Meeting with the fan club didn’t take long. There were fifteen girls and three guys, a fairly good microcosm of Trouble’s fans, a mix of teens and older women. All three guys were the young “I want to play guitar to get laid” type—although I wasn’t sure there was any other type when it came to rock stars—and all three of them looked like the cat that ate the canary, surrounded by a flock of excited, buzzing girls. They knew, when Tyler and the rest of Trouble left, they would be the only testosterone left in the room. What did it matter that they all needed a good dose of Proactive? The girls wouldn’t care—their heads would be filled with thoughts of Trouble, from Tyler Cook to Kenny Guardi, Nick Franco and Jon Manatos. And of course, the missing Rob Burns.

“I’m pretty sure he’s with my friend, Sabrina,” I told Celeste, watching Tyler smile and give the bull horns metal sign with both hands for yet another selfie. Celeste and I were in the corner of the room. The casino let them use an empty baccarat room. It wasn’t a popular game in Detroit—too rich for most people’s blood.

“Did you call her?” Celeste looked hopeful.

“Tyler asked me to.” I nodded. “But she didn’t pick up either.”

“Damnit.”

“She’s not an ax murderer,” I assured her. “I promise, she didn’t kidnap him or anything.”

“It’s just not like him. Rob doesn’t… he doesn’t pick girls up on the road. Not like...”

“Not like Tyler,” I finished for her. “Look, I know I’m just the one he happened to pick out last night. I get it. I’m just Ringo.”

“Ringo?” She looked at me quizzically.

“Happy to be here.”

She laughed.

“Any one of those girls would kill to be you right now,” she pointed out.

“I know it.” I nodded, watching them all crowd Tyler, wanting to touch him, vying for his attention. And he kept smiling over at me. “I got lucky.”

“He might ask you to come with him on the road,” Celeste said quietly.

“Really?” I blinked at her in surprise.

“He’s done it before. Tyler doesn’t like to be alone.” Celeste was watching him like a hawk, like she expected him to do something wild, crazy. “I think he brings girls along like teddy bears. The thing is… do you have a life here?”

“Well, sure...” Okay, I lied. What difference did it make? I’d been lying my whole life, even to myself.

“I mean, you know, a boyfriend? A job? A mortgage?” She ticked off all the things I didn’t have in one breath.

“Well...” I shrugged, glancing down at my now empty left hand. No more ring. No more commitments, real or imaginary.

“Because I’ve seen women drop everything—and I mean everything—to follow us on the road, and when the tour is over, their life… kind of moved on without them.” She looked at me, up and down, like she was appraising me. “I don’t know if it’s worth it, you know?”

“Gotcha.” I gave her the “ok” sign to indicate I understood, but of course, I wasn’t anything like those other women. Because I didn’t have anything to lose, did I?

“And it’s not everything you think it’s going to be.” Celeste looked back at Tyler, a smiling face in the midst of a bunch of goggling, giggling women who had suddenly turned into thirteen-year-old girls. “There’s a lot of traveling, a lot of rushing around, and then a whole lot of waiting. It’s not the glitz and glamour people think it is. It’s a production. Trust me, I know.”

“I believe you.” I did believe her. About all of it, not just about the rigors of a concert tour.

“So, if he does ask you—and I see the way he looks at you, I think he will ask you—just be prepared,” she told me. “Know what you’re giving up, and what you’re walking into.”

“Thanks,” I said, and I meant it. “I really appreciate the advice.”

“I look out for my boys.” She shrugged then gave me a little smile.

“Sounds like they need it.”

“Some of them more than others.” She sighed. Celeste the tour angel, Queen of Sighs.

“Well I’m sure Rob and Sabrina aren’t in any real trouble,” I said again, trying to reassure her. “Bree’s the most sensible, responsible person I know.”

“I just hope he took some of those condoms with him,” she grumbled.

“Bree will make him wear ten of them, don’t worry.” I laughed.

“I sure hope so.” She didn’t sound so convinced.

“Listen, Tyler’s taking me home to get some clean clothes,” I told her. “We’re going to stop by Sabrina’s, see if they’re at her place.”

“Oh, that would be great.” She brightened. “Please call and let me know?”

“Sure,” I agreed amiably. “I’ll have Tyler call you.”

“Thanks.” She gave me a grateful smile.

Tyler had broken away from the crowd and was headed our way. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, kissing my ear, unmindful of all the gaping stares from the women across the room. But I was aware of them. I felt their eyes on me like laser beams, cutting me to bits.

“I need to get out of here,” he murmured, glancing at Celeste. “They wanted to hang all over me like I was a jungle gym or something.”

