After a couple of hours hashing out a public relations and social media plan to combat the paparazzi photos of Nate and Stevie, Nate shut the door behind Marci and Stevie and then turned to face Mabel.

“Okay,” he said with a resigned sigh. “Out with it.” By unspoken agreement, Nate and Mabel had shelved any discussion about Natasha while Stevie and Marci had been there, but he knew he wouldn’t get out of discussing it with her.

She raised an eyebrow at him and the corner of her mouth quirked up. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re all talking about.”

He stalked back into the living room and slumped into his couch. He knew Mabel had more to say, stuff that she hadn’t wanted to talk about in front of Marci and Stevie. He waited her out, knowing she wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut.

She sat opposite him, the oversize armchair dwarfing her short stature. “So,” she began and he forced himself not to roll his eyes. “Natasha. I saw her leave here with Frankie. Please tell me you have not hooked up with her again.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, sitting forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Do you really think I would be that stupid?” he asked.

She cleared her throat. “Well, I’m still getting to know you, we haven’t been working together for all that long. What I do know is that when you were with her you were spinning out of control and headed into a very bad place—”

“And I worked damned hard to get myself out of that free-fall,” he growled.

“That may be so,” she conceded, “but the fact that she was here, in your apartment, that sends some red flags up for me. I am quite prepared to jump to conclusions if you want me to, but I am more interested in the truth.

He sighed and sat back, leaning his head against the back of the couch and looking at the ceiling. “She was here when I got home,” he said, his voice tired and devoid of emotion. “She said Gina had called her and told her I’d been asking about her. I don’t know how she got into the apartment. Hell, I don’t know how she got past security in the lobby. They’re all under strict instructions to not let anyone up to my floor without permission.”

“Does Gina have authority to get past security?”

“I don’t know, maybe. She was the one who organized this place. I just handed over the money and signed the contract, Gina handled everything else.”

“Nate, for a smart man you sure are stupid sometimes.”

He sat up and glared at his PR manager. “What the fuck, Mabel?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes at him. “Did your momma spoon feed you? I bet she did your laundry and cooked your meals and tidied your room. Hell, she probably even wiped your ass.”

“You don’t know a damned thing about my mother!”

“The problem, Nate, is that you’re still behaving as if you live at home. Gina is not your mother and she doesn’t have your best interests at heart. I am not your mother, but I do want to help you and it’s not because I love you like your mother did but because you are my meal ticket. I want what’s best for you because it will benefit me. You see the problem? You still want someone to take care of you instead of taking care of yourself. Do you think that the abomination that was your fourth album would have happened if you had been more in control of your own life? You are a goddamned rock star and you let your record label drag you around by the brass ring they put in your nose when you signed their contract—”

“But I’m doing something about that now,” he protested. “I’m taking control.”

She crossed her arms across her chest with a huff. “Okay, yes, you are. But what happened tonight with Natasha? That means Gina is still able to pull your strings. There was a media circus outside your apartment building when we arrived. What if Natasha had managed to get in front of them? Then we’d have a whole other shit-storm to clean up.”

“Fine,” he said, conceding the point, “but what do I do?”

“Find somewhere else to live for a start,” she said. “Somewhere that neither Gina nor Natasha can get access to, and apologize to Stevie. That woman is doing you a big favor and you need to keep her happy.”

“Fuck,” he mumbled under his breath. He knew Stevie was pissed with him. She’d barely spared a glance for him while they were working out the PR plan for the next few weeks. He just hoped that he hadn’t screwed everything up completely.

He walked Mabel to the door and said goodbye. After closing the door, he leaned his forehead against it and closed his eyes. He had thought he was getting somewhere with Stevie, that the damage he had done to their relationship was healing, only to have Natasha turn up and rip a whole new wound open.

He missed Stevie in his life. He’d missed her from the moment she had stormed out of that dive of a motel they had being staying in. But it was more than that now. What he felt towards her was more than just friendship. He was attracted to her in a way he never had been before, a way he’d never been attracted to anyone before. When they worked together, hell even when they were just sitting together and chatting, there was something between them, something he wanted to explore. But now it looked like any chance of something happening between them had been shot to hell thanks to Gina and her games.

The woman had been nothing but a thorn in his side since the time she approached him at The Red Boot. He wished, for the thousandth time, that he had just said no, that he had told Gina that he and Stevie were a unit and she couldn’t have one without the other. But he had been scared, scared that if he turned her down then it would be the last opportunity he’d have to make it big and he’d walked over Stevie to get it. He didn’t deserve the second chance Stevie was giving him, but he’d damn well make sure he made the most of it.

