Abby and the Cute One (Backstage Pass) (12 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Nathan

S
econds to Juliet and their entourage rolled into Saratoga Springs, NY in the early afternoon. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center— SPAC—was one of the smaller venues, but Nathan loved it. They’d left the city and were now out in the country. It reminded him of home.

A roadie scrounged up a football somewhere, and the guys found some space behind the amphitheater to throw it around. Miles waved Trevin long and unleashed a spiral. Trevin caught it on the run and heaved it toward Nathan who had to jump to catch it.

“Dude, did you see that? I could’ve been Tom freaking Brady,” Trevin yelled.

“But you’re Trevin Jacobs,” Nathan called back, “Why would you want to be Tom Brady?”

Trevin smiled. “Good point.”

Nathan shook his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw light blond hair. Abby. He quickly looked away. LJ’s repeated warnings hadn’t lessened his attraction to her, which was a serious problem. She wore that adorable black hat and a smile that could power his life for days.

But he ignored her as best he could until Trevin and Will waved to her. Then, and only then, did he allow himself to look and wave back. She walked toward him and he made sure he was standing next to Miles when she got close. If LJ spotted them, he wouldn’t be able to accuse them of having a private conversation when the rest of the guys were around, too.

“Hey,” Miles said. “What’ve you been up to this morning? Practicing hard?”

“You bet. Rehearsing for the big night tonight.”

“Nervous?” Nathan asked, then wanted to kick himself. Surely one of the other guys would’ve asked her that.

Abby nodded.

“No reason to be,” Miles assured her. “Everyone was impressed with your performance on stage last night.”

“Yeah?” A smile flit across her face.

Trevin waved Miles long. As he sprinted away from them, Nathan’s totally fake cold expression melted at her hopeful smile. “Yeah. LJ said both of our teams were impressed.”

“Even so.” Abby smiled. “I wish…” She stood on her tiptoes and then shrugged. “Never mind.”

A honking bus distracted Nathan from his next question.

He glanced back, ready to curse Ryder out for screwing around with the bus again when Will jogged into view. “Abby, you gotta come look.”

Abby frowned at Nathan. He shrugged and together they hurried up over the little hill where a black and purple bus came into view.

Abby gasped.

“Oh my god,” Nathan said. “You got your own tour bus.”

On the side of the bus was the most beautiful picture of Abby he could imagine. She held her guitar and her head was thrown back in a laugh. Her signature scrawled across the rest of the bus with the S in Curtis leading into a daisy.

Nathan turned to Abby, but he didn’t find her until he glanced down. She knelt on the ground, her head in her hands, shoulders shaking.

Nathan’s stomach sank. She was upset? “Hey. You okay?”

Tears slid down her cheeks. “That’s my tour bus?”

He crouched beside her and put his arm on her shoulder. She leaned into him, tears still falling as she stared ahead at the bus.

Will walked up, smiling, just as Abby’s phone rang.

She pulled it out of the waistband of her skirt. “Reeta…” There was a pause. “Yes.” Another fresh round of tears. “No. I can’t stop staring at the outside.”

Nathan patted her back, buzzing with energy. Watching Abby see her tour bus for the first time was almost better than when S2J got theirs.

“Okay, okay, I’m going,” Abby said.

Abby stood and walked toward the bus. She trailed her finger along the outside and then climbed up the steps, Nathan—and the rest of the guys—behind her the whole time. When she got to the top, her hand covered her mouth. “Mom!”

Nathan hurried up the steps as Abby threw her arms around her mom. They were both crying. He gave them a moment, checking out the inside of the bus. It was cool. Smaller than The One, though it didn’t have to be as big as S2J’s bus. It was just Abby while there were five members of Seconds to Juliet.

Abby turned. “Mom, this is Nathan Strong.”

Her mom wiped under her eyes. “It’s nice to meet you, Nathan.”

“Same to you, Mrs. Curtis.”

The rest of the guys piled on and Abby introduced them all to her mom. Mrs. Curtis looked a little shell shocked to see all five of them in front of her. Nathan was used to the attention, but his stomach twisted and turned anyway. This was Abby’s mom—he wanted so badly to make a good impression. He wished even more he could be meeting her for the first time as Abby’s boyfriend, but—

Abby squealed as she picked a pillow up from the couch. “They’re even purple.”

