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  “Are you okay?” Daisy asks. “Was that you screaming?”

  I gesture at Reed, who still hasn’t turned. “Reed’s here. I wasn’t expecting him, that’s all.”

  “Reed?” Daltrey asks, surprised. “What are you doing here, man?”

  “I decided to come early.” His gaze remains fixed on the view out the balcony doors. “Didn’t have much to do in L.A., after all.”

  I meet Daisy’s eyes and know she’s picking up on his weird tone, too.

  “Are you okay, Reed?” she asks.

  He laughs, the sound so bitter and unlike him it actually gives me a chill. Something has happened, something bad, to upset him like this. He raises a bottle to his lips but doesn’t answer.

  “Why don’t you take the next room, Paige,” Daltrey says, making eye contact with Daisy. They seem to communicate something without words and she nods.

  “I’ll come with you, help you get settled.”

  As we leave the room with my suitcase, I can’t help but turn to look at Reed. He’s still staring straight ahead, even as Daltrey joins him on the opposite lounge chair.

  “What do you think is wrong with him?” I ask Daisy, as she quietly shuts the door.

  Her face is grim. “Well, the fact that Sienna isn’t here gives me a pretty good idea.”

  “You think she ditched him?”

  She nods as we make our way to the next room. “She must have done something to piss him off like that.” She sounds angry, almost disgusted, and I realize she must dislike Sienna as much as Lennon and Daltrey, despite her urging them to give her a chance. Reed, along with Cash and Lennon, is like a brother to Daisy. There’s no one in the world she’s more loyal to than the Ransome boys.

  We enter the second room and I look around. It’s not quite as big as the first, which is totally fine by me. There’s still a queen sized bed, the white duvet cover so fluffy looking I can’t help but run my hands across it as I pass. The furniture in the room is also dark wood, though not nearly as sleek as the stuff next door. There’s no fireplace, but there is a small flat screen on the wall across the bed. However, I can’t imagine sitting here watching TV, with a view like this.

  The balcony is small, just room for one chair and a small table. But it looks directly out onto the ocean. From the layout of the house, I think I’m close to Reed’s balcony, but stone walls on either side make it impossible for me to see anything except the ocean directly in front of me.

  “This is great,” I tell Daisy, stepping back into the bedroom. “But shouldn’t Karen and I share?”

  She waves off my suggestion. “No way. We got here first, we get first pick of rooms. I’m sure Cash invited at least a few skanky groupies—let them share.”

  Before I can argue she walks to the door. “I’m gonna take a shower before dinner. I think Len and Dalt want to head over to one of the restaurants at the resort. Sound good?”

  “No complaints here.”

  She leaves and I set to work unpacking my things. I brought mostly sundresses, bathing suits, and a few pairs of shirts and shorts. Hopefully the weather will be nice, because I couldn’t bring myself to pack for anything other than sunshine.

  I take a quick shower, realizing once my suit is off that I did in fact burn a little, despite my diligence with the sunscreen. Once I’ve scrubbed off the sticky oil residue and sand from the ocean, I step out, smiling at the short silk robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door. I hope the boys tip the staff like the rock stars that they are—these guys have thought of everything.

  Clad in my robe, I head out to the bedroom to decide on a dress for dinner. I pull out several options, laying them across the bed. Before I can pick, there’s a knock on my door. Thinking it’s probably Karen—we have a habit of getting ready together—I answer it, pulling my hair down from its towel as I walk to the door.

  “Hey, Paige,” Reed says, eyes on the ground.

  For the second time in twenty minutes, he’s startled me. This time I manage not to yell. “Hey, Reed.”

  He looks up and me, his eyes widening, and I suddenly realize I’m wearing a thin silk robe in front of a legitimate rock star. “I was just getting ready for dinner,” I explain, feeling self-conscious.

  “I wanted to apologize for scaring you,” he mumbles, looking away again. “I had no idea you had already picked that room. I’d be happy to bring your stuff back over—”

  I hold up my hands. “No, Reed, of course not. The staff just put my stuff in there, I didn’t pick it. It’s your room.”

