Inside, I felt the familiar wound of someone teasing me about my given name. I hadn’t asked my parents to name me something so dull and clunky. I’d dumped Mina Quackenbush as soon as I set my sights on stardom.
“That’s her name,” Josh said, gesturing to me. “At least when I knew her in middle school. Mina Quackenbush.”
Ruby’s blue eyes widened, and the silliest grin stretched across her entire face. “You mean to tell me that the great Kiki Loveless is really Mina—” She bust up laughing, barely able to finish speaking my name. “Quackenbush?”
I glared at Josh, but he wasn’t phased in the slightest. By the way he kept rubbing his eyes and blinking with great exaggeration, I imagined his eyesight wasn’t what it normally was. If he could see me, the fierceness of my glare surely would have made him cower in my presence. I heaved a sigh and dropped my head, staring at the rhinestone details of my heels instead until Ruby could compose herself.
“That was a long time ago, when I was a nobody. I haven’t been Mina Quackenbush in years.”
Ruby snorted. “But you give me such a hard time for my last name. Harkwad doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.”
“Did kids chant Mean Little Mina, Quackin’ at the Bush at recess, then run away when you turned around to chew them out?” I snapped.
“No,” Ruby answered, “but you can imagine what kind of awesome taunts kids could come up with a name like Harkwad.”
“So, you’ll understand that’s why you’re now Ruby Hawkins and I’ve long since been Kiki Loveless,” I said, saying our stage names with great emphasis.
Ruby dimmed the wattage of her smile, knowing me well enough to realize when we’d stumbled upon a sore subject. “I guess I’m just glad we’re cut from the same cloth.”
“Yes,” I said with a sour look on my face, “I was normal once, too. Shocker.”
“So,” Collin said, gratefully changing the subject to Josh, “how do you know Kiki? Or Mina? What are we supposed to call you?”
“Kiki!” I snipped indignantly.
Josh glanced at me with his blue eyes, and for the first time, it really registered how handsome he’d turned out to be. Sure, he’d been a cute kid, and every girl had a collective crush on him at school, but his soft boyishness had given way to strong, masculine features that could have put him in the running for People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive.
“I knew, uh, Kiki like a Bluetick hound knows its spots,” Josh said simply.
“You guys were friends in school?” Ruby asked, pointing her finger back and forth between the both of us and looking a tad too incredulous for my liking.
“Would that have been so hard to believe?” I asked defensively.
“No,” Ruby said quickly.
“We weren’t friends, per say, but going to a small school, everybody knew everybody and their business.”
Everyone nodded, like that was all the information they needed, and for once, I was grateful for Vanessa and her planet-sized ego. The conversation quickly turned to a story about her and her privileged childhood education as a daughter of a wealthy Colombian businessman. I tuned her out and became lost in my past, which, up until now, I’d managed to nearly forget.
“What brings you here?” Collin asked. “The chances of bumping into a middle school classmate from halfway across the country are pretty astronomical.”
“I’m here for work,” Josh said.
“What type of work are you in?” Ruby asked, her eyes flicking to his broad chest.
Even though he was dressed like the rest of the high-class party goers, no suit could hide his admirable muscles, not that I was admitting anything if anyone should ask.
“If I had to guess, you’re in pro wrestling.”
Josh laughed again, but I was careful to keep my expression neutral. I let myself noticed how the corner of his eyes crinkled and how straight his teeth were. He scratched the back of his neck while shaking his head.
“No, I’m not theatrical enough to have been on televised wrestling,” Josh answered. “I was a football player once. Now, I’m in security.”
“That explains the biceps,” Vanessa muttered before taking a sip of her drink.
On the stage, the DJ called for Ruby to come back up, so she could be crowned the birthday girl and be serenaded by the crowd’s rendition of Happy Birthday. Ruby turned beet red but continued to smile as the attention was lavished on her. Collin and Vanessa took her up to the front, and the crowd cheered as she walked up the steps. The DJ placed a gaudy, embellished crown on her head and Ruby waved at the audience of friends and acquaintances.