Ryder made a gagging sound. “Way too girly for me.”

“I’m a girl,” Abby said.

“Don’t need to remind us,” Ryder said and gave Nathan a knowing look.

Nathan swallowed, begging Ryder to get off the bus without another word. He did, thankfully. Miles, Will, and Trevin left not long after.

Abby and her mom deserved some time together, too, so he held his hand out to Mrs. Curtis. “It was nice to meet you. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.” He waved at Abby. “See you later.”

Nathan was already off the bus and walking back toward the impromptu football game when Abby ran after him. “Thank you. I’d…”

Warmth spread across his chest. “I know.”

He knew how she felt. It was so bittersweet to see her happy. By staying away from her, he was helping her get all of this, but also by staying away, he was denying every one of his basic instincts.

Chapter Twenty

Nathan

A
bby nailed it on stage. If the guys didn’t step up their game, they’d be opening up for her next year.

Damn, she was good. A natural. She really got into the music and flew across the stage like a totally different person. Confident, friendly, beautiful—Nathan couldn’t take his eyes off her.

The crowd rallied behind her, even called her out for an encore where she did a quick rendition of “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard. Nathan didn’t even know she had that kind of song in her.

The song hyped the crowd up for S2J. She’d done her job and then some.

After she got off stage, she leaned against the nearest wall and laughed. Nathan walked up to her, smiling. “That much fun, huh?”

“Oh my God, it was amazing. It’s kind of like…” Her eyes dropped to his lips. She smiled, then caught her lip between her teeth.

“What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. I don’t know what I was going to say. I’m just so—I don’t know, I feel like I’m a live electrical wire.”

“You’ll crash later, so be careful. Make sure it’s not someplace where someone can take blackmail photos.”

She pushed away from the wall. “Sounds like you’re talking from experience.”

“Yeah and Trevin will die if they ever see the light of day.”

The five minute call rang out, interrupting Abby’s giggles. “I should go find my mom. Good luck. Have fun.”

She was almost out of his reach when he impulsively stepped forward and grabbed her hand.

“What were you going to compare singing live to?” he asked.

Her eyes dropped to his lips again. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does.”

Abby peered both ways and pulled him into a nearby alcove. “It reminds me of this.”

She stood on her tiptoes and softly kissed him on the cheek. A zing shot through Nathan—she really was like a live wire.

“We shouldn’t…” he whispered.

“It’s just a kiss on the cheek,” she said. “If anyone sees, we’ll spin it as me being supportive.”

And too soon, she pulled away and turned without a second glance.

Nathan leaned against the wall with a dopey expression on his face. He felt dopey. Love was like a drug. He’d told himself so many times he had to stop pursuing her, especially after
Wonderwall
reported earlier that he had a new
special
person in his life. The article had a nice pic of him and Abby sitting in the lunch tent together, which made the whole thing more incriminating. They looked cozy. Too cozy.

The writer left it up to readers to draw their own conclusions on whether Abby was just a friend or more than one. Even after all that, when he saw Abby, he just couldn’t seem to stay away. His mind and body weren’t connected. His body knew, his heart knew, everything but his brain was all on the same page. If they were alone, just the two of them and nothing separating them but his willpower…he knew what he would do.

When the two minute call rang out, Nathan pushed away from the wall toward S2J’s backstage area. As soon as Nathan entered the room, Ryder laughed and motioned toward his cheek. Nathan searched for the nearest reflective surface.

Damn. Abby had gotten her lipstick on him. He quickly wiped at it with his hand, but it didn’t help. Their makeup artist Natasha walked by, and he called her over.

She took one look and grabbed a tissue from her pocket and some magic cream. “You and Trevin are killing me.”

Nathan blushed. “It’s not what you think. Ryder bet me—”

The look Natasha gave him silenced him in a nanosecond. She wiped his cheek and gave him a big smile. “Kill it, Nathan.”

He hurried to hunch under the stage with the rest of the guys. They all nodded at each other. Nathan’s pulse thumped at his wrists. Abby was right. There was nothing better than this. Except for maybe…

Never mind. He didn’t even want to think it.

