Out of the Shadow (10 page)

***

“
Hey, Cole,” RJ hollered as he peered through the door connecting their hotel rooms. “Do you mind if I come in?”

“
Nope,” Cole said as he typed on his laptop. “That’s why I left the door open. If I didn’t want you bugging me, I would have shut and locked it.”

“
You’re such a comedian,” RJ said as he yanked out a chair and sat across from Cole. He gazed around the room, his lips scrunched up as blinked slowly. “Your room is exactly like mine except everything is backwards.”

Cole snorted, eyes on the monitor. “Glad all that money Richie and Callie spent on boarding school didn’t go to waste.”

“
Yeah, whatever,” RJ grinned. He nodded at the computer. “What are you doing?”

Cole sighed as he sat back in his chair, raking his fingers through his hair. “Looking for a nice place to take Ally for a weekend but the only places that I can find are really cheesy.”

RJ got up and strolled casually to the mini bar, opened it, and snatched a soda. He popped the tab and took a long drink. “Why not just take her to a hotel or something?”

“
Nah,” Cole said. “Throw me one, will you?”

RJ retrieved another soda and tossed it to Cole. He watched as his friend tapped the top and carefully pulled the tab. “Why not?”

“
It would seem sort of…I don’t know…cheap, I guess,” Cole said, struggling to explain. “I mean, you see all the movies and stuff and guys take sleazy girls to hotels for a couple hours. I don’t want to make Ally feel that way. I was trying to find some place that she’d really dig but not something that’s all girly, if you know what I mean.”

“
Yeah, something romantic,” RJ said with another wide grin. “Come on, Cole, you can say it. I won’t razz you….much.”

Cole ducked his head and smiled, heat touching his cheeks. “Whatever.”

“
We have to go to sound check shortly,” RJ reminded him as he finished his soda. He ruffled his hair, his slight curls bouncing back into place. “And after that, we have an interview with some sort of music magazine. And then, we have the show.”

“
I know,” Cole said, frustrated sigh blowing past his lips. He closed the laptop and pushed away from the table. “I don’t know when I’ll have time to set all this up and if I don’t do it soon, I won’t be able to book anything at all.”

“
Call James,” RJ suggested. “Ask him to find something for you.”

“
Maybe,” Cole said. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

***

Ally placed her hands on her hips as she surveyed the mess. Neat piles of freshly laundered and folded clothes sat on Jamie’s bed and boxes were stacked in the corner. Most of his books and other supplies had already been packed with the boxes marked. Ally had a sneaking feeling that Gretchen had taken care of that one.

“
I’ll pack your clothes if you gather all your sports gear and pack that,” she said. “Surely you can handle that.”

“
Of course, cuz,” he said with a smug smirk. He walked across the room, kicking a box out of the way, and opened the closet doors. He disappeared inside and she fought her jealousy.

She’d always loved her house – the very one she’d grown up in – and never wished for anything larger, like the house Jamie lived in with his parents and his younger brother, Trevor. Her father had added on and remodeled their house a couple of times and it was very spacious. Plus, they had over thirty acres of land, a lake, and a barn.

Her room was only a little smaller than Jamie’s and she had to share her bathroom with Alec, her brother, just as Jamie had to share a bathroom with Trevor. She didn’t have a view of the lake like her parents but she did have a view of the lush grounds and the fenced pasture where the horses grazed. But she didn’t have a walk-in closet like Jamie. And of that, she was jealous.

“
Jamie,” she said, as a nervous flutter struck as she stood in the middle of the room. “Do you suppose we
will
have the problems that we had we first started at Meridian Valley?”

“
What do you mean?” he asked from the depths of his closet.

She closed her eyes briefly and recalled her high school years at the exclusive boarding school she’d attended with her best friends. She’d been so excited to go even though RJ and Cole had both warned her to keep her mouth shut about her father. She’d scoffed at the idea that people would look at her as nothing more than just another student with wealthy parents. Most of the students attending the school had wealthy parents, too – some of them professional athletes and politicians. She hadn’t understood why anyone would find her particularly interesting.

But they had. Girls in her dorm had flooded her room as soon as they’d found out that Jay Jones from Tight Control was indeed her father and had followed her around. Kids in her classes had clustered around her, nearly stifling her. And crossing campus had been nightmarish.

The coolness factor had faded somewhat by the time she’d graduated. But the memories of her high school years would always be tainted with her reluctance to trust that anyone wanted to be her friend because she was Ally the person and not because she was Jay Jones’s daughter.

“
Well,” she said, biting her bottom lip. “You know, everyone bugging us about our dads and stuff.”

Jamie crawled out of the closet, on his hands and knees, then sat in the doorway. He smiled softly at his cousin. “The more I think about it, the more I doubt if we’ll have anything to worry about.”

“
Really?”

He held up his hand, ticking off points on his fingers. “First of all, when we were freshmen, Cole and RJ were sophomores and everyone already knew who their parents were so when we started hanging out with them, they figured out who our parents were.”

She inclined her head slightly in agreement.

