Tangled Up In You (Rogue #1)
Prologue
PROLOGUE
SOPHIE
2002
S he was only expected to make up an answer—to lie.
So why did she immediately think of offering up her most cherished, intimate, real experience for this silly drinking game?
The beer buzz probably had a lot to do with it.
Sitting with a group of friends in a dive bar not far from their University of Southern California campus, she counted a dozen empty bottles of beer littering the small round table. The place was grungy and just lax enough that they weren’t carded for drinks.
“What’s it going to be then, Sophie?” Tobin asked and grabbed her arm, shaking her with mock eagerness.
She laughed but at the same time noticed the way his fingers trailed gently over the fine blond hair of her forearm when he released his grip. Tobin was in her Foundations of Western Art class and had been angling to get her alone rather than in a group outing like this since the semester started. With sandy hair and pale blue eyes, he was cute. She’d just never felt a spark with him. At least not anything close to the kind of fiery connection she’d once experienced and had since measured everyone else against.
It was her turn in the game called “You Wouldn’t Believe …” in which they each had to either confess a hard-to-believe truth or make something up and successfully defend the lie before declaring which it was.
“Okay, okay,” she said and took a deep breath. “You wouldn’t believe that … Gavin McManus asked me to marry him when I was sixteen years old.”
The four of them—Tobin, Rachel, Zach, and Gracelynn—watched her in silence for a second before all laughing at precisely the same time.
“Yeah, right!” Gracelynn said, pulling her long straight hair over one shoulder.
“How on earth do you think you can pull that one off?” Zach asked.
“You do know that you’re supposed to choose something at least halfway believable, right?” Rachel said, leaning over the table and patting her hand.
“It’s true, though!” Sophie protested with a smile. She had to remind herself that, to them, her declaration couldn’t be remotely true. Not given the fact that Gavin McManus was the singer for the up-and-coming Irish rock band Rogue and she was an American college sophomore. He supposedly proposed to her ?
“Totally,” Rachel said. “And then there was the time that Justin Timberlake asked me to be his backup singer.”
“It’s okay,” Tobin said as the others laughingly tried to one-up Rachel with their own celebrity stories. “I believe you, Sophie.” He emptied his Heineken bottle into her glass, and she knew his “generosity” was motivated by a desire to increase her beer buzz and therefore potentially offer himself better odds with her. “Tell me more about this episode where you almost became a child bride.”
Before she could respond, Rachel clapped her hands excitedly to get their attention. “You do know that your ‘husband’ is in town this weekend, right, Sophie?” she said, her voice oozing with amusement.
Sophie ignored the slightly mean edge of her friend’s tone, too struck by the revelation that Gavin— her Gavin— was so nearby to dwell on anything else. Her mouth went dry and her chest tightened. “He’s in town?”
“How do you, Mrs. McManus , not know that Rogue is playing two nights at the Palladium?”
“I, uh, I didn’t realize.”
“Maybe you can work your magic to get tickets!” Gracelyn said. “And backstage passes! Their guitarist is so hot!”
The idea of going to a Rogue show and even trying to get backstage sent Sophie’s head swimming with possibilities. Could she actually do it? Could she find a way to see Gavin again after having no contact for the last two years? How would he react to seeing her suddenly show up? Would he pull her to him in the fierce, possessive way he’d had with her when they were a couple? Would he call her darlin’ in with his sexy Irish lilt? Was it possible that they might still have that incredible connection they once shared? Her cheeks warmed at this reunion fantasy.
All she had to do now was make it a reality.