It was well after two in the morning when Stevie finally made it home. She was wrung out from the ups and downs of the night and really wanted nothing more than to slide into bed and close her eyes and leave the night behind. But as she tiptoed into the house, trying not to wake anybody, she heard the soft murmur of voices and saw the light coming from the living room. With a sigh, she headed towards them knowing that it was better to get it over with now and then she might be able to get some sleep.

“Hey,” she said as she walked into the room.

“Oh hey,” Darla said getting up and coming over to her.

They were all there; Darla and Tom, Vanessa, Nadine and Jace, and they were waiting for her.

Darla hugged her before leading her over to the couches were everyone was seated. She sank gratefully down into one and closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and then looking at each person individually.

“Okay, so,” she began. “We are going to release a statement saying that Court’n Jacks are collaborating on a track with Nate Nash for his new album.”

“No press conference?” Jace asked.

“Not at this stage,” she replied. “Mabel told Nate that he should do one soon, but to wait until this bit of media bullshit had calmed down first. He is collaborating with other artists as well, so the idea is that he will do a press conference and tell the world all about his new album.”

“And what about us?” Jace said. “We’re just going to get lumped in with all the other artists?”

“Well, yeah,” she said. “Jace, we’re like the lowest on the totem pole as far as this album is concerned. He’s doing a duet with Lily and he’s doing other tracks with Camille Bracket and The Winchesters. We’re the nobodies.”

Jace didn’t answer, he just gritted his teeth and looked away from her.

“But that’s not everything, is it?” Vanessa asked.

“No,” Stevie said. “Marci agrees that it’s a good idea for us to do the song with a small audience. She wants us to do it in the studio with just a select few and to record it.”

The three other members of the band exchanged glances before looking back at her. “Okay,” Jace said. “That sounds like a good idea.”

“Good. Great,” Stevie said, taking a breath. “She also wants us to do some bar gigs between now and the tour—”

“What!” Jace said standing up. “With Nate?”

“No, not with Nate. This has nothing to do with him. The fact is, we have only ever played together in a studio. We’ve never performed as a band in front of a live audience. We are going on tour with Lily Ames… a sold out tour. That means thousands of people who have never even heard of us. We can’t just turn up on stage and play and pretend it’s just like being in the studio together. We need to start building our own fan base and we need to do that by playing local gigs and getting our name and our sound out there.”

“Our single—”

“Our single is doing great, but it’s just one song. We need to get our other stuff out there and quite frankly, we need the practice of a live, not so supportive crowd. You know what it’s like to go to a concert and sit through the first act. Nobody cares. We need to make them care and win some fans in the process.”

The siblings exchanged another glance but Stevie could tell that at least the girls were on board. Nadine was vibrating with excitement and Vanessa’s leg was bouncing with anticipation. Shit, even Stevie was keen to get on stage again and sing songs that they had written together.

“Okay,” Jace said.

The girls whooped and there were hugs all around. At least something good had come out of tonight. It was the last missing piece to truly gel them as a band. They had been playing together for years in the studio, but it just wasn’t the same as standing on a stage under lights and being vulnerable to the whim of the audience. They could get heckled off stage - or worse, completely ignored - but until they took that step, they would never know if they could truly make it as a cohesive unit.

“Okay, I’m off to bed,” Stevie said when they had all calmed down. “Marci wants to hear the song tomorrow. Well today, six o’clock tonight at the studio.”

“Who’s going to be there?” Vanessa asked.

“Marci is going to call Derek and get him to call a few people. Darla and Tom can come and Nate’s people will probably be there too.”

Darla jumped up and came over to Stevie, hugging her tightly. “Are you okay, really?” she whispered in her ear.

“Just tired,” she whispered back, not prepared to tell Darla about seeing Natasha at Nate’s apartment. She knew the look Darla would give her and she just wasn’t in the mood for a lecture. She had already decided to steer clear of Nate apart from when they had to work together. She didn’t need Darla to tell her that.

Her friend leaned back so she could look into Stevie’s eyes and Stevie tried really hard not to fidget. She’d never been able to hide anything from Darla, but this time she really hoped that her bestie wouldn’t see the hurt and confusion that swirled in her mind.

“Okay,” Darla said with a sigh, “but if you need to talk—”

“I’m fine,” Stevie said, extricating herself from Darla’s arms. “I just need sleep.”

Darla let her go and she waved to the others as she headed for her room. She really was dog-tired which probably accounted for her fragile emotional state. Once she got some sleep she’d be fine and she could get her mind back under control and shove those confusing feelings about Nate back in the dark corner and forget about them. She needed to find that anger that she had harbored all these years. It was the only way she could stop herself from falling under his spell one more time. That was the absolute last thing she needed right now. She had a tour to prepare for and a new album to write. She was far too busy to get tangled up in a romance, especially one with Nate. She would just refuse to let her heart go there. Easy.