After she blew out candles on an enormous sheet cake, Ruby tried to give the DJ a friendly hug and kiss on the cheek, but they both went the same direction, and Ruby ended up giving the gray-haired DJ a peck on the lips. Both of them turned beet red as laughter and catcalls overtook the crowd, while Collin shook his head, chuckling at his hopelessly awkward girlfriend.
“What a pleasure it was to see you again, Josh. I’d better get back to mingling,” I said.
I didn’t wait for him to answer before I strolled away. The music had started up again, and as long as I kept walking, never staying in one place for too long, I could avoid talking to any one person for more than a few seconds at a time. I pushed Mina out of my mind and slipped back into Kiki-mode, graciously thanking people for coming and air-kissing every other person I came across.
As the evening carried on, I almost forgot about Josh, except every once in a while, I’d catch him watching me. He was skirting the edge of the party and standing by himself, alternating his hands in his pockets with his arms folded in front of his chest. In school, he’d always been the center of attention with a collection of classmates surrounding him, hanging on his every word. Maybe that popular jock routine wasn’t really who he was, and like so many people, he had only been putting on a show for others.
“I think I’m going to go crash at my hotel,” Vanessa sighed. “I was up early this morning, and I’m wiped.”
Ruby stretched through her back, with her hands high over her head and yawned loudly. Ruffling her hands over her scalp before she rested her head against Collin’s arm, she left her short hair poking out in all directions. When we’d first met, she’d had long, blonde hair, but in a moment of crisis where she thought she’d lost Collin for good, she’d demanded our hair stylist, Casey, chop it all off. Though she’d pulled off the pixie cut well, she’d already started growing it out again and was taking every hair growing remedy on the market to get it to come back as soon as possible.
“Thanks again for the good time,” Ruby said. “We should probably get some sleep seeing as we have that meeting with Mr. Drake tomorrow morning.”
“What about?” Collin asked.
Ruby shrugged. “Our European tour. It’s coming up quick.”
“It’s probably a concert review meeting, too. Mr. Drake likes to discuss ticket sales, critics’ feedback, and profits when it’s all finished. Then, we can make any necessary adjustments before the second portion of the tour.”
Ruby nodded. “Understandable. I think I could use a break, though.”
I raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. “You realize there is no rest if you want to stay on top.”
“How am I going to write new material if I’m always on the go?” she questioned. “I have a journal full of notes that I’m dying to get into the studio and mess around with.”
“That doesn’t sound like much of a break,” Collin mentioned.
Ruby shrugged. “Writing music has always been my draw. It’s more like therapy. It’s all the public appearances and stuff that really wears me out.”
“Sometimes, you have to accept what comes with the territory and embrace it,” I said with a one-armed shrug.
“Since when have you been so wise?” Ruby teased.
“Always. I can’t help it if you haven’t paid attention.”
“Right,” Ruby said with a chuckle. “See you tomorr
ow then.”
Twiddling my fingers at Collin and Ruby, I turned to leave and noticed Josh, leaning against the wall and watching me go.
“Goodnight,” I said.
He didn’t reciprocate. Pushing himself off the wall, he beat me to the door and pushed it open for me. Meeting his gaze, I thanked him and strolled through the door. He was taking this security thing entirely too serious.
When he followed me through both sets of doors and down the stairs, I felt irritation send an uncomfortable prickle through me. Who did he think he was, anyway? Just because he’d been hired to protect people didn’t mean he needed to be breathing down my neck. I could get myself into a taxi and up to my apartment penthouse without him holding my hand, thank you very much. Fed up with being tailed, I turned around and faced him. He stopped dead in his tracks.
“I said goodnight, Josh.” He nodded but didn’t move. Feeling the need to expound further, I articulated, “That means you can go away now.”