  “I don’t mind. The balcony is bigger—you should take the room.”

  I cross my arms. “This is your vacation rental. You should have the big balcony.”

  “Paige—”

  “I’m already unpacked,” I say quickly. “And way too lazy to pack again. So drop it.”

  He finally smiles a little. “Okay. If you insist. But I really don’t mind.” His face tightens a little. “Daisy and Daltrey should actually take it. It’s a suite—probably meant for two people.”

  I feel awkward by the sudden change in his demeanor. I think he might be slightly drunk; he’s not slurring, exactly, but he doesn’t really sound too with it. “I’m sorry Sienna couldn’t join you,” I say lamely.

  He shakes his head. “Don’t be. I’ve wasted enough time with that.”

  My mouth drops open in spite of myself. It’s not every day you hear celebrity gossip straight from the source. “Did you... you guys break up?” I immediately regret opening my mouth. “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”

  “It’s fine.” He looks up at me and I decide he’s definitely drunk, or well on his way to being so. “She wasn’t actually that nice of a person, really.”

  “I’m sorry, Reed.”

  “Never waste your time on someone who doesn’t make an effort for you, Paige,” he says, leaning against the doorframe. He rubs his forehead. “I should let you finish getting ready.”

  Something about his posture, the way he leans so heavily against the frame, makes my heart clench. He seems entirely defeated. “Do you want to talk about it?” I ask. “I’m like, totally a good listener.”

  He gives me a weary smile as he straightens. “Nah, I’m okay. Thanks, though.”

  There’s a loud commotion from downstairs and I can clearly make out Cash’s voice. “Look at that view! Hell yeah!”

  Reed rolls his eyes at me. “Guess we’d better get ready for dinner.”

  “Yeah.” He still looks so sad though, and I hate to see him walk away. Karen always tells me I’m a sucker for someone else’s sob story, but I can’t help it. I reach out and brush my hand lightly across his sleeve. “I meant it, though. If you need to talk, I’m here.”

  His expression is a mixture of touched and something akin to confusion, as if he didn’t expect sympathy. He nods and turns. I watch his retreating back until he goes into his suite.

  Well, I think to myself as I shut the door, so much for hanging out with a movie star. I head into the bathroom to dry my hair and realize that I don’t really care. Movie star or not, anyone who could make Reed look that sad isn’t someone I want to spend time with.

  Chapter Four

  Reed

  There aren’t many worse ways to wake up than Cash shoving his ugly mug in my face.

  “Dude,” I groan, shoving his shoulder. “What the fuck?”

  “It’s noon, man.” He shoves me right back. “You need to get out of this room. It smells in here.”

  I sit up in bed, pushing my tangled hair off my face. “Are you seriously going to lecture me about sleeping until noon? You?”

  He smirks at me. “This is different. You’re in paradise, dude. And you’re missing it.”

  “I’m not missing it. I have plenty of time—”

  “I count at least twenty-five completely hot women on the beach right now. You need to get out there, man. You’re finally single—how are you not more excited about this?”

  I roll
my eyes and slump back in bed, throwing a pillow over my face to drown him out. I’m tired and hung-over and not at all in the mood for another one of his lectures on how I ‘should be sowing my wild oats’.

  Cash, apparently, is not so easily dismissed. He pulls the pillow away, slugging my shoulder. “Fuck!” I yell, trying to punch him back. But he steps away from the bed, smirking again.

  “You wanna hit me? How about you get up and we can go right here.”

  “You’re such an ass.”

  “You’re one to talk, big brother. You’re sitting in here moping about some chick when you could be out there finding a new one. Not to mention the fact that we’re all supposed to be hanging out. We’ve been planning this trip for months, Reed. Are you seriously going to piss it away?”

  I throw the pillow at him, but know he has a point. The idea of this vacation was to spend some time with my brothers and my friends before the tour starts again. God knows that the pressures and exhaustion of a multi-city tour will set in soon enough, and we’ll all be at each other’s throats most of the time. This is our chance to enjoy each other’s company for once.

