Wild Star: Under the Stars Book 3

by Raleigh Ruebins

  But then we were there. And Chandler Price had arranged for a private car to pick us up, curbside. An hour of Los Angeles traffic later I found myself sitting on the plush leather seat of the black car, looking out the window at oceanfront mansions. I saw a particularly big and modern one at the peak of one of the hills, sun reflecting off sleek glass.

  “Jesus, look at that one,” I said, pointing it out to Adam.

  He smiled. “I know, right? Chandler outdid himself with this house.”

  I turned to Adam with an eyebrow hiked. “That’s where we’re going?”

  He nodded.

  “Oh holy shit,” I said. Suddenly I felt a bit like an alien from another planet, visiting an entirely different species. I couldn’t believe a real human would live in a house that looked as modern as a museum, and as we pulled up past the gates of the house and down the long, sloping driveway, I was at a loss for words.

  “Is that a pool or a waterfall?”

  “That’s one of Chandler’s pools, and yes, the edge of it falls into a waterfall.”

  I just shook my head.

  A minute later, we pulled up along the side of the house. As I stepped out of the car into the L.A. heat, I saw the shimmer of light, blinding, almost, reflecting off the glass windows.

  That’s when things started to feel very weird.

  My vision went spotty, I swayed and tried to put my hand out to the side of the car to steady my balance. But it was too late. I tried to call out to Adam, but my voice didn’t seem to work right.

  And then I don’t remember anything.

  “…this happened to him before?”

  “No, not at all....”

  “…think he’s okay. Maybe he just needs to sleep it off?”

  “Just let him rest. Hell, I’ve got a backpack full of gummy candies, maybe when he wakes up he just needs a sugar hit…”

  “Wait—guys—I think he’s waking up—”

  “Grey. Grey!”

  There were so many unfamiliar voices swirling around me, but that last one, I knew. It was Adam.

  I was lying down, my cheek pressed against something cool and smooth and as I shifted I realized I was on a leather couch.

  Slowly I opened my eyes and saw Adam crouching above me. There were other guys around, too, their faces at first barely registering in my brain—but as I blinked my eyes open and my mental fog began to slip away, it hit me with a jolt.

  “Holy fuck,” I said, my voice coming out weirdly weak and hoarse, “Chandler Price. And Leo Stone, oh my God,” I said, seeing three out of the four members of 5*Star hovering above me. I tried to sit up a little too quickly and felt like I was being dragged through molasses, the world spinning.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Adam said, pressing me gently back down.

  “Where am I?” I managed to say.

  “You’re on Chandler’s couch,” Adam said. “You kinda hit the ground outside five minutes ago, Grey,” he said, bringing a hand up to my forehead. “You feel okay?”

  “Uh,” I said, still trying to piece together the information. “Yeah, I think so. I’ve got a headache but really I just feel a little groggy.”

  Chandler—Chandler fucking Price—shrugged above me, beaming down at me. “Used to happen to me all the time when I first started traveling a lot. Long day, on a plane, in the airport with no good food, and you’re liable to pass out. Have you eaten anything all day, Grey?”

  “Um,” I said, trying to remember what I’d had for breakfast while being stared at by a mega-celebrity. “I had half a granola bar at 7 a.m.”

  He nodded. “Yup. Not enough food. Your blood sugar probably just tanked. I’m so glad you’re okay, Grey.”

  “Hang on,” Leo said, crossing the room and rummaging through a bag. He came back a minute later, a plastic packet of gummy bears in his hand. He grinned down at me. “Trust me. These fix every hangover I ever have. Not that you really have a hangover now, but, uh… well, I’m gonna shut up now and leave you to regain consciousness in peace, but enjoy the gummies.”

  “Thank you so much,” I said, smiling weakly and wishing I could laugh. Chandler exited the room with Leo and another young man who was at Leo’s side but had stayed quiet. It was just me and Adam in the living room now, and as I got a better picture of my surroundings, I realized that they were insane. There were huge glass windows to my left looked out across the Pacific ocean. All of the furniture was ultramodern, but not so stark that it felt unlivable, either. It felt homey and magazine-ready all at once.

