Chapter 14

Reese didn’t know if her exhaustion was simply par for the course on a tour, or if it came from the emotional overload of knowing she would be leaving with Sterling in two days. They were in a hotel after another packed and amazing show in Dallas. Reese had sent a text to Staci that morning, telling her they needed to talk, but now she was too tired. She had on pajamas, watching HGTV and decompressing in the hotel room. After sleeping in the tiny bunk on the bus, she slept in the very center of the hotel room bed, spreading her arms and legs out as far as she could like she was making a snow angel in the sheets.

That’s where she was when someone started banging on her hotel room door at the same time as her phone started blowing up. As she got up, Reese glanced at the phone in her hand, still vibrating, and saw the last in a stream of texts from Staci.

Staci:Sterling is a BABY DADDY? Call me, girl

The cocktail of emotions that hit her bloodstream were muddled, but they were all bad. Reese hadn’t even thought to check the peephole to see who was on the other side, assuming it would be Morgan. She was surprised to see Sterling with her. They both wore serious, angry faces. Without speaking, Reese stepped aside so they could come in.

Morgan stepped in easily, her mouth a hard line. Sterling hesitated for a second, his dark eyes fiery on Reese, then walked right in. His cologne or deodorant or whatever pheromones made him smell amazing went right into her nose and then right to the part of her that couldn’t seem to dial back the heart palpitations. His fierce look helped temper the feeling some. Dark Sterling had definitely showed up tonight.

Morgan flopped down on the queen-sized bed, eyes going to the TV. The two Property Brothers were just telling the couple the exorbitant price of their dream house, so that they would understand renovating a dump was their only option. Sterling stood in the corner, looking like he didn’t know where to place himself. Reese didn’t miss the way Sterling’s eyes were all over the room, finally settling on the bed, where the top blanket that hotels never washed had been shoved to the floor and the sheets were completely pulled away as though two people were sleeping there. Reese felt oddly exposed having him in her space, even if it was a hotel room, not a bedroom. He finally sat down at the small table by the window.

The fact that no one was speaking unnerved Reese. “Tell me.”

Morgan put the TV on mute, but didn’t turn it off. “You didn’t already hear?”

“Isn’t this your job?” Sterling asked.

Reese tried not to show the way his harsh tone cut into her. Since the conversation they’d had backstage when she said yes to going to LA, their relationship had gone right back to where it was, as though her freak-out over Morgan in his bed hadn’t happened. Now he was acting worse than he had when he first saw her on the tour bus. It made her angry.

“Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a machine, up all night monitoring what the internet is saying about Sterling James,” she snapped.

“Sterling,” Morgan said, shooting him a look. He crossed his arms. Morgan looked back at Reese. “There’s a girl—woman, I guess. Girl would be worse.” She gave a harsh laugh. “She claims that Sterling is the father of her unborn child.”

Reese pulled out her laptop while Morgan talked. She sat down at the table across from Sterling, wishing for more space between them. From the look on his face, you’d think this whole thing was her fault. She was going to get whiplash from how quickly he changed moods toward her.

But even his angry face was attractive. Reese realized that she had on non-matching pajamas from Target, no bra, and no makeup. A hand flew to her hair, half-falling out of a messy bun. She cleared her throat and looked at Morgan. “Fill me in. I’m pulling up sites now. DNA test?”

“No baby yet. She’s pregnant.”

“They can do in utero tests.” Reese said. “Right? Can’t they?” She realized that for the most part, her knowledge about pregnancy and babies came from television shows and medical dramas. Her sister Rachel didn’t talk to her that often and hadn’t shared a lot of pregnancy details with her. Plus, it wasn’t like she and her husband had been concerned about DNA tests when she was pregnant.

Morgan sighed. “They can, but any of those kinds of tests have added risks during pregnancy. She’s refusing.”

“You’ve already talked to her?”

“I reached out to her people,” Morgan said.

Reese nodded. “Good. The fact that she has people is the first sign that this isn’t for real. It’s something else.” It took three seconds to find a slew of articles and social posts. “Wow, she went straight to Talk Life, huh? Classy.”