  “Fine.”

  He just stands there watching me, arms crossed, apparently not too confident in my capitulation.

  “Dude, I will get up,” I say from between clenched teeth. “But I’m going commando right now, so you might want to get the fuck out before I move the blanket.”

  I allow myself a snort of laughter as he scurries from the room faster than he moves even when confronted with a keg of free beer.

  I climb out of bed and head to the attached bathroom to pee and brush my teeth before pulling on a pair of swim trunks. I pulled the heavy drapes the night before and they block out the light from outside completely. When I pull them open, I have to squint at the sudden influx of brightness.

  The ocean looks close enough to touch, a bright shade of aquamarine stretching as far as the eye can see. A thin strip of deep green lawn surrounds the villa before the beach starts. I decide some fresh air might help clear the pounding in my head, and slide the glass door open to step onto the balcony.

  It’s hot as hell outside, but the breeze from the ocean makes it bearable. From the balcony I can see the patio in front of the house. Daisy, Lennon, and Paige are splashing around in the pool, Karen and Daltrey lying on loungers beside them. The private beach in front of the villa is nearly deserted, though I think I can make out Oscar and Ed, two of our roadies, throwing a football around. A high stone wall and a scattering of palms block our section of beach from the main resort. On the other side, just as Cash said, there are numerous women in bikinis stretched out on loungers.

  “Reed!”

  I look back down to the patio to see Daisy waving up at me from the pool. “It’s a gorgeous day! Get down here.”

  “On my way.”

  I head back into the room and pull an old t-shirt from my suitcase, which I haven’t bothered to unpack yet. I find my sunglasses—a pair of Ray Bans, my first big money purchase after we signed our record deal—on the top of the dresser and slip them on before heading out.

  Cash is waiting for me in the kitchen. “It’s about time. I made you a cup of coffee.”

  “Aw, sweetheart, you take such good care of me.”

  He flips me off before heading to the staircase. “Get your ass out there or I will kick it.”

  I grab the coffee he made and take a long sip, willing it to clear out my head. The night before is a complete blur. I know I started drinking as soon as I got to the villa and it only intensified at dinner. The fact that I can’t remember what I ate, or even getting back to my room, indicates I was pretty wasted. I know I’m probably being a downer and I certainly don’t want to ruin my brothers’ vacation. Time to pull your shit together, I tell myself, taking another sip of coffee. There’s a basket of baked goods on the counter, and I grab a muffin before following Cash outside.

  The sun is even hotter out on the patio, without the benefit of the breeze I was getting on the second level. My brothers and the girls shout out a hello and I settle on the edge of the pool, dangling my feet in the water. It’s freezing and feels freaking fantastic against my warm skin. Just walking down the stairs had me sweating. Immediately a waiter appears at my side. “Something to drink, Mr. Ransome?”

  I hold up my mug. “I’m good, thanks.”

  “Just let me know if you need anything.”

  An idea occurs to me. I squint at his nametag. “Actually, Martin, do you have any whiskey?”

  “Of course, Mr. Ransome.”

  He’s back in less than a minute with a bottle of Johnny Walker. I hold up my mug and he pours a measure of the amber liquid in. “Thanks, man.”

  “Isn’t it a little early for whiskey?” Daisy asks, swimming up to me, her eyebrow raised.

  “It’s Irish coffee. A breakfast staple.”

  She rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling, so I know she isn’t judging me too hard.

  “How’s the water?”

  “Pretty awesome. You should get in.”

  “When I’m finished.”

  She swims back over to Paige, Lennon, and Daltrey, who has joined them in the time it took me to get downstairs. “We should play a game or something,” I hear Paige say.

  “Like what?” Lennon asks. “Volleyball?”

  “I was thinking more like Marco Polo,” Paige says, and Lennon snorts.

  “Are we five?”

  “Hey, I happen to like Marco Polo,” she argues, splashing him. Lennon splashes her right back, drenching her face and hair. I think she might get pissed—Sienna would certainly be furious if I ever got her hair wet—but Paige only laughs and pushes the wet strands of black hair out of her face.

