Backstage Pass: Last Call (The Backstage Pass Rock Star Romance Book 6) (8 page)
Read Backstage Pass: Last Call (The Backstage Pass Rock Star Romance Book 6) Online
Authors: Elizabeth Nelson
16
From lows to highs and back again. That was the life I thought Sasha and I must be in for and it was about time to embrace it and just ride the ride. At least this time we’d gone in the right direction from the ultimate low to what was probably going to be one of my highest highs.
I couldn’t believe why Ainsley had called. Still couldn’t believe it, but I wanted to find
Sasha and tell her so she could call me a liar and tell me this was all a dream.
I paused in the kitchen doorway,
overcome with a sudden rush of emotion. I really didn’t know what I’d do without her in my life. There was nothing more amazing than hearing good news and knowing instantly the first person who I wanted to tell it to.
This was the first glimpse I’d had of the kitchen and I was in love with it. Maybe it was Sasha’s bare as
s poking out the bottom of her t-shirt while she tried to figure out the huge stove, but I loved every bit of it. Eggs and peppers and onions littered the marble island and I guessed that she was going to attempt omelets for us for dinner, which seemed pretty advanced for her. Even so, she’d done a good job designing the entire layout of the room for someone who had no idea how a kitchen functioned. But I hadn’t wanted to marry her for that. Shit, for that matter, I’d hire her a chef.
She bent too close to the burner and I rushed into the room. “Hey baby. Can I help you with that?”
She straightened and pushed the hair out of her eyes. “Yeah. Wow, this thing sure has a lot of buttons.”
I laughed and clicked on the flame, then cracked eggs in the pan and started chopping the other ingredients.
“Everything okay with Ainsley.”
I couldn’t fight the grin, but I kept chopping, then carried the cutting board over to the stove and slid half of them in. “Great actually.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
I looked up, plastered innocence all over my face. “What?”
She playfully shoved my shoulder. “Tell me.”
I washed the knife in the extra deep farmhouse sink. “Nothing really, just nominated for a billboard single of the year.”
Her jaw dropped and I tried not to laugh. I’d done the same thing when I’d heard.
“You’re shitting me.”
I shook my head.
She took a flying leap and landed with her legs curled around my waist. I took a step back and tried to keep us from landing on our asses, but my hands went around hers and I held her to me.
“That’s so amazing,” she squealed in my ear. “Oh my god, Jesse! Oh my god!” She was breathless with excitement and I felt the same way. I kissed her on the mouth. “Wanna go to a party with me?”
She climbed down and kept gushing, pacing back and forth between the island and the stove while I finished making our giant
omelets. “I’m so proud of you.” She clapped her hands together and it was the first time I’d really seen her get excited about my career. Even when I’d landed Ainsley and the new album and the tour. None of that had gotten her quite this excited. I liked it and it made me feel supercharged. I turned off the stove and pulled her around to the other side of the island to the barstools. She sat between my legs and we fed each other. Nothing could have made this more perfect, not even an engagement. We were right where we were supposed to be.
I felt like I was on top of the world.
Before we knew it, it was time for him to go. We’d pressed charges against Scout, who was pleading drunk and I didn’t really give a shit. He could plead stupid for all I cared, I was going to see this thing through to the end and make sure that he paid for this with everything I could find the courts to throw at him.
I’d ordered the perfect fencing and automatic gate to work with the landscaping and I was surprised that I
hadn’t thought of that before. The privacy would add to our oasis and it was going to be delivered at the beginning of the week thanks to Jesse’s rush delivery fee. We still hadn’t talked about the continual flow of money he was dumping on me and the place but I knew that he wouldn’t listen to any argument when my safety—and his—was on the table, so I let him buy all the security upgrades that he wanted. I doubted that I’d need to buy another thing for the house anytime soon, so I could make up for all these expenses later.
The plan was for me to finish up things with the house, then
after the awards banquet we’d sit down with Ainsley and figure out the upcoming tour schedule and how we were going to make it work without me being at home. I was just glad he’d relented and wasn’t dragging me out of here now before all my stuff was finished. I could absolutely get it done in a week, and I knew Kerri could finish up her details too.
I walked him to the car and we stood there in complete déjà vu as he tossed his bag in the trunk. Last time we’d parted on such different terms and I felt like we were so much stronger now.
