Rock & Roll Nights: The Lila and Rivers Edit

8. Rivers

8

RIVERS

W hen Taylor told me the plan, I thought she must be joking.

Only a part of me knew that she wasn’t, because this went along with what she’d already told me. The stuff Noah had been pounding into my brain every chance he got, like he was somehow in charge of making me understand it.

Though that, I could partially understand. The band was the best thing that had ever happened to Noah—to any of us, honestly—and he was smart enough to know that if the band failed, life as we knew it would be over.

Which meant I had the power to make or break all of our lives.

I didn’t like that.

But I also didn’t like Taylor’s way of trying to fix what ailed me.

“You want me to pretend to date a girl to rehab my reputation,” I said slowly. Just making sure she hadn’t been joking when she said what she said.

“Right, exactly,” she said, in that no-nonsense way only Taylor James could pull off. The woman had acted like she ruled the world from the moment I met her, and it had never stopped being annoying. “You date the girl, take her on the road with you, and make sure there are plenty of photographers taking pictures of you. You act like you’re over the moon. Like you can’t get enough of each other. She’s got a sterling reputation and is all good girl energy. The kind of girl you settle down with. And the world at large starts to see that you’re a changed man. That maybe you’ve finally figured out what you want in life. Maybe...” Her eyes got suddenly large, like she’d just come up with the most brilliant idea ever.

I didn’t believe it. I guessed she’d had this whole thing planned out before we even sat down. Not that it mattered.

“Maybe we put it out there that being around Connor and Olivia, those two lovebirds, has made you realize that you want love, too, and then you happened to meet this girl and everything just fell right into place,” she finished breathlessly. “Maybe this is your coming-of-age moment. The tour when you finally start to see that there is good in the world. And you want your slice of it with this girl.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “Me? Suddenly deciding that I want to fall in love with someone and then walking out and finding the right person immediately? What, just the girl next door? Are you serious right now?”

Her eyes snapped back to mine and her face changed from excited to hard and driving. “I’m dead serious. I wouldn’t approach you with the idea if I wasn’t. Do I need to remind you that your spot on the tour probably depends on you cleaning up your act and following the label’s rules? Or that there are other acts coming with us and auditioning for your spot? Your career depends on you doing whatever I tell you to right now, Rivers.”

I scowled at her, and at the confirmation that the bands coming with us were actually auditioning for my spot.

I wondered if any of them knew.

Or if they’d care.

Lila would. Or at least I hoped so.

“No, you were perfectly clear about that part. I just don’t see how you think any of us is going to pull this off. Reporters know how to do their jobs, Taylor. They’re going to spot it in three seconds if I’m trying to pass some girl off as my girlfriend. They won’t believe it in the first place, and if they see I don’t have any chemistry with her...”

My point was obvious as far as I was concerned, so I let my argument die there. This would never work. Taylor was going to find some groupie who didn’t know anything about music and who I didn’t have anything in common with, and that poor girl was going to be stuck to me for the rest of the tour. I’d be miserable the entire time, she’d end up heartbroken and probably drinking too much, courtesy of spending time with me, and no one would buy it. They’d see how unhappy we both were. I didn’t keep girls for more than one night, so having one around for the long term, and having no chemistry with her, would be a dead giveaway. And once they figured it out and unmasked the whole plan, the publicity would be really bad.

Taylor was a good agent, but this was a really, really stupid idea.

So why the fuck did she look so cocky and triumphant?

“What?” I asked suspiciously. “What do you know that I don’t?”

She shrugged, looking unbearably smug. “I was worried about the same thing. You know, that whole chemistry thing. I’ve been thinking about it all night. Then I came to breakfast this morning and realized that you’d already solved my problem for me. You’ve already found a girl you have chemistry with. And she just so happens to be at our fingertips. And, if I’m not mistaken, head over heels in love with you.”

No.

I knew without having to ask who she was talking about. Lila had gone up on stage and volunteered to sing, and the moment she was up there—the moment I’d seen her in her cute little cutoff shorts and tank top, with cowboy boots to match—I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off her. She’d been so sweet and small-town up there, so ‘aw shucks,’ all flushed with excitement, and I’d been completely entranced. My fingertips had remembered the feel of that skin, and my mouth had gone dry with the need to take her up against me, sink my hands into her red hair, and kiss her like she belonged to me.

I’d been staring, and I hadn’t cared.

Even when she caught me doing it and spent the whole song staring right back at me.

My heart tried to climb its way up my throat at the memory—and the ghost of her kisses on my body—and I attempted to wipe my face clean of any emotion. Taylor didn’t know about that. She had no idea who I’d been with last night or how much she’d affected me. She probably hadn’t even seen me watching Lila on stage.

Taylor, however, leaned toward me and dropped her voice. “I can see by the look on your face that you know exactly who I’m talking about, Rivers. I saw you watching her when she was onstage. I saw the way you wanted to eat her up. Stick her in your breast pocket and take her home like some sort of pet. You were practically drooling, and the funny thing was, she was just as into you. You two were acting like you were the only ones in the room, and anyone with eyes in their head could see it. So I don’t think chemistry is going to be a problem. All the people there already think you two are in love. We just need to keep that story going.”

Shit.

“She’ll never agree to it,” I said hoarsely. Sure, Lila was insanely cute and too sweet for words, and if I was being honest, I’d admit to myself that I’d fallen for her from the moment her big green eyes turned up to mine. But she was also smart, and had ethics. She’d been raised right by a family that cared deeply about her.

She’d never agree to some fake-dating scheme cooked up by my agent.

Even if she did, the press wouldn’t believe it. She was the exact opposite of what I usually went for. I liked groupies with tattoos and daddy issues. Girls I didn’t have to worry about after we slept together, because they would never dream of expecting anything more from me than just sex. Maybe a smile when I was onstage.

I kept them disposable, because that way I never had to worry about hurting them.

I did not go for sweet, down-home girls with sunshine in their souls and freckles across their noses, whose skin tasted of strawberries and was soft enough to make me forget the world existed. Those sorts of girls…

They weren’t for guys like me. And the press knew it. They would never buy me suddenly showing up with a girl like Lila on my arm. Lila herself would never take me that seriously.

Taylor just shrugged and went on looking smug, acting like she’d heard all the thoughts running through my head. “Course she will. She already did.”

Fuck.

“What? What did you offer her?”

“A contract. Luckily, she has the voice to deserve it. And she didn’t think hanging out with you while you’re on tour was the worst price to pay for it.”

I didn’t hear the rest of what she said. Some part of my brain knew that she was outlining how this was all supposed to work and what I was supposed to do to hold up my end of the deal. I distinctly heard the words ‘do this or you’re off the tour.’ But the rest?

Yeah, I was too busy staring at Lila Potter to listen. The girl was sitting at the table with Anna, chatting at her friend like she hadn’t just agreed to sign her life and reputation away for a contract with Avery Dawson’s label.

Until she looked up at me with large, doubtful eyes and I saw that she was just as unsure about the whole thing as I was.