Page 8 of Rock Strong

“I didn’t ask about the party. I said, did you like the house? Would you want to live in a house like that?” When I didn’t answer her right away, she continued. “It could be all yours, Mrs. Future Collier for the low, low price of marrying a rock star.” She bit her lip and wiggled her eyebrows.

The image hit me like a freight train. Me in a white dress, walking down the aisle toward Liam Collier, his eyes shining with love. Holy moly, but my imagination was working overtime, and in all the worst possible directions. “Don’t be ridiculous. I only talked to him one time, and now you’re marrying me off to him?”

As much as I’d found Liam Collier attractive last night and couldn’t stop the ridiculous fantasies I kept having about him, I could never date anyone like him. Seeing him surrounded by all those gorgeous women, I’d always feel like the ugly duckling in comparison. The most I would allow myself was the pleasure of checking out his hard body next time I saw him—every time I saw him—but that was it. He could not, would not get into my pants. That would be a recipe for disaster.

“He barely talked to anyone else last night. Only you. I watched him after you left. Like a hawk.” She played a zippy sound on her E string like a bird taking flight. “You were the only person he had an actual conversation with.”

“Pfft. That’s absurd,” I said, though my heart suddenly skipped a beat at the thought. Was I really the only person he talked to for any reasonable amount of time? “Why would he have any interest in the geeky cello player?”

“Hey.” She pointed her bow at me. “Geeks rule the world. Never be ashamed of that.”

“I’m not ashamed, but this is all in your overactive imagination.”

“Well, I have to imagine him with someone, if not me. He didn’t even so much as glance my way,” Rosemary said with a shrug. “Trust me, I tried my flirty eyes.”

“Your flirty eyes work on everyone.”

“Not Liam Collier.” She blew out an exasperated puff of air.

I took a breath and let it out slowly. “Now, can we get through this song at least once? We still have another one, and—”

“He’s hot for you.” A slow smile uncurled on her lips. “I saw it, Abby. All over his face. And his body. A man acts different when he’s trying to impress a girl. Tucker picked up on it, too. That’s why he bolted.”

“Um…” I plucked a flyaway horse hair from my bow. “He bolted because I threatened to kick his testicles if he didn’t stop with the Asian jokes.” Holding the bridge in place, I tightened my strings, one by one. “I can’t believe he’s the drummer. God, how embarrassing.”

Rosemary pressed her forehead against her violin and laughed that silent laugh I loved where her shoulders shook but no sound came out. “God, what I would’ve given to be there at that moment instead of stuffing my face with crab cakes.”

“You snooze, you lose. You know me, always full of surprises.” I smirked, because I was, of course, the complete opposite of spontaneous. I tuned my strings, and together we warmed up with fifths starting with C-G on open strings then octave C-C, then fourths.

In a few hours, we’d be leaving for San Francisco, so I wanted to get in at least one more hour of practice time, even if it was just in the hotel room. Once we arrived tonight, we’d be playing the first show, and I hadn’t completely learned all of Save Me Tonight yet. Not that there was anything challenging about playing quarter notes for sixteen measures at a time.

“I will say one thing, though…” I said, opening the sheet music.

“Yes?”

“No one,” I stressed, “has the right to smell as good as he did.”

Swirling stars sprang out in Rosemary’s golden eyes. “Did he really?”

“Oh, yeah. He smelled like…” I closed my eyes and imagined lying next to Liam’s naked body. I bet there were more tattoos where the one on his arm came from. In this fantasy, he smelled like fresh sweat mixed with ocean breezes mixed with…

“Go on…”

“Almonds, or lemon, or I don’t know. But it was delicious. Fucking delicious.”

“Fucking delicious?” Rosemary gasped. “Abby, I do not believe I have ever heard you use that word in all our Juilliard years. What has gotten into you?”

Nothing yet. “Well, when you fully expect someone to smell like an ashtray, but instead, they smell like manly heaven, it’ll linger on your brain for a day or two.” I chuckled.

Rosemary snorted a laugh. “So you do find him attractive. Abby! Your pheromones are talking! I love it!”

“Hmm, maybe they are.” I suppressed a smile. “But that doesn’t mean he’s hot for me. He was just being sweet, I think, because of Tucker. It was probably all an act,” I said, thinking there was no way a man with all those women surrounding him would come talk to me unless it was to help out. “He was really very gallant. More than I would have expected.”

“Then he’s probably interested in you.”

“Rose, he was only being polite. We’re new, we’re not part of his regular crew, you know. I’m sure, given some time, he’ll start acting like the self-absorbed lead singer he probably is.” That was exactly why I could not allow myself to entertain Rosemary’s delusions. I did not, not now, not ever, want to be a part of the rocker lifestyle.

“Well, according to everything I’ve read, he is quite a player. He’s been linked to everyone from Brianne Campbell to Reese Newfound to Giselle Vici,” Rosemary said. “But that’s to be expected. Women throwing themselves at his feet all the time comes with the territory, I guess.”

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