(Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances #1-5)

by Michelle Mankin

  “I’ve eaten some pretty lavish breakfasts around the globe, little one. This is truly outstanding.”

  Her cheeks turned pink from my praise. I liked that, liked that I had been the one to put that blush there. Her face looked better this morning. The swelling distorting her features had gone down considerably. The bruises were darker purple but consolidated to two slashes on either side of her nose. Her eyes were fully open and shining bright like polished chrome. Her lips like…well…I stopped taking inventory. She looked way too pretty in a striped Roxy top that kept sliding off her slim shoulder and dark jeans that fit her like the yoga pants had the day before. In other words, distractingly tight.

  “How’d you manage this culinary delight? I don’t even have any cookbooks.”

  “You have a well-equipped kitchen for someone who claims not to cook. Besides, I can make just about anything breakfast wise without a recipe. My mom taught me how.” Her bright expression clouded. I suspected something bad had happened to her mother. “I just used the Italian sausage left over from last night, and some mushrooms I found in the crisper tray. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t mind at all. You’re welcome to make anything you want. I can go to the store if you’re missing anything. Only you’d need to go with me. I wouldn’t want to buy the wrong brand or anything.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t seem like an even deal.” Her tone was teasing. She was playing along with me. I loved it. “Sounds like I’m doing the cooking and the shopping.”

  “Point taken. To even things out, I’ll eat more than my fair share of whatever you cook.”

  “Alright, I guess.” Her lips quirked up. “But I really wish I could do something more to pay you back for letting us stay here like this.” Her mouth flattened. “I’m used to making my own way. I…”

  “We’ve seen that, Frances.” I tipped my gaze to Simone, and she nodded her confirmation. “But everyone needs a little help now and then. I’ve got the space for you to stay here as long as you need. And I’m not gonna turn down good food if you want to cook it while you’re here. Down the road when you feel better if you still feel compelled to do something more, I understand Karen offered you a job.”

  “So did the gym,” she mumbled, but I heard her.

  “Excellent. So you see there’s a path already in place for you to move forward. You don’t have to go back to the streets or the life you were leading before. Back to whoever did this,” I stated firmly.

  “You don’t understand.” She glanced away. Her words were so strikingly similar to Hollie’s. I felt she was on the edge of revealing the truth. Truth I wanted to know fully, not just the name of her abuser.

  “Frances,” I called. Her head had turned toward the windows the silver sheen of her eyes reflecting the sparkle of the ocean. She had slipped into the current. I could feel it dragging her away. “I might understand if you would explain it to me,” I coaxed softly.

  “I can’t.” She slowly turned back to face me. “I’m sorry.” She shifted the direction of her gaze to offer her apology to Simone as well, and it saddened me to see that her previous lightheartedness had been completely washed away.

  One step forward. Three steps back. I recalled the same pattern with Linc. I wasn’t anxious to relive it. To know that now even as an adult I could be so powerless. If she went back to her abuser, it was her choice. I knew what the better one was, but I couldn’t force her to make it.

  Patience. Wait her out. Reel her back to safer waters. She was tough, resourceful and smart. I just needed to keep her on the line.

  “Alright, Frances. You don’t have to tell us anything right now.” I said, and I watched the tension visibly uncoil from her delicate frame. She had expected me to press her. “We’ve made it clear we want to know. We’ve demonstrated our sincerity. My friends and I will continue to help you and your sister in any way we can. But you’ve handcuffed us by holding back. We can’t protect you if we don’t know who to protect you from, and we can’t keep you safe if you go back to him.”

  • • •

  Fanny

  “I’m not going anywhere near them…him.” I had told him not to push, and he wasn’t pushing per se. He was maneuvering me. A subtle distinction but to me an important one.

  “Them?” he queried coming out of his chair. My slip up had not gone unnoticed. Fuck, he rattled me. If I wasn’t clamming up around him, then I was spilling my secrets.

  “I…I meant him.” I stuttered as Ashland stalked around the bar. Six-foot-plus of alert male draped in toned golden skin. He wore only a pair of navy boxers this morning. His fingers were curled into fists. His arms and the rest of his rugged body flexed with tension. I knew he would go to battle on my behalf. On Frances’ behalf, I self-corrected. That was obvious. But even so, all that fierceness, all that heat, and all that raw masculinity in close proximity was intimidating…intoxicating.

  It was all I could do to hold my ground when he stopped directly in front of me.

  “I know what you’re trying to do.” I lifted my chin.

  “And what is that exactly?”

  “You’re trying to get me to make the right choice.”

  His eyes flared. I’d read him correctly.

  “You…you think you know my situation because of how it was with your cousin. You want to keep me here. But you can’t. You think that because I’m withholding the identity of my abuser that I’m planning to go back, putting my sister and myself at risk again.”

  “Isn’t that what you’ve got in mind, little one?” His expression softened.

  “No, it’s not.”

  “You’re running from your problems. You don’t have to. Face them. I’ll help you. We’ll all help you.”