“I wish you were coming out to the award banquet.”
I tried my best to hide my smile
and go with the excuse I’d made up earlier. He was going to get so tired of these surprises of mine one day, but this one was going to work out perfectly. While he’d been taking a shower, I’d stolen Ainsley’s number out of his phone and had texted her about showing up for the awards banquet as a surprise. She’d loved the idea and I’d had to get her off the phone quickly as she started asking questions about Mom and Dad and my leg and the house. Man, that woman could talk, but I loved her like an auntie and I was so glad that she was always around taking care of Jesse and making him a household name one song at a time.
Even though I wasn’t in this for the money, it was awesome to see him rewarded for his
talents. I’d always known that he was going to blow everyone away once he finally got his shot, and I was extra glad that she was the one to help him do it. The nomination for such a huge award was such an amazing feather in his cap and I really hoped that he won it. Not for me, but for him, as validation for all his hard work and the tough decision to stick it out with Scout, but the even better decision to let him go.
He pulled me to him and I settled my cheek against his chest. “I wasn’t going to leave you.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s what they all say.”
He laughed and it tickled my cheek. “You could still come, you know. I can find
someone to finish all your stuff.”
I shook my head. “No, I want to see this through. I want to make sure everything is totally perfect for when you get
home”
“Can I at least buy you an attack dog?”
“No.”
“Security guard?”
“No.”
“Body guard?”
I laughed. “That’s the same thing.”
“No it’s not, one sits outside in a little guard shack, the other one stands in your shadow.”
“No, thank you.”
He tipped my face up and kissed my nose. “You know I’m going to worry like hell from the second I drive out of here, right?”
“I’ll be fine.” I lifted my arm and flexed my muscles. “You signed me up for judo, remember?”
He wrapped his fingers around my bicep.
“And while I have no doubt that you’re going to be crazy awesome at it, I think it’s still going to take a lesson or two before you can defend yourself.”
I kissed his chin. “I’ll be fine.”
He sighed and squeezed me, then stepped away from the car. “I think you should get in and never leave my sight again.”
I walked to the grass. “I’m fine.”
“I love you.”
I smiled and blew him a kiss. “Not as much as me.”
I waved the entire time he drove out of the driveway, then I rushed in to call Kerri. “Get over here, stat!”
She arrived in under twenty which was a freaking miracle and I filled her in on the plan, then we called Ainsley. She wasn’t sure if we could pull it off and keep it all a surprise, but she was willing to do whatever she could to help.
Then came the shopping, and not the kind I liked. We didn’t look at a single freaking plant.
As a treat for her upcoming
nuptials and as thank you for the use of the yard, Axel had booked this entire little spa for just the two of us, which was how we ended up in the same room with her getting a luxurious spa while I got the water torture treatment.
Kerri
booked me for the whole deal; waxed, buffed, primed, plucked and extended. “Good shit, Kerri. How often do you do this?”
She stretched on the massage table. “As often as it takes. I want to look good for my man.”
“Ouch. Dammit!” I glared at the woman currently using a twisted up thread to yank every single eyebrow out of my face. “Jesse likes me how I am. I thought you were just helping me find a dress.
She shook her head. “Might as well put a paper bag on a
pig if you’re not going to do all the priming.”
“Hey!” S
he might be right, but I could look cute, and I knew how to shave my legs. Okay, so I didn’t always keep up on my brows, but good holy hell, no one could keep them up with the level of precision this woman was working. I felt raw and buffed but I wasn’t sure this was worth doing if it wasn’t for a glamorous awards.
“You’re going to be photographed from every single angle. Think about it, no one has really known about Jesse’s girlfriend and he’s on a rocket to stardom, so there’s a whole lot of speculation about which groupie he’s dating.”
“There is?”
She sighed. “Don’t you read the tabloids?”
I shook my head, but then held it still when the short woman glared at me and yanked out another hair extra hard. I ground my molars together and tried to remember that pain was beauty.
“When’s your flight?”
“Tomorrow morning, you taking me?” I had a feeling I was going to still be swollen from all of today’s pampering but hopefully she’d be able to help me cover that up.
“You know it.” She sighed. “God, I wish we could all
be there for him. What an amazing night it’s going to be.”
