Great. That should stir up the haters nicely when they posted what Dan had said on social media.
She’d learned long ago to take the good with the bad and to always, always, be nice to fans. No matter what.
It seemed Dan hadn’t grasped that concept. And he should have after being with her for so many years. Even before he was her manager, he’d been her cousin and privy to her life in the spotlight.
She sighed. Yup. That conversation about his future on her team couldn’t come soon enough.
But right now, she had disgruntled fans and a bad ankle to worry about.
six
Scooter scowled as he slumped in the chair in the waiting room. “Buy a ticket if you want to ogle her. Fuck them. I did buy a ticket. Cost a hundred bucks and I was like against the back wall of the auditorium. What a stuck-up bitch.”
Kyle snorted. “Never meet your heroes.”
His brother shot him a sideways glance. “You just make that up?”
“No. It’s like a real saying.”
“Really? Who said it?” Scooter asked doubtfully.
“I don’t know. Somebody famous, I guess. Jeez.” Kyle rolled his eyes.
This was why he avoided most conversations with his brothers. They usually devolved into inane discussions like this.
To avoid further discourse, he glanced down at the selection of magazines on the table next to him.
Yup. There she was on the cover of at least two of the half a dozen fanned out on the fake wood. Luna Blue herself.
Excited by the possibility of some sibling torture, Kyle reached for one and thrust it at his brother. “Here. Want something to read?”
Kyle couldn’t control his smile as Scooter realized who was on the cover of the magazine in his hand.
“Ugh. No.” Scooter let out a rude noise and tossed the magazine on a table across the room.
“Sorry. Here. Try this one.” Kyle handed him the second publication featuring the star.
Scooter frowned at the magazine and then at Kyle. “Fuck you.”
He smiled. “Love you too, bro.”
This might be the most fun he’d had in a while. At least it diverted his boredom for a bit. They had to have been sitting there for close to an hour.
He checked the time on the wall clock and confirmed his suspicions. His appointment had been scheduled for fifty-five minutes ago.
Reaching for his crutches, he was about to go ask the receptionist how much longer the wait would be, when his cell phone vibrated.
He flipped it over and saw Gretchen’s name on the text.
Great. As if he weren’t annoyed enough.
“Not gonna answer that?” Scooter asked.
“Nope.”
“Okay.” Scooter never was one to go out of his way to talk.
Thank God for that now because Kyle wasn’t in the mood for talking. Not to his brother. Definitely not to Gretchen.
The only reason she was still in his cell as a contact was so he didn’t accidently answer. He had no intention of speaking with her. Not even to get his stuff back.
Yeah, he’d miss his grey sweatpants he’d left at her apartment, but he’d get over it. And he sure as hell didn’t want his T-shirt back. He’d never be able to look at it again without remembering her running after him while wearing it that day.
It probably smelled like the guy she’d been fucking. Ugh.
He sighed and shoved the cell into the pocket in his cargo pants and then reached for his crutches again.
Time to get some answers. Hoisting himself out of the chair, he maneuvered the crutches beneath him and hobbled to the window.
“Can I help you?” the receptionist behind the glass asked.
“Yeah. I just want to check the doctor knows I’m here. Kyle Jones.”
“We know.” She forced a smile which didn’t help.
“It’s just, my appointment was for one.”
“The doctor had an emergency patient. But we’ll get you in as soon as possible.” She flashed him another fake-looking smile.
He drew in a breath, about a minute from walking out. Make that hobbling out.
But no. He had to stay. He needed new X-rays and the doctor’s approval to start putting weight on the leg. His desire to ditch the crutches outweighed his annoyance at being kept waiting.
Giving in to that reality, he said, “Okay. Thank you.”
He was just maneuvering to turn around when he heard her. Then he saw her. Luna Blue herself, limping out of the exam area.
“Thank you so much for seeing me on such short notice and without an appointment,” she said.
“Our pleasure. Seriously. It was no problem at all. My daughters are huge fans of yours. Truth be told, I am too,” the doctor confessed.
That explained the wait. Kyle felt the scowl settle on his face as realization hit. Fame would always trump all, he supposed.
A louder than anticipated sound of disgust escaped him, causing all eyes to turn to him—including Luna’s.
“Emergency, huh?” He glanced at the receptionist and let out another snort. “Let me know when he has time for his non-celebrity patients who actually had appointments.”
He turned too fast, lost his balance, and almost took a header, face first for the floor. He reached back to grab for the edge of the counter, overcompensated and ended up crashing backwards and slamming against the clear partition.
At that very moment, Luna hobbled past. She shot him a glance with big golden brown eyes rimmed with lashes that looked too long to be real before continuing out the door.
The guy with her glared at him then followed her out, leaving Kyle behind and looking like a complete klutz.
Scooter stood and sauntered over.
“Need a little help?” he asked, as cocky and as condescending as any twenty-one-year-old in perfect health would be in the face of his older broken brother.
“Thank you, no.” The sarcasm was strong in his reply.
Dammit. It was these crutches. If he could just put some weight on that leg without doing more damage to it, he’d be fine.
He managed to get himself back on the crutches and balanced and get all the way to his chair without falling over again. He sat heavily. Annoyed. And now embarrassed.
Leaning his crutches against the wall with a huff, he remembered the good old days when just sitting and standing up again hadn’t been a feat of strength.
“Mr. Jones. You can come on back.”
Kyle’s mouth dropped open. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
She couldn’t have told him that it would only be a minute and to wait by the reception desk?
Next to him Scooter snorted out a laugh.
Somehow, somewhere, he must have done something to bring bad luck upon himself. And he was convinced to his soul that if he didn’t reverse this streak it was going to cost him at the very least his career. At worst, his life.
He had to reverse his crap luck and avoid a doomed fate. Even if it took crawling through a field looking for a four-leaf clover. Or hell, heading down to New Orleans to have Sebastian find him a voodoo priestess.
Somehow he had to fix his luck and his life. And he would, or die trying. But in the meantime, he had to get himself back to see the doctor.
A couple of X-rays and one short consultation with the doctor later, and Kyle emerged from the back with a smile and a renewed hope that maybe, just maybe, his luck was changing.