Making Trouble (16 page)

“
Smart move.” Rob nodded.

No one mentioned Dante
or the disaster that day could have been. We were all here, breathing, laughing. Celebrating.

“But you are catering the wedding, aren’t you, Daisy?” Katie called.

“How many guests are on the list now?” Daisy licked her own chocolate frosting off her fingers. She had a splotch on her cheek.

“Well, combined…” Katie looked over at me, pursing her lips. “Between me and Sabrina, our families, all of Tyler and Rob’s friends, plus everyone we have to invite because of Trouble…”

“Eight hundred,” I said matter-of-factly. “It’s going to be huge.”

“Yikes!” Daisy squeaked, choking on her milk. “Eight
hundred?”

“Eight
hundred what?” Sarah and Anne came in through the French doors, both wrapped in towels.

“Guests to the wedding.” Celeste smirked. “So, do you guys want to make it nine
?”

“Nine hundred?” I laughed. “Who did we forget?”

“My family,” Celeste said, still smirking. “And Jesse’s.”

I sat still, jaw dropped, my gaze skipping over to Katie, who looked just as shocked.

“Celeste! Are you engaged?” Katie cried, and then we were hugging and congratulating her, Sarah too, which got us all wet and made us laugh more.

“We can’t have a triple wedding, that would be cray,” Katie protested. “Just think of poor Daisy!”

“What’s another hundred?” Daisy laughed, wiping chocolate frosting off her cheek.

“Well, we could always just step aside and let you guys get married.” Rob was behind me, his hands on my shoulders, and I glanced up at him and smiled.

“Oh I don’t think so,” Katie scoffed. “You two are tying the knot with us!”

“Well, the thing is…” I said, glancing around
with everyone looking at us. “We kind of already did.”

“What?” Sarah was the first one to say it.

“I planned to announce it later, out there, officially,” Rob nodded toward the crowd outside. “But we wanted you guys to know first. We got married when we went to Aruba.”

“I knew it!” Celeste exclaimed, holding her hand out to
Jesse. “You owe me five bucks!”

“You know everything.” I laughed, running my finger around the rim of my cake plate, getting the last remnant of chocolate.

“Hey girl, I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.” Arnie came into the kitchen, a towel draped around his neck, dripping water onto the Italian marble floor. “You’re gonna wanna stay skinny if you’re going out onto the road with Trouble.”

“
Right.” I laughed, rolling my eyes. “Tell me some more fairy stories.”

“I got the call just before I came.” He grinned
, drying what was left of his hair with the beach towel. He shook off like a dog, making both Katie and Celeste squeal in protest. Was he kidding? He had to be. “Thought I’d make the little announcement while everyone was here. The label was so impressed with your cover of Joplin and how much it was pirated online, they decided they want you in Trouble after all.”

“You’re kidding me.”
My fork clattered to the plate.

“Good,
” Rob grinned at me as I jumped up, too stunned to stay seated. “Now I can take you on tour with me.”

“I…” This wasn’t happening. My feet felt like they weren’t touching the ground. Here it was, the thing Rob and I had talked about, the thing Tyler had advocated for again and again, my dream. I could be, not just part of the family, but part of the band too. All my dreams had come true. All of them, all at once.

“I don’t know.” I shook my head, still trying to absorb it all.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”
Rob scoffed, taking my hands in his, pulling me near. “This is what we wanted.”

“I know.” I met his eyes, feeling tears sting them.
“But I’m not sure I can go on this tour.”

“Why not?”
He frowned, his dark eyes growing darker. Rob wanted something, and he was determined to get it. He glanced out the door at the pool where the rest of Trouble was taking turns whipping a Nerf football across the length of the pool. “Are you worried about the guys? They’re used to you now, Yoko. You’re part of the family.”

“No it’s not that.”
I swallowed, looking around. Everyone was watching us, listening to this conversation. They all looked puzzled, confused by my hesitation. Of course they were. They didn’t know what I knew.

“Then what is it?”
Rob tilted my chin up, looking concerned at the tears quivering on my lashes.

“
Well…” I took a deep breath. It was now or never. “I’m pregnant.”

Rob stopped breathing and so did I, waiting, hoping.

