Rock Me: Sexy (New Adult Rockstar Romance) (New Adult Rock Star Erotic Romance) (17 page)

I kept my voice low. “That’s great. How
old is she now?”

“She’s six. She’s always been sick, but
she just kept getting progressively worse. God, Sabrina’s had a tough life
taking care of Hailey all by herself. She works a shitty job as a waitress. She
won’t take any money from me. Says I already do enough with all the medical
bills. I wish I could do more.”

I reached for Tyler’s hand and he didn’t
pull away. “Just being there for her and Hailey means a lot.”

We sat silently for a few minutes until
Tyler spoke again. “I had a lot of time last night during the surgery to do
some thinking.”

I squeezed his hand. “What were you
thinking about?”

“Well, I was thinking about walking away
from Rock Star Diaries. Not right now, but not re-signing onto anymore
episodes.”

I digested the information quietly.
“They’re going to throw a lot of money at you to stay.”

Tyler sighed. “It wasn’t about the money
for me. I did it for the attention. But I’m finding out that I don’t crave it
as much as I used to. Not the kind of attention that the show is bringing. I
like it when I’m on stage performing my music, but out in the real world, it’s
not so great.”

I felt a sadness settle over me at his
words. “If the show makes you miserable, you should stop doing it. It’s not
worth it.”

Tyler turned to me. “If we walked away,
you would lose your job, too. And your big break.”

I waved him off. “Don’t worry about me. I
found out that reality television isn’t really my thing either. I’d rather
stick to my boring documentaries. I’ll be okay if Rock Star Diaries ends.”

Tyler smiled. “I’m not sure now, though.
Our girly talk earlier kind of makes me see things in a different way. I was so
mad at you. I felt like you’d betrayed me. I wasn’t - ”

Hailey started mumbling.

Tyler leaned forward and swept a piece of
hair off the girl’s face. “Hailey, sweetheart, are you awake?”

It took a few moments for the girl’s eyes
to open. “Hi Uncle Ty. You came back.”

“I told you I’d be here when you woke
up.” Tyler grabbed her small hand and held it.

Hailey looked over at me. “Who’s
that?” 

I smiled at Hailey while Tyler answered
her question. “That’s Katie. She’s my friend.”

Hailey looked me over much in the same
way that her mother had earlier. “Is she your girlfriend?”

Tyler made a silly face at her. “Well,
duh, she’s a girl.”

Hailey giggled. “I mean, do you kiss
her?”

Tyler glanced at me for help, but I was
too busy trying to choke back laughter. Tyler scrunched up his nose. “She wants
me to kiss her all the time, but that’s gross, right?”

Hailey nodded in agreement, looking quite
serious.

“Hey Hailey. I bought a special present
for you. Do you want to see it now?” Tyler picked up the gift bag.

Hailey’s eyes opened wide. “Yes!”

Tyler pulled a small box out of the bag.
“Here I’ll open it up for you.” He pulled the pink ribbon off the box and then
opened the lid. Inside was a purple leather wrap bracelet. A strand of tiny
glass beads in shades of pinks and purples entwined  itself throughout three
purple leather cords. Small silver charms hung from the cords: a mermaid, a
heart, a cross and a peace symbol.

Hailey’s stared at the bracelet. “Purple
is my favorite color! I love it, Uncle Ty. Can I wear it now?” She tried to
raise her hand, but she couldn’t hold it up for long.

“Here, I’ll put it on you. Remember when
you gave me this bracelet?” Tyler held up his wrist. I looked at the worn black
leather cuff that he never seemed to take off.

Hailey nodded.

Tyler slid the purple bracelet onto
Hailey’s tiny wrist. “Well, you told me it would make me a real rock star. And
it did. And I wear it all the time, because it brings me good luck. Now you
have your own rock star bracelet like mine. And it’s going to bring you lots of
good luck.”

Hailey held up her wrist for a moment to
look at her new bracelet. She was smiling ear to ear. “I can’t wait to show
Mom. Where is she anyway?”

