Page 30 of Aria

I mulled over his words, still hesitant to believe that Devon Sawyer wanted to be with me.Me. Granted, he wasn’t aware of my tremendous baggage and relationship history—no, Noah, of all people, was the one privy to that—but it was still something I was having a hard time coming to grips with.

I’d never felt like I was destined for great things. I was just a shattered, sheltered twenty-six-year old from a small town.

“You’re just a lost little girl,” Ian would always say to me.

Banishing the words from my mind, my mother’s voice replaced them.

“Leap or retreat,” she would tell me. “There is strength in both.”

I thought about my mother before the years-worth of wreckage unfolded. Before I’d pushed my parents away, thinking Ian was all that mattered. Before I’d allowed him to sabotage my family dynamic and infiltrate my mind with wicked thoughts and notions.

Now, it was too late. I hadn’t spoken to my parents in years, dodging their calls and attempts for reconciliation. I was a coward.

I didn’t want to be a coward anymore… and Devon was a start.

“I want this,” I whispered on a shaky breath, cupping Devon’s face between nervous palms and watching his face morph into authentic relief. “Let’s try to make this work.”

Leap.

I was going to leap.

* * *

We made our relationship official, and soon, four weeks had passed us by.

Four weeks of touring and paparazzi. Four weeks of traveling, crazed fans, and after-parties. The entire month had been a blur, and I was loving every minute of it.

I’d cut back my hours at the lounge, so I was able to travel with the band when they played out of state. I had a good nest egg in my savings account that my parents had given me when I’d turned eighteen—I’d barely touched it until now. And it wasn’t as if I was never picking up a full-time schedule again—of course, I would. I refused to regress into old patterns of co-dependency.

But I was grateful for the extra savings because it helped me keep up on my rent payments. Freeze Frame played a lot of local shows, but it was always a treat when I was flown to San Diego or Chicago on a first-class ticket, seated beside my celebrity boyfriend.

That took getting used to.

Devon Sawyer was my…boyfriend.

Lisa and Julia were incredibly supportive, albeit a tiny bit jealous of my newfound fame. It wasn’t just Freeze Frame making headlines—it was Devon’s mysterious new girlfriend. The tabloids had been having a hay-day with our story, and Julia made sure to text me covers of the latest gossip magazines whenever I was out of town.

It was thrilling to be a household name… yet, it was also intimidating that every woman in America wanted to burn me at the stake. Devon did his best to shield me from the spotlight, but technology made it impossible.

Taking a sip from my water bottle, my eyes skated around the small room as I fidgeted on both feet. I was standing backstage at the United Center in Chicago—no big deal.I placed my earbuds into each ear to drown out the deafening screams from the audience as fans waited for Freeze Frame to take the stage. Devon was sipping from his own water bottle while Noah tuned his guitar. Tad, the drummer, twirled two sticks between his fingers as he paced the room.

“This shit never gets any less nerve-wracking,” Tad said, grabbing a Red Bull from the mini-fridge and popping off the tab.

“Don’t be a pussy,” Noah shot back. His words were muffled by the cigarette dangling between his lips.

I studied Noah as he fiddled with his guitar strings. My blossoming friendship with the snappy guitarist had been one of the stranger things to unfold throughout this crazy journey. No one seemed to question it, so I figured that our friendly alliance was preferable to our initial lethal banter.

“Want me to grab one of the techs?” I offered, watching as Noah struggled with the strings. He huffed through his cigarette in reply.

Well…mostlyfriendly.

Miles breezed past me, phone to his ear, and I could tell by his tone of voice who he was talking to. A smile bloomed.

Lisa and the Freeze Frame bassist had become quite cozy with each other during the past month. While nothing was official, they talked and texted constantly, and it was apparent they were enjoying each other’s company—Lisa’s face lit up whenever she spoke of the skinny, long-haired musician. I was eager for Lisa to join me in the spotlight as a “Freeze Frame Girlfriend.”

“All right, boys, it’s showtime.” The band manager, Sean, bustled around the room, making the rounds to all four men. Noah had finally gotten his guitar in tune, and it was time to make some music.

I could hear the screams of every woman in the Chicagoland area from where I stood, watching with anticipation from the side of the stage as the four band members disappeared to woo the crowd.

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