Of all the tabloids, Talk Life was the one that took on the most absurd and usually untrue stories. They were constantly fighting legal battles. No one really believed their stories, but that didn’t matter. Talk Life acted simply as the gateway for rumors. And they made bank on taking these risks. Once stories moved through that gate, they flooded social media and smaller sites and became the things that everyone was talking about.

“Okay, we can handle this. There are worse things. Right? And I mean, it’s not true. Do we know it’s not true?” Reese risked a look at Sterling. “I have to ask. Sorry.”

His dark look intensified, sending a shudder through her that she hoped he didn’t see. “I’ve never seen her before in my life. I definitely did not sleep with her.”

Reese tried not to think about the relief she felt hearing his answer. She scanned the article while braiding her hair into something that would look a little more polished.

“You’re doing hair right now? Really?” Sterling said. Whatever she had imagined passed between them earlier was gone. He spoke with a harsh disdain that squeezed her heart with disappointment.

She thought about calling him on it, just asking him why he was being such a jerk. But she needed to focus on this right now, not her relationship with Sterling. Any minute now, Kevin would be calling and she wanted to have a plan. She couldn’t show Sterling how much it hurt that he flipped the switch. Not for the first time, she thought about how accurate the Night and Day Sterling moniker was.

“I’m multitasking,” Reese said, flicking her eyes back to the screen.

“We can fight the whole DNA thing once the baby’s born if she refuses to do it now,” Morgan said. “But it will hang over us until then, right? This chick is everywhere, not just Talk Life. Money says she’s on all the morning talk shows. She has pictures.”

“Which is impossible, since I’ve never met the girl,” Sterling said, his voice practically a growl.

“Give me a minute,” Reese said. She finished reading the Life Talk article and then flipped around the internet for a bit, taking mental notes. “These are clearly photoshopped.” She turned the computer sideways so Sterling could see and angled her chair a little closer to him. Morgan got up and stood by them, looking on. On the screen was a picture of the girl, making a kissy face next to Sterling. He was smiling and had his arm around her.

“How?” Morgan said. “I believe you, but this looks real to me.”

Reese pointed to Sterling’s jaw. His strong, manly, attractive jaw. Focus.

“See the light there? Now look at her face. The lighting is off. Check his hand on her shoulder. It’s small since it’s in the background, but that looks like a woman’s hand. It’s well done. She either knows her way around these programs or she hired someone. She’s a party planner, so I’m guessing she hired someone.”

“Why does that matter that she’s a party planner?” Sterling asked, for the first time not in a snippy tone of voice.

“It may not, but some jobs would make knowing how to do that easier. I could do that, for example. If she was a photographer or big blogger or worked in design or something, I’d be more certain she did it herself because many of those people are familiar with the programs. This is looking more and more like a pro job. She planned it and she hired it out. Or someone hired her.”

“People do that?” Sterling asked.

Morgan laughed. “I swear, sometimes it’s like you haven’t been in this industry for years.”

Sterling glared. “I focus on the music, not all this other stuff.”

“People say and do and sell all kinds of stories,” Reese said. She had seen a lot of that kind in Azul, which is one reason she was so good at identifying it.

“She doesn’t seem like she’s going to shut up,” Morgan said. “Her people didn’t say anything when I asked about this, but what do you think she wants? What’s the end game for stuff like this? They didn’t say money, which worries and confuses me.”

“Probably fame or attention, which is my first guess. Not like Sterling’s going to give her money without a DNA test. Unless he was paying her to be quiet, but it’s too late for that.”

“I wouldn’t do that anyway,” he said.

Reese was still clicking through web pages. “As soon as she has that baby, the game is up. Likely she wanted to get her business on the map. Doesn’t always turn out the way people hope though. People always say no press is bad press, but that’s not really true. Social media can ruin lives. Yep, she’s already got hate posts on her Facebook page. She may shut up on her own. But it may start an avalanche of bad media. People love the swinging pendulum. And your press has been positive lately. This isn’t great timing with what we were trying to do with your shift, giving you a place of power so you can better negotiate with the label.”

