Chapter 10
Dominic
Of course, Holly would be perfectly agreeable . . . when she was talking to Tim.
Even disasters like Holly acted . . . nice around him, which was one of his skills that I usually admired with only a small twinge of jealousy. Then again, usually I wasn’t operating solo on roughly four hours of sleep with dozens of screaming girls camped outside my room. In this case, “usually” didn’t apply.
And I was getting sick and tired of telling Holly that I wasn’t gay while she made moon-eyes at Tim.
The irony of which had not escaped me.
“I don’t know how this happened,” I admitted to Tim. “This kind of stuff happens to you, not me.”
“Funny, I can’t remember the last time I pepper sprayed someone in the face.”
“I meant getting cornered by fans. And you’re the one who gave it to me!”
“Yeah, and using it on a seasick girl was exactly what I had in mind. Dom, do you have any idea how bad this is?”
His words mirrored what I’d said to Holly only minutes earlier. I hoped it hadn’t sounded so pompous coming from me. “Yes. I do. Look, I’m sorry that we’re in this mess. Obviously, I never planned on any of this—I don’t know how anyone found me in the first place.”
“I think the answer to that is pretty obvious. Google yourself. You’ll see what I mean.”
I did as he suggested and was greeted by two pictures of myself in the latest news story. The first was taken over dinner and claimed that I was meeting my rumored girlfriend’s father, Mr. Ridgley, and taking a well-deserved vacation with Famous cruises.
So at least one of the Ridgelys had to be behind it. Good to know.
The second picture was a particularly awful shot of an open-mouthed Holly with me right behind her wearing nothing but a white T-shirt, boxers, and a glare. The text beneath the photo was even more damning than the rumor that I was dating Cynthia.
Busted! ReadySet drummer Dominic Wyatt bangs (and beats) an unidentified girl while on vacation with his girlfriend?
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
“It gets worse,” Tim said grimly. “The press is gearing up to label you the next Hollywood Bad Boy—and not in a good way.”
“Look, I’ve never hurt Holly. Well, except for the pepper spray and that doesn—”
“We both know the facts don’t matter. Just the narrative. And right now the narrative is that you’ve been toying with a young girl and hurting Holly on the side.”
“We could sue for defamation of character.”
“Sure, but that means a long legal battle that we would probably lose since they included a question mark in the headline. Accident or not, I would seriously love to kick your ass right now.”
“I’m guessing Chris feels the same way.”
“Oh, yeah, we agreed to take turns. He’s letting me take the first punch.”
I winced. “Generous of him. How badly will this screw up the sound track negotiations?”
Tim glared at me and I almost wished I hadn’t asked. “How badly do you think, genius? This whole deal hinges on our ability to maintain our family-friendly reputation. Hell, our careers depend on it! If we become associated with sexual misconduct . . . people are going to stop returning our calls fast. So guess how Chris and I will be spending our Christmas break?”
I groaned. “How?”
“Canned food drives for the poor. Then we’re throwing a turkey dinner for the homeless. Oh, and we’re putting on a small benefit concert for orphans. None of which would bother me if it weren’t for the fact that I planned to spend Christmas with my new boyfriend!”
“I’ll clean this up on my end, Tim. I’ll arrange an online press conference with Holly today. She’ll tell everyone I never hit her, and I’ll fly out of Mexico tomorrow.” I started searching for flights. “I can make it back by four; that should give you guys plenty of time to kick my ass before the canned food drive. I’ll make it up to you both, I swear.”
“You can’t fly out because you are on a romantic vacation with your girlfriend, Holly. A girlfriend you treasure so much you were trying to keep her out of the media spotlight. And the press is going to take pictures of you romping together in the freaking surf until you’re Hollywood’s cutest couple.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m serious, all right, Dom. You wanted a vacation? Well, you got one. With Holly. Make the most of it, because when you get back we’re going to have to work twice as hard as before.”
Tim disconnected the call before I could complain further.
So much for my vacation.
I could handle the canned food drive, the dinner, and the orphanage gig, no problem. I’ve got plenty of experience being involved in charity events since we’ve always believed in putting our celebrity status to good use. We’ve done concerts to help out hurricane victims, to clean up oil spills, to support the Trevor Project . . . we’re all for contributing to a worthy cause.
It’s exhausting, but at least I know what to expect.
But hanging out with Holly? Yeah, that wouldn’t be giving me any of those great, I feel like I’m making such a positive contribution to the world moments. More like God, why am I stuck with this walking disaster? moments. And I wouldn’t just be hanging out with her as a buddy, but as a boyfriend.
Hell. Just hell.
I opened the sliding door on the balcony and saw her flipping through the pages of notes I had written the night before. Which was intrusive on a whole new level. I wanted to snatch my song attempt out of her hands, but I couldn’t risk pissing her off.
So I settled for flopping onto the bed, looking at her skeptically, and saying, “Are you morally opposed to respecting people’s privacy or something?”
She flushed and shut the notebook. “There were a bunch of pages ripped out but I thought you might still want them so I . . . sorry . . . It’s a good song though, Nick. Did you write it last night?”
“What makes you think I wrote it at all?”
She looked at me as if the answer were obvious. “Well, it doesn’t sound like anything else by ReadySet, and since I found it in your suite and it has your name on the inside flap, I used my brilliant deductive skills. How’d I do, Watson?”
“Not bad, Sherlock,” I admitted. “And, yeah, I wrote it last night.”
“Well, then.” She grinned. “Looks like you don’t hate me after all.”
I stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
“Using me as your muse . . . writing about being seasick in love . . . it sounds like you’re dangerously close to liking me. Quick, you better tell me I look like crap again!”
The girl irritated me, but I never meant to make her feel bad. I just wanted her to turn somebody else’s life upside down.
Anyone but me.
“I didn’t, uh, mean to make you feel bad, Holly.”
She snorted. “You mean like when you called me a zombie? Or asked if I was pregnant? Or accused me of being a thief?”
Well, when she put it that way it sounded . . . not so good. But oddly enough she didn’t look upset, more like faintly amused.
“Well, anyhow,” I faltered. Damn, I felt like an idiot, but I had to get her to agree with the plan. “You’re not, uh, hideous.”
Holly burst out laughing. “Not hideous. That might be the nicest thing you’ve said to me.” She paused and seemed to consider for a second before asking one of those questions that all men should instinctively fear.
“Beyond that, how would you describe me?”
“Hell if I know.”
She nodded. “Fair enough. So . . . what’s our plan to get me out of this?”
Now here came the tricky part.
“I need you to do me a favor, Holly. A big one.”
She sat bolt upright on the bed. “I’m listening.”
“I . . . well, we . . . see, the thing is . . .”
“Just spit it out already, Nick!”
“We need to do a press conference.”
“Okay.” Holly nodded. “I’m fine with telling everyone the truth.”
“Well, I was thinking we could tweak the truth a bit.”
She narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously. “There’s no ‘tweaking’ with the truth. Either we tell them what happened or we don’t. Which option are you interested in, Nick?”
From the tone of her voice, I was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
“More on the lying side of things.”
She didn’t so much as blink. “What do you want me to say?”
“Well, I’d really appreciate it . . . ReadySet wants you to consider . . .”
“Seriously, just tell me, Nick!”
It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to say.
“I need you to be my girlfriend.”