Chapter 20

Candice

“Hey, get up,” a deep voice whispers next to me.

“Please don’t make me,” I say.

“We have to get going,” he says. I turn over and look at Conner.

“This is the worst hangover I’ve ever had.” I groan.

“This is the first time I’ve woken up with a hot girl in my bed without sleeping with her, so who has it worse here?” He sits up and I follow. I lean against his shoulder.

“Thanks for letting me crash here,” I say.

“I never turn away a beautiful woman, especially one crying,” he replies.

“You’re the best.” I smile.

“Are you going to tell me what happened now?” he asks.

“No,” I say. I don’t want to talk about it ever again. I had fallen for the bullshit tales Mick weaves.

“All right.” Conner pats my knee. Conner grabs the pillow from behind him and hits me in the shoulder.

“You’re dead!” I shout as I stand up on the bed, grab my own pillow weapon and hit him.

“You’re going down Bryan.” He smirks as he grabs my ankle and pulls me down. I fall onto my back and laugh so hard. Conner gets on top of me and gently hits me with the pillow in the face. We’re both laughing when we hear Caroline scream Conner’s name from the hallway.

“Stay here,” he says and jumps off the bed quick and bolts to the door. I can’t hear anything, so I sit back on the bed. Ten minutes later Conner walks back in.

“What was that about?” I ask him. He looks frazzled.

“Mick.” He grumbles and runs a hand through his hair.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Him and Brandon got into a scuffle. I gotta get going but I’ll see you later ya?” he asks.

“Yeah of course. Do you want to get dinner after work?” I ask. Caroline was meeting Rick for dinner which left me on my own again.

“It’s a date.”

“I’m going to wear sweatpants and put my hair up so it’s the opposite of a date.”

“Oh baby you’re so sexy when you talk like that,” he gives me a quick hug before he leaves.

I get up and grab my purse. I step into the hall and close my eyes against the door. Another door slams next to me and my eyes shoot open.

“Have a good night?” Mick glares at me.

“Better than you I see.” I look at him. His eye is already starting to turn black and blue from where I assume Brandon hit him. He walks towards me.

“Fucking Conner already aye?” he asks, and it takes every ounce of self-restraint I have not to slap him again.

“You’ve clearly had a rough morning so I’m not getting into this with you.” I cross my arms. He steps closer to me, and I take a half step back before I’m stopped by the door.

“Now you care?” he scowls.

I sigh. He looks broken and I want to pull him into a hug.

“I have to go,” he says abruptly.

“I’ll see you at work.”

“No, you won’t. I got a new hair person.”

“You what?” I feel a dull stabbing in my heart. I was mad at him, but I didn’t want us to hate each other.

“You won’t have to worry about being close to this disgusting person.” He turns on his heels and stomps down the hallway.

My gaze turns up to the ceiling wondering why the hell I ever thought it would be a good idea to get involved with Mick Davies.

After a quick shower, I head to the stadium to set up my room for the next few days. We had three dates at this venue, which was a great way to ease into tour. Caroline shows me to a room close to the lads’ dressing rooms.

“Sorry love, I have to take off. Trying to deal with all of the Mick and Brandon drama before it explodes again.”

“What happened?” I ask. I still don’t know anything.

“You should ask him.” She sighs. “I’ll talk to you later.” She closes the door, leaving me to my own devices.

I saunter down the hallway and hesitate when I get outside the door that says ‘Davies.’ I take a deep breath before knocking.

“Come in.” Mick calls to the door.

I open it and step inside. The room has clothes scattered everywhere. Mick is lounging on the black leather couch, lightly strumming his guitar. His eyes narrow when he sees it’s me.

“What do you want? Didn’t you say enough this morning?” He places the guitar beside him and stands up.

“I’m worried about you,” I say. “You and Brandon got into a scuffle?”

He doesn’t say anything as he moves closer to me. When he gets to me, his smell invades my senses. Mick’s scent drives me crazy.

“Candice don’t worry about me. I’m a big boy,” he says.

“You lied to me,” I blurt.

“I did,” he says.

“Why would you lie to me?” I say and a tear betrays me as it slowly trickles down my face. Mick wipes it away and traces my cheek with his thumb.

“Because I didn’t know you. I didn’t care then,” he says.

“But you care now?” I ask sounding pathetic.

“I’ll always care about you,” he whispers.

“Then why are you hiring a new hairstylist?” I ask.

“Because I can’t be around you. I can’t look at you without wanting to kiss you and I’m not good enough for you,” he says as he pulls me into him. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”

I don’t want him to let me go but I’m still so mad at him. Still, my heart speaks instead of my mind. “Me too.”

“Excuse me?” a female voice comes from behind us, and I break out of Mick’s grasp.

“Hello?” Mick says and takes a seat on the couch. A woman walks towards us in a beautiful cream-colored pencil skirt and white blouse. Her strawberry blonde hair is tied up and she had a cliché pen tucked behind her ear.

“Hi, I’m a reporter, Zoey Cardum, with Rock Times Magazine. Caroline said I could just come back here and talk to you.” She smiles at me.

“I’ll leave you guys be,” I say.

Mick nods and the woman gives me one last warm smile before I slip out into the hallway.

I get back to my workstation and there’s a teenage girl sitting in my chair.

“Hello? Can I help you?” I ask her. She turns to face me, and it takes me only a second to figure out this was Violet Davies. Her hair and eyes matched Mick’s to a tee. She’s naturally pretty.

“Hi, I’m Violet.” She holds out her hand.

“I’m Candice,” I reply.