“Can you do something about it?” Sterling said. “We did hire you for this.”

“Why are you acting like I did this?” Reese asked. “I don’t own the internet. I can’t keep things like this from happening. I’m doing my best here. Can you ease up?”

Sterling looked down at the table. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I’m just stressed. I hate this kind of thing. It’s the worst part of my job.”

“Mine too,” Reese said. Her phone buzzed to life on the table. Not the phone call she wanted at this moment. “I’m going to take this. It’s my boss. Hey, Kevin.”

“What are you doing about this disaster? I’ve seen nothing from Sterling so far. I’m calling to make sure you’ve got your game face on.”

“I’m with Sterling and his manager right now.”

There was silence on the phone for a moment.

“Am I on speakerphone?” Kevin asked.

“No,” Reese said. Both Morgan and Sterling were staring at her, as though watching for a clue from the conversation.

“Fix this. It’s not good.”

“I know it’s not.”

“Well, what are you doing about it? Give me your plan.”

“We literally just sat down—”

“Not good enough. If you don’t or can’t handle this, I don’t want you back in Nashville. At the end of the tour, you’re out. Or I can pull you sooner.”

“Kevin! You can’t—”

“Hush. Let’s talk strategy. Obviously, you can destroy her reputation, which seems like it should be easy based on a cursory glance on her social.”

“No one wants to destroy a pregnant woman,” Reese said. Morgan’s face registered shock and Sterling jerked back like he had been struck. Reese covered the phone and waved a casual hand. “It’s fine. My boss is going through potential strategies and what will or won’t work. We’re not destroying anyone.”

Kevin continued. “The other option is something good and distracting from your camp. What do we have on that front?”

“Well,” Reese said, “We’ve got a completely sold-out tour. Sterling is on the top of his game. He’s also thinking about a rebrand …”

“No. None of that. Don’t talk about the rebrand right now. People hate change. Sold-out tours are great, but not newsworthy. We’ll have to create something. You know this. Why am I having to remind you of this?”

Reese spoke through a clenched jaw. “Kevin, while I understand this strategy as well, I’m not sure we want to fabricate something. I feel very uncomfortable with that. I’ll talk with Sterling and Morgan about it.”

“You’ll feel uncomfortable if you don’t fix this because you won’t have a job. Understand?”

Reese cleared her throat. “Yes. What would you suggest?”

She hated to ask. Honestly, she didn’t know what he would say, but she knew that she wouldn’t like it. Social media strategy and management involved a lot of different skill sets. Reese was like a Swiss Army Knife with a bunch of different tools she could unfold depending on the situation. For a problem like this, Reese had to think like a PR person, like Kevin. She hated spin, especially of his variety. She understood it. But she hated it all the same.

Not all PR was bad, but the way that Kevin handled it tended to lean on the dishonest side, which made her distinctly uncomfortable. In the past he had set up charity work and fake photo shoots to make terrible people look amazing. That was just the start. She tried to simply ignore the other things she had ethical problems with so she could keep working at Azul without feeling like her integrity had been compromised.

“The easiest would be a relationship.”

“A fake one?” Reese put her head in her hands.

“Is he in a real one? A relationship that would look good publicly?”

“No. He isn’t. But I’m not sure—”

Kevin sighed. It was forced, fake, just for her to hear its sound. “We need someone attractive and who looks like she could realistically be his girlfriend. Photos of them together, maybe some kind of back story people can sink their teeth into. A tragedy? Dead parent? Divorce? Abusive ex?”

Reese put her hand over her face. “Kevin, even if I wanted to do that—which I don’t—we’re on a tour bus. How are we going to pull any of that off?”

“Aren’t there any women on the tour? If you can’t find someone perfect, find someone convenient and make it look perfect. Obviously you need to have a heart-to-heart with yourself about how serious you are with this job. Call me tomorrow. Let me know what you’ve decided.”

Kevin didn’t even say goodbye. There was only silence. Reese held out her phone to make sure he wasn’t still on the line.

“That sounded really awful,” Morgan said. “What did he say?”

