How to Be a Rockstar's Girlfriend: a fake dating, small town, rockstar romantic comedy (Cash &

Chapter 4

Mabon – an excuse for the town of Winter Falls to have a party

Gibson

“Come on. Hurry up.” Jett taps his toe as he waits for me to put my shoes on.

“What’s got your panties in a twist?”

“You know I don’t wear underwear.”

“Yeah, but what I don’t know is why someone who is constantly hurting himself wouldn’t want to wear underwear for a bit of protection.”

“I don’t need underwear to protect my balls.”

I cock an eyebrow. “I meant to protect me from seeing your dick hanging out when your pants are cut off because you broke your leg again.”

“I broke my leg one time.”

“Are we not counting the time you jumped off stage?”

“Whatever,” he mutters since he knows I’m right.

By my count, he’s broken his leg at least three times. And I’m not including all the sprains and other broken bones. The man is a daredevil who has no fear for his safety. One of these days it’s going to bite him in the ass.

“Get moving. Isla’s waiting for us.”

For someone who claims to hate children and has declared he will never have any, Jett certainly spends a lot of time with Leia’s eleven-year-old daughter.

I follow him out of our place to the house next door, which Fender shares with Leia and Isla. The door opens before we can enter and our bandmates and their girlfriends tumble outside. Dylan and Virginia are first. Fender and Leia with Isla in between them are next.

Last to exit are Cash and Indigo. Except Cash doesn’t look like Cash.

“What the hell are you wearing?” I ask him.

“Language,” Fender growls and points to Isla.

“Sorry. What the heck are you wearing?”

“It’s a disguise,” Cash answers. “Downtown will be crowded today with the Mabon festival.”

“I get the baseball cap. I even get the glasses with the funny nose. What I don’t get is the fat suit.” His t-shirt strains against his stomach.

“It was my idea,” Indigo says. “The baseball cap and glasses can’t hide his sexy body. He needs to hide his sexiness or he’ll be spotted by fans.”

Cash wraps an arm around her and pulls her near. “You think I’m sexy.”

She rolls her eyes. “Was there any doubt?”

He waggles his eyebrows. “Maybe you can—”

Fender growls. “Child present.”

Isla huffs. “I’m not a child.”

“She’s practically twelve,” Jett says and holds out his hand to her. She rushes to him. Together, they skip down the street ahead of us.

“Who else thinks it’s extremely weird Jett is skipping with a child?” I ask.

Leia glares at me. “What’s wrong with Isla?”

I hold up my palms and back away from her. “There’s nothing wrong with Isla. The problem is Jett. He ‘hates’ children.”

Her brow furrows. “He’s been nothing but kind to my daughter.”

“Thus the weirdness.”

Fender reaches across Leia to smack me upside the head. “Enough,” he growls.

“I thought you were going to stop being a grump since you’ve found love.” I feign gagging on the word love. Love. Ugh. Who needs it? Not me. Love is a lie.

Leia giggles. “Fender will always be a grump.”

He smiles down at her. “But I’m your grump.”

“I think I’ll go skip with Jett,” I mutter before hurrying ahead of the three couples.

For the past decade, it’s been the five of my bandmates against the world. Now, three of them are happily coupled off. At least Jett and I have a pact to never fall in love.

“What is Mabon anyway?” I ask when we arrive at Main Street.

“It’s a celebration of the harvest,” Indigo answers. She’s a teacher at the local school and is my source for all things local.

“But how do you celebrate it?” I ask.

“I think there’s a parade.” Cash indicates the ropes holding people back from entering the street.

“I wonder if they’ll throw candy,” Isla says.

Fender picks her up and settles her on his shoulders. “Come on, cutie pie. Let’s find a good spot to get some candy.”

Isla giggles. “Giddy up, horsey!”

“No, not horses,” someone groans from behind us. I whirl around to discover a police officer strolling toward us.

“Hey, Peace,” Cash greets his half-brother.

I’m still shocked whenever I think about Cash having brothers. When we met, he was an orphan with no family. His mother died when he was in high school and he didn’t have any other relatives. Or so he thought.

Turns out his biological dad had a wife and children as well as another child out of wedlock. Now Cash has six half-brothers and two women who have claimed him as his son.

My stomach sours. Knock it off. I’m not jealous. I’m happy for my bandmate.

“What’s wrong with horses?” Jett asks.