“
Second,” he said, holding up another finger. “The college campus is much larger than Meridian Valley and I doubt seriously if we’ll know anyone. No one I knew at Meridian Valley was planning to attend Starkeman.”

“
Okay, but what about our names?” she asked.

“
Jones is a common name,” he said. “Yeah, I know Winston is not so much but no one particularly noticed the similarity at football camp -which brings me to my third point, cuz. Our dads were still playing and touring when we started Meridian Valley. Now they’re not and not so much on the radar so chances are, people aren’t going to remember them so easily.”

Ally’s eyes grew and she dropped to the floor in front of him. “That’s sort of sad. All that hard work – all those years of playing…”

“
Ally,” Jamie said, taking her hand. “They’re not forgotten, it’s just college is a younger crowd and they’ll be listening to younger music. Oh, I’m sure there are still quite a few Tight Control fans out there and one or two of them might recognize our names, but I don’t really think it will be a problem.”

She nodded, still nibbling on her lip. He was probably right and while it cheered her to think that she might actually be able to attend college without people mobbing her about her dad, it still saddened her to think that most of her classmates might not even know who he is.

“
Okay, so maybe we’ll be okay,” she said.

Jamie pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. “They were an amazing band – still are – and they’ll never be forgotten. Don’t worry.”

“
You’re right, as much as I hate to admit that,” she said, resting her cheek against his chest. “Just, don’t let it go to your head.”

He chuckled and it vibrated her ear. “Now, Cole and RJ are another story.”

Ally pulled out of his embrace to frown in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“
They’re becoming more and more popular, especially after this tour,” he said. “And RJ told me that they shot a lot of footage on this tour for a video and it will be released soon.”

“
I don’t see what that has to do with us?” she asked.

“
Nothing, really,” Jamie shrugged. “We just have to be careful if they come on campus. They weren’t so recognizable last year, right? But I bet by the time the tour ends and the new video comes out, they will be. RJ said more and more people are recognizing them when they go out anywhere.”

“
I see your point,” Ally said. “Jeez.”

“
And I’m betting if people find out that RJ and Cole are our friends, it might be twice as bad. People will be bugging us to introduce them, get them concert tickets, backstage passes – you know.”

“
Wonderful,” she groaned. Just when she thought life might smile on her and send her a ray of sunshine, the storm clouds gathered. She had hoped that with her new college independence, she’d be able to spend more time with Cole when he finished his tour. But it wasn’t looking like he’d be able to show his face around the campus. Or anywhere within a five mile radius of the school, either, as she was certain students hung out at the local restaurants, malls, and bars. It looked like if she wanted to spend any time at all with Cole and with RJ, she’d have to do it on the weekends and it would have to be in the tiny little town they all lived in on the outskirts of Chicago. That was a thirty minute drive one way.

She pushed the thoughts from her head, deciding that she’d discuss the matter with Cole. Maybe he had an idea or a solution. Maybe he’d already figured things out and just hadn’t told her yet. She smacked her knees and stood. “Let’s finish and then go grab some burgers, okay?”

“
Sure,” he said as he disappeared back into the closet. He started tossing football pants, cleats, and pads out as his cell phone, which was resting on his desk, started to ring.

“
Grab that, will you?” he shouted from the depths of his closet.

She snatched the phone and her eyes widened at the name on the screen. She flipped the phone open. “Hello?”

“
Oh, um, who is this?” the girl asked.

“
Hey, Stephanie,” Ally said, her teeth clenched. She managed to insert the right amount of friendliness in her voice, but she wasn’t exactly crazy about her boyfriend’s stepsister.

“
Oh, hi Ally,” Stephanie said. “I was trying to reach Jamie. I did call the right number, didn’t I?”

“
Yes, but he’s in his closet somewhere, looking for sports equipment to pack for school. Hang on and I’ll get him for you,” Ally offered. She stepped inside the closet and handed him the phone, rolling her eyes.

“
Hey, Steph,” Jamie said as Ally left the closet, not in the least interested in eavesdropping on that conversation.

At first, she hadn’t minded a whole lot when Jamie and Stephanie dated during their junior year but when they called things off after only a few short weeks, she’d been relieved. Try as she might, she’d never really warmed up to Stephanie and she hadn’t liked seeing Jamie with that girl. Plus, she’d secretly feared that Jamie and Cole’s friendship wouldn’t have survived a horrid breakup.

She busied herself with packing his clothes in the suitcases while his voice droned on and on in the closet. She couldn’t make out the exact words and frankly, she hadn’t wanted to, either. She was pretty sure that Jamie had no romantic interest in Stephanie but that didn’t mean the same rang true for the girl. For all Ally knew, Stephanie could still be harboring feelings for Jamie and perhaps that was why the girl was still calling him.

Ally paused and wiped her brow. For all she knew, Jamie could be harboring secret feelings for Stephanie, afraid to let his feelings be known because of his friendship with Cole. Maybe they were carrying on in private – a sort of secret love affair. The thought caused Ally’s stomach to curdle.

She returned to her task as she heard Jamie end his conversation, rejoining her near his heaping luggage. She lifted a questioning brow as he tossed his phone on the bed.