Page 3 of Her Rock Star's Dark Secret

She let out an exasperated sigh, and he pressed his lips together to hold back a smirk.

He had his reasons for staying away, but when Alexis had told him about the reunion and the memorial for Maisy, he knew he had to come back. But he didn’t say anything about that to Lauren. His business was his own.

“It’s our ten-year class reunion next weekend. I would think you of all people would know about that.”

Lauren blinked like his answer had caught her off guard. “You came back for the reunion?”

“That’s okay, isn’t it? Or am I not allowed to set foot on school property?”

The rigid set of her shoulders softened a bit. “I just didn’t think you’d care, that’s all.”

He set his menu down and gazed into her alarmingly blue eyes. “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought you did. Have you thought of that?”

She looked away, clearly unsettled. Had he ruffled her feathers? The invincible Lauren Parker? Queen of their high school? “What happened to you, anyway? I thought you’d gone off and gotten married right out of college.”

Lauren cleared her throat. “I didn’t go to college. I went to hair school. And I did get married. And now I’m not.” She kept her eyes on her menu, not bothering to look up at him as she spoke.

The more he heard about her, the more she intrigued him. He’d always expected her to go to Harvard or some Ivy League school. Not that there was anything wrong with going to hair school. But maybe he’d sized her up wrong all those years ago. He’d seen her as this stuck-up girl with the world at her feet. He’d expected her to marry some successful lawyer and have a few kids by now, or at least a thriving career.

“What do you do for work?”

“I own the hair salon on Sycamore Street. It’s calledAll Dolled Up.”

His brows rose, impressed. “That’s the salon your grandmother used to own, isn’t it?”

She bobbed her head. “I’m surprised you remember. I would have thought you were too busy bullying people to notice what salon my grandmother owned.”

Chase frowned. Did she really have that bad of an opinion of him? He’d gotten in a couple of fights in high school, but most of them had been self-defense. Lauren must have thought he was a delinquent. Instead of uselessly trying to defend himself, he acted like her barb hadn’t bothered him. “Of course, I knew your grandmother owned it. My mom went to get her hair done there all the time. How’s your grandmother doing these days anyway?”

Lauren stared at him for a long moment before speaking. “My grandmother died two years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. She was a good woman. My mom was close to her.”

“I know. Your mama still talks about her all the time. She comes to me to get her hair done now.”

“She does?” Chase barely knew his own mom these days.

“I guess you’ve been too busy being famous to stay in touch.”

Chase opened his mouth to answer her latest barb but was relieved to see the server approach their table. “What can I get you folks tonight?”

Lauren smiled up at the server. “Well, hi there, Reuban. You home from college for the summer?”

“Yep, my semester just ended, and I was lucky enough to get the job here right away.”

“I can’t believe it’s that time of year already. Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?”

Chase watched the exchange between Lauren and the kid they’d known growing up. Chase had hardly recognized him. The last time he’d seen him, he was still on the monkey bars. But Chase and Lauren had both gone to school with his older sister, Carrie.

“Reuban, I think I’ll have the fettuccini alfredo tonight.” Lauren shut her menu and smiled up at him. What had Reuban done to get her to be so nice to him? Chase could hardly get a kind word out of her. He wasn’t used to women treating him that way. Usually, they fawned all over him, and Chase had to give them the cold shoulder to get them to back off. His manager, Aaron, was always getting on him, telling him he had to be nicer to his fans, but he didn’t want to encourage them into thinking they could follow him up to his hotel room.

“And what will you have, Mr. Remington?”

So the kid had recognized him. Chase smiled up at him. “You can call me Chase.”

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.”

“No problem. We don’t need all that formality back home, now do we?”

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