“Was that the boss you hate?” Sterling asked.

“The very same one,” Reese said, trying to crack a smile. She was sure it looked more like a grimace.

Sterling’s phone started buzzing and he made a face. “I’m going to take this out in the hall.”

When he stood, it was abrupt enough that the chair he’d been in fell over backwards. He was out the door in a moment, flipping the deadbolt so the door wouldn’t lock behind him.

Morgan waited for the door to close and took the seat across from Reese. “What did your boss want to fake?” Morgan asked.

Reese felt better about saying this just to Morgan. Hopefully the two of them could come up with something else. She sighed. “Kevin suggested a fake relationship for Sterling. Give the public something happy and positive to latch onto. We can’t diffuse this woman’s story or prove the baby isn’t his now if she doesn’t want to do the in utero tests. So, we need a happy diversion to make Sterling look good in the press. Get them talking about something else.”

Celebrities faked relationships all the time for various reasons. It wasn’t unusual or considered that bad. The public almost never found out and in the cases where they did, it was easily brushed over in the press. There would be rumors, but people wouldn’t really ever know for sure. It would probably work. But there had to be something else.

“Personally, I hate the idea,” Reese said. “This is not how I like to do things. I prefer honesty and authenticity. Sometimes that’s harder. My boss likes things easy and has a very loose grasp on the concept of truth.”

Shockingly, Morgan didn’t seem to hate the idea. “Is this such a big deal? People do this all the time. One of the guys in the last band I managed had a fake girlfriend for a while. Helped him get more Instagram followers.”

“That’s so …” Reese made a face. She had no good words for how she felt about that.

“I’m guessing you haven’t pulled off a fake relationship before.”

“No. It’s a personal thing. I know it’s done. It isn’t the worst thing. But faking a relationship bothers my integrity. I avoid this kind of strategy. It’s not me.”

“What kind of fallout are we talking? What are the cons?” Morgan asked. “It may not be ideal, but I’m with Kevin. We need something that works.”

“The downside is that it can be hard to maintain without conflict. It’s usually someone the person knows already, just to make it easier. Some couples come to resent each other. Some fall for each other. There are so many lies and so much confusion that it can lead to messy relationships. Or it can ruin them.”

“What if people find out it’s fake?”

Reese shrugged. “Not a huge deal. Magazines and blogs and news outlets share so many stories. The public is used to fake news. I think they only half-believe what they read anyway. If they get wind of a fake relationship, the public always has doubt. Kind of like Area 51. People have heard of faking relationships, but it sounds so ridiculous that if a story like that comes out, it largely gets ignored. It usually doesn’t have a negative impact on how people see the celebrity. Unless there is something incriminating, like a video where they talk about it or a printed contract. Or if there was something bigger being hidden by the fake relationship.”

“I think we should do it,” Morgan said.

“I can’t see Sterling being on board with it.”

Morgan leaned across the table, her gaze intense. “Then we need to get him on board. I promised him that I would do my very best to get him in the best position for a rebrand. He doesn’t want to renew his contract. He needs leverage and power and good stories out there. I want to help him get that. If you and I together agree on this, we can convince him. He trusts us. It just doesn’t sound like that big of a deal.”

“I don’t want to pressure him if it’s not something he wants to do.”

“Sterling never does anything he doesn’t want to do,” Morgan said. “He just needs a little nudge.”

Reese was quiet for a moment. She could hear Sterling’s low voice out in the hall. “It would have to be you,” she said finally.

Morgan blinked. “What?”

“The fake girlfriend. You’re the only one who makes sense. His childhood best friend reconnects as his manager and they fall in love—people would love that story. Plus, you’re right here. Easy opportunity.”

A flush crept over Morgan’s cheeks. “Me?”

“You. Still want to do it?”

Reese could see Morgan thinking about it. She was a smart girl too, probably going over the potential pros and cons. They still hadn’t had a conversation where they addressed the elephant in the room: they both had feelings about Sterling. It now hung between them, making the room feel thick with tension. Morgan swallowed and met Reese’s eyes. “Would you be okay with that?”