“Poor boy.” Celeste grinned. “Rob usually takes the brunt of it, doesn’t he?”

“Apparently you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone!”

“The three stooges are headed over to Greektown,” Celeste said, and it took me a minute to realize she was talking about the other three members of Trouble. “You guys want to go?”

“Nah.” Tyler slipped an arm over my shoulder. “We’re gonna mosey on over to Canada, eh?”

“Off to the great white north,” I agreed.

“And you’re going to stop by your friend, Sabrina’s?” Celeste reminded us hopefully, looking at Tyler.

“That was the plan,” he agreed.

“Okay. Be good!” She wagged a stern finger, her words directed at Tyler. “I don’t want any international incidents.”

“Boy Scouts honor.” He even did the Boy Scout salute.

“You were never a Boy Scout,” Celeste scoffed.

“No, but I was a Girl Scout,” I piped up.

“Do you still have the uniform?” Tyler grinned at me when I looked over my shoulder at him, appalled. I nudged him in the ribs and he let out a little “oof.”

“Come on, let’s go,” he said.

We said goodbye to Celeste and slipped out together, going back to the room so Tyler could change. He wore a pair of chinos and a white button-down shirt, a navy blazer over that. And Keds. That made me want to laugh but I didn’t. It was somehow a very Tyler look, strangely appealing, kind of haphazardly sexy.

I grabbed the dress—three thousand dollars’ worth of dress—and we headed down to the limo. My apartment wasn’t that far, about a twenty-minute drive, but we stopped by Sabrina’s house first. I wasn’t hopeful. Her car wasn’t even in the driveway. I knocked and knocked, even looked in the front window, but no one answered.

“Where the hell are they?” I wondered aloud.

“Fucking like bunnies somewhere,” Tyler assured me, an arm around my shoulder as the limo driver made his way to my house.

“Have you ever seen bunnies fuck?” I snorted. “It’s over in two seconds.”

“I stand by my original statement.”

I laughed.

I was a little afraid to have Tyler in my apartment. It was a giant mess, but he didn’t seem to notice or care about the empty pizza boxes and beer bottles in the kitchen or the clothes strewn all over my bedroom.

“Should I put on the dress?” I hung it over my closet door, frowning at it.

“It’s only two.” Tyler glanced at my alarm clock. He was lying on my bed, hands behind his head. “Our reservations are at seven. What can we do until then?”

“Hmm.” I tapped my chin, like I was thinking about it. “I wonder...”

“Come here.” He jerked his head, motioning me over, and I climbed into my bed with Tyler Cook already in it. How many girls could say they’d had Tyler Cook in their bed? Okay, maybe it was a high number, after all, but it wasn’t in the millions or anything. And there were definitely millions who wanted him.

I snuggled up, resting my head on his chest, listening to the steady drumbeat of his heart. He put his arms around me and stroked my hair. I was sleepy, but I knew, if I closed my eyes, I’d fall asleep in his arms, and I was too afraid I would wake up and realize it was all a dream.

“Let’s see, we’ve got fucking, eating, smoking, drinking, gambling—not necessarily in that order,” Tyler ticked them off on his fingers. “We could watch TV or play video games. I’m sure there has to be a thousand more mindless pursuits we could engage in.”

“Probably,” I agreed. “Although only half of them are legal.”

“That’s always an issue.” He snorted. “So, if you could do anything right now, what would you do?”

“This.”

“Okay, besides this.”

“This.”

“Okay, let’s say this is your last day on earth, but you can’t leave the city and you can’t stay here in your apartment.” He was tracing with his finger again, this time on my upper arm, making me shiver. “Where would you go?”

“The zoo.” It came out without even thinking. “I’d go set all the animals free.”

“Wouldn’t you be afraid of being eaten by a lion or mauled by a bear?”

“It’s my last day on earth, what do I care?” I shrugged. “It would be worth it, if I could set them free for a while. I was already dead anyway, right? I mean, eaten by a tiger. Is there a better way to go?”

“In my sleep, preferably,” Tyler snorted. He traced something again and again on my skin. I couldn’t find any discernible pattern to it, but it made me shiver. I liked it.

“Chicken.” I nudged him, smiling. “You gotta look death in the face, give it the finger and tell the reaper to come bring it.”

He laughed.

“You are so fucking awesome.” He kissed the top of my head. “Okay, the zoo it is. Get dressed, let’s go.”

“What?” I lifted my head to frown at him. “The zoo? It’s the middle of winter.”

“Are they open?”

“Well… yeah.” They were open, but I doubted there would be many people there. Maybe that was a good thing. Although the prospect of walking around the zoo in the cold wasn’t appealing. But being with Tyler, anywhere, was. So, there was that.

