I wish your friend was me, she thought, but only gave him a friendly wink. Then her coffee order was up, and it was time to leave. She gave Cade a small wave as she left, and he returned her gesture with a nod.
As Kylie headed back down the streets toward the music hall, she was filled with longing. Why couldn’t she find a great guy like Cade? Someone that cared enough about her to surprise her with a ridiculous present . . . or heck, just enough to get sad-eyed when he missed her? Why couldn’t she find a guy like that to be with? Why were they always taken?
There was no denying that there’d been a connection between them. It was obvious to her; some people you just clicked with instantly, and she and Cade had clicked. She’d briefly thought about asking him for his number, but she wasn’t a masochist. Work had to come first for now, because she needed the money. Nursing home care was ungodly expensive.
But one thing was clear to Kylie—whoever held Cade’s heart? She didn’t know what she had. And if she did, she wasn’t being very careful with it. Someone like Cade only came around once in a girl’s lifetime.
And someone as plain and dumpy as Kylie didn’t stand a chance of stealing him away.
FOUR
Music blasted through the walls of the greenroom in the concert hall, and even though the interior walls were protected by layers and layers of padding and drywall, it still thumped loud enough to make Cade’s head hurt. He drummed his fingers on his knee, holding his bourbon in his other hand, and watched another pair of strangers in schoolgirl costumes pass by, giggling as they did. He didn’t know if they were Daphne’s fans or part of her entourage; they all seemed to dress weird.
For the tenth time in the last hour, he wondered why the hell he was here.
Cade was backstage in Daphne’s private lounge area. Except it wasn’t so private. It was filled with people in varying shades of drinking and getting high, press people, and Daphne’s crew. In short, what he assumed would be a private meeting with Daphne wasn’t going to be private at all.
He didn’t know what to make of that. But he’d suggested that he and Daphne get together and talk about things, and she’d offered for him to meet her after her first concert on the new tour. She’d promised him alone time.
And because he could never resist Daphne, he’d agreed.
Except now, looking around, he wasn’t exactly sure what he’d agreed to. Another song wailed through the walls, and his drink shook from the vibrations of the speakers. The posters on the walls of the crowded room were various promotional photos of Daphne in her cutesy costumes, winking at the camera. In each one, she looked healthy and beautiful, and it made him hope that when he saw her, she’d be just as gorgeous as she was in the photos. That it wasn’t just photoshop.
If happy, healthy Daphne was blowing him off, he could live with that, really. He’d just tuck his heart back into its hiding place and go about his life as he always had.
He still felt out of place, though. Here he was in a suit and tie, and everyone else seemed to be in jeans or various states of undress. In the corner, there was a girl in a dress made entirely of what looked like leather buckles, and she was doing lines off of a mirror, which made him frown. Did Daphne know her entourage had drugs? She needed to stay away from that sort of thing if she was going to get better.
Sometimes he wondered if Daphne even wanted to get better. She swore that she did, but then she surrounded herself with people who used, people who partied, people who were the worst kinds of influences to someone with weak willpower.
And maybe he wanted Daphne to be healthy and drug-free more than Daphne wanted it.
Cade took another heavy swig of his drink, disgusted by the thought. Of course Daph wanted to get better. She’d said so, and she’d said she wanted him in her life.
So here he was, ignoring an important medical conference he’d been invited to in favor of sitting backstage, waiting for a pop star and hoping she’d tell him she was eight months clean and she loved him and could they give their strange relationship another go.
And because the thought of a negative answer made him a little queasy, Cade downed the rest of his bourbon and went to get another.
As he waited at the bar, two women wandered into the back room, arguing. One carried a bright yellow polka-dotted pyramid of cases, and the other had an armful of costumes.
“I’m not paying you,” grumbled the one with the costumes. “You cheated.”
“How did I cheat?” said the one with the bright yellow stack of cases. She turned and Cade admired her figure as she bent over. She wore a tight black pair of capris and wedge heels that made her shapely calves stand out. Her ass was full and lush. Maybe a bit more than was considered typically beautiful by today’s standards, but he liked it. After seeing Daphne’s wraith-thinness, he had a new appreciation for a healthy figure, even a thick one. If Daphne looked like this woman did, he’d be unable to keep his hands off of her.
The woman turned to face him, and Cade’s eyes widened.
It was the beautiful girl that had flirted with him at the coffee shop earlier. Kylie. His cock immediately stirred and he shifted in his seat at the bar, uncomfortable. He was just looking, of course. Admiring another woman didn’t mean he wasn’t interested in Daph. It just meant that he enjoyed a fine-looking form. And really, Daphne had looked like that once upon a time, all lush curves and pale skin.
“Cheater,” the one with the clothes said. “You knew she’d fuck up her costumes.”
Kylie’s full red mouth just pulled into a brilliant smile, and Cade couldn’t stop staring at her. “I had a hunch, but I didn’t know for sure,” she told the other woman. She picked up one of the cases and set it down on a table, then opened it up and began to pull out small tubes of makeup. “If she treats her clothes anything like her makeup, you should have known better than to take the bet.”