  “I appreciate that.” I blew out a frustrated breath. Going toe to toe with him was hard enough, but Simone hovered in my peripheral vision. She was leaning forward just as interested as he was in my drama. It was two against one. “But you’ve got it wrong. I’m not running.” Well, I was but not in the way he thought. “I’m regrouping so that when I do fight I’ll have the advantage. I don’t plan to be on the losing side anymore. I plan to win.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  * * *

  Fanny

  I could feel his eyes following me as I left the room.

  Way to go Fanny. Let him get closer to the truth just because you don’t want him to think you’re weak. I turned the corner and stomped into the hall nearly knocking over Hollie who had been standing at the mouth of it.

  “Were you eavesdropping?”

  “Hell, yes. How else am I gonna keep track of all the lies?” she said under her breath while falling in step beside me as I continued to the bedroom.

  I went to where I had left my high-tops, but frowned when I realized they weren’t where I remembered seeing them last.

  “Your Chloé’s are in the bathroom. I cleaned the mud off them. I figured you’d want them.”

  “You know how much I love those shoes.”

  “I loved getting them for you. You barely spend money on yourself.”

  “They’re seven-hundred-dollar shoes, Hollie. You know how careful I’ve had to be with my finances. I had to put everything I got from the sale of my Woodie Wagon to that anonymous buyer into starting Fanny Bay Fragrances.”

  “I know. I know. So are you going to let Ash take you to see Karen?”

  “Yeah. The way he put it, it didn’t seem like I had a choice. Besides my face is still a wreck. I barely recognize myself. People are used to seeing the Lakers Girl around anyway, so that’s who I’ll still be to them. Not only that Simone’s going. No one’s going to look twice at me with her in short shorts on one side of me and Ashland on the other.”

  “Good thing she’s going. You need a chaperone with him.”

  “Hollie!”

  “I mean it. You made him the frittata, Fanny.”

  “So?” I huffed. “That’s Mom’s super-secret special occasion recipe.”
r />   She had me there.

  “And you blabbed our plan to him just now.”

  “Not really.”

  “Oh, yeah? Minus naming Samuel Lesowski as our adversary, what did you leave out?”

  She was right. I frowned and dropped onto the bed.

  “I’m waiting! You coming, Frances?” Ashland yelled.

  “Give me a minute!” I shouted back. “I just need to put on my shoes.” I glanced up at my sister who was watching me closely and admitted. “He’s got me all mixed, Hols.”

  “I know honey. I can see that.” She dropped down beside me on the bed, reached for and held onto my hand. “He’s sweet. He’s caring. And when you stop arguing with him long enough he’s actually making you smile.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So tell him who you are, and we’ll go from there.”

  “I don’t know. What if…”

  “What do you really have to lose if Samuel finds us?”

  “I willingly signed the rights to my song over to him to get him out of my life.” I nodded reflectively. “He could torpedo my perfume sales, small though they are, if he really wanted to.”

  “Unlikely. We both know how he operates. If he doesn’t think it will affect bottom line he’s not going to waste his resources.”

  “But what about your potential future earnings from the Firelight deal? You know he covets those.”

  “We’re in this together, right?”

  She gathered my hands in hers. “I’m willing to take that risk for you. Tell Ashland the truth, Fanny. The whole story. He wants to help.”

  “He wants to help Frances,” I grumbled. “Not Fanny.”

  “That’s you.”

  “Me with a lot of misdirection and lies that aren’t going to go over well.”

  “All the more reason to come clean sooner rather than later.”

  “I’ll think about it. You’re making it seem simple when it’s not. Ashland and his friends are willing to help a woman and her sister they think are a couple of nobodies. It’s another matter entirely to risk earning the ire of a formidable Hollywood producer by aiding and abetting his runaway daughters.”

  “You might be right. But he’s going to figure it out eventually.”

  “We’ll be gone before then.”

  “Ok, but where are we going to go?” She squeezed my hands. “Maybe we could have made it across the border before Samuel knew we were running. But too much time has passed. He’s definitely on to us now, and he has plenty of resources at his disposal. He’s bound to find us. That regrouping time we hoped to have? It’s about to run out. That fight you mentioned to Ash? It’s coming. And it’s coming soon. You know as well as I do that were going to need all the friends and support we can get if we want to win it.”

  • • •

  “Are you sure you’re up for a walk, little one?” Ashland leaned against the wall at the entrance to the hall as I emerged from the bedroom.

  “Yes, as long as we take it slow. I’m sure it will be good for me to stretch out my muscles.” I tried not to look back over my shoulder at Hollie. “How long have you…um…been standing there?” Heat flared in my cheeks as my redirected gaze gave me an eyeful of all, and it was a significant all, that Ashland had going on inside those tight navy boxers.

  “Not long. Simone had to leave, so I saw her out. Why do you ask?” He pushed away from the wall, giving me a low lidded head to toe scan that made my stomach flutter like it had that night at the Oscars or in the bathroom when he’d seen me naked. Hell, just about every time he was near. “Were you and Hollie talking about me back there?”

  “Some,” I admitted. I was going to try to stay as close to the truth today as I could. Feel things out with him like I’d told my sister I would.

  “Anything I should know?” He stopped directly in front of me. I had to crane my neck back to keep him in view. No wonder he thought of me as little.