Reese squeezed Morgan’s hand on the table. “I would. Even if it wasn’t fake. It might not be the easiest thing, but I would be okay, yes.”

Morgan squeezed her hand. “Same.”

“Just be careful,” Reese said. “These fake relationships can cause a lot of strife. I’d hate to see you and Sterling lose your friendship.”

“We’ll be fine,” Morgan said. Reese hoped she was right.

They were both still smiling and holding hands when Sterling walked back in. He gave them a funny look and Morgan pulled her hand away. He sat down on Reese’s bed, dragging his fingers through his hair.

“I hope you guys have figured this out,” he said. “That was my rep for the label. They are not thrilled.”

Morgan looked to Reese. Clearly Morgan didn’t want to be the one to drop this on Sterling. Not that Reese wanted to. Would he hate the idea? More importantly, would he be okay with Morgan being the fake girlfriend, not Reese?

“We’ve got a plan,” Morgan said, when Reese didn’t say anything. “Both of us agree on this, so don’t fight us.”

“Why would I fight you? You’re both on my team. I trust you.”

Reese cleared her throat. “We are going to pull a famous PR play: the fake girlfriend.”

Sterling looked between the two of them. “Huh?” Morgan went to sit beside him on the bed.

“You and Morgan will pretend to be in a relationship,” Reese said. “We’ll spin a childhood sweethearts story and give the public something romantic and happy to talk about.”

Sterling’s eyes speared Reese with a gaze. “Morgan is going to be my girlfriend? Morgan.”

“Yes. It’s the perfect story and we can fake it easily since she’s on tour. A few pictures here and there. I can feed info to the media.”

“And you’re both on board with this?” Sterling asked. “Both of you?”

Reese felt like Sterling was asking why not Reese. Did he feel like this was a rejection? Obviously if he was fake dating Morgan, he couldn’t date Reese. She had already told him that she couldn’t date him because of her job. Even though it felt like they were both skating closer toward that line.

“I don’t like this,” Sterling said.

“What did your boss say about the rebrand? I heard you ask,” Morgan said. She gave Reese a look that told her she needed to sell this.

Reese looked down at the table. “He said he wouldn’t recommend taking it public at this time or making it a focus. Not with this going on.”

Sterling groaned. Leaning back in the chair, he covered his face with his hands. “Yeah, the label wasn’t happy. No way I can talk about making contract changes with things hanging over me. This was going so well. I really thought …” He shook his head.

“It won’t be a big deal,” Morgan said.

Everything in Reese was screaming to stop this. To offer a viable solution. But the only other thing she could think of was to simply ignore it. Sometimes that worked, but she worried that would make Sterling look calloused toward the woman and his potential baby. Sure, in a few months everyone would know it wasn’t his, but with his contract up in the air, this wasn’t a good time for a gamble.

The ugly, jealous monster in her also resisted. Reese knew in her mind that it would be fake, but jealousy burned in her throat. Morgan’s feelings toward Sterling weren’t manufactured. Reese would have to orchestrate their relationship, set up dates for them, watch them be physical, even photograph it. The thought killed her.

Reese refreshed Sterling’s Facebook page, reading through comments and posts from fans. They were not good. She thought about her job. If she didn’t fix this, Kevin had already told her she was out. Creating a fake relationship wasn’t a big deal. Right? She would get over her jealousy and be professional about this. She needed to, for his sake.

“Reese?” Sterling looked at her, questions all over his face. He could tell that she wasn’t happy about this.

“It’s probably our best option,” Reese admitted.

“You really think so?”

It felt like he was asking something else. Like why Reese hadn’t offered to be his fake girlfriend. But just as she and Morgan hadn’t talked about the fact that they both liked Sterling, she and Sterling hadn’t voiced anything about how they felt. Reese nodded, looking at her lap. Sterling sighed.

Morgan linked her arm through Sterling’s. “It will be easy, big guy. And if Reese thinks it will help, then it will help.”

