Page 18 of Her Rock Star's Dark Secret

Lauren shook her head. “There’s just not enough time. I think we need to just do a quiet ceremony at the church. I talked to Pastor Jim, and he said we could meet after the eleven o’clock service. I thought we could maybe do a potluck after.”

Except that sounded boring. Maisy deserved so much more. And he was determined to give it to her. “What if I told you I could get it done in time?” And he knew he could. He just had to make sure he was a big part of making that fundraiser happen. He planned to set up a crowdfunding campaign and then immediately donate enough money to cover the cost of the event.

When this event was over, he could consider his debt to Maisy repaid. It was something he knew he had to do to clear his conscience. He’d spent too many years feeling guilty about the way he’d treated Maisy. He’d been frustrated by the way she was so eager to keep him from having the new gym his team desperately needed, and at the time, it was all he could think about. Looking back on it now, he saw that he’d been a selfish kid.

He’d since donated thousands of dollars to foundations that protected the endangered bats Maisy had defended so passionately. He’d even spoken out publicly about it on multiple occasions. But no matter how much he spent to protect the bats, it never made up for the fact that a young girl had taken her life. She would never be able to get married or have kids or graduate from college. She wouldn’t get to live out her dreams. And he felt responsible. That was why he needed this memorial to be huge. He was ready to put the wrongdoings of his past behind him and move on to a bright future.

He couldn’t let Lauren know he wanted to fund the event personally. And he planned to spend thousands. He needed to if he really wanted to honor Maisy properly. But it wasn’t like he could explain the reason why he wanted to spend so much on Maisy. It was his darkest secret, one he was deeply ashamed of.

So he really needed Lauren to agree to this fundraiser. He was ready and willing to do whatever it took to convince her it was the way to go.

Lauren narrowed her eyes at him, and he was sure she was going to shut him down again. But once again, she caught him off guard. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Chase said. “You mean we can do the fundraiser?”

“Yes. That’s what I mean,” Lauren said, her voice tight.

How hard had it been for her to agree to let him help her? He really was struggling to understand what was going on in her mind. He’d never met another girl like her. She baffled him.

“Okay,” Chase said. “I’ll take it. You don’t need to worry about anything. I’ve got this handled.”

“Uhh, Lauren,” Alexis said, eyeing her warily. “I don’t think you understand what you just started. When Chase gets that look in his eye, you’d better be prepared for something big.”

It was true. There was a reason he’d gotten to where he was today. When he became passionate about something, he gave it his all. And he had a lot to give.

* * *

Chase openedhis laptop and scooted up to the small table in Alexis’s kitchen. He did a search for ideas on decorating for a charity ball and took some notes in a document he had pulled up on his computer. He could hire a party planner, but he wanted this done his way. He planned to hire people to put everything together quickly. Even if he had to get them to come from Richmond or Greensboro. He took some notes on caterers and then started scrolling through music to put together a playlist. He usually liked to DJ his own parties. He frowned. Nothing seemed right for a memorial. He put some songs into a playlist, but the songs seemed mediocre. He clicked on an image of his own face when he saw it over on the sidebar.

Someone had compiled a playlist of all his music. And that was when it hit him. His music. So much of it had been written to Maisy and his healing process. Maybe the answer wasn’t to be the DJ. Maybe he needed tobe the musichimself. A live performance. When he thought of that, something clicked into place, and he knew what he needed to do.

His songs were all a memorial to Maisy. They were how he’d been able to donate to the foundation that protected the bats. But how many fans had told him how his music had impacted their lives and helped them through hard times? So much of his music had been suicide prevention for so many people. And that was more powerful than money.

His music was his own version of suicide prevention. He’d had people tell him so many times that he’d helped them de-stress and back off the ledge.

He called his manager. “Hey, Aaron. I’m putting on a charity ball to memorialize one of my high school classmates, and I’d love to have the band play as the live music for the event. It would mean our vacation time would be cut a day short. Think we can make it work?”

“Way to drop that on me last minute, Chase,” Aaron said.

“I know, I know, but it’s really important to me. She committed suicide our senior year and didn’t get to make it to the senior prom. We want to put on a charity ball to raise money for suicide prevention.”

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with you wanting to impress a woman, would it?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just something I feel like I need to do.” He wasn’t sure how much of that was true at this point. Yes, he wanted to make things right with the universe, but maybe, just maybe, there was a part of him that really did want to impress Lauren.

“Well, it does sound like a worthy cause. Sure, I’ll see what I can do on my end to help make it happen.”

Chase breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re the best, Aaron.”

“That’s why I’m making the big bucks.”

“That would be true,” Chase agreed. He was lucky to have a fantastic manager. Aaron had been with him from the very beginning, and after almost ten years, he was more of a best friend than a manager at this point.

They stayed on the phone for another hour as they ironed out the details together of what Chase had envisioned for the event. By the time they hung up, it was getting to be close to midnight. Alexis had gone to bed hours before since she had to get up early to open her bakery.

He pulled up a crowdfunding website and set up the fundraiser. Then he grabbed the link and posted to the reunion social media page with his personal social media profile that he’d had since before he became famous. He hardly ever used it, but he’d joined the reunion group with it. He wanted to keep his personal life as separate from his public life as he could. It had been a long time since he’d had to worry about protecting his privacy, but he didn’t want his classmates to get dragged into his fame. Especially not Alexis and Lauren and Penny. He valued their privacy much more beyond his own.

When the fundraiser was posted to the reunion group, he sat back with a satisfied sigh. Then he pulled out his wallet and made a sizeable donation of his own.

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