“Good!” He sat up, pushing at me. “Go get dressed, woman! We have places to go, animals to free!”

“You’re crazy,” I said, but I was laughing. “I can’t wear a three-thousand-dollar dress to the zoo!”

“True.” He nodded, sitting on the edge of my bed as I got up. “Wear something else. We’ll come back here so you can get dressed before dinner. Is the zoo far?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Right around the corner, actually.”

“Perfect.” Tyler’s eyes lit up when I pulled my Trouble t-shirt off and started rummaging through my drawers for a clean one. “Damn girl. You are fine.”

“Great is more like it.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

“No arguments from me.”

I put long johns on under my jeans and Tyler laughed at me, but I wore a bra, an undershirt, a t-shirt and a sweater too. That was before I put on my boots and got my long, wool winter coat from the closet.

“Are you sure you don’t need some more clothes on?” he asked, cracking up.

“You’re going to thank me for these.” I pulled a navy-blue hat and a pair of matching gloves out of a box in the top of my hall closet. “Baby, it’s cold outside.”

“Cute hat.”

Mine was pink with a little tassel and I had mittens to match.

I got in the car while Tyler knocked on the limo driver’s window, presumably to tell him to take us to the zoo, although why he didn’t use the intercom was beyond me. It was warm in the car and Tyler laughed at the way I fanned myself, but he wasn’t laughing by the time we’d paid our admission and started walking along the cement pathway marked with painted elephant tracks on the cement.

“Damn, the wind goes right through these pants.” Tyler shivered, his gloved hand grabbing my mittened one, swinging it. He was wearing a leather jacket, which couldn’t have been that warm.

“Told you.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Girl, you stick that out again, I’m going to make you use it to warm me up.”

“Such horrible threats.” I grinned.

“Your zoo has a train?” Tyler stopped to look at the train station near the entrance.

“Yeah, it takes you all the way to the back of the zoo,” I explained. “When I was a kid, we would walk to the back, and then take the train up front to the exit.”

“Because by then you were hot, tired, hungry, sick of smelling animals and just wanted the hell out of the zoo?” he guessed.

“You got it.” I laughed, my breath turning to steam in the air, a white plume of mirth. “Kind of weird, isn’t it? Putting animals in cages so humans come stare at them.”

“I’m familiar with the concept.”

“Feeling like an animal in a cage?” I glanced over at him.

“Sometimes we make our own cages.” He shrugged.

“We should set them all free.” I threw my arms wide as if by magic I could make all the cages fly open.

“If they wouldn’t arrest me, I’d do it.” He put his arms around my waist, pulling me close. “Just for you.”

“Let’s take the train to the back.” I said.

“All right,” he agreed.

We paid for the train ride—it was separate from the admission, any way to make more money—and settled ourselves in one of the open cars. I was right about the number of people who would go to the zoo in winter. I’d been to the zoo on field trips as a kid, and with my parents when I was young, and it was always in the warm months. The zoo was packed with people then, standing in lines, milling around with popcorn and snow cones. Today it was practically empty. It was almost like we had the whole place to ourselves.

The train took us all the way to the back of the zoo and dropped us off by the zebras, who were nowhere to be found. We discovered quickly why most people went to the zoo in the summer—a lot of the exhibits closed in the winter months. The warm weather animals were inside.

“Well we have to see the lions,” Tyler said. “And the tigers.”

“And the bears?” I teased.

“I hear there’s an awesome polar bear tunnel.”

“Where did you hear that?” I smiled. “Yeah, it’s cool, you walk through this tunnel and it’s completely under water. You can see the polar bears swimming. On the other side, you can see seals.”

“It’s polar bear torture. Food on the inside of the tube, food on the other side of the tube, and they can’t get to any of it.”

I laughed.

The lions were sad. They were all sleeping in their cages—typical cats—and it smelled so bad I had to hold my breath the whole way through. The tigers were the same, except there was one tiger awake. He paced back and forth in his cage, restless, whiskers twitching. The bears weren’t even out. No grizzlies or black bears. Hibernating weather.

“I guess this is the polar bear tube of torture?” Tyler nodded toward the Arctic Ring of Life sign—the Arctic fox, seal and polar bear exhibit.

“This is it.” I swung his hand as we entered. There were usually huge lines that stretched all along the twisted path but not today. “Hey, there’s the fox!”

I pointed at a white ball of fluff curled up in the corner, nose to tail, near the glass, keeping warm. We stopped and looked at him for a minute, but he didn’t stir.

