“What was that about hearts and feelings?”
“Hey, I have to have a psych degree to guard all these idiots.”
I lifted a brow.
“Not a real one. But I pay attention. And you and that PR princess have something going. I don’t know if it’s the real deal because I’ve only seen her across the room.”
“You aren’t allowed to talk to her.”
Noah downed his glass. “Because you know she’d pick me.”
“No, because you’d tell her too much.”
“That too. Wait until Mom get’s a hold of her.”
I groaned.
“But she seems smart, and she knows how to handle you.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“Hot girls come and go, but it’s pretty rare to have brains with an added bonus of a career.”
“Filled with the people I hate. Just like you,” I muttered.
“Yeah, well, you don’t fall in love with her clients. You fall for the woman—what she does is incidental. You think she wants to fall for a rockstar? Talk about a bad bet.”
“Hey.”
“What? Look at it from her point of view. You’re on the road, you’re constantly surrounded by beautiful women, and as far as she knows you’re probably writing about her.”
“Points—many of them.”
“I’m a goddamn scoreboard, son. A winning one, and you’re still sitting at zero.”
“So, what do I do?”
“You fight for your girl. In a big way. And you let the other bullshit go. It’s not your concern.”
“Bats is my friend.”
“And you have to trust him.”
“Easier said than done,” I muttered.
“No, it shouldn’t be. Not if he’s your friend.” And for the first time, that started to sink in. Reed wouldn’t let her do anything to hurt me or the band. Himself maybe, but not the band.
Noah pulled out his phone, opened something, set it down on the table between us, then pushed it my way. “Something like this.”
I glanced down, my eyebrows shot up before I laughed. “Perfect.”
5
Kennedy
“You have an appointment with Babbles at three, a consult at five, and a dinner with Lila Shawcross and Indiana West at seven.”
I scanned through my calendar and verified all the appointments with Carter. “Got it.”
“I’ve fielded three dozen messages and flagged four that look interesting. The rest are crackpots or former crazies we cut loose.”
“Vetted how?” I lifted my fifth latte of the day and it was only noon. My heart was going to explode if I put anymore espresso in my system, but I took another sip with a grateful groan.
“Usual,” Carter said and popped a piece of licorice in his mouth. “Most didn’t even make it through our first level review process.”
“Damn.”
Carter lined up his iPad and phone beside his sack of candy. “You got noticed by the bottom feeders. I knew it was going to happen eventually.”
Ever since the Amoeba debacle was on Entertainment Tonight I’d been handing off my texts and messages to Carter. I had to make up for lost time with my regular clients and still had to do a final check in with Ripper Records.
Oh, and I hadn’t slept in two weeks.
No word from Hunter in fifteen days.
I pushed that back. No. No, thinking about him. Especially if I had a full day.
“Did Bethany’s agent call us back?”
Carter nodded. “Yeah, he got her into Teen Vogue for a spread with two of the ladies from Teen Wolf.”
“Perfect.”
Carter tilted his head. “You know, you look like that Holland girl.”
“She wishes she had my hair colorist,” I said.
“Damn right she does. Love the wine colored chunks by the way. The subtle ones were nice, but the new do…hot.”
I rolled my eyes. A spa day and a treatment by my hairdresser covered up the obvious fatigue, but there was only so much spackle a girl could use. I knew what I looked like in the mirror. And if I didn’t get some sleep soon, I was going to have to resort to a sleeping pill and a bottle of wine.
“Thanks, sweetie.”
“Felicity loved her spa day, too. Forgot to tell you.”
“Yes, well, your girlfriend is on the ball. She sent me flowers and a box of truffles from Mignon.”
“That suck up.”
I snickered. “So, tell me about the consult.”
“Boyband reject. Trying to go out on his own. More tattoos than sense, but he has a ridiculous following on Twitter and Instagram. He’s lazy though. Pushes the same crap through all his social media places. A few personal appearances and an assistant would go a long way toward bumping up his footprint.”