“So, you’re Candice.” She smiles.

“You know me?” I ask.

“Just what the tabloids tell me. You’re gorgeous,” she gushes.

“Thank you. So are you!”

“Is it true you and my brother are dating?”

“No, we’re not.”

“We had a bit of a hard upbringing so if he seems like a jerk, it’s just our parents.” She fiddles with her phone then sits in one of my make up chairs.

“Are they around much?”

“They’re drug addicts,” Violet says. “Mickey has tried to get them help multiple times, but it never works. He thinks I don’t know how big their problems are, but I do.”

“I’m so sorry,” I say and sit in the chair beside her.

“It’s okay.” She shrugs. “I have my brother and he’s great.”

I smile at her. “How long are you here for?” I move to grab some lip gloss from my kit.

“Just till Thursday morning. I have to get back to school after.” She frowns.

“Do you want me to do your makeup?”

“You would do that?”

“Why not?”

“Mickey never lets me wear makeup.”

“He’s not around right now and by the time he sees you it’ll be too late.” I wink. “I can show you how to do it so when you go back to school you can show the other girls,” I say and her face drops.

“I don’t have any friends,” she whispers.

“Why?” I ask as I use a light gold eyeshadow to make Violet’s eyes pop.

“The other girls tease me for not being from a rich family. Mickey says I shouldn’t listen to them, but it’s hard. I just wish I had one friend.”

“I can be your friend,” I say as I trace her lips with a light pink lipstick.

“Really?”

“Of course.” I put on a small amount of eyeliner. I don’t go too heavy with the makeup. I don’t need Mick angry again.

“I hope my brother marries you.”

“I don’t think so, Vi.”

“Just so you know, he’s really not bad.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I chuckle.

“Violet?” Mick is standing in the doorway.

“Hey Mickey.” She rushes over and launches into his arms.

“What are you doing in here, Snaps?” he asks.

“Don’t call me that!” She crosses her arms.

“Sorry.” He tries to hide a smile. “What have you got on your face?”

“Candice did my makeup.”

“You don’t need makeup,” he says. “You look great.” He pulls her in for another hug. She grins at him as he lets her go. My heart swells at their interaction.

“Thanks for letting me come. I’m so excited to see you,” she says.

“I’m happy you’re here too,” he says.

“Good. Now where are you taking me for dinner tonight?” she asks.

“A surprise,” he says.

“Can Candice come?” she asks. For a second I had forgotten they could see me.

“Oh I can’t tonight, love. Sorry,” I say.

“Have plans, do you?” Mick asks.

“I do,” I say.

“Maybe we can hang out later?” Violet asks.

“Sure,” I say.

“Add your number to my phone.” She hands me her iPhone. I type in my number and hand it back to her.

“I’ll talk to you later!” she says.

“Bye, Violet. Thanks for hanging out with me,” I reply. Violet walks out of the room but Mick is still here staring at me.

“What’s up?” I say to him.

“I just—thank you—for being nice to her. It means a lot.” He scratches the back of his neck.

“She’s easy to be nice to. Hard to tell that you’re related.” It’s a joke but I can see hurt flash in his eyes.

“Yeah she’s great. So what are you doing tonight?” he asks me.

“I’m going out for dinner.”

“With whom?”

“Conner. And before you say anything, we’re just friends so don’t be a dick about it,” I say.

“I wasn’t going to say anything.” He holds his hands up in innocence. “Maybe I’ll see you later ya?”

“Maybe.”

*****

After getting most things sorted, I go to find Conner. He’s playing a video game and he asks me to join him. We are having a great time when my phone dings. Nadine texts me a link of a news article and I frown.

“What happened?” Conner asks as he pauses the game.

“There’s a story accusing me of sleeping with Mick, Charlie, and you,” I say.

“We did sleep together.” There’s a cheeky spark in his eyes.

“Shut up.” I laugh.

“Don’t worry about what people say.”

“I know you’re right, but I just hate when people judge me before they know me.”

“It’s going to happen a lot. You’re kind of famous if you haven’t noticed.”

“I guess a little.”

“Did you talk to Mick?”

“Yeah, I did. I met his sister too.” I smile.

“Vi is great! How she and Mick are related I’ll never know,” Conner says.

“Why are you and Mick not friends? I just don’t see you as someone who really gets into meaningless fights,” I say.

“It’s an interesting tale. We never were really friends. We never hated each other though. It was almost like overnight he decided he was better than everyone else. Then last year I slept with some girl I met backstage after one of the gigs and it turned out to be Tommy’s girlfriend—” he trails off.

“You didn’t!”

“Oh, but I did. I totally shagged her and then afterwards Tommy tried to beat my face in. I hadn’t met her before, and I didn’t know. So, seeing as how him and Mick are buddies, they both started hating me. It’s a whole mess.” He pauses. “Sometimes I wish we could go back and not take anything for granted. In the beginning everything was better. We still fought but it was more as brothers than enemies.”

“I can understand.” I nod. Conner has some M&Ms on a coffee table, so I pop a few into my mouth.

“I’m like your best friend now, aye?” He chuckles.

“Caroline was busy,” I say.

“Ouch!” He holds a hand to his heart as if I’ve wounded him.

“You’re my best male friend?” I reply.

“I’ll take it. I’m still going to try to shag you all the time though.” He gives me his signature Conner wink.

“I’d expect nothing less,” I laugh.

“See you later for dinner?” Conner asks.

“You bet,” I say before slipping out into the hallway.

Conner is right; he is starting to become my best friend.