We opened the door and went into the building. It was dark inside, and I blinked, letting my eyes adjust. We walked down a ramp, turning a corner, and entered the tunnel. It was eerily beautiful, the light reflecting through the water, casting blue shadows everywhere. There were seals swimming through the water on our right. They dove and played in the water. I touched my hand to the glass and they came to investigate, curious.

“Hope this stuff is pressure treated.” Tyler knocked on the glass as a seal swam by him.

We went through another dark section of the tunnel and came out on the polar bear side. I glanced around but didn’t see any bears.

“Guess they’re sleeping too,” I mused out loud.

“Look up.” Tyler lifted my chin with his finger and I gasped.

There was a polar bear walking right on the tube above us. His giant paws were bigger than my whole head. His claws alone were longer than my fingers. It was like seeing a ghostly giant pass overhead. As we watched, he dove off the side into the water, swimming lazily. He surfaced on the other side of the pond, away from us, pulling himself clumsily onto the rocks. Couldn’t be easy to lift all that body weight, I thought—especially soaking wet.

“Now this was worth the price of admission,” I said, smiling over at Tyler.

“Oh, just wait,” he said cryptically. I wrinkled my nose at him, but he didn’t expound as we walked out of the tunnel into another room. This one had a bunch of polar bear stuffed animals and other merchandise for sale. There were also posters all over the wall with information about the Arctic, polar bears and seals.

“Hey there, I’m Tyler Cook.” Tyler leaned on the counter, looking across it at the girl manning the register on the other side.

“Oh wow.” She blinked at him, looking stunned. She’d obviously had no idea, getting ready for work that morning, that she was going to run into a rock star that day. “I mean, I know who you are. I mean… oh… hi.”

“I arranged for a private tour, would you get your boss for me?”

“Uh. Yeah.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone, pushing buttons. “Hey, Chuck? Tyler Cook is here. He says… yeah, okay.”

She put her cell phone back in her pocket, staring at Tyler with an expression I was familiar with.

“He says he’ll be right here.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.” Tyler dropped her a wink. She hadn’t even noticed me. Hadn’t even looked my way. I might as well have been invisible.

“Would you...” She reached under the counter and pulled out a zoo map. “Mind signing something. Anything.”

“Sure.” Tyler signed an autograph while I went to the little window and looked out. From here I could see the polar bear who had walked on the tunnel surface. He was on his back, sunning himself in the rather weak Michigan sunshine.

When I turned back, Tyler was now talking with a short, balding man wearing round, black wire-rimmed glasses that made his eyes look huge. Tyler glanced over, saw me, and waved me over. I noticed the younger girl behind the counter give us a look when Tyler slid his arm around my shoulder. He did it without even thinking about it, pulling me close, but I was all too aware of the jealous, speculative looks we were getting.

“Come with me.” The bespectacled man, who said his name was Chuck, had us follow him. He swiped a key card in a door and opened it, and we all went through, heading through another tunnel, but this one wasn’t glass and now we were somewhere I suspected no zoo patrons were usually allowed.

“Where are we going?” I whispered to Tyler.

“You’ll see.” He just grinned.

“As I was telling Mr. Cook,” Chuck said over his shoulder as we walked. “We spend a great deal of time developing our captive breeding program. I think we have one of the best facilities in the country. You’re a lucky young lady to be able to see this today, though, as most of our patrons will never come this close to a live polar bear.”

“A… live polar bear?” I blinked at Tyler, feeling him propel me forward, even as I hesitated. Was he out of his freaking mind?

“Through here.” Chuck ran his card again and opened another door.

I could smell the bears, something dark and musky, as we went through.

“I’m not sure...” I gulped, feeling Tyler tighten his grip on my shoulder.

“Oh, it’s fine. Perfectly safe.” Chuck assured me with a smile as we turned the corner, out of the tunnel. Now we were in a brightly lit room, clearly some sort of lab. On the table was an exceptionally large bear, with several people surrounding it wearing surgical masks and latex gloves. So large, in fact, I wondered how in the hell they’d managed to move it without a forklift or a crane.

“Just passing through.” Chuck waved us onward. The masked veterinarians didn’t pay us any mind. “Normally you wouldn’t get an opportunity like this, but Sheera’s got a cracked tooth that had to be worked on, so Nacomi and Chinook are on their own for the day.”

“Babies!” I cried, pressing my nose against the glass like a two-year-old, my maternal instinct kicking in so hard I thought I might actually start to lactate. There were two polar bear babies behind the glass, playing and tumbling together, their fat little bodies and uncoordinated legs making them go end over end like little round balls of white fluff.

“They’re about two months old,” Chuck said, smiling at my reaction. “Still nursing, though and pretty dependent on Mama.”

