“I hope so, but you’re probably right. I’m just going to have to be careful about the guys being followed around, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” She pressed the bridge of her nose, took a deep breath, and then rallied, deciding to let it go for now and flashing me a smile. “It’ll be fun for me to have you there with us, despite whatever problems we may face. The guys’ schedules are packed. This way, I’ll have company too.”
“There’s the silver lining.” I smiled. It would be fun to spend some quality time with her. Between both of us having started new jobs recently and her fiancé, we hadn’t had enough sister time in the past couple of months. “Now that we’re on the topic of the guys, how’re they all doing?”
I’d been looking for an opening to ask her that question casually since she’d arrived. Not to dig for information for an article, but because I happened to be fostering something of a crush on Jared’s moody brother, Caleb. Even though I’d never admit it to Alicia and even though I’d framed my question in general terms, it was really only Caleb I was interested in hearing about.
My wildly in love sister, however, started the update on the band members with Jared, and it took forever for her to move on from him. It wasn’t hard to understand why she’d fallen for the guy. He was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. A charismatic performer with a reputation for being tons of fun, Jared had captured hearts all over the world.
He was the stuff that dreams and fantasies were made of, especially since it turned out that he was also kind and smart—something he had managed to keep from the public pretty effectively.
Until he met Alicia though, those were all women had of him: dreams and fantasies. The man milked the rock-star lifestyle for all it was worth and didn’t show one hint of settling down.
Now, however, the tattooed, former bad boy was a committed, one-woman man, and he wasn’t afraid to let the world know it. It was cute actually.
Alicia was yammering on about some of the antics that he, Nick, and Matt had been getting up to during the promo for the upcoming tour. Nick Masters and Matt Tillman, rhythm guitarist and bassist for Destitute, were often cited alongside Jared when it came to ridiculous pranks or crazy stunts.
They were both super popular with the ladies as well. All the men of Destitute were, though. Matt’s divine hazel eyes and sweeping light brown fringe were iconic, as was his easygoing smirk and charming ways. Unlike the other four members of his band, Matt’s skin was unmarked of any tattoos, and fans around the world were dying to see if, when, and for whom he would finally ink up.
Nick, on the other hand, was rumored to have gotten his first tattoo at sixteen, and he’d kept going since. Now twenty-seven, his back and arms were like works of art, adorned with pictures and words that supposedly told the story of his life to those who knew what to look for.
According to Alicia, his personality was exactly as laidback and easygoing as it was reported to be. I knew that she thought he was too easygoing at times. With hazel eyes that were more blue than green or gray, and jet-black hair, he was seriously hot. Unfortunately for the women of the world, he knew it, and he had no problem letting as many as possible get a taste of him.
When she’d rounded out the latest on the Trio of Trouble, as she’d nickamed Jared, Nick, and Matt over the last few weeks, Alicia took to giving me an update about Dominic LeSalle, the band’s drummer. Dom was the oldest of the bunch at thirty-one, and possibly the most mysterious—not least of which because of his position right at the very back of the stage.
He usually chose to keep that position in interviews if he could and didn’t waste words with bullshit. If he spoke, it was because he had something to say. Otherwise, he would simply shrug and let the question get snapped up by one of his bandmates.
Shoulder-length brown hair, piercing gray eyes, and a chiseled chest full of ink, combined with his intense passion for his music and his well-documented pursuit of perfection meant that he too was not in short supply of fans. I’d met him once or twice at Jared and Alicia’s, but while he was always polite, he mostly tended to keep to himself.
He’d been rumored to have been in a couple of relationships since the band started, but they were always no more than a fleeting rumor. Dom got photographed with enough women that I was pretty sure he followed in his bandmates footsteps when it came to the fairer sex, keeping his relationships to a one-night-only deal.
Alicia didn’t linger on Dom for too long, noting that he’d been taking the time when they were not doing promo mostly to himself and that she’d been relieved when he’d okayed the final album for release, as she’d been worried he would insist on rerecording or waiting until he thought the track selection was perfect.
When she finally reached Caleb in her update, I had to actively stop myself from leaning forward or appearing too interested. Caleb, like Jared, was tall, dark, and hot. Unlike his brother, he was reserved, wasn’t known for entitled rock-star antics, and didn’t seem to like being the center of attention.
He was stockier than his athletically built brother and kept his hair shorter, evenly cut and sticking up on top. Black ropes of tattoos covered his muscular arms, the most famous of which was a thick, black skull on his upper right bicep.
According to some of my colleagues, Caleb had a problem with his temper, and the band kept covering it up. Alicia told me once that she didn’t think he had a temper problem necessarily, but that her opinion of the matter was that he simply didn’t like getting cameras shoved in his face or hearing the world talk about his business.
In the few times I’d met Caleb in person, I agreed with Alicia. He didn’t come across as being aggressive at all. I got the idea that he just liked being left alone. Mostly. Like the others, Caleb had his own fan club that spread like wildfire across the globe when Destitute had first broken out of the local scene, and women pursued him like they were in heat.
“Caleb was doing well,” Alicia was saying. “I think he’s getting used to the fact that his brother got engaged, though I still have that feeling that he doesn’t think our relationship will last.”
I’d wondered about that statement since the first time she’d told me about the impression she’d gotten from Caleb. I didn’t know him well enough to offer a real opinion. Anyone who had eyes could see that Jared and Alicia were crazy for each other, which left me interested in why he would think they wouldn’t last. But there were no answers forthcoming.
Alicia stopped talking about the band after that, changing the subject back to our jobs. We chatted for a few more hours about that, the wedding, and then planned a trip to visit our mom soon.
All too soon, it was time for Alicia to go back to her love nest, and we said our goodbyes. After clearing up the wine and snacks, brushing my teeth, and trying to clear my mind before getting into bed, I tucked myself under the covers.
Lying there in the darkness, sleep evading my every attempt at chasing it, there was no point is denying what it was that was keeping me awake: Caleb. I couldn’t get his brooding scowl or soulful brown eyes out of my mind’s eye. He’d never touched me, but I had a wild imagination, and it wasn’t all that hard to imagine what it might feel like if he did.
That got me all hot and bothered, and I ran around trying to find new batteries for my battery-operated boyfriend. Too bad I’d run out. Reaching underneath the sheets, I did a poor job trying to work things out myself and then fell into a dreamless, exhausted sleep.