Reese gritted her teeth. That made it sound like this whole thing was her idea, not Kevin’s idea that Morgan kept pushing. She did not want her name attached to this. When she was out on her own, this would not be how she operated. Clients could come or go, but she wouldn’t take part in this. Right now, with Kevin holding her job over her head, she didn’t have that luxury.

“I guess I’ll do it,” Sterling said. He didn’t sound sure.

Morgan leaned her head on his shoulder. “We can pull this off. And when you’re all settled with a new contract letting you make the music you want to make, with this label or another one, it will all seem worth it.”

Sterling had not looked at Morgan since they started this conversation. His eyes were fixed on Reese, burning. She felt like he could see all of her thoughts—the hesitation, the jealousy, all of it. He looked like he felt betrayed. Like he was challenging her about all of this, even as he agreed.

“What are we talking, here?” Sterling asked. “Stage some photos for social media? Go on a public date or two?”

“Pretty much,” Reese said. When he put it like that, it didn’t sound like such a big deal or such a breach of integrity. She shouldn’t care if he didn’t. “I’ll write up a social media strategy tonight. The three of us can talk about this tomorrow on the bus. Maybe you two should talk about expectations. Um, as far as sleeping arrangements, physical stuff. Couple stuff.”

Sterling barked out a laugh. “Sleeping arrangements? Physical stuff?”

Morgan gave him a playful shove. “People will expect to see us together. Hand-holding, hugging, kissing. I doubt we’d have to worry about people waiting outside of our hotel rooms or anything, but it’s something to think about.”

Sterling’s eyes flew to Reese. She sighed. “This is part of what you’re signing up for with a fake relationship. It has to look like a real relationship.”

“I get that,” he said. “I just …”

Reese could sense his conflict now that he was thinking through the situation and the setup. This is just one of the reasons she didn’t like this kind of strategy. It was hard to maintain a fake relationship for long. Real feelings got tangled up with the ruse.

When she was giving into her insecurities, Reese still saw Morgan as the perfect girl for Sterling. Best friend, rocker chick, worked in his industry. They had history. They laughed together. Maybe this fake relationship would make him see it for himself. The fake relationship would turn into a real one. Her stomach fell at the thought.

“It’s just me, Sterling,” Morgan said. “What are you afraid of?”

Sterling gave a last look to Reese that she found hard to read. “It’s just a little weird. We’ve been friends for so long. The thought of more sounds … strange. Are you sure about this?”

“I’m doing it for you. For your career,” Morgan said. “You’re my oldest friend. I’d do whatever it takes for you.”

Reese felt like she was sitting in on a very personal conversation. She realized that she had the edge of the table clenched in her hands. She released it and the breath she had been holding. Morgan and Sterling needed to get out of her room, now. She didn’t know how much more of this conversation she could take. When they were gone, she could try to switch her brain to strategy mode, so she could make a plan for how this would work. And how she could keep her own rogue feelings in check. Her emotions felt way too close to the surface right now.

Morgan yawned and put a hand on Sterling’s shoulder. “I’m headed to bed. Night, sweetie.”

Sterling laughed, but Reese thought it sounded a little forced. He avoided looking at either of them. “Do we need pet names?” Morgan asked Reese.

“No pet names.” Sterling said.

“I don’t know. You look like a Pookie to me.” Morgan teased.

Sterling followed Morgan to the door, but after she walked into the hall, he turned back to Reese, like he wanted to say something. They shared a long look.

This shouldn’t hurt so much. It shouldn’t feel like a breakup. But it definitely was a let down.

“Come on, Pookie!” Morgan’s laughter trailed through the hallway.

Sterling winced at the nickname. Without saying whatever it was he looked like he wanted to say, he turned and left.

Reese rested her forehead on the smooth wood of the door after it closed. She had been trying to tell herself that she was just enjoying a friendship with Sterling. But moments like this made it so clear that she wanted more. It made it so that she couldn’t lie to herself about her feelings.

Flopping back in bed, she turned the volume back on the television. The Property Brothers was almost over. She had missed all the ugly and hard work of renovation and only saw the happy couple and their beautiful, finished home that looked just like the dream house they always wanted.