“Actually, I can’t. Not just yet, anyway,” he said.
Bristling against him being so difficult, I demanded, “And why is that? You’re bordering on creepy, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“My apologies,” he answered. “Close and constant proximity come with the job.”
“And what job is that?” I snapped.
“I told you, I’m working security.”
I huffed and shook my head, rocking back on one foot. “You’ve done a fine job, but I can make it home from here. I’m sure the venue would prefer you help them lock up instead of standing out here with me.”
Josh got that same mischievous glint in his eye that Collin did when he knew something that Ruby didn’t. In another world, I might have admitted it was adorable, but here and now, it rubbed me the wrong way.
“Is there something I don’t know?” I asked.
“I thought Mandy had told you,” he answered. “I’m not working security for the venue. I’m your new personal bodyguard.”
Chapter Four
“Good morning, Kiki,” Mandy said as I entered the conference room early the next morning.
Usually I made it a point to be fashionably late—I liked to remind Harper Music that I’d earned the right after the millions they’d made off me—but today, I felt the need to be prompt. Everyone else was streaming into the glass room and into their seats, but I stood there, glaring daggers at Mandy.
“So, I finally got your meaning last night about Mr. Coleman being in the security business.”
“Mr. Coleman?” Mandy repeated. “Oh. You’re talking about Josh?”
“I’d prefer to keep whatever this is,” I said, waving my hand between where Josh had taken up station and me, “between Mr. Coleman and myself as impersonal as possible. I don’t think it will be lasting long.”
Mandy’s eyebrow flicked higher up her forehead. “I highly doubt that.”
“We would have had this discussion last night if you would have been clear about Mr. Coleman’s assignment,” I said, feeling a rash of irritation start to spread across my skin.
“I don’t understand. I was unclear about something?” Mandy asked. She barely looked up at me from her tablet.
I resisted the urge to swat her tablet out of her hands, and instead, focused my frustration on getting the issue at hand resolved.
“It seems I have a new shadow.” Tossing my head toward where Josh stood in the corner, arms folded. Couldn’t he relax for just a second? “He followed me all the way home last night, despite my best attempt to ditch him, and this morning, he met me outside my apartment. It’s like having a lost puppy tailing me.”
“You like dogs,” Mandy said without cracking a smile.
I grit my teeth so hard I could’ve cracked my molars. “You know what I mean. I don’t like being followed everywhere I go.”
“That’s what he’s paid to do,” Mandy answered with a shrug. She looked away from me, pretending something was more pressing on her tablet, but I knew she was skirting the situation.
“Do you know how frustrating this is going to be? To never have a moment of privacy?” I pressed.
“That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think? He didn’t go in to your apartment, did he?”
“No but—”
Mandy looked entirely too pleased with herself. “Kiki, it’s like I said. This was ultimately Mr. Drake’s decision.”
“But why now? I’ve been getting along without a daily personal bodyguard for quite some time. Special events or concert security is one thing but tailing me on my way to work, to go shopping, to sit in Central Park and just think? How am I supposed to do that, knowing Harper Music is paying someone to stalk me?”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Ruby butted into the conversation. Despite looking like she was running on an hour of sleep, she loved giving me a hard time. “At least you got a cute one.”
A blush betrayed me, and Mandy’s eyebrows raised slightly. I gave her a look that dared her to say anything else about my pinkening face.
“Plus,” Ruby continued, “you do have to admit he came in handy last night when you were genuinely being harassed.”
“I had that under control, didn’t I?” I said with a sniff.
“If it were up to you,” Ruby said, “you’d mace everyone that looked at you the wrong way. Half the world would be blind by the time you were done.”
“Now who’s being dramatic,” I asked, frowning at Ruby.
Despite my grumpiness, Ruby giggled at me. Typical. “Between you and Vanessa, I’m pretty sure you could clean up the streets of New York. Seriously, you’d be blinding people left and right and Vanessa could make even Mother Teresa feel like a sinner.”
