Page 31 of How to Catch a Rockstar

“But Jett is in the band. I’m just the PA.”

Leia snorts. “Oh please. You’re not Yoko Ono. No one’s worried about you breaking up the band.”

“I always did think Yoko got a bad rap,” Indigo mutters.

“But I’m the outsider. Shouldn’t you be defending Jett?”

No one’s been on my side in a long time. My hand trembles at the reminder of how I used to have people on my side. Of how I had the perfect life. Until it was stolen from me. I set my fork down and place my hands in my lap before they notice how affected I am.

“Jett has the band on his side,” Indigo says.

“I doubt they’re on his side with this,” Leia mutters.

“But you don’t know what happened. Maybe I trapped Jett. Maybe I catfished him. Maybe this baby is some elaborate scheme to catch a rockstar.”

“Exactly,” Virginia says. “You’ve been working eighty-hour weeks for ten years for the band. Answering to their every beck and call for a decade is all part of an elaborate scheme to catch a rockstar. Nifty plan.”

“We’re on your side,” Indigo repeats.

My side? Are they really on my side?

“No one’s been on my side in a long time,” I choke out before bursting into tears.

Indigo’s the first to approach me and wrap me in a hug. But she’s not the last. All four women gather around me and hold me tight.

I allow them to comfort me. I can’t deny I need it. I’m having the baby of a man who loathes me. I’m allowed to have a small pity party.

Indigo pats my back until my tears cease. “Welcome to the club.”

“What club?”

“We’re all members of the shitty mother’s club,” Mercy answers.

“I’m not a member of the shitty mother’s club.” I wipe the tears away from my eyes. “I had a wonderful mother and father.”

“Had?” Indigo asks.

“Ignore her,” Leia says. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.”

“But if you do.” Virginia squeezes my hand. “We’re here for you.”

“They’re nosy and pushy but I couldn’t ask for better friends,” Mercy says. “They’ve been my rocks for the past month while Gibson was in rehab.”

I scan their faces. None of them appear eager or nosy. They look concerned for me.

The concern has me crumbling. I’m not used to people being concerned for me. Mike doesn’t care if I work myself into an early grave. And the other women at the management firm would scratch my eyes out if they thought it would give them the chance to work with Cash & the Sinners.

I collapse in the chair. “My parents were the best. They were so in love and happy. I was an only child and they doted on me. They gave me everything I ever wanted and more. I was the luckiest girl alive. Until I wasn’t.”

My heart races as memories of the past flash through my mind. I inhale several steadying breaths before I can finish. “My parents died in a motorcycle crash when I was fifteen.”

“Oh no,” Mercy cries.

“There was a pile up on the highway. Some idiot was driving down the wrong side of the highway. They never had a chance.”

I force those memories away. Of not being able to say goodbye to my parents. Of knowing they died in horrific pain.

“What happened afterwards?” Indigo asks

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