And then he was kissing me, a kiss so full of love and hope and the future, it hurt, bruising my mouth and my heart, which felt so full I thought it would burst. The whole room exploded around us, everyone screaming, yelling, crying, laughing, hugging, all at once. Rob wouldn’t let me out of his arms to let anyone else hug me and congratulate us, not at first.

“Is it really true?” he choked, his face buried in my neck. He was holding me so tight, my feet weren’t even touching the gr
ound, and it was hard to breathe, let alone answer him. “Oh sweetheart, I love you so much.”

“Yes,” I whispered when he let me go, just long enough to cup my face, streaked with tears now, in his hands. “I’m going to have your baby.”

“My baby.” He sank to his knees, right there in front of everyone, but I didn’t care. My tears fell on his upturned cheeks, mixing with his own.

Then he wrapped his arms around my hip
s, his cheek to my belly. I hadn’t felt the baby move quite yet, but I was far enough along that I’d already gained ten pounds.

“This baby can’t replace her.” Rob’s words send a bittersweet shot of pain through my heart and our eyes met when he turned his face up to me. “But we’ll love
it just as much.”

“Just as much.” I nodded, touching his cheek, and then he
lifted me, carrying me around the kitchen, both of us laughing.

“She’s having my baby!” Rob announced, as if no one else had heard me. They all rallied as he carried me outside, telling me to duck as he went out the French doors, still yelling it at the top of his lungs. “My wife is having my baby!”

I had no doubt it would be in the tabloids tomorrow, but I didn’t care. It was about time we were splashed all over the front page with good news instead of bad.

“I always said you were good at making trouble,” Leanne said with a laugh as Rob paraded past the patio table.

“He’s been trouble since the day I met him,” I called to her, giggling.

“You love trouble.” Rob grinned, biting at my belly, making me squeal.
“Remember?”

“What are you doing?” I protested, glancing behind me, seeing the rest of the band—
Kenny, Nick and Jon —sitting like three monkeys, seeing, hearing and speaking no evil on the edge of the pool.

“Making trouble.” Rob jumped.

The pool water was warm, but still a shock. I came up sputtering, laughing. When we surfaced together, everyone clapped, and my husband took me into his arms, smoothing back my wet hair, looking into my eyes.

“I do love trouble,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his neck. “And I love you.”

“That’s my girl,” he murmured, kissing me, then paused to say, “Girls.”

“Girls?” I raised my wet eyebrows in surprise. “How do you know it’s a girl?”

“I just know.” A slow, sure smile spread over his face and, just at that moment, I felt the first stirrings of our baby—our girl—like little butterfly wings beating in my belly.

I thought immediately of Esther. Rob was right, of course. This baby wouldn’t replace her, but we would love her just as much. And she would be a part of our family, this family, the one surrounding us now, who loved us and wanted us to be nothing but happy. I looked up at their faces, and then back at my husband, knowing, in spite of all the heartache of the past year, I had everything I had ever wanted.

We were really all one big family now.

The End

Look for the Katie & Tyler’s story in “Trouble Makers”

Coming October of 2014!

TROUBLE MAKERS

By Emme Rollins

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DEAR ROCKSTAR

Look for the sequel – LUCKY GIRL!

Sara is obsessed with rock star Tyler Vincent, and as she works to complete her senior year, she’s determined to find a way to meet him—although her best friend, Aimee, keeps telling her to find a different escape from her desperately violent home life.

Complications arise when Dale, the mysterious new transfer student, sets his sights on Sara, and she falls for this rock-star-in-the-making in spite of her better judgment. When Sara wins a contest, she is faced with a choice—travel to Tyler Vincent’s home town to meet him, or stay and support Dale in a Battle-of-the-Bands hosted by MTV.

Their triangulated relationship is pushed to its breaking point, but there is another, deeper secret that Dale’s been keeping that just may break things wide open...

Turn up your collar, feather your hair, and splash on some Polo, because we’re going back to the ‘80’s when MTV played music videos, there was no such thing as American Idol, and becoming a star meant doing nothing short of crazy for that one, big break.

EXCERPT:

“I dropped out in my senior year. Three years ago.” Dale sipped his Coke too, looking at me over the rim. He had a way of seeing into me that was disconcerting. I felt naked in front of him.

“Let me guess? You wanted to make it in the music business?”

“My parents were having problems.” He sat back in his chair, picking at his food. “My dad left my mom. We moved to Seattle. That’s when I really started getting more serious about music.”