  “Marco Polo?” she asks Daisy before turning to Dalt. “Marco Polo?”

  They both laugh and agree—I can’t say I really blame them. She’s all wide-eyed and grinning like a little kid, obviously excited about the prospect of playing the game.

  I watch as they take turns being it. Daltrey insists on shouting “Polo!” in a terrible French accent every time, which Daisy seems to find hilarious. I catch myself, again, staring at them, at the way they interact, the way she looks at him. I down the spiked coffee in record time but it does little to ease the throbbing in my head.

  Maybe you just shouldn’t be around happy people right now, I think, climbing up from the edge of the pool.

  “Where are you going?” Paige calls.

  I turn back to the pool. She’s moved into the shallow end and I can actually see more than her head for the first time, now that the water only reaches her hips. She’s wearing a fifties style black bikini with red cherries all over it. I swallow—she could be a pin up girl with that black hair, creamy pale skin, and bright red lipstick. I realize I’m staring and shake my head to snap out of it. “I want to lie in the sun.”

  “Boo! You’re boring! Come in and play with us.”

  Cash crosses the pool deck behind me, a beer in his hand. “You’d be insane to deny a request like that, man,” he mutters so that only I can hear him.

  “I’m not really in the mood for Marco Polo.” But I don’t move away from the edge of the pool. Cash has a point—what straight male would willingly walk away from this view?

  She puts her hands on her hips, scrunching up her face like she’s thinking. The expression transforms her face from sexy to completely adorable. I’m not sure which look I prefer, to be honest. “We could play a different game.”

  Oh, what the hell. I shrug and pull my t-shirt off. “All right, I’m up for a game.”

  She grins at me as if I couldn’t have made her happier and turns back to the others. “Reed is going to play!”

  I follow her into the pool, trying not to wince at the cold of the water, and join the others in the deep end. “Come on, Karen!” Paige calls. “Come play.”

  “Absolutely not,” Karen calls back from her lounge chair, her voice sleepy.

  “You’re
so boring! You’re just lying there. Oooh, Karen, we could play that underwater telephone game, you’re so good at that!”

  “I was good at that when we were ten. Which is probably the last time we played that game.”

  “But that’s why it would be fun!” Paige is jumping up and down in the water, her face bright and excited. I have to laugh—she really does look like a kid. I had gotten to know her a little bit on tour last year, at least enough to know that this kind of enthusiasm was pretty typical for her. “Come on, Karen, when am I ever wrong about what’s fun?”

  “Do not make me list the number of times you’ve convinced me to do ridiculous things.” Everyone laughs and Paige finally relents.

  “Fine. But we’re going to have fun and you’re going to totally regret not joining us.”

  Karen flips onto her front, resting her head on her crossed arms. “I guess that’s just a risk I’m willing to take,” she replies serenely.

  We do, in fact, play the telephone game and I have to admit that Paige has a point—it’s a lot more fun than I would have thought. Daltrey, Lennon, and I decide to say the grossest, filthiest things we can think of while underwater, and the girls, Daisy in particular, find this so amusing they’re practically crying with laughter by the end.

  We’ve been playing for about a half hour, our antics thoroughly annoying Cash, whose trying to hit on some redhead he must have invited, when Martin and a female staff member come out with trays of burgers and hot dogs. “Food,” Lennon moans appreciatively. “I’m starving.”

  “You had a bowl of ice cream for breakfast,” Daisy points out.

  “Yes, but that was two hours ago.” Lennon and Daltrey move to get out and Paige frowns.

  “Aw, man. It was my turn. I had a really good one.”

  “I’ll go under with you,” I tell her, and she beams at me.

  “Thanks, Reed!”

  We face each other in the deep water. I can just about touch but Paige is treading water to stay up. I can’t help but notice the way the water laps across her collarbone. One persistent drop is hanging from the curve of her neck and I’m struck with a strange urge to wipe it away. She raises her eyebrows at me. “Ready?”