  “Holy shit, this is beautiful,” I said, sitting up slowly.

  “Hey, hey—” Adam said, putting a hand against my arm and coming to sit near me on the couch. “There’s plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. For now, just drink this water. I got you a banana which is probably a better choice right now than Leo’s gummy bears, but bless his heart for trying.”

  I took a big swig of water and bite of the banana, and already felt about ten times better than I had a minute before. Adam sat next to me, gently rubbing my back with his palm.

  “We’re gonna have a real dinner in about an hour, but this should tide you over,” he said, and I turned to look him in the eye.

  And that’s when it all hit me. Suddenly I couldn’t help but break out into a quiet laugh, almost spitting out a sip of the cold water.

  “What?” Adam asked, grinning at me.

  “Oh nothing,” I said, shaking my head and taking a deep breath. “Just passed out on Chandler Price’s driveway and woke up with 75 percent of 5*Star hunching over me. No big deal, right?” I kept laughing.

  Luckily Adam laughed too.

  “Where is Eric? If he was here, I’d be able to say I met all of 5*Star while half-conscious.”

  “He’s on his way. Got stuck in traffic coming up from San Diego but he’ll be here tonight with Dash.”

  “Holy fuck, I forgot. Jesus, I’m gonna meet Dash Thompson too? A bunch of pop stars and TV stars and me… God….”

  “Dash was just a regular dude like anybody else until the TV show took off. And all of us from the band are just regular people, too… who happened to find success.”

  “Lots of success,” I said, gulping another sip of water. “And who was that other guy, next to Leo?”

  “That’s Jamie,” Adam said with a warm smile. “Leo’s fiancé. I’m sure you’ll talk more to him later, too.”

  “I’m sure they all think I’m an idiot now.”

  “They do not.”

  “Or that I’m some weak, pale wilting flower from up north. Ten minutes in Los Angeles and I pass out,” I said with a snort.

  “You are from up north, and you are beautifully pale, but no. They’ll love you, Grey. You think all of those guys haven’t done their fair share of passing out? It’s true, what Chandler said, we used to travel so much and play long, hard shows….”

  I took a deep breath, then leaned onto Adam’s side, resting my head on his shoulder. I still felt like I needed to pinch myself, but being next to Adam made at least some part of this feel real, his presence more comforting than it had ever been.

  “Okay. Well… fainting or not, this is incredible, Adam.” I turned and pressed a kiss to his temple. “Thank you for bringing me here. I can’t believe it’s finally happening.”

  He gently touched his finger to my chin, turning my face to his and kissing me, deep and slow and sweet.

  “We’re gonna have a good time, Grey,” he said after he pulled away. “We’ve got dinner and then a Chandler Price party tonight.”

  For the first time, hearing about the party didn’t fill me with dread—it filled me with a floaty excitement, anticipation of the upcoming night. I was in Los Angeles, and I had Adam by my side.

  Dinner was nothing short of exquisite. Chandler apparently had a personal chef who cooked for him regularly, but he’d given her the night off, because Eric and Dash had wanted to cook instead.

  After regaining some sense of normalcy I headed to the palatial kitche
n with Adam. It was more of the same—beautiful modern fixtures, chrome and sleek white surfaces, but clearly a kitchen that people spent time in, too. There were post-it notes and old photos on the fridge. A stack of dog-eared recipe magazines on one of the tables. And the most surprising thing, at least to me, was that there was a little tray full of coupons, which I couldn’t for the life of me understand why Chandler Price would need.

  In all seriousness, if it hadn’t been huge and had perfectly modern appliances, it wouldn’t have been all that different from my mother’s kitchen.

  After Eric and Dash arrived, a flurry of loud conversation started between the four former 5*Star members. Eric and Dash had brought 4 stuffed bags of food and ingredients with them, and immediately beers were opened and wine was poured. I decided to take it easy, grabbing a white beer and taking a seat on one of the shockingly comfortable barstools at the kitchen island, and taking a step back from the chaos that ensued.

