29
Drew
“Why don’t you have anything good to eat?” Ben rifled through the pantry with a sigh.
Drew crossed the open living room and leaned on the marble island blocking off the kitchen. “Maybe if I’d known you were coming to town… oh wait, no, I still wouldn’t have catered to your needs.”
Ben flipped him off without even looking his way. “You owe me.”
“For what?”
“Stealing my assistant.”
Drew laughed. He wasn’t wrong. Piper was the assistant to Ben’s band, more specifically, Ben’s bandmate Quinn—Piper’s sister. But they didn’t appreciate her, and Drew knew how special she was.
He was glad Ben saw it now.
“If I hadn’t stolen her all those months ago, you’d be that rock star dating his assistant. It’s the post #metoo era, bud. That power dynamic just doesn’t work. Not like it ever did before either.”
Ben shut the pantry and turned, one eyebrow raised. “And what exactly is an affair with your dancer? An equal power dynamic?”
“I’d say it’s none of your business.”
“No, but it’s mine.” Piper rounded the corner from one of the guest rooms and padded across the bamboo flooring on bare feet. She kissed Ben on the cheek before settling on a stool at the counter. “I need to know where your head is with Lola.”
Drew backed away, but there was nowhere to go. Rockstars Anonymous had invaded his loft. Noah and Jo played a video game in the living room. Dax watched them silently.
Melanie sat at the kitchen table returning emails on her laptop.
And Ben… he was giving Drew an “I know what you’re thinking” look that made him uncomfortable.
“And here I thought a three-bedroom loft would be big enough for me,” he grumbled.
Piper reached over and patted him on the shoulder. “They’re all here because they care about you.”
Drew shook his head. “No, they’re here because they were in town. Mel is still with the tour for another two nights, Ben came to see you, and Dax was in the city for a meeting with a producer.”
“And yet, they’re spending their Friday night in the city holed up here with you instead of out doing whatever it is they do with their limited free time.”
Piper was right. He was ungrateful. The group was meant for support, and he was too tired to see it. Tours always wore on him. For the first couple months, there was an excitement at being in a new place every few days, bussing around the country doing what he loved. But eventually, he dreamed of his own bed in Gulf City, of a quieter life where tabloids didn’t watch his every move.
“All right.” Melanie slapped a hand on the table. “We need a meeting.”
“Mel.” Drew sighed. He did not feel up to being psychoanalyzed right now.
“No.” She stood and folded her arms over her chest. “You’re all in the same place for the last time in a while. After this, Jo goes into hiding—a decision I still don’t agree with—while the rest of you scatter. But right now, we’re here. Let’s take advantage of that.”
“I’m game.” Noah shouted from the couch as he put his controller on the table. “I love our group meetings.”
“Of course he does.” Ben shook his head.
Piper hopped up. “That’s my cue to leave then. I’ll head over to the hotel to make sure the crew is ready for tomorrow night. Madison Square Garden is the big one.” She kissed Ben, slipped her feet into a pair of flats, grabbed her jacket, and left, leaving only the Rockstars Anonymous members behind.
“Come over here.” Melanie waved them toward the glass dining room table. “Sit.” None of them ever had the guts to argue with Melanie. She leaned her elbows on the table. “Okay, a lot has been happening.”
Jo groaned. “Please don’t make this about my pregnancy again.”
Noah grinned. “Yeah, I’d rather chat about Drew’s newest infatuation.”
He didn’t like where this was going, but they all knew, and he couldn’t avoid the conversation. “Lola is different.” He pictured her standing at his door the night she first kissed him, so earnest, so brave.
“Of course she is.” Noah snickered.
Melanie reached out and shoved him. “Hush. Let Drew speak.”
“I don’t want to talk about this with you guys.”
Noah laughed. “Wasn’t it you who decided we were all suddenly love gurus when Benny boy needed our help?”
Jo twisted her lips to the side. “It was. Why is it okay for us to help Ben get over himself enough to realize he loved Piper, but not okay for us to make you realize you’re being a douche?”
His eyes snapped to hers, knowing how right she was. It had been days since he kissed Lola at the ball, days since he brought Brooke back to the room she shared with Lola and had her tell him to leave.
Days since the tabloids dragged her into the mud. Again.
And yet, every time he started to call her, something stopped him. When he kept to his rules, he didn’t have to worry about perception, about what anyone would think of a rock star getting involved with his much younger dancer.
He didn’t have to worry about his family and their opinions.
Drew pushed a hand through his hair. “Sometimes, I wonder if it’s only the dancing, if that makes me feel something that isn’t there.”
Melanie met his gaze. “Well, there’s an easy way to figure that out. Did you ever have feelings for Leah when she was your dancer?”
“Of course not. She’s Leah. We’re like siblings.”
“And Brooke… when she danced with you, did it ever tempt you to break the rules?”
“Never.”
“Well.” Melanie spread her hands. “It’s not the dancing.”
“I don’t know, maybe you should talk to her.” Noah shrugged like it was the most obvious solution.
It probably was.
Noah wasn’t finished. “When I saw her this morning, she seemed a little off. I can’t explain it. But maybe it was just your brother being here.”
