“You think she realizes she’s about to become the most envied girl in the country?” Hudson said.
“Envied... or hated.” Damon grimaced.
“She can handle it.” Levi sounded so certain, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
One song.
They’d sung one song together and he was acting like he had her all figured out.
Jealousy burned through me.
“Let’s hope so.” I stood up, needing to get away from him. “Or else the next five months are going to be a fucking disaster.” Without another word, I headed for the room I was sharing with Damon. I knew he wouldn’t follow though, not yet.
I needed some space. Chance to catch my breath after everything that had happened tonight. But in the quiet empty space of the room, I didn’t find solace. I found nothing but regrets.
And the lingering feeling that I’d made a huge fucking mistake.
The next morning, I padded into the suite to find my band mates all sitting around the table looking like someone had died. “Who died?” I asked.
It wasn’t until I saw Alistair standing there, I knew that something had happened. Damon pushed a newspaper toward me. “It could have been worse.”
My eyes drank in the headline. Sweetheart of country parties with bad boy of rock. The article brushed over Eva’s impeccable performance, ignored the fact Levi had invited her up on stage to perform. Instead, they’d painted the entire night as some liquor-fueled party that ended with her being carted away by security.
“This is your idea of repairing our reputation,” I seethed, forcing down the words I really wanted to say. But this couldn’t only be about Eva, not with Alistair here.
He stepped forward, running a hand down his face. “I tried to bury the story, but you know how it goes. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Damon’s right, it could have been worse.”
Yeah, at least no one had snapped a photo of me climbing into the SUV with her.
“You said everyone was vetted last night. NDA’s, the whole nine yards.”
Alistair grimaced. “We think it was a Die Heart. A couple of them slipped past club security and managed to get inside. We didn’t find out until it was too late.”
My fist clenched at my side. “Does she know?”
“She’s still sleeping.” At least Alistair had the decency to look concerned. “Letty will tell her when she wakes up. But let me make something very clear; Eva knew what she was signing up for. It’s not your job to protect her from this.” His eyes ran over each of us, but I felt the weight of his stare the most.
“After tonight’s show, no one will give a flying fuck if she partied too hard.” Levi’s conviction was almost believable if it wasn’t so naïve.
Fans were fickle. They could love and adore you one minute and want to burn you at the stake the next. We were lucky for the most part. But we were guys, a fact that came with a different set of standards. It was okay for us to sleep around and get drunk and verbally attack the paparazzi. The same could rarely be said for female artists.
“Look,” Alistair went on, “we all knew it was going to present a different dynamic having Eva on the tour, but the PR team is handling it. Now that Eva’s name is out there, we can get the ball rolling on her spinning her story.”
Alistair talked as if keeping Eva’s name out of the promotional campaign in the run up to the tour had been his idea all along. Thanks to Hudson’s more than friendly relationship with Sally though, an intern at the label, we’d heard that Eva and her parents had walked into the meeting with legal with their own list of demands, one being that her name was kept out of the press until the first show. Part of me wondered if it was to ensure Eva could walk away anytime up until the first show and right back into her regular life without any consequence.
As it was, it didn’t matter now. She was here and she wasn’t going anywhere. Which meant once she woke up, her whole life was going to be flipped upside down. We’d all known it would happen. Whether it was tomorrow after our first show, or now after Levi’s little stunt last night. But knowing it and watching it play out in front of your eyes were two different things entirely.
“You good?” Damon whispered as Alistair took a call.
Running a hand down my face, I inhaled a ragged breath. “Yeah, I’m good.” The lie soured on my tongue.
But I was used to the lies. The half-truths and secrets. I was used to showing people what they wanted to see—what they needed to see.
“Okay,” Alistair said, pocketing his cell, “I just spoke to PR and The Rock Report and Country Music Weekly are going to drop an exclusive press release about Eva. Once that hits, it’ll drown out the story in the Charlotte Post and we can focus on the tour.”
“Let’s just hope you’re right about this.” I held his stare, wishing I could voice my concerns.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” Hudson said, “there’s no going back now.”
He was right—we couldn’t go back.
Having Eva here and not having her was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but I still wouldn’t have ever wanted to go back to a time when I didn’t know her.
Eva
“Eva, baby, is that you? Oh, thank goodness. Gavin, it’s Eva.”
“Hey, Mom,” I chuckled. “What’s up?”
I’d finally plucked up the courage to call her back after a handful of missed calls. I knew why she was calling and I’d wanted to avoid her projecting any concerns on me before the opening show tonight.
“Don’t ‘what’s up’ me, young lady,” she chided. “I read the newspapers, and I have to say Eva, I did not expect this.”
“Mom, calm down, it’s nothing.”
“Nothin’? Nothin’!” Her shrill voice pierced my ears. “You were at a club, drunk. Drunk, Eva. And you’ve only been gone a couple of days.”
“Mom we talked about this. The papers will say all kinds of things about me. You can’t believe everything you read. You can’t—”
“Eva, sweetheart,” my dad’s deep voice came over the line. “How’s the head?” He chuckled.
“I’ll live.”
“I’ve got to say, I was a little surprised.”
“You and me both. I can assure you it won’t happen again in a hurry.”
“I’m real glad to hear it.” I heard his smile. “Just tell me one thing. Was it as bad as they made it sound?”
“No.” I swallowed over the lump in my throat. “But please, reassure Mom for me. I don’t want her thinking I’m being reckless. I’m not.”
“Eva, we talked about this. You’re eighteen. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. We want you to embrace it, sweetheart. Just keep your wits about you and be careful, okay?”
“I will, Dad. My assistant is great and my bodyguard doesn’t leave my side. Everythin’ is okay, I promise.”
“Atta girl.” Pride lingered in his voice.
“How’d you even hear about it anyway?” Alistair had reassured me the story had only broken locally.