Crouching here with his four best friends, waiting to sing in front of thousands of people all chanting for them. This had to be the best thing in the world.

He and Abby had been reckless lately, but he didn’t want to let down the guys smiling back at him.

The metal plate under Nathan’s feet shot up. He launched into the air under the glare of the lights.

It was show time.

N
athan and the rest of Seconds to Juliet’s entourage traveled clear across the whole of New York for their next venue. He and the guys had been excited about this stop since they’d first heard about it. It was at a Six Flags, which meant roller coasters and theme park food. The park manager even agreed to open up a couple hours early just for them.

Nathan had thought it would mean freedom, but instead, it was two hours of him watching his bandmates be with their girlfriends. Mia and Aimee had flown in especially for this, and Daisy and Natasha were there like they always were. He was like the ninth wheel in their group and it hurt to see how happy they all were.

He and Abby were so far away from what they had. He couldn’t hold her hand in public—he couldn’t even tweet her for God’s sake. He shouldn’t even be thinking about her so the whole comparison was stupid. As the hours wound down, Nathan’s spirits plummeted.

All around him, the excited, familiar chatter of his bandmates echoed off the restaurant walls as they ate breakfast before going back to their real lives. Out of all of them, he felt the most out of place.

Miles was the heartthrob through and through. No matter how much LJ had tried to make Nathan take his place now that Miles had Aimee, he’d never be able to truly pull it off. The only way he’d been able to get as far as he had was because whenever he had to act like the one everyone wanted, he’d pictured Abby, which made him less nervous so his mind and mouth cooperated.

Ryder could play a mean guitar and his moody personality had the girls falling in love with him within seconds. Trevin was an excellent musician and older, more responsible. He kept them all in line. Will was Will. Steady and sincere. The band wouldn’t be complete without Will, but himself?

He didn’t get it. He’d never understood how he’d gotten on to
Rockstars: Live!
He’d had to work his ass off with extra voice lessons and everything in the beginning just so his insecurities didn’t bleed through. Then when he won? It felt like a dream.

It
was
a dream. It was the whole band’s dream—he couldn’t toss it away, not even for Abby, who might even have more to lose than he did. At least he’d been able to live his dream for a while. She was just getting started. He couldn’t do anything to hinder that.

So, when his manager called him to say he’d set up another date with Marissa, Nathan promised he’d do exactly as asked. LJ said he really needed Nathan to sell it this time. Marissa would meet him in downtown Buffalo at some swanky restaurant, candlelight, flowers, the whole shebang. They had to sell the romance between them.

Kissing was still way off-limits, but Nathan could hold her hand on the table or walk her arm-in-arm into the restaurant. After the call, Nathan raided Miles’s closet, threw on a dapper suit, and waited outside the bus for Beau to pick him up.

Just on time, Beau pulled around and Nathan got in the back. They were both silent as they made their way through the small towns and into Buffalo. Apparently, part of the ruse they were playing with the public was that Marissa just couldn’t be without Nathan for one more night. She flew from Philly where they were filming and straight into Buffalo just to see him for a few hours. If it were true, he’d even think it was sweet.

In the front seat, Beau cleared his throat. Nathan glanced up and caught his eye in the mirror.

“Abby asked about you today.”

Nathan swallowed. He didn’t want to talk about Abby. Right now, he had to be fake; he didn’t want something to remind him of the real him. “Yeah?”

Beau rolled his eyes. “Don’t try to play me, Nathan. I know she’s the same girl from the pier that night in Jersey.” When Nathan didn’t say anything, Beau sighed. “What the hell are you getting yourself into?”

He didn’t respond until several minutes later when Beau parked the car in front of the restaurant. “It’s just business as usual, Beau. No worries.”

The guard turned and grabbed Nathan’s arm. “I’m not trying to get in your business. I’m just worried for you. That’s all.”

The truth was, Nathan was kind of worried, too.

Nathan Strong, S2J’s bachelor, inhaled deeply and opened the car door. As soon as his feet touched the pavement, he had to be in celebrity mode. When he stepped out, a flash bulb burst in front of his eyes. He blinked a couple times and plastered a smile on his face.

Lights. Camera. Action.