"I need to tell you something...can we talk?"

I briefly closed my eyes at those hated words, then nodded and twisted away from him. I aimlessly walked towards the hallway that Anna and Griffin had disappeared in, not really knowing where I was going, just hoping that there was enough privacy back here so that I could murder him without attracting too much attention.

When we got to a spot where the crowd had thinned out, Kellan grabbed my elbow, making me stop. I wanted to pull away. I wanted to keep walking. If I kept walking, then I wouldn't have to hear him say that he'd fallen for someone else...and he was about to go have sex with her in a conference room. God, how tacky.

Bunching his brows as I stiffened in his arms, he asked, "Hey, are you...mad at me?"

Bristling, I stuck my chin out and threw my bag on the ground. "No, why would I be mad?" He shook his head and was about to answer, but I stupidly answered for him. "You're only about to dump me for the hot celebrity lookalike that's been stalking you for weeks. You're only about to go have sex with her on an office table. You're only about to crush me into a thousand pieces, and right after I exposed my chest to some jackass just to see you, too!"

He blinked and gaped at me as I started breathing heavy. I really hadn't meant to say any of that. I had been planning on letting him hang himself. "Wait, you think...?" He stopped and tilted his head. "You did what to come see me?"

Irritated, I shoved his chest away and started storming off...somewhere. Sighing, he grabbed my shoulders and twisted me around. Backing me into a wall, he stared me down. "I am not dumping you. I am not about to have sex with her. And I am not going to crush you."

He gave me a minute to calm down. When I was breathing regularly, I searched his face. "Then what...is going on?"

Releasing my shoulders, he shook his head. "Well, what I had been going to tell you, before you leapt to that wild conclusion, is..." he bit his lip, his face beaming underneath it, "...we got signed." He nodded his head upstairs. "That's Lana. She's a rep from the record company. She's been following the tour, examining the bands...and she wants to sign us to her label." He laughed a little, shaking his head. "We're going to have a record, Kiera, an actual, professional record...can you believe it?"

My mouth dropped open again as my eyes watered. My mind hadn't gone down that path at all. I'd automatically assumed the worst. I shoved his shoulders away from me. "Why didn't you tell me you were being scouted, jackass!"

He cringed away from me, frowning as I started smacking his chest. "Because I really didn't expect much. I didn't think she'd pick us...and..." His voice trailed off and I stopped hitting him. Sighing, he grabbed my hands and peeked up at me from under his lashes. "I didn't want to disappoint you...if she wasn't interested in us. I know you think I'm going to go all the way... I didn't want to let you down..."

He looked down and I instantly felt like an idiot. Slinging my arms around him, I hugged him tight. "God, Kellan, I'd never be disappointed in you...ever." Pulling back, I cupped his cheeks, my eyes hazy with tears. "I'm so proud of you, of everything you do, and even if it ended right here, I'd be anything but disappointed in you."

He exhaled, seemingly relieved. Sniffling, he looked around the hall. "Well, I haven't even told the guys yet...I didn't want to jinx it, so we need to find them and get them upstairs to sign the legal stuff." He looked back at me, raising an eyebrow. "That's what's going down on the conference room table...not sex." He grabbed my hips, pulling me into him. "But if you wanted to, once everyone was gone...I'd never tell you no."

He chuckled and I grabbed his face, kissing him hard. I might take him up on that offer. I was just so relieved that he didn't seem to be sleeping with her. And so very proud of him for what he was doing.

Pulling apart from me, he reached down and picked up my forgotten bag. "Come on, we've got to take care of this before it's our turn on stage." Holding his hand out for me, he smiled like a little boy. "They bumped us up the lineup; we play right under Justin's band now. Pretty cool, huh?"

Leaning into his side, I giggled and nodded. "That's amazing, Kellan."

Feeling better about a lot of things as we walked around the halls, looking for D-Bags, I considered all the videos I'd seen her in. That's why she'd been around, she'd been scoping out the band. And that's why they'd seemed friendly. She was wooing him...in a way. Lana? Seemed like a respectable enough name, not that names really meant anything, but still...

As I processed this new information, Kellan smiled down at me. "Hey, what did you mean when you said she'd been stalking me for weeks? How did you know about that?"

Biting my lip, I took tiny peeks at his face. "Uh, Rachel put up this website, and fans have posted videos of your shows. I've been watching you..." My voice trailed off and I had the weird sensation that I had been the stalker, not the other way around.

"She finally got that up and running, huh? Well, that should make Matt happy." Releasing my hand, Kellan slung his arm around my shoulder. "So, you've been checking up on me?"

I stared up at his face, his eyes amused as he searched for his friends. "No..." His dark blue eyes swung down to mine, even more amused. I sighed. "Maybe...a little."

Tilting his head, he squeezed me tighter. "And was I being good?"

Not sure how to answer that, since I'd sort of been thinking he'd been diddling the record rep, I floundered for words for a second. Luckily, Griffin and Anna appeared from around a corner. I smiled at seeing them, which was a strange reaction to have at seeing Griffin. Anna had a dopey, satisfied look on her face while she adjusted her hair and clothes. I figured they'd already gone a round then...maybe two.