I sat up. “You should come!”
“What? You’re nuts.”
“No seriously, you know he’d want everyone there. Pull it together Kerri. Everyone will do it for you.”
“God, you know, I totally could. It’s a Friday night, and with the awards in Vegas, you know we could all get super cheap flights out there. Okay, you still keep your flight because I don’t want anything delaying you, and you and Ainsley have this super duper plan, but I’ll put together a wicked after party.” She paused and looked at me. “But anything I can dream up will be a thousand times more lame than whatever the label’s going to do for him.”
“Don
’t worry about it. Ainsley and I will figure that out. Maybe I’ll get tickets and passes or whatever for you guys to tome to the record one, then we’ll ditch out and go to yours.”
She clapped. “This is going to be awesome.”
“He’s going to love it.”
She shook her head. “Nope. He’s not going to have eyes for anyone but you. And that’s part of what I want to come see.”
I blushed. The night was going to be awesome.
18
I clutched my purse so hard I was going to break a nail, and the fear of what those women at the spa would do to me made me unclench my fists. I was so beyond out of my league here. Ainsley had texted me on the plane that she wouldn’t be able to pick me up but that she’d send a car.
That had worked out okay, except that I had no id
ea where the awards banquet was so I ended up spending most of the day driving around in the nether regions of the Nevada desert trying to get from the airport to the right hotel. Ainsley wasn’t answering and Kerri must have been in the air because she wasn’t answering her phone either. I leaned forward and knocked on the partition between me and the driver. “Um, are you sure you don’t know what hotel it’s at? It’s a pretty big deal.”
He shook his head and apologized in his broken English for the thousandth time. Shit. My phone had died during the first block of the trip and of course my charger didn
’t work in the car so I couldn’t even Google it. I stared out the window and caught a glimpse of a billboard. “OHMYGOD! THERE!” I pointed and he saw the billboard, then flipped his blinker for the next exit. As it was, I was barely going to have time to check-in, run upstairs and change and then make it for the awards ceremony. It would probably be my luck that he’d end up being the first award announced and I’d miss the whole frigging deal and this entire trip would be a bust. Tears burned my eyes but I blinked them away and took a huge breath. This was going to be fine. I was going to make it and everything was going to turn out exactly how we’d planned.
I
hoped.
The driver pulled under the sprawling veranda parking thing of the hotel and I climbed out, then waited while he took my small bag out of the trunk. I gave him a five dollar bill and harried into the foyer.
There were so many freaking people and I had no idea that everyone and their dog showed up on Friday night in Vegas to check-in. “Ugh.”
I checked the time and then
remembered that my phone was dead. This was awful. I hoped Kerri had done her research and knew what hotel we were at. God, what a fiasco. I’m sure she had every single moment planned out to perfection and I just needed a little of that to get me through tonight. The line inched forward and the next guy in line got into a giant screaming match with the concierge. What a douche. Still, I hoped that when I got up there I wasn’t going to have any issues. Ainsley had booked my room and all I needed was for this to go off better than the last time I’d tried to surprise him when Scout had nearly fucked me.
I shivered and a hand wrapped around my elbow making me jump away and squeal. I twisted to find a short elderly man in a suit. “I am so sorry
, miss. I was just going to see if I could check you in over here at this desk.”
I blinked and tried to get my heart under control. “Yes. Gosh. Sorry.”
“My apologies.” He took my bag and rolled it over to the small concierge station that announced all the trips and things to do in Vegas. I only wanted to do one thing and I didn’t want to miss it. He got me all checked in and even offered to carry my bags up, but I declined, and followed his directions to the correct elevator.
I
hurriedly got dressed and primped just like Kerri had shown me and now I was down here again, standing in the doorway to a massive auditorium and ballroom looking for a single face I knew.
The lights dimmed just as I spotted the back of Tate’s head and I stepped out of the way of the closing doors.
“Hold here, ma’am.” A security guard with a headset touched my shoulder.
“No, I’m up there with those guys.”
He shook his head and pointed to his headset. “We’re live, so you’ve got to wait until the first commercial.”
I groaned. “You have got to be fucking kidding me!”
He pointed me to a row of chairs that quickly filled up with other latecomers like me. At least they hadn’t made us wait outside like they did at the local playhouse when you got trapped in the bathroom line that was too long and made you miss the intermission bell.