  Dash and Eric got straight to work cooking dinner while Adam and Chandler caught each other up on life. And that’s how I came to find myself with Leo Stone sitting on the stool to my left, and his fiancé Jamie on the stool to my right.

  “You feeling better, buddy?” Leo asked me, taking a sip of his beer. He leaned in a little closer to me. “You ate those gummy bears, right? I’m telling you, no joke, cures whatever ails you.”

  I laughed. “I had a few, yeah. Thank you for those, by the way.”

  “So how’d you meet Adam? Bongo drum circle? Basket weaving class? Barefoot hiking meeting?”

  I cracked another grin. “No, uh… actually he’s just my next door neighbor.”

  “Oh man, that is so sweet,” Jamie said, and I turned to him. He was super cute—not really my type, but I could totally see why Leo had fallen for him. “I need to write a storyline like that into my show. Guy meets next-door neighbor, falls deeply in love….”

  I laughed a little too loud and I saw Adam look over at me from the other side of the counter. “Adam told me you have a show?”

  Jamie nodded. “Yup. Made Contact.”

  I had to fight not to let my jaw drop all the way to the floor. “Your show is Made Contact? Holy shit, dude. I don’t watch much modern TV but that thing has won a slew of awards,” I blurted out.

  He nodded, blushing a little. “Yeah, Made Contact is my baby. It really feels weird that it’s gone so far. But thank you so much, Grey.”

  Leo and Jamie broke into a side tangent about the last episode of the show and I found myself reeling a little, realizing so fully that who I was compared to everyone else in the room. It was staggering. Two people heavily involved in the food TV world, one award-winning showrunner, former boy band members, and Chandler, a bona-fide superstar.

  And I was… a guy who worked at an ice cream shop and would soon be unemployed and seeking bartending jobs in Portland.

  I drank a little more of my beer as I watched Eric and Dash whipping up dinner, in perfect harmony, like the professionals they were. Part of me started to feel adrift, like I didn’t belong, couldn’t belong, and like I had to get out of there.

  “So Adam told me you are a pretty incredible dude,” Leo said to me, and I blinked over at him.

  “Huh?”

  “Yeah,” he said, and for a second I thought he was joking. “He said you make terrariums, you cook, you work at an animal shelter….”

  “Oh and that you’re a huge old movie buff!” Jamie said excitedly. “I love old movies. Like, seriously, we probably shouldn’t even start talking about them because I will never stop.”

  I puffed out a laugh. “It sounds like Adam made me seem a whole lot cooler than I really am.”

  Leo shrugged, fixing me with a crooked smile. “Well, you must be special if Adam’s stayed in one place this long for you.”

  “I don’t really know if it’s just for me,” I said, “Adam said he was ready to settle down, and stuff.”

  “God, that is so weird to hear,” Leo said. “The words ‘Adam’ and ‘settle down’ in the same sentence. Yeah, I think for sure you have something to do with why he likes Fox Hollow so much.”

  I could feel my cheeks growing a little hot, and I knew I needed to change the subject quick. Luckily I saw that Eric and Dash had turned the stove on and were starting to sear some vegetables, so I knew dinner was coming soon.

  “So do you guys have a wedding date set?”

  “Oh God,” Jamie said, shaking his head and smiling. Leo was rubbing his hands together and grinning.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Don’t get him started,” Jamie said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because he will talk to you about damn wedding planning for the rest of the night,” Jamie said, smiling over at Leo. They were clearly so in love, and the look between them communicated so much.

  “You’re damn right I’ll talk your ear off about my wedding,” Leo said. “I only get to marry the love of my life once, and yeah, I’m not ashamed to be goddamn excited about it. So—get this, Grey. The first food Jamie ever made for me—”

  “Oh, you are not going to tell him this—” Jamie tried to interject, but it was futile.