Drew’s back straightened as the words wound through him. “Asher is in the city?” What was Asher doing here? Drew had invited Nora to join him on tour, but she was always busy with school. Asher never showed any interest in even speaking to his older brother, let alone coming to see him on the road.
Which meant one thing.
He was here for Lola.
“Noah,” Drew growled. “Why didn’t anyone tell me Asher was here?”
Noah shrugged. “Didn’t realize it was a thing. He’s at the hotel if you want to see him.”
Drew stood. “Sorry, I need to cut out of this meeting. You guys can talk about me and my poor relationship choices once I’m gone. I’m sure you’ll come up with a plan of action before I get back.”
He turned away from them and snatched his phone off the kitchen counter. He didn’t say a word as he shut his bedroom door. Large windows looked out on Manhattan, but he ignored the view and flopped onto his king bed.
He tapped his sister’s name, and she answered after one ring.
“He’s there, isn’t he?” Nora said as her greeting.
“What is Asher doing in New York?” Drew rolled onto his back and stared up at the white ceiling.
Nora sighed. “We didn’t know where he was going. He left a note that he’d be home in a few days, but I suspected you’d see him. Asher has been doing nothing but focusing on all this media stuff about Lola. I think he just needed to see her.”
Which confirmed everything Drew feared.
And still, he couldn’t stop himself from asking the question. “Why did he need to see her, Nora?”
“Oh, no.” Nora exhaled. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for Lola.” She issued a pathetic sound. “Oh, Drew.”
“I can’t stop thinking about her.” It was starting to affect his tour. He never separated himself from his dancers like this, he never took space. But he couldn’t think around Lola, not logically.
“She told me
she kissed someone. I didn’t know it was you. If I had… I just thought she needed to have a little fun on tour. Drew, this won’t end well for you. I love you, and that’s the only reason I’m telling you any of this. Lola has been in love with Asher for years. We’ve all known and have just waited for the day he’d wake up and realize she was what he needed.”
“Don’t say it.”
But Nora went on. “I think that day is here, Drew. And those two… Lola will always choose him. No matter how poorly he treats her or how many other girls he dates, she always comes back to him.”
Drew closed his eyes. “So, what do I do, Nora?”
“You let her go.”
If he didn’t realize how deep his feelings had run so quickly, he would now. Because a fissure opened up in his heart at his sister’s words.
And he didn’t know what to do next.
30
Lola
Lola was not a bar person, nor did she enjoy being packed into a room with a million strangers.
And yet…
Here she was standing beside someone who thrived in this kind of place, someone who always had. She’d known how different she and Asher were, how much their friendship didn’t make a lick of sense.
What she didn’t know was why he’d stayed with her? Why he’d spent the last fourteen years insisting she be with him?
And she’d seen herself falling deeper and deeper, thinking it was love.
Now, as she watched him laugh with Brooke and the other dancers, watched his eyes light up inside the New York bar, she realized she’d only held on so tightly because if she didn’t, they’d drift away. She wouldn’t have only lost Asher but his family as well.
That wasn’t love, or at least the kind of love stories were written about.
Instead, she saw herself through the eyes of a stranger. She was pathetic. A girl who’d tricked herself into thinking friendship could turn into more, that it wasn’t okay to let go.
Asher rested his arm on the back of her chair and nudged her shoulder. “You okay?” He’d barely spoken to her since using Drew’s name to get her into the bar and a fake ID to prove he was twenty-one.
No. She wasn’t okay. The noise crowded in on her, and all she wanted to do was get some air, some much needed space. Instead, she smiled and nodded. “Yep, I’m good.”
He returned her smile. He wanted to believe she was comfortable in this scene, so he did.
His gaze lingered on her in a way that was foreign to her. The Asher Stone she knew wouldn’t have looked at her that way. How many nights had she prayed for it to be different?
Her mind drifted back to his words in the dance studio the day she’d left. He’d finally said what she’d waited so long to hear, that he loved her back. Only, it hadn’t been right. She’d seen that, but something told her he hadn’t let go quite yet.
And now, he’d flown to New York for a reason that scared her.
He said he’d read the gossip about her. Did he believe it?
“I need a drink.” She doubted anyone heard her as she slid from her chair and pushed through the crowd to get to the bar.
A group of men stood near the bar arguing over something. Loudly. Lola pushed through them until her chest collided with the rounded wood. A blond man looked up from where he poured beer out of one of the taps and offered her a smile. “I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Lola nodded and turned to look back at the table she’d come from. Asher fit in so well with the dancers. They laughed and drank, and drank and laughed. He turned, his eyes finding hers with an intensity that made her uncomfortable. She pulled on the sleeves of her sweater where they fell halfway down her hands.
Brooke said her outfit was too conservative for a night out, but Lola hadn’t really cared. She’d have rather stayed in anyway.
“What can I get you?”
Lola turned back to the blond bartender. He had a kind face, one she imagined made many customers tell him all their troubles. She, however, wasn’t in a sharing mood. “I’ll just take a club soda please.”
He smiled. “You got it.”
Lola drummed her fingers on the smooth wood of the bar as she tried to quell the nerves inside her. How did standing in a crowded bar affect her more than taking the stage in front of thousands of people?