“Can we go in?” I turned to Tyler, pleading. “Can we please go in? If I don’t get to touch one of those little baby bears, I’m going to die.”

“Well we can’t have that.” Tyler chuckled. That smug look on his face was well deserved this time. “Can she pet them?”

“Of course.” Chuck used his magic key to open the door. I had a feeling this was breaking every possible zoo rule known to man, and I also had a feeling Tyler had given them a hefty enough “donation” that Chuck could have cared less. “They are developing sharp teeth and mind their claws. They’re young but extremely playful and surprisingly strong.”

They bounded forward when we came in, unafraid, clearly used to human contact. They smelled us both as we crouched on the floor, sniffing our hands and our coats. I stored my mittens in my pockets, so I could pet their baby-soft fur. They were both about the size of a big raccoon and they both waddled like that too, making me laugh out loud when they tripped over their own feet.

“Both boys?” I asked as I rolled one of the toy balls and the bears rolled over it.

“Nacomi is a girl, Chinook’s a boy,” Chuck said from his post near the door.

One of the bear cubs—the girl one, Nacomi, I think—had the ball in her jaws and she returned with it, shaking her head from side to side. Her brother growled low in his throat and gave out a high-pitched yip. He wanted to play too.

“Wanna take one home?” Tyler teased as the boy bear gave up on his sister’s ball and came waddling over to me, plopping down in my lap, his big paws waving in the air as he wriggled and rolled to his back.

“I want a house full of polar bear cubs!” I laughed, tickling Chinook’s belly. His tongue lolled out of his mouth and I saw how sharp those little teeth were.

“As long as they stayed this size, right?” Tyler snorted, playing with Nacomi and her ball. She didn’t want to let it go.

Chuck told us about the breeding in captivity program, how they hoped human efforts would help slow or stop the melting of the polar ice caps eventually, but if, God forbid, it didn’t, they might have one of the few places left in the world where the polar bears didn’t go extinct. They’d been considered threatened in the wild for quite some time.

He didn’t change my mind about zoos, exactly, but he certainly made me appreciate what they did more. There was truly little I could complain about. The animals were clearly well cared for, fed, and happy.

When it was time to go, I stood reluctantly, and the bear cubs clambered at our feet, biting at the laces of Ty’s shoes and butting us with their little heads like they knew their playmates were ready to depart.

“I’ll just take one,” I joked, reaching down to scratch Nacomi behind the ears.

Chuck showed us out to the lobby and Tyler thanked him. I could barely talk around the lump in my throat. It wasn’t leaving the bear cubs, although that was part of it. It was Tyler. I knew who he’d arranged this little zoo side-trip for, and his sweetness and generosity floored me.

“So, did you like it?” he asked as we put our gloves and mittens and hats on and walked back out into the chilly winter air.

I couldn’t answer him. There weren’t words. So, I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him square on the mouth, hugging him so hard he had to grab onto me to keep us both from going over into a snow bank.

“You are an amazing man, Tyler Cook,” I choked into his ear as he pulled me close.

His smile broadened as we parted, and I don’t know how long we stood there, just looking at each other like we had a shared secret between us, something so big and awesome and incredible we just didn’t have words to express it, even if we could.

Finally, I grabbed his gloved hand in my mittened one and we started walking. I was oblivious to the cold, to the people, few and far between, to everything but Tyler and the big, bright, wide world he cut a path through everywhere he went. Being with this man was like being with a human tornado. It was one hell of a wild, exciting ride.

“Anything else you want to see?” he asked as we stopped at a vendor to buy hot chocolate.

“Nothing could top that.” I laughed, blowing steam off my cup, holding it clutched between my mittens.

“Is that a challenge?” he asked, smirking, as we started to walk again. Walking definitely kept me feeling warmer, although the hot chocolate wasn’t hurting, and being in the same hemisphere as Tyler Cook wasn’t either.

“I’ll never forget this day as long as I live,” I told him as we neared the zoo exit. Our hot chocolate was gone, my belly warm and full, and we were holding hands again as we walked up to the limo. I glanced up at him, his cheeks red from the cold, his dark eyes bright with a light I could feel every time he looked at me, and I wished I could give him something half as amazing as he’d given me. “I won’t ever forget you.”

“You think you’re forgettable?” He stopped halfway to the limo, pulling me into his embrace. He wore a little frown, his brow knitted, and I wanted to kiss that spot between them, so it would smooth right out again. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Katie.”

“Credit sucks, I’d rather spend cash.” I did kiss him then, up on my tiptoes to reach that very spot, feeling it smooth out under my lips as he smiled. “Let’s go, I’m hungry.”