  “…the first food he ever made for me was pizza rolls. Those cheap little things you can buy in family packs at Costco. And it was kinda the moment I realized I was doomed to fall in love with Jamie. Anyway. We’re gonna have a hot bar at the wedding and I just confirmed yesterday that there will be pizza rolls on that bar.”

  I laughed, absolutely loving how joyful Leo was about such a small thing. I liked him immediately.

  As he went on about what the flowers would look like, and then looped back around to talk about the desserts they’d have, Adam finished talking with Chandler and crossed over to stand behind me. He reached hands up to my shoulders, and started giving me a gentle shoulder rub.

  “I see Leo and Jamie are already informing you that their wedding will be the best one ever?” Adam said, leaning forward and pressing a small kiss to my cheek.

  “And I’m learning just how awesome your friends are, Adam,” I said.

  “Aw, shucks,” Leo said. “Well if you’re Adam’s boyfriend, you’re my friend, too.”

  “And mine,” Jamie said.

  I turned around to look up at Adam, and we shared a knowing look and a smile.

  I didn’t bother correcting Leo. In fact, I kind of couldn’t contain the warm, fizzy feeling I got when I heard myself referred to as Adam’s boyfriend.

  Truthfully, I loved being called his boyfriend. And I wished I could hear it all the time.

  Eleven

  Adam

  Eric and Dash’s dinner was incredible as expected. They made a simple steak stir fry with one of the best sauces I’d ever had in my life. And all of my favorite people were in one place, and I realized all at once that it was the first time I’d been with just my former band members in far too long.

  Of course I’d seen them all, at various times throughout the last decade. But too often it was at Chandler’s gigantic parties, where no intimate conversations could take place.

  This was different. It was just us—along with Dash, Jamie, and Grey, and it was beyond comforting. It kind of felt like coming home.

  There was one person who was notably absent from the dinner: Sandra, Chandler’s wife. I had always really liked Sandra, but it had seemed like she’d gotten so busy on her own in the past five or ten years, and often when I came to Chandler’s house, she’d be off somewhere else. Chandler had told us that she was out of the country as usual, off on one of her philanthropic trips. But I really began to feel the weight of her absence, as the rest of us had someone by our side, but Chandler sat alone at the head of the table.

  And I couldn’t help but notice the slight sadness in his eyes as Leo brought up his upcoming wedding.

  So after dinner, everyone cleared out of the kitchen and headed back to the living room to relax a little before the party started. I stayed back in the kitchen for a
moment, grabbing Chandler and taking him aside.

  “Hey,” I said to him gently, “I just wanted to check—is everything okay with Sandra?”

  “Yeah!” he said, a little too quickly, pretending to be very focused on bringing dishes over to the sink.

  “I’m serious,” I said, not breaking my gaze.

  He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. He set down the plate he was holding and quickly looked over my shoulder to make sure no one else was in earshot.

  “Okay. I wasn’t going to mention anything before the party, because I didn’t want to… ruin the mood,” he said.

  “Oh no,” I said, “is everything alright.”

  He nodded quickly. “Yeah. Everything’s fine. I mean, no one is hurt, if that’s what you mean. But… Adam, Sandra and I are going to split up.”

  I was silent. Dumbfounded. I could never have expected he would say that.

  “Split up? You mean like, take a break?” Sandra and Chandler had been together for so long that I couldn’t even picture one of them without the other.

  He shook his head. “No. Like, it’s over. Listen, you’re the first of the guys that I’ve told this to—Adam, please do not tell anyone else yet.”

  “Of course I won’t,” I said. “But God, Chandler, are you okay?”

  He took in another slow breath, then let it out, fixing his blue eyes on me. “I don’t know. I’ve been wavering between okay and not okay. I mean, we only just decided it recently, but… I feel like I’ve known for a while it was coming. We’ve been growing apart for years.”

  I nodded, not really knowing what else I could say.

  “So it’ll be a while before anything is final.”

  “Final?” I asked, stupidly.

  “Like… divorce,” he said, the word hanging in the air, ugly and awful.

  “Shit, Chandler,” I said, involuntarily drawing him into a tight hug.