The Rock Star Next Door, a Modern Fairytale (4 page)

“In your dreams.” Kyra returned. “So, it’s a go?” She gave Jessie a searching look. “The guys are all invited, too, you know.”

“Not unless I get Scarlett.
” Jack tipped his laced coffee and drank heavily.

“Bring your own date
or go as a threesome. Put on
a different spin for the press. Three gay guys from Wisconsin.
  Yeah . . .” Kyra broke out into a grin. “Three gay guys, three gay guys . . .” she sang to the tune of Three Blind Mice.

Jessie was laughing, but then stopped cold as her brother gave her a killing look. Jack was extremely sensitive about being mistaken for a gay man since an issue of
SPIN
magazine a few years past had mistakenly reported that the male members of Heartless were homosexuals. Kyra delighted in teasing Jack about it.

“If I do t
his,” Jessie cautioned.
  “You owe me;
big time
.”

Kyra nodded, a
smirk curving her lips
as her eyes grew mystical. “Na
me it and I’m there, Jess. But, hey?
” She leaned back in the patio chair and lifted her face
in worship
to the glowing sunsh
ine. “
You just might end up owing me
.
”

Chapter Three

Three days later, Jessie and Kyra scuttled into the beach house, laughing and joking under their respective burdens from their shopping excursion on Rodeo Drive.  Steve and Darrell were playing around with the synthesizer in the living room overlooking the beach.

“You won’t believe this guy we met.” Kyra began, giggling as she looked from the guys to Jessie. “A real loser, hey, Jess?” She stacked her purchases on the sofa.

“He
had these disgusting dreadlocks
and I doubt he bathed yet this year
.
” Jessie added.

“Ask you out?” Darrell winked at Jessie. “Just tell ‘em your private property,
Babe
.
”  He flashed Jessie those bedroom blue eyes.

“You and I are never going to happen, D
arrell, so get over it.
” Jessie returned, with genuine irritation. He always came off like she was his girl, at least, his favorite one in a
long line of sluts
and groupies. He’d even gone so far as to claim they were childhood sweethearts in an interview for Billboard Magazine a couple of years back, a blatant lie, but now that she was famous he seemed to think he should have exclusive rights to her as a lover.

“Jess, you forgot to add
Hey
.
” Kyra dissolved to laughter. “You should have
been there. He comes out with,
‘you talk like yoopers. Are you from the U.P.?’” A yooper was a self styled nickname for people who lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the U.P. as it was commonly called. Not exactly Wisconsin, although they were neighboring states.

“Why would some street cock think you were from the U.P.?” Steve asked.

“’Cause he’s a stoned out
Yooper
, looking’ for a home boy.” Darrell quirked with a chuckle. “And let me guess, he was looking for a handout?”

“Oh, yeah.
He was panhandling,” Kyra answered. “You know, he said he could tel
l we were from the Midwest
because we punctuate every sentence with like
‘you know’
and
‘hey’.
”

“Hey, that’s n
ot true.”  Darrell scoffed, and then grimaced at his
telltale speech.

“I hate it when people try to put labels on you. It’s so unfair, you know.” Kyra continued on, missing the humor of Darrell’s gaffe and her own blunder as the three of them continued to laugh at her. “What’s so funny?” Kyra placed her hands on her hips in a defensive pose as she glowered at the guys. “You guys always make fun of me. But hey--” she raised her hands in exasperation, “Have a good time, because come next week,
I’m out of here.
” 

“
Hey
--” Steve quipped
and they all succumbed
to a round of laughter as Kyra stormed up the steps
, oblivious to the humor.
“Y
ou had a phone call, Jess.”

“Marty?” Jessie asked, expecting their manager to be getting back to her about the Fender guitar deal any day.

“Nope.” Steve shook his head. “Lex.”

“Oh.” Jessie’s stomach sank to her knees.

“Oh, yeah,
hey,
he wants you to call him back
,
you know
.” Steve returned with a smirk. “
Hey
, what’s this I hear about you going out with him?” 

“Yeah,
Hey
.
”
Darrell joined the fun, punctuating every sentence with the same word as Steve. “Jack is right. We’re getting’ the shaft,
h
ey
.
Kyra gets you a date, and the three of us have to fend for
our
selves. I want Jessica Alba
,
h
ey
.
Or I won’t go--
h
ey
.
We should make this into a song
;
‘Ya
Know, Hey
.
’
Could be the next Rapper hit
.
”

“You guys are sick.” Jessie picked up her
packages and followed Kyra’s lead in retreating to her own room.

“
Hey
, don’t you even want his private number?” Steve called up after her.

“Later.”  Jessie called, and closed the door to her sanctuary. Duncan lifted his head from her bed and wagged his tail in greeting.
Ozzy
, her brother’s lazy pug, continued to snore beside her Scottie.