“And your dad was okay with you quitting school?”

He snorted. “No. But he I didn’t give him a say. I moved out.”

“So, how did you end up here?”

“I told you. He got a job at Rutgers.” He seemed far away now, distant. I didn’t like it.

“But you weren’t living with him?”

Dale shrugged. “He asked me to come with him. He said he’d pay for everything, let me live with him, and I could pursue my music as long as I was working on getting my diploma.”

I nodded. “So the Academy is your compromise.”

“Well, I knew about the battle of the bands before we moved.” He flashed me a brief smile. God, that dimple. “MTV did them last year in New York, and I had it on good authority they were going to do them again this year. I figured I’d have time to put a band together and give it a shot.”

“Well now that I’ve seen you, I think you’ve got a pretty good one,” I said honestly. That was an understatement. I couldn’t imagine anyone beating them.

“You think so?”

I nudged him with my knee under the table. “I think you know it.”

“I still like to hear it.” He turned to look at me, his eyes searching. “Especially from you.”

I smiled, reaching over and taking his hand, giving him exactly what he’d asked for. He deserved it. “You’re very good. You’re an amazing singer. You’re an incredible performer. I’ve never seen a crowd go crazy like that for someone they’d never seen before. I mean, celebrity takes time. Exposure. I think you’re one of those people who draws other people in. Like a magnet. You’re going to have people following you around, no matter what you do. For the rest of your life.”

He was actually blushing. “Why do you say that?”

“Because that’s how you make me feel,” I confessed, biting my lip, almost wishing I hadn’t said it.

“Hm.” He made a little noise in his throat, turning my hand over in his, tracing the lines in my palm with his fingertip like he was following a road map. “How do I make you feel?”

“Like I would follow you anywhere,” I whispered.

He lifted my hand and pressed his lips to my palm, closing his eyes briefly, and I noticed how long and dark his lashes were before he looked at me with that intense, blue gaze, telling me more with one look than either of could ever say in words.

“When I saw you in the audience today, I don’t even know how to tell you what it did to me.” He shook his head, twining his fingers with mine.
 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were performing?” I asked softly.

“Because I didn’t want that to happen.” He gave a short laugh. “I didn’t want to be distracted. I wasn’t supposed to let myself get distracted…”

He met my eyes, the emotion in them so strong I felt it before he even said the words. “Sara, I don’t think you understand what you do to me.”

“What do you mean?” Now it was my turn to ask him.

“I couldn’t think,” he confessed. “Thank God the song was over, because the minute I saw you… I was done for.”

“Oh please.” I smiled, teasing him. “All those screaming girls. I’m surprised they weren’t throwing panties at you.”

“Sometimes they do.” He grinned. “But that never mattered to me.”

I blinked in surprise. “What does matter to you?”

“Now? You.” He squeezed my hand in his, that was all, but the sensation shot up my arm with a jolt that nearly knocked me off my chair.

“Dale, do you realize how crazy that sounds?” I whispered, glancing around like someone might overhear us. “We’ve only known each other for a week.”

“Sometimes the best things in life are crazy.”

I laughed. “I can’t argue with that.”

It was crazy.

It was all crazy.

Me and Tyler Vincent.

Me and Dale Diamond.

But somehow the latter had fully eclipsed the former in my mind—and my heart—at least in the moment.

BURIED SECRETS

Should some secrets remain buried?

Dusty has always been a hothead, far more impulsive than her twin, Nick, the calm, cool and collected one of the pair. But Nick is dead, found murdered in their local cemetery, and Dusty simply can’t rest until she finds out who—or what—has killed her brother.

Sure the local authorities aren’t being straight with her—or anyone else—about what’s been going on in their little upper Michigan town, Dusty delays going off to college for a semester, defying her father and stepmother and taking a job in the local bar to start doing some digging.

Her focus soon fixes on Shane, her brother’s best friend and the town bad boy. The tension and rivalry between Dusty and Shane has always been palpable and sparks fly as the two collide. Dusty finds herself sinking in deeper with Shane and the mystery of what happened to her brother—and a lengthening list of victims—grows even stranger.

When everything comes to a head, Dusty focuses on one thing: What happened the night her brother was killed in the cemetery? She’s sure Shane is keeping a secret and she’s determined to find out what it is, one way or another.