Peace rubs a hand down his face. “We use horses to pull the parade floats since cars are frowned upon in Winter Falls. But Juniper is protesting the use of the horses.”

I perk up. A protest could be fun. “How is she protesting?”

“A sit-in at the courthouse.”

I frown. A sit-in sounds boring. Where’s the loud protesting? The clash with the police? The time in jail? Maybe I can give Juniper some ideas.

“No.” Peace steps in front of me.

I feign confusion. “What? No?”

He wags his finger at me. “No joining the protest.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Isn’t the right to protest constitutionally protected?”

Jett comes to stand next to me. “It is. We should join them.”

Dylan sighs. “No. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum will not be protesting today.”

I glare at him. “You can’t stop me.”

“What will your new lady think of your protesting?”

My brow wrinkles. “I don’t have a lady.”

He points behind me. I search the area until my gaze falls on Mercy. The woman who claimed she didn’t know who I am. She must know who I am by now. Google doesn’t lie. I think I’ll go find out.

“See ya,” I say and make my way to Mercy who appears to be arguing with Old Man Mercury again. I slow to listen to their argument.

“You shouldn’t be walking around town,” Mercy yells at Mercury.

“I’ll walk around town if I damn well want to.”

“The doctor said you should rest your knee and hip. You aren’t the youngest anymore.”

“You aren’t putting me in a home.”

Mercy plants her hands on her hips. “The doctor says you need round the clock care.”

“The doctor says. The doctor says,” Mercury grumbles.

“I can’t care for you twenty-four-seven.”

“Why not? It’s not as if you have a boyfriend.”

Mercy’s nostrils flare as she glares at Mercury. “I’m not getting a boyfriend just so you’ll agree to live in a nursing home.”

Hold on? Is this my opportunity? Does she need a boyfriend? I don’t do the boyfriend/girlfriend thing but I can fake it. I do enjoy any chance to pull one over on my bandmates.

“Hey, Mercy,” I holler.

She glances my way and those dark brown eyes I want to watch light up with passion fill with confusion.

“Do I know you?”

“We met at the bar.”

She frowns and my gaze snags on those dark red lips. Those full lips will look sexy as fuck stretched around my cock. My pants tighten in response to the vision.

“I don’t remember you.”

I chuckle. She must be joking.

“I’m serious.”

“You were arguing with Mercury then, too.”

She sighs. “You aren’t exactly narrowing things down.”

“He wanted a drink. You were barring him from entry to the bar.”

“Sounds familiar,” she mutters. “This guy doesn’t listen.”

She glances toward Mercury but he’s gone.

“Did you let him sneak off?”

I motion to where he’s sitting next to Clove. “He’s there.”

Her shoulders fall in relief. “Who knew my uncle would be such a pain in my ass?”

“Old Man Mercury is your uncle?”

“So I’m told.”

“Since your uncle’s safe, why don’t you and I watch the parade together?” I waggle my eyebrows to make it clear I’m not referring to watching the actual parade.

“I don’t even know you. Why would I go anywhere with you?”

“I’m Gibson Lewis, remember? I told you who I was when we met. Didn’t you google me?”

She rears back. “Google you? Why the hell would I google you?”

“To figure out who I am.”

“Why? Are you some famous stalker?”

“Stalker? Me?”

“You’re the one who keeps insisting I google you. What do you expect me to think?”

“I didn’t expect you to think I’m a stalker.” I clear my throat. “Let’s start over.” She doesn’t respond so I rush to continue. “Hi, Mercy. I’m Gibson. It’s lovely to meet you.”

We shake hands. “You’re weird.”

“I’m not used to introducing myself to people.”

“Oh, are you a hermit? Is it scary for you to be amongst this many people?”

“I’m not a damn hermit,” I growl.

She shrugs and I watch as her breasts jiggle with the movement. My fingers tingle to touch her, to knead her breasts, to pinch her nipples until she’s crying my name.

She snaps her fingers in my face. “My eyes are up here.”

“Sorry.”

She snorts. “You’re not sorry.”

I grin. I’m not.

“This has been lovely. Not. But I need to go.” She starts to leave, but I shackle her wrist to stop her.

She glares down at my hand on her, and I immediately let go and step back.

“I have a proposal for you.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Why would I care?”

“It’ll help get your uncle off your back.”

“I’m listening.”