Slapping Griffin on the shoulder, Kellan filled him in on what was going on. Griffin was naturally over the moon and took off to grab his cousin, who had apparently been working out a section of the music with Evan in a quiet space. I smiled as I thought over them practicing before playing, instead of flirting with the ample amount of eager women that seemed to be around. Rachel was right, it was all about the music with Matt. Evan too, in a way.

Kellan shrugged and led us to an elevator being blocked by a security guard. Backstage clearance didn't get you upstairs, apparently. With Anna giggling and clutching my arm, the three of us got waved past the guard after Kellan said a few words to him. He gave Kellan an approving look as the elevator doors closed behind us, like he thought Kellan was about to have a threesome with me and my sister. Ew.

While Anna reached into her bag, grabbing a sucker, and I did not want to know why, Kellan dropped my bag and wrapped his arms around me. Kissing me a little too passionately, considering my sister was watching, he murmured, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this earlier...but I'm glad you're here."

I sighed, running my fingers through his hair. "I'm glad I'm here, too." All the stress of the last few weeks washed off of me as his mouth explored mine. I was just wishing we had some more privacy when the elevator stopped and the doors dinged open. Anna smiled at us around her lollipop before stepping out.

Kellan grabbed my bag again, as well as my hand. "So," he asked merrily as we exited, "anything you've been holding off on telling me?"

He laughed as he said it, so I was sure he didn't actually know anything. Anna frowned as she gave me a pointed look. She obviously wanted me to tell him. And I would...I should. He should know Denny had reappeared in his absence. But just like me having to deal with the swarms of women downstairs, Kellan was going to have to trust me.

Inhaling deep, I was just about to tell him when his phone buzzed on his hip. Frowning slightly, he reached into his back pocket. He silenced it without looking at the number, then put it back in his pocket. Staring straight ahead, he kept walking down the hall like it was nothing. Counting off all of the people that I knew in Kellan's head, I wondered who'd just called him. Lana was waiting in the room we were getting closer to, and the guys were all on their way up. It wasn't Griffin this time. Of course, I was almost positive that it hadn't really been Griffin last time.

All of the momentary good feelings that I'd had about us faded as I watched him purposely avoid looking at me. He was still hiding something and I had no idea what...or who. Tears stinging my eyes, I shut my mouth and said absolutely nothing about Denny being in town.

Chapter 18

Let it Go

I stared at my hands as we all sat around a large, oak table. Lana, the attractive rep from the record label, was handing the band papers with a lot of fine print. The boys were silently reading through it while Lana broke it down into layman's terms. I tuned her out, focusing instead on the music drifting up through the floor. They weren't even halfway through the show yet, so Kellan and the guys had more than enough time to open this door to opportunity.

When Lana finished speaking, Kellan glanced up at her then looked over to Matt and Evan. "What do you guys think?" he asked quietly.

Having just heard about this deal for the first time, they both looked over at him with serious expressions. As one, Matt's blond, spiky head and Evan's buzzed-cut brown head, twisted to look at each other. Then they both smiled and turned back to Kellan. Matt nodded. "Yeah, we're in."

Kellan beamed at his band-brothers as Lana showed the boys where to sign. From what I could make out from the contracts, they seemed pretty fair; the boys weren't getting ripped off or anything. They'd still have control over what songs they produced and released, so Kellan would still be able to write his own stuff. Their profits would be mild from the first album, but they were contracted for a total of three, with options for more if those were successful. And I was sure they would be. I'd yet to meet someone who didn't like their music.

While Kellan nodded and smiled at his friends, I heard a disgruntled sound from the other side of him. Feeling a little melancholy after Kellan's weird phone moment in the hall, I looked over at Griffin, scowling at a piece of paper.

"Dude, Kell, did you read this? I don't believe this shit!"

Matt chuckled and murmured, "I don't believe that you can actually read..."

Griffin glared at him, but held up what looked like a memo from the stack of papers and thrust it out to Kellan. Kellan cast me a quick, nervous glance. "Yeah...I read it."

My curiosity beating out my common sense, I asked Griffin, "Read what?"

Griffin held the paper up to me, as if I was supposed to read the tiny font from the several spaces away from him that I was seated. "This says that we shouldn't have sex with all the girls hanging around, because chicks will try and screw us just to get knocked up! So we have to pay them to raise the kid! For eighteen years!"

He stared at me with a look of complete shock on his face, like that thought had never, ever occurred to him before. I would have found it humorous, but already in a sour mood, I narrowed my eyes at Kellan. "They gave you a pamphlet on sleeping with fans?"

He shrugged and studied his papers. "It's just a warning..."

Lana spoke up, to clarify. "It's a standard precaution that we give to all of our rising celebrities. They will be the target of many different sorts of people, and we give them guidelines on how to best protect themselves from...being manipulated."