Effortless (Thoughtless, #2)(119)

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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.

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18





Chapter


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.

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“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.”

She smiled sweetly at me. “It’s the company’s way of protecting the asset. It’s a very common practice nowadays.” Laughing a little, she shrugged. “Athletes have to sit through a seminar about it.” Leaning down to rifle through her suitcase, she murmured, “They never listen though…”

Griffin snorted and threw his pen down. “Well, what’s the point of being a rock star if I can’t bang the groupies?” 334



Rolling my eyes, I found myself muttering, “I thought it was supposed to be about the music?”

Griffin, unfortunately, heard my sullen comment and chose to respond to it. “No, no I’m pretty sure it’s the *.” Flushing, I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest. Jackass.

Kellan reached over and patted my thigh. I wanted to smack his hand away for some reason. Griffin’s comment just cut a little too close to home. I heard my sister smack Griffin across the head and looked back to see him scowling at her and rubbing the sore spot.

“What?” he muttered. She rolled her eyes and shook her head as Matt laughed at his nimrod relative.

“Dude, it doesn’t say you shouldn’t have sex. It says you should always use protection.” Matt rolled his eyes. “You can still sleep with them if you want, just wrap it up.” Smirking, he shook his head. “And please do. The last thing the world needs is another you.” Griffin turned his glare to Matt. “Fuck you, man.” Looking a little defeated, Griffin looked over at Kellan again. “Is that true? Do girls really do that?”