“Oh, boys. You have no idea what a tangle I’ve gotten myself into.”  Jessie confided as she began unwrapping the dress Kyra insisted she wear for Friday’s gala.

“Ooooowwhh.
” Duncan, her Scottie, stretched lazily in response.

Jessie sank down next to him and scratched under his chin. “How do I let myself get talked into these things?”

Ozzy
’s nasal snoring
was her only answer as her brother’s pug continued to sleep
away the afternoon.  She opened her bags and started to sort through her purchases, momentarily forgetting about her ‘blind date’ with the legendary rock icon.

She was jerked
back to reali
ty with the bone chilling ring of the landline phone.
Jess.
Steve texted her on her cell phone.
It’s for you
.

Please, God, let it be Marty
.
 
Jessie
thought as she
picked up the cordless receiver in her room
.
“Hello.” She heard the distinctive click as Steve hung up the kitchen line.

“Hi, thi
s is Lex. I wanted
see if everything is set for next Friday?
” His voice was strong
and sensuous, just
like in his songs.

Jessie didn’t say
a word. She just hung on to cordless phone
.
God, was this how some poor girl felt when Elvis called her? Scared Speechless?

“Hello?
Are you there?
”  Lex intoned when she didn’t respond.

Say something, you fool
.
 
Jessi
e stood up, paced to the window
and summoned her courage. “Hi?” She said in a voice she immediately damne
d as
girlish.

“Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Ah . . . no . . .
I mean, I-
I’m just preoccupied,
you know
.”  At those last words, Jessie cringed, all too aware of her Midwestern babbl
ing now that a street bum
brought it to her attention.

“I thought we should meet before the party. Dinner or something?”

“No . . . I mean, it’s--
” Jessie sat down, feeling like the biggest idiot
on the western coast. “Lex?
” She started again, “I’m sorry. I
didn’t mean that. You
caught me off guard, that’s all. Yes, I think we should meet each other first.”

“I was concerned that you’d believe my press releases. Meeting informally first might be better than meeting each other for the first time at a gala event with
all of Hollywood snapping photos
at us.” 

Silence hung between the lines. He was waiting.

“So . . . ?” The
sensual voice prompted
.
“Where should we meet?”

“What
did you have in mind?” Jessie managed. She felt like a gangly girl having Elvis call out of the blue, asking
her
to go out to dinner with him.

“Dinner tonight, at Beau Rivage up the road? Casual, just a get to know ea
ch other kind of thing?”

Jessie swallowed, and then took a deep cleansing breath. “Beau Rivage sounds great. I love Mediterranean food.”  There, that wasn’t so hard.
Now if she could just manage to be in the next county when he arrived to pick her up, all would be well again.

Tall, dark and devastating
.

Jessie stiffened like a statue as
Stev
e answered the door
. Lex stood there in the foyer looking like he’d just walked
off his album cover
. She felt
breathless, giddy
and unable to move as she drank in his majestic presence. He was taller than Steve’s
five foot eleven. H
is hair was liquid ebony, shimmering, full, swirling about his shoulders, begging to
be touched. He was wicked-
delicio
us, so sexy in black leather pants
. He wore black
boots, a crimson Tee and a leather blazer. 

Lady Gaga
, eat your heart out
,
Jessie mused, fearing for a
moment she would either scream with emotion or faint like the
elated
girls in th
os
e old Beatles clips. She strangled the urge to giggle, just barely.
Somehow, she managed to walk out to his
1971 Cadillac
El Dorado, her insides quivering with forbidden delight and
a
very girlish fear.

What could she talk about
with
Lex?

He backed his slick baby blue convertible out of her driveway
a
nd drove slowly down the street and through the security gates closing
off the exclusive Malibu
gated
community from unwanted
sightseers
. They drove along the Pacific Coast Highway with the top down, silence hanging between them like a death shroud.

“What kind of music do you like?” He asked,
briefly glancing her way before
returning his eyes to the road.

Jessie looked at him, her mind blank.
Music, yes, think
.

“Um
,
everything.” 
That sounded really stupid
.
 
“
Rock
, of course,
um,
classic
rock
from the 70’s
, jazz, swing . . .
”

He no
dded. “W
hat else?”

“M
ovie
soundtracks
,
Irish folk music."

“Ever heard of the
Chieftains?”  He ventured.

“Yes
.
” Jessie turned to look at him with surprise.
“Do you know them?”

“Yes, I love their
Film Cuts
CD.”

“
My favorite is
The Long Black Veil
. Th
ey have Mick Jagger singing with them
and Roger Daltrey
on that one
. Several artists
, in fact
.
” Je
ssie gazed at him with surprise
. “
Most people haven’t heard of The Chieftains. M
y father loves them. With a
name like Kelly, you’d never guess why. He took Jack and
me
to one of their
concert
s
in St. Paul
when we were ten.”