“She needs to rest for a little bit.
She’s really tired. I promised her I would stay with you while she got some
rest.”

Hailey nodded. “Okay. Your new TV show is
on tonight, Uncle Ty. Mom said I can’t watch it even when I’m better, because
it’s not for kids.”

Tyler agreed. “Nah. It’s a pretty boring
show anyway. But you don’t need a boring old TV show. I’ve brought you
something better.”

Tyler stood up and got his guitar. I
backed my chair up to give him some room. He sat back down and played a few
cords. “You can rest and I’ll play your favorite songs. What’s your favorite
song nowadays?”

Hailey thought for a moment. “Love
Story.”

“Taylor Swift still? I thought my songs
were your favorite?” Tyler glanced over at me when I laughed.

“Yours are my second favorite, Uncle Ty.”
Hailey smiled reassuringly.

“Well, that’s good. I’ve been practicing
my Taylor Swift songs for you. Maybe this time I won’t forget the words.” Tyler
began playing the song.

Hailey closed her eyes. Tyler glanced my
way every so often as he sang, sparking riotous sensations to spark in my
insides. He knew all the words and his voice sounded rich and calming in the small
hospital room. Seeing a whole new side of Tyler today had been illuminating.
Luckily, he couldn’t possibly guess that my heart was overflowing with gooey
feelings towards him. What I had felt before was nothing compared to how I felt
now.

Sure, something about the whole situation
had my ovaries screaming in desperation to make babies with him, but it was
more than that. As he sang the words to Love Story, I felt a bone-deep ache for
him.

Before the song was even finished Hailey was
asleep, and I was a melted puddle of goo surreptitiously trying to wipe away the
tears threatening to spill from my eyes. I guess I still hadn’t learned my
lesson. I was hopeless.

Tyler took a long drag of his beer before
he stepped under the semi-warm spray of the shower. An hour after their concert
ended, he still felt the adrenaline rush from performing, but tonight he was
feeling restless as well. Hopefully, he could shake the feeling by just hanging
out and drinking with the guys.

It had been about a week since Tyler had
come back to the tour, a week since Hailey’s transplant operation. They’d had
to cancel only two shows and finally the rumors of his split from the band had
died down, considering it was obviously not true.

Hailey was recovering from her transplant
surgery with no complications. Tyler used to Skype with her everyday for 5
minutes when she got home from school and he tried to keep that same schedule
now that she was in the hospital. She was looking stronger and healthier
everyday. He was cautiously optimistic that years of worry were finally loosening
their grip.

Rock Star Diaries’ first show had aired
to good numbers just as predicted. Tyler had finally watched it. While they all
had been portrayed as sex objects, Tyler definitely stood out as the most
prolific one, because truthfully, he had been. He’d had new women clinging to
him every other scene, most of them he couldn’t even remember now. The media
had gone crazy with the show, dubbing them America’s Sexiest Band. They
couldn’t go anywhere without being swarmed by the public.

Three concerts ago, they had decided to
pull a fast one on the production crew. They pretended to head to the
after-party and then peeled off and searched for a hole-in-the-wall bar. With
social media, it didn’t take long for the bar to become overrun by fans. The
situation grew hectic fast, even their security team was overwhelmed. The bar owner
had to call the cops to control the rowdy crowd while Cold Fusion slipped away.
After that shitty experience, Cold Fusion started asking the crew where they
would be partying. Those locations were secured ahead of time and the crowds
were highly managed by the production crew.

Beyond the concerts, Tyler wasn’t
enjoying much of the tour anymore. Since the show started airing, the
after-parties consisted of an insane crush of people trying to get shown on
television. Going out anywhere in public was becoming too much of a hassle. And
he didn’t trust the motives of any of the women that he met and stopped having
sex with them. Instead, he listened to Alex and Lena having sex all night long
in the back room of the bus. It was torture.