“Josh is staying, and that’s final,” a commanding voice said from the doorway.
Mr. Drake’s piercing blue eyes made it clear that he’d made his decision, and there was little that could be done to change his mind.
“For too long, we’ve been careless about security. The last thing we need is for an investment to be compromised,” he said.
“So now I’m just an investment?” I adjusted my tote on my shoulder and leered up at him.
“Harper Music has put too much money into your career to have it taken away by a crazed fan or jealous rival who sees an opportunity.”
“And what about Ruby? Doesn’t she get someone to stalk around after her, too?” I complained.
“I’m expendable,” Ruby said with a wink.
“Josh is technically assigned to both of you,” Mandy interjected as she followed Mr. Drake to the head of the table. “The rest of the team are flying in today.”
“Kiki, you know on most things, I give you leeway to make your own decisions, but this is final,” Mr. Drake said. I opened my mouth to protest from a different angle, but Mr. Drake jammed his pointer finger into the glossy tabletop to drive his point home and repeated, “Final.”
Feeling utterly humiliated and betrayed, I flopped into my seat and kept my chin down, refusing to even look in Josh’s direction, as if merely looking at him might change my opinion of his presence. I didn’t have anything against him personally, but it was hard to like someone who didn’t do what I said. I’d told him to go away, and he’d very determinedly stayed.
Mr. Drake sat down, organized his papers, and started the meeting. “I’d like to thank everyone for coming this morning. Everyone please welcome Josh Coleman. Thank you for taking on this special security detail.” Looking at me, Mr. Drake added, “And good luck.”
I wrinkled my nose at Mr. Drake but he was already looking down, studying his papers. We had sort of an odd relationship—I was the music icon that got away with giving him a hard time because I was one of his first successful recruits, and he was a seasoned music mogul who had seen beyond my unpolished exterior and had believed I had what it took. He also was one of the few who wasn’t intimidated by my occasionally sharp tongue and could take it all in stride.
Around my phone, I could see Josh acknowled
ge Mr. Drake with a nod. Josh had hardly said a word all morning. When I had opened my apartment door to come to the meeting, I was startled to see him standing across the hallway, waiting for me. I was taken aback by his freshly groomed appearance and the heavenly waft of cologne that lingered around him. His eyes looked a hundred times better and only a slight, residual puffiness remained.
For a good five minutes, I had run him through a gauntlet of questions, hoping to get him to go away, but anything I’d asked, he responded to succinctly and with the same determination that I wasn’t going to get rid of him. It seemed he wasn’t intimidated by me either, and that was irritating. In a last-ditch effort to get him to go away, I had let my dog, Cinnamon, slip out the door.
Usually Cinnamon, though pathetically small, was positive his macho guard dog persona was as vicious as any junkyard Rottweiler. If any canine had a serious case of little dog syndrome, it was Cinnamon. He would put on a fantastic display of vicious snarling and barred teeth toward pretty much any man he came across. But with Josh, Cinnamon had betrayed me. The petite Pomeranian yipped and danced on his hind legs and begged to be pick him up. Humoring my dog, Josh had leaned down and scooped him up, laughing as Cinnamon tried desperately to lick at his face.
Traitor.
When Josh had finally handed him back, I’d shut my apartment door, leaving Cinnamon inside until the dog walker came to fetch him. Cinnamon and I were going to have to have a talk about how we did not want Josh around when I came home.
“So,” Mr. Drake continued, “congratulations on finishing your first concert tour, Ruby. You’ve done quite well as far as the company is concerned.”
“Thanks,” Ruby said happily. “I’m glad I worked out.”
“It worked out much better than even I anticipated,” Mr. Drake said. “Kiki’s diehard fans enjoyed your fresh face and energy, and you brought in some new numbers yourself. Together, you’ve been a very successful duo.”
“See?” Ruby teased me. “Choosing me as your opening act was worth your condescension.”
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