I t
ugged on the bodice of my dress but tried to calm my fingers. This dress was plungy and strapless and all around amazing, but it felt so very awkward on me and as I looked around the room at all the beautiful people, fear and embarrassment clung to my every movement and I was starting to feel like this had been a dumb thing to do. It was televised, for Pete's sake. It wasn’t like I could just waltz up to the stage and wave at Jesse while he was getting his award. What did I think, this was some local small time thing?
I was the local small time thing. He’d be a fool to be shackled with me. All at once, every commitment and sureness that I’d had about our
engagement fled and I worried that he was going to wake up and realize that he was tied to someone how didn’t fit in his world at all.
They awarded a dozen awards and I fell deeper into a pit of
despair, then a hand touched my arm. “There you are!” Ainsley stood over me and concern flooded her face. “I’ve been looking for you but trying not to make it obvious and blow the whole thing. What are you doing back here?”
I pointed at the
sour faced guard and she smacked his arm. “Dammit, Leon. Stop doing that to all the guests. She’s with me.”
He shrugged but didn
’t seem to give a crap. Ainsley pulled me up and weaved her way through the crowd just as they announced Jesse’s award. The room darkened and they showed his face up on the giant screen. Ainsley pulled us to a stop a half a dozen tables away from him. I couldn’t take my eyes off his profile as he chatted with Tate and a blond haired kid that must have been Scout’s replacement. God, I loved him. Even if I only fit in his life for right now I wanted to grab as much of it as I could and hold on to it so tight that he’d never be able to shake me.
The queen of pop stepped up to the
mic. “And the award goes to . . .” We all held our breath while she ripped the envelope open.
“Jesse Mondragon and the Fire Eaters.”
“AHHHH!” Ainsley and I grabbed each other and hopped up and down, then took off toward Jesse’s table but he’d already gotten up and was accepting his award before we got there.
I took a seat next to Tate and he gave me a huge hug. “Congrats!”
I beamed up at Jesse as he fiddled with the button on the jacket of his tuxedo. God he was handsome. “So many people to thank. Wow. The Academy, obviously. It’s an honor to be nominated and in a category with all these other guys.” He pointed to the left. “Drak, man, I loved that last single.” The crowded clapped in agreement. “My parents, for keeping me in school, love you Mom. The guys in the band—past and present—” He held up the trophy. “Scout I hope they turned this on for you in the slammer.” Polite and stuttered laughter. “But to the women who’ve gotten me here.” He dropped his gaze to the table and I read the surprise on his face when he saw me next to Ainsley, then a giant grin broke out before he shifted his attention to Ainsley. “Ainsley, you’ve believed in us from the beginning, this one’s for you. And one final one, but the most important.” He turned and handed the trophy to the queen of pop standing on his right. “The most important person in my life is my girlfriend Sasha, and I hope you guys will forgive a romantic,” he dug around in his pocket, then pulled the mic from the stand and dropped to his knee, that black box in his hand again, “but since she flew all the way to come surprise me, I’m hoping I can outdo her just this once. Baby, will you marry me?”
The crowd held its collective breath and as far as I was concerned we were the only two in the room. I stood up and walked the dozen feet
to the stage and let him pull me up, then I whispered in his ear. “Yes.”
He kissed me hard and passionate in front of a thousand people and the entire world watching on their televisions.
Behind me, I heard the queen of pop say into the mic, “I think she said yes.”
Then the room erupted in applause.
Yeah, we were going to be okay.
After earning a master’s degree in secondary education from UNC, Elizabeth Nelson worked abroad teaching English, bar-tended at late night clubs in Chicago, and continues various philanthropy projects that focus on empowering women. But her love of writing never changed.
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Allison Ford is living an uncomplicated life, and she’s perfectly happy with that. Until high school sweetheart, Pat Johnson, breaks up with her because he met someone else since they parted ways for college. Suddenly, Ali’s simple life seems to spin off track and she doesn’t know how to fix it.
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Backstage Pass: Behind the Music
Backstage Pass: Last Call
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1
st
Chance
2
nd
Chance
3
rd
Chance
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Behind Closed Doors – Nashville
Behind Closed Doors – Across State Lines