There was one big difference. On stage, Drew was with her.
Her phone buzzed as the bartender slid a glass in front of her. She didn’t look at the text message because another presence loomed beside her.
“Put her drink on my tab.”
Lola smiled despite her mood. In the short time she’d been on the tour, Noah Clarke felt more like a friend than most of the others. She turned to him. “Should you be here?” She looked around for people staring his way or trying to take pictures, but no one even seemed to notice him.
Noah shrugged. “It’s just Jason’s.” That was the name of the bar. “I come here whenever I’m in the city. I think my crew probably told one of Drew’s dancers about it. There’s no better bar. Jason, the owner, has strict rules inside these walls. Celebrities from rock stars to movie stars to professional athletes come here all the time because the bar provides them privacy with their no pictures rule and the media ban.”
“So, you’re saying the patrons are used to you?”
“Well…” He smirked. “I don’t think anyone could get used to me.”
She surveyed him. With his handsome face and adorable accent, she supposed he was right.
Her eyes caught on another face she’d recognize anywhere. Ben Evans. A third man stood with them, but she couldn’t place him.
Noah gestured to them. “Lola, meet Ben and D—Nelson, I mean.”
Lola didn’t understand how Noah almost called the third man by the wrong name, but she didn’t ask.
Ben offered her a kind smile. “We’ve been wanting to meet you.”
“Um, why?” She couldn’t imagine a rock star wanting anything to do with her. Drew and his silence was proof of that.
“No reason.” Ben coughed when Noah elbowed him. “No reason at all.”
An arm wound around her waist, and she looked up to find Asher at her side. “Care to introduce me to your friends?”
A warning rang in his voice and maybe a hint of… jealousy? He had to recognize Noah and Ben—especially because he’d seen Noah in her room as well as in Gulf City, but he showed no signs of it.
His touch burned into her as he pulled her into his side. There was something off about it, something possessive she didn’t like.
“It’s okay, Ash.” She tried to calm him with her voice. “They’re cool.”
Asher’s eyes narrowed, and he reached for the club soda that still sat on the bar. “Here’s your drink. Let’s go outside. I need to talk to you.”
She sent an apologetic smile to the three men. Part of her wanted to tell Asher to lay off, that she wasn’t going anywhere with him when he’d obviously had a bit too much to drink. She could smell the whisky on his breath.
But the other part of her, the one who’d been friends with him for so long, hoped she’d finally get answers. So, she let him lead her away. She left her drink on their table for Brooke to watch, and followed him out the door.
Cold air struck Lola as it barreled through the windy city streets. She wrapped her arms around herself and stepped between clusters of people until reaching a part of the sidewalk where she and Asher could talk in private.
Asher leaned against the outside wall, tipping his face to the lights above.
Lola’s phone buzzed again, reminding her of the text she had yet to look at. She pulled it out and unlocked it. The screen lit up with a text from the last person she expected to hear from.
Drew: Can we talk?
No good conversation ever started with those words. Tears burned the back of her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall, not in front of Asher.
“Who is texting you?” His words slurred.
She quickly slipped her ph
one back into her pocket. “No one.”
“Was it Drew?” He kicked away from the wall and stalked toward her.
“What? No.” She rarely lied to Asher, but the words fell from her lips.
“Do you love him?”
“Asher, you’re drunk.”
“You’re right, he doesn’t matter. All that matters is us.”
“Us?” She stepped back away from him. “Asher, what are you talking about?” There was no ‘us’ when it came to them. That was a lesson she’d learned time and again. “We’ve had this conversation.”
He reached for her, his hands clenching down on her arm. “Of course there’s an us. Lo, I’ve always known how you felt about me.”
Her breath stuttered. He’d known, and yet, until now, he’d never been there for her. Not really. Until he thought there might be something going on between her and his brother. Everything became so clear and a sense of déjà vu overcame her. “Why are you here, Asher?”
“Your friends invited us.”
She gave him a hard look. “Not this bar. New York. Why did you come?”
“You know why.”
“Actually.” She pushed off his hand. “I don’t. The last time I saw you, we went through this same song and dance.”
It happened so suddenly, she didn’t know what to do. Asher kissed her for the second time in her life, and all she could do was stand frozen.
And again, it wasn’t right.
She put a hand on his chest, forcing him away. “Ash,” she whispered.
“Don’t tell me to stop, Lola. Please, don’t say it.”
“You have to.”
“Because you’re in love with him now?” Red crept into his cheeks as he flinched at his own words.
She didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t hurt him. The tears broke free, rolling down her cheeks. “This doesn’t have anything to do with him. Asher, we aren’t right. You’ve always known that, and now I do too.”
He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t right before, but it can be. I can change for you.”
She put one hand to his cheek. “You shouldn’t have to.”
She saw the moment the change in him happened. He went from drunk and sad to angry in no time at all. The rage built in his eyes before spewing out past his lips. “You think Drew actually sees you, Lo?” He reached for her again, this time tightening his grip. “You think whatever you have is more than some tour fun?”
Love is a Dance Step (Rockstars Anonymous) Page 22