Katie was focusing on the last show; she
was working on a love triangle between Alex and Tommy. Using some racy footage
of Alex and Lena, she was implying Lena was the actress involved in the love
triangle with the magic of editing. Supposedly, in the end it would look like
Tommy and Alex were both after the same girl, even though neither was actually involved
with the girl in reality. Katie had worked with both of the guys and they were
onboard with the plan. Lena was essentially a stunt double for sex scenes with
Alex. Nick’s sister, Allison, was even getting a cameo appearance on an
upcoming show and the leaked footage was getting a huge splash of media
attention.

So, the focus had been off of him. Tyler
had preferred it that way now that he had seen himself in episode one. He
didn’t feel like the person that had been captured through the lens of those
cameras anymore.

He was visiting Katie in the production
bus everyday again. He was there to steal her food, but he liked talking with
her, too. They didn’t talk about their ‘feelings’ anymore, thank god, but they
often discussed the production aspects of Rock Star Diaries. Tyler felt more at
ease now that he knew more about what was going on behind the scenes and since
he no longer was the center of all the action on the show.

Neither of them could decide what they
wanted to do when the time came and they were eventually asked to sign a new
contract to renew the series. It was going to happen soon, according to Katie.
They would want to lock everyone in before new ratings increases made the price
tag for renewal so much higher.

Tyler finished his shower and wrapped a
towel around his waist. He finished his beer and then slipped his leather
bracelet back on. The guys were probably waiting for him, since he had been
slow to get moving after the concert. He felt like he was just going through
the motions now. The thought of partying tonight, dealing with the hordes of
people trying to get close enough to him so they could possibly get shown on
television, didn’t seem very appealing.

He got dressed and then headed back to
the dressing room. Most of the usual crowd was partying here, but Tyler also
spotted a bunch of people that he knew were actors milling about.

Stuart walked over to him, “C’mon Tyler.
We’ve got to get you mic’d up.”

Tyler noted with irony that none of his
friends would really approach him and try to talk until he was wearing his microphone.
Even the regular roadies understood how this game worked now.

He felt a slap on his shoulder as Stuart
was taping the mic under his shirt. It was Alex.

“Hey Tyler. Lena’s last day is tomorrow,
so we’re going to bail on the party and head back to the bus.”

Tyler nodded. “Yeah, all right. Have a
good time, bro.”

While he was waiting for Stuart to
finish, Tyler glanced around the room. Tommy was sitting on a bright red couch
doing a shot. The love triangle actress was sitting next to him desperately looking
for attention. He did his shot and then spotted Tyler.

Tommy hopped up from the couch leaving
the actress pouting. He headed over to Tyler. “You almost ready to get going?”

“Yeah, I guess. Where’s Nick?” Tyler
looked around but couldn’t spot him.

Tommy answered, “He’s on the phone
somewhere. He said he’d be ready in a few. Man, you need a shot or two. You
don’t look like you’re in the partying mood yet.”

Tyler rubbed a hand through his hair.
“I’m just beat tonight, I guess.”

“You just need to find a hot chick.
You’ve been on a serious slump lately.” Tommy slapped his shoulder playfully.

Tyler pointed to the microphone and made
a face.

Laughing, Tommy replied, “Don’t worry.
I’m not on yet. I won’t ruin your reputation.”

Relaxing slightly, Tyler let down his
guard. “Fuck the reputation, man. I’m sick of this shit. I’d rather just head
back to bus alone and drink myself silly then deal with it.”

“Fuck it, then. Let’s grab some alcohol,
find a few joints and head back to the bus and chill.”

If only they could
. “What about the show? They did all that
work to set up for the party. There’s people waiting for us there.”

Tommy laughed. “I guess that’s real
reality. Plans change. C’mon, let’s find Nick and chill out for the night.”

They were halfway back to the bus, each
with a couple of bottles of alcohol in their hands, when Nick suddenly stopped.
“Fuck. What about Alex and Lena? They’re going to be going at it all night.”