  “Not at this juncture. No.”

  “Alright.” He reached out and gently framed my face with one hand then slid the pad of his thumb along my cheekbone. “I’ll respect your wishes and won’t push you for the details…at this juncture.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” His gaze searching, he continued to stroke my skin softly, the roughness of his touch on my abused skin somehow soothing and arousing at the same time. “You hurting at all?”

  “Not much.” I almost swayed as the heat of his body and the citrusy ocean scent of him washed over me.

  “Good. You take the Tylenol I put on the nightstand this morning?”

  “Yeah.” I pulled in short shallow sips of air in a vain effort to reduce the assault of him on my senses.

  “Hot and cold treatment on the swelling before you started breakfast?”

  “Uh-huh. Yes. Yes, I did.” Could he tell how out of breath I sounded?

  “Excellent.” He withdrew his hand. I swayed toward him as if an invisible cord connected us. His sexy lips curved up on one side. “You sure you’re feeling alright?”

  I nodded.

  “No lingering wooziness?”

  I shook my head. I had a ton, but it had nothing to do with the blows to my head. Somehow I thought he might know or at least suspect how he affected me.

  “That’s good to hear. Well, I’ll just go in the bedroom, grab my gear, make sure Hollie is squared away with everything she needs and then we’ll be off.”

  “Ok, Ashland.”

  “Ash,” he insisted. “We’re friends, right?”

  “You said you weren’t going to push me,” I reminded him.

  Eyes sparkling like the ocean, he arched a brow. “That was before you came to me in the middle of the night, tucked me in and sang to me. I’d say we’re well beyond the status of mere acquaintances now.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  * * *

  Fanny

  “You don’t have to do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Um, put your hand on the small of my back.”

  “Yes I do.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re a lady. You’re walking at my side. My mother would hand me my ass if I didn’t act the part of a gentleman with you.”

  Ok, there was a lot of information there. That led to me wanting to know even more. I wished I felt brave enough to ask it. I wondered what his mother was like. He respected her. I could hear it in his voice. And I certainly liked the part about me being a lady. He had definitely been gentlemanly with me in a lot of ways. “We’re supposed to be exercising.”

  “We are.”

  “I’m not breaking a sweat. Are you?”

  “No, but it’s fifty-five degrees right now. I would have insisted you wear a jacket if I didn’t know you’d just have to ditch it later when it warms up. But if you wanted to break a sweat I could recommend other things.”

  “Like what?” I narrowed my gaze.

  “Surfing.” His blue eyes danced. “What’d you think I meant?” He gave a long side glance and waggled his brows.

  “Stop teasing me, Ash.”

  He grinned. “Stop being so cute when I do.”

  “I’m not cute. My face is a disaster, and I’ve got no hair…”

  He grabbed me by the upper arm before I could finish my list and whirled me to a stop in front of him. “You look insanely cute with that cap on. No one can tell your hair is gone. Your bruises just draw more attention to your eyes which are an incredible color by the way. I’m not even going to get into how distractingly well those clothes Karen picked out fit you.”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh-dorable is more what I was thinking.”

  I grinned.

  “Strike that. I’m bumping you up to beautiful now with that smile.”

  I threw back my head and laughed. The world was against me. I’d taken it in the kisser and then some from a bunch of hoodlums. I had an evil stepfather looming over my future. Yet momentarily I had forgotten all of that because of him. I felt my
companion’s sudden stillness and realized he was staring at me as if transfixed. Maybe I was staring at him the same way.

  What was it about Ashland Keys? The man seemed to put a spell on me.

  “Oh stop.” I shook it off. “No more. I get what you’re trying to do, and it’s working already. I barely feel self-conscious anymore about the way I look.” Actually, barely was downplaying it. I hadn’t even really thought about how I looked until then. Walking along the streets of Ocean Beach with Ashland-Ash-beside me I hadn’t thought of anything else but him and my surroundings in relation to him. How large his biceps were and how tightly they had flexed when he had held open the door for me to exit his building. How he had paused to look at the ocean at the pier. How his chest had expanded when he pulled in a deep breath of bracing ocean air. How dark his blue eyes had seemed beneath the shop awnings downtown. How genuine his smile was when people waved at him, treating him like a local instead of a celebrity. The warmth of his hand on my back when we turned right onto Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. The warmth of both his hands right now on my upper arms.

  “Well, I’m glad you always know my motivations before I declare them.”

  “That’s not the way I meant that. You’re so thoughtful, considerate and caring.” I swallowed hard. The way he was staring at me so intently made my heart race, too.

  “Now you’re trying to turn the tables on me.”

  “No. It’s true,” I disagreed. “About you and your friends. But it’s you who took Hollie and me in and put your very busy life on hold to take care of us.”

  “Alright. How about I say I’m glad you think so, and how glad I am that you and I seem to be turning not just a physical corner here at Sunset and Newport, but a friendship one, too. And that we resume our leisurely walk as friends, but at a little faster of a pace because I can sense that Karen’s going to text me any minute now. She doesn’t like it when people are late.”

  His phone blooped.

  “And there she is.” He grinned.

  I laughed again.

  Ash texted back.