Chapter 5

5

"I'm screwed." King picked at his dinner. The lobster mac and cheese had seemed like a great idea when he'd ordered it, but now he hardly had an appetite at all.

"About what?" Briggs asked and shoveled his crab fettuccini into his mouth.

"About what?" King echoed with a sardonic laugh. "You mean who , don't you?"

Briggs put his fork down and stared at his friend. "Why? Austin said things went pretty smoothly after this first session. He said you two seemed to have talked things out. That's good, right?"

It wasn't a surprise that Austin had told Briggs about the session. His friend and foster brother was the entire reason that Austin even knew about King in the first place. While King had always known he wanted to be a performer, Briggs had been more interested in the technical side. Right after they'd graduated from high school and been kicked out of their foster home, the pair had taken off for LA. They both had worked on a landscaping crew in Hollywood Hills to make money while doing whatever they could to break into their chosen fields. For King, that was singing. But Briggs had taken online classes for audio engineering and eventually found a job with Austin at his LA studio. When Austin closed shop and moved to Keating Hollow, Briggs had gone with him.

"Yeah. Sure. But you know how I feel about her. It's going to be torture doing the promo when my head is a freakin' mess." Briggs had been there since the very beginning. He knew just how hurt and upset King had been when Sadie had disappeared.

"Feel about her?" Briggs raised both eyebrows. " Feel , not felt?"

"That's why I'm screwed." King sat back in his chair, ignoring his food. "Singing with her… It all just came rushing back. This is going to sound insane, but she and I, we just fit. I've never felt a connection like that before, and if it doesn't work out, what then? I'm going to be haunted by that song forever."

"If what doesn't work out?" Briggs asked, studying his friend. "Your singing partnership or something more?"

King groaned. "Both, I guess."

"Oh boy." Briggs placed his elbows on the table and leaned in. "King, you have got to stop romanticizing how you feel about this girl. I'm not trying to be a dick, but you only knew her for a few months and that was ten years ago. You two barely even know each other."

He was wrong. King knew he was just trying to help, but that summer when he'd spent most of his nights with Sadie on the beach, he'd told her things about himself that he'd never told anyone before. And she'd shared her grief and hopes and fears for the future with him. They had a bond. It wasn't romanticized. It just was . "I hear you, brother. But it's not what you think."

Briggs's lips curved into a hint of a smile. "And what do I think?"

"That I've lost my mind."

He cackled. "That's true. I do think that. But all I'm trying to do is keep you grounded. When this song makes it big, and it will, then you two will be linked forever, and there will be a lot of promos. Your life will be hell if you turn it romantic and everything goes to shit. You do know that, right?"

King nodded. His friend was right. With the way he felt about her, if they did get together and then broke up, he didn't know how he'd recover from that. "So you're saying it's best to keep it professional."

"I hate to be that person, but yeah. This song and this album are what's going to solidify your career. Effing it up because you can't keep it in your pants would be just about the most cliché thing you could do."

"How boring would that be?" King said with a chuckle, trying to make light of everything. The truth was, King didn't really think it mattered if he slept with Sadie or not when it came to why or how they could mess this up. What he felt for her transcended the physical. And what he needed from her was a whole lot more than a night in the sack.

"Just try not to get too wrapped up in her," Briggs added. "Let's just focus on getting this record made and out in the world, and then maybe you two can see where this thing between you goes if you're still into it."

Easier said than done when all King wanted to do was find out where she lived and drive over to her house. But he just nodded, knowing that Briggs was right. What he needed to do was stay away from her and concentrate on work. At least until the record was released and they started their promo. By then, maybe all these feelings that had been stirred up would just go back into hibernation.

One could only hope.

A burning sensation started at the base of King's spine, making him jerk his head up. A trio of three young women who were all wearing jeans and cropped tank tops were headed straight for his table.

"Damn," Briggs muttered, waving down the waiter. "I'd hoped that being in Keating Hollow would have meant you had a little peace from all this."

King had hoped the same thing. It wasn't as if he was so famous that people recognized him everywhere. Hardly. However, there was a small but determined group of young women who'd taken to tracking him down everywhere he went. He'd thought moving to Keating Hollow would stop that, but it had only made it worse. It wasn't as if there were many places to hide in the tiny town.

The petite redhead who was making a beeline for him flashed a flirty smile, and suddenly her thoughts popped into King's mind. There he is! Oh my effing goddess, he's hot. What I wouldn't do to get him naked.

It took everything he had not to recoil from her and her friends, one of which was already recording him on her phone.

"Oh my gosh, King McGrath," the redhead gushed and then went on to proclaim, "I'm your biggest fan. Do you mind if we get a photo?" She was already handing her phone to the woman who wasn't recording the interaction.

"Sure," he said, doing his best to be gracious. He knew the drill. Being kind didn't cost him anything but a little inconvenience. But if he did anything to appear rude and it was caught on camera, then that was what would go viral. It wasn't worth the fallout just because his skin was crawling from hearing her thoughts.

King's telepathic ability was a major inconvenience. He hated being able to read minds. Not only was it intrusive, but he just didn't want to know people's private thoughts. He was happier being in the dark. At least he'd learned how to control it around most people. It was only when someone was overly excited or really worked up when thoughts assaulted his mind now.

Like this woman hanging all over him. She was dying to kiss him and had a running fantasy of the two of them in a shower together. It was all he could do not to just push her away. Instead, he pasted a smile on his face and leaned in so that their heads were nearly touching as her friend took the photo.

When he started to pull back, the woman clutched at him.

"Wait! Would you do me a favor?" she asked, giving him an innocent smile, all while picturing him naked.

"I'm sorry." King waved at Briggs, who was now holding two takeout boxes. "We're already late for an engagement. We're going to have to?—"

"It'll just take two seconds. See, I'm an influencer with a large following, and I specialize in highlighting up-and-coming musicians."

That part appeared to be true at least, considering a screenshot of her IG had just flashed in her mind.

"And one of the running jokes is that I always manage to get a kiss from my favorites. I promised my followers that if I ever met you, I'd do my best to get a kiss right here." She pointed to her cheek and tapped it with a blood-red nail.

King felt like he was trapped. If he said no, he'd look like a jerk. But if he said yes, he'd need to bleach his lips later to stop the heebie-jeebies from taking over.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" the two other women started chanting.

"Yeah, okay." King leaned down and moved in to peck her cheek, but just before he made the connection, the woman turned her head and full-on assaulted his lips with her own.

Her two friends cheered.

King froze and then felt himself being pulled away.

The minute they were outside, Briggs started to rant about consent, and crazy fans, and how sorry he was that he hadn't acted sooner. "We're going to have to come up with a game plan so that doesn't happen to you again. The nerve!" he said as he opened the SUV door for King. "The only reason I didn't cuss them out was because of the video."

Once Briggs was in the driver's seat, King finally wiped his mouth and said, "Thank you for showing restraint. It's not worth whatever media it would have created."

"It's still not right. I could tell the minute the redhead touched you that you wanted to be anywhere but there." Briggs sped down the street, his driving more aggressive than usual.

"She had a porn track in her head of what she wanted to do with me," King said, feeling miserable. Was this what he had to look forward to for the rest of his life just because he wanted to make music?

Briggs glanced over at him. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Now I need a shower."

"We definitely need to get a PR person, stat," Briggs said.

King just nodded as he leaned back into the seat and tried his best to put the entire thing out of his mind.