bowed curve of her shoulders, displaying the anger she must have felt.
As if she felt his gaze on her, she turned around without warning and rolled her eyes. “You know, you’ve changed a lot.”
Swallowing the food in his mouth, Brendan tilted his head slightly and smiled. “So have you.”
“Yeah? Well, too bad yours wasn’t for the good,” she said, stomping out of the kitchen.
Brendan pushed his chair away from the table and went to the sink to rinse his plate. When he had finished, he opened the dishwasher and added his dish before restarting it again.
He followed the trail of her floral-scented perfume out of the kitchen and into the family room. She was curled up in a large, plush armchair, her feet pulled underneath her with an oversized, purple pillow cradled in her arms against her chest.
“So, are you staying here in town?” he asked, making small talk with Ava until his friend’s return. He didn’t know how much more of her attitude he could withstand, or even if his tired nature would allow him to hang on until Keith’s came back home.
“Yes…I’m staying here with Keith and Roxanne for a while.”
“Ava, I’m proud of you. You’ve accomplished your dreams. Do you have any leads on a teaching position that might hold your interest?”
Glancing at him and then quickly away, she nodded her head. “Yes, I’ll be starting at Berkshire Middle School this August, teaching seventh grade history.”
He smiled, recalling her love of children. She had always been great with the smaller children in the neighborhood and patient with them when they had become a burden on older siblings who didn’t want them hanging around.
“So, what’s it like?” she asked.
“What?”
“You know…the touring, award shows, making the videos, the women. Is it everything you dreamed it would be, or does it become exasperating?”
“I love it, and I don’t take it for granted. Is it tiring? Yes, it is. Do I get homesick? I do. But I wouldn’t change a moment of it for anything. It’s what I’ve always wanted and what the guys and I have worked so hard for over the last several years. And I’ll do what I need to do to keep it going.”
He saw something flicker in those sparkling green eyes that he could not quite interpret. Just as quickly it went away. It was just as well. She probably wouldn’t have shared with him what the look was all about anyway. It was as if she was a complete stranger—instead of the sweet, little kid sister of his best friend…who used to follow him all around whenever he came to their house for a visit.
“How long are you here for?” Ava brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face. Her voice jerked him away from his thoughts and back to the moment.
“Well, I’d planned on at least the next three weeks, but your brother wants me to stay longer. I’ll have to see what happens next before I make any solid decisions.”
“I’m surprised you stopped by and didn’t fly straight to New York,” she huffed, reaching for the remote to turn on the TV.
“It’s been a while since I’ve visited Keith, Drew, or my grandparents. Now that the tour has come to an end and we’re on break for a while, I thought this would be the perfect escape.”
“Escape from what?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow, still maintaining the frown.
Shrugging, he replied, “Things.” He didn’t want to talk about the scandal and all the attention he had garnered over those pictures. That was his purpose for coming here.
Ava turned her attention away from him and focused in on a movie that was on television, effectively shutting him out. He waited for a while, before making a polite but quiet exit. Touring for the last three months daily with sometimes two shows in one day, several interviews, and photo shoots daily had left him physically and mentally bankrupt. His body needed rest, and he was unsure how much more he could take before he fell flat on his face.
3
“What’re you gonna do, man?” Keith asked, setting the bags on the table. His wife, Roxanne instantly began unpacking the groceries and placing items in the cabinets.
“Bren, honey, you can set those bags right there on the empty counter space,” she indicated with a nod of her head.
Thinking back to Keith’s question, Brendan set the bags on the counter and turned back to his friend. Shrugging, he replied, “I don’t know. Deal with it. That’s what we normally do.”
Brendan was on day three of his visit, and he had already been bombarded in public. He had been hesitant to go out, but he needed to escape the confines of the house, so against his better judgment he had ventured out to the grocery store with Keith and Roxanne.
“This isn’t normal, Bren,” Keith argued in his Southern twang. “You can’t even go out in public anymore without being harassed.”
“No, it’s always been like that.”
“Yeah, but that was when you were the apple of your fans’ eyes. Now you’ve got a whole new group of lunatics to worry about. I mean, don’t get me wrong…there’s nothing wrong with having a bunch of beautiful women chasing you,” Keith stated, just before ducking a roll of paper towels Roxanne threw at him. “Unless, of course, you’ve got the most beautiful woman in the world to call your own,” he said, pulling Roxanne into his arms and kissing her neck.
She giggled, pulling away.
“Well, it might be my new normal for a while, Keith,” Brendan replied, removing a bottle of water from a twenty-four pack and tossing it back and forth between his hands.
“You have got to come up with a plan, Bren. Keith, you gotta help him. He can’t go on like that. He’s supposed to be here on vacation, getting some downtime,” Roxanne interjected, moving out of the pantry and placing her hands on her hips, as she looked between the two of them.
“What’s going on?” Ava asked, stepping into the kitchen with her arms crossed underneath her breasts. Everyone turned at the sound of her soft-spoken voice.
Today, she wore an oversized, long-sleeved, grey Henley t-shirt. Large, plaid pajama pants hung loosely from her hips, and she pressed one bare foot on top of the other. His eyes went down to her feet, and for some strange reason, it struck him that her feet were beautiful. That wasn’t something he would have noticed on a woman before, and he didn’t know why he did now. Her eyes gazed down to where his eyes had fallen, and she moved one foot behind her ankle, as if she were ashamed of the chipped cotton-candy pink nail polish she wore. Brendan wondered why she always hid away in clothes that made her look frumpy and tired.
“Bren got mobbed at the grocery store,” Roxanne stated in a voice filled with disbelief as she tossed a sympathetic look his way, drawing his attention away from Ava.
“Lots of folks were staring, but at least they gave him his space. But there were some bold ones that came straight out and asked for his autograph. And while that’s all fine and well, some lunatic came out of nowhere with his camera flashing and asking all these questions about his affair with Misty,” Keith complained in his thick Southern tw
ang.
It always baffled Brendan how deep Keith’s accent was compared to his own. Sure, he had a Southern drawl, but nothing like Keith’s. Even Ava’s soft voice, sounding like a Southern belle had nothing on Keith’s.
“Honestly guys, he scared me,” Roxanne interrupted. “He followed us all the way to the car, shoving his camera in Bren’s face. When Bren refused to answer, he started calling him a home-wrecker and saying all this other crazy stuff. It was creepy.” Roxanne visibly shuddered.
“He’s just one irrational person out of the millions I come across, Keith. I probably will never see him again,” Brendan clarified, before taking a swig from his water bottle. “And Roxi, sweetheart, I’m sorry about putting you in that situation.”
She waved a hand, shushing him. “Maybe it will be the last time you see him, maybe not. But there were still those other people who were just staring, pointing, and whispering. How do you do it?” Roxanne asked.
Shrugging, Brendan pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down in it. “It comes with the territory. Nothing new.”
“You two need to come up with a plan today!” Roxanne said, pointing between Brendan and Keith. “And I mean it. I don’t want him to have to hide away the entire time he’s here, and I don’t want him to be attacked like that again.”
Fake Marriage to a Rock Star: Fame and Romance Page 2
