Page 45 of Her Rock Star's Dark Secret

Finally, he settled on a subject that seemed safe.

Carrying two folding chairs, he followed Lauren to where she was scooting chairs under a round table. “So Aaron just gave me the update on the ticket sales.”

“Oh yeah?” She shoved a chair under the table.

“We’re fully sold out.” Chase leaned his chairs against the table and opened the first one and slid it under the table.

“What?”

“Yeah.” Chase opened the other chair and pushed it into place. “We’ve surpassed our goal.”

Lauren shook her head in disbelief. “We should have picked a bigger venue.”

“We can still have people donate money to the website, and we’re going to set up a live stream that people can access if they pay for a virtual ticket.”

“That’s a great idea. I never would have thought of something like that,” Lauren said.

“Aaron suggested it last night since the tickets have sold so well. I really wasn’t expecting to sell out.”

“Do you think it’s because the paparazzi have followed us so heavily?”

“I’m sure that has a lot to do with it. I’ve been largely ignored for years, but now I’m in the spotlight again.”

Her cheeks reddened. “Because they think something is going on between us.”

“Yes. They’re not used to seeing me with someone this many times in a row. I’ve been boringly single. They couldn’t even create stories because I’ve given them so little. They’ve tried, but nothing sticks, so they move on to the celebrities doing stupid stuff like getting sloshed or knocked up.”

“But now you’ve been stupid enough to hang around me, and they’re interested.”

“I haven’t been stupid. It’s been the opposite. I think they’re interested because you’re someone from my hometown. They’re taking us seriously.”

“You mean, they think we’re the real deal, and they want coverage on the forever bachelor who suddenly seems to be getting serious with his girl from his hometown.”

“Exactly.”

“Is that what we were doing?”

“I don’t know. But I do know we were having fun.”

For some reason, this seemed to bother Lauren. She frowned and turned her entire body away from him to adjust the centerpiece on the table.

Chase had gotten in over his head, and he didn’t know how to fix whatever he’d broken. But he desperately wished he knew how to make everything right between them.

Chapter 15

The gym swarmed with old classmates. Lauren saw many familiar faces, but others she didn’t recognize at all. Either some people had changed so much Lauren no longer knew what they looked like, or they were a spouse or significant other of a former student.

Natasha and Senator Larson waved at her as she passed. She’d been the maid of honor and had done Natasha’s hair for their wedding at Whitmore House, the wedding venue Natasha owned. Onyx and Layla stood talking to Will, the chief of police and his best friend, Taylor. Layla and Will had plans to get married soon. As far as Lauren knew, Onyx was still single. She owned a local wedding dress shop and sold dresses to brides every day, but Onyx had never had a reason to buy one for herself.

Carrington Dalton ran the local art museum, a popular wedding venue in town. She stood, talking to Sariah Tate. The two girls had played soccer together with Lauren. Sariah Tate took over her grandfather’s jewelry shop. Kane Leland had been her high school sweetheart. Now he was a billionaire. Lauren hadn’t seen him since high school. She saw him saying hello to Sariah, and there seemed to be massive sexual tension between the two of them. She wondered if this was the first time they’d seen each other since they’d broken up.

Lauren hadn’t thought about it before, but so many of her friends were involved in the wedding industry in some way. Even Josie catered weddings all the time with her coffee and treats. Other than Adam and Natasha, none of them were married themselves. Although, some of them were close, like Layla and Will.

Round tables covered the room. Layla Bowen had provided flower centerpieces from her flower shop for each table. Natasha had gotten Aubrey to cater the roasted chicken dinner for them tonight. Alexis was providing the cake for dessert. Lauren was excited to see how everything was going to come together.

She walked past the long rectangular tables set up with the silent auction. Josie had done an excellent job getting enough vendors to donate to the auction. She’d even gotten a local print shop to create a banner to hang on the table detailing the charities where the proceeds from the silent auction would go. Carrington donated two tickets to the art museum. There was a coupon for a free color, cut, and style from Lauren’s salon. Josie had offered coffee once a month for a year. Ravioli’s had donated a fifty-dollar gift card. A coupon for a dozen red roses had been donated by Layla’s flower shop.

Lauren saw Tessa Randall talking to Benson Patrick. Tessa worked for the local paper as a reporter. She covered a lot of the weddings in town. Benson had been Maple Creek High’s star football player. He’d since gone on to enjoy a ridiculously successful football career. He’d been picked up by the New York Giants. He and Owen had become rather good friends. Lauren assumed there was something about being famous that only other famous people understood.

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