Good Girls Don't Date Rock Stars(2)

Whoa now, let’s not get crazy or anything.

Gemma ignored the sarcastic side of herself, the voice in her head that always made bad decisions. Ten years ago, that voice had suggested she trust Travis Bowers when he’d said he wanted to be with her, that they could make it work no matter what, even if he—an up-and-coming country music rock star—was on tour more often than not. That voice had also come up with the bright idea to surprise Travis in Phoenix, three weeks after he’d left Rock Canyon on his first tour. Only instead of telling him about the pregnancy, like she’d planned, she’d found him in his trailer with another woman. Despite his protests of innocence, Gemma had taken off . . . and never told him about Charlie.

A decision that had left her pregnant and alone.

She wouldn’t change a minute of it, though. Charlie was the best thing that had ever happened to her, so at least some good had come out of listening to the devil-may-care side of herself.

Not tonight, though. Tonight it was all about bubbles, books, and beautifully decadent desserts. It was her vacation, after all.

“Well, some things sure don’t change, do they? Are those books I see, Gemma?” A smooth male voice said next to her.

Gemma stiffened. It can’t be. No way, not in a million years could it be . . .

Turning, she pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, sure she was seeing things. “Travis?”

Good Lord, it is. Why? Why would fate pull such a painful joke on her? She couldn’t seem to wrap her head around the fact that she had just been thinking of him and, like magic, he was there, smiling crookedly down at her. That smile sent her heart pumping into overdrive, and her stomach was so twisted in knots it was painful to breathe.

Gemma almost reached out to poke him, she was so sure he was a figment of her imagination.

Damn it, why had she wished for a hot guy to share her night with? Even though she’d been half-joking, there was no one in the whole wide world hotter than Travis Bowers.

All six and a half feet of him stood there: the deep blue eyes that sparkled at her as one brown curl fell boyishly over his forehead; wide shoulders covered by a blue-and-green-plaid shirt; jeans fitted just enough to show off long, muscular legs. His hands hung at his sides—hands she knew to be callused from years of work and playing guitar. Hands that could make her crazy with need. It had been ten years, but she could still remember what they felt like: rough and wonderful, sliding up and over her . . .


“So, can I get a hug?”

His question startled her, and she could feel the heat of a blush crawl over her skin. With only a moment’s hesitation, Gemma wrapped her arms around his lean waist and cuddled into him just like she used to, breathing in the smell of spicy cologne and Travis’s own warm scent. They fit together perfectly—although there was about thirty pounds less of her since the last time he’d held her.

In high school she’d been the chubby girl with a state-sized crush on the hot musician with the killer smile and drawling voice. She’d figured he only thought of her as his friend, the one he shared all of his innermost thoughts and dreams with. Still, just being in his life had been enough for her.

Until Travis’s senior prom. His date had bailed on him to get back together with her ex, and Travis had asked Gemma to go with him at the last minute. She’d been a junior, so excited, and the night had been magical.

And then Travis had kissed her, and everything had changed.

“It’s so good to see you, Gem.” The rough sound of his voice against her hair briefly brought her back. Despite the fact that he was still Travis, his voice seemed deeper, his arms resting on the small of her back were more powerful and pressed her body against his, a body that was definitely harder than it had been at nineteen.

She tried to fight the memories that came flooding back with the feel of Travis’s hand smoothing over her back, causing her eyes to burn with tears. Being held by Travis down by the river, cradled in his arms as the full Idaho moon beamed down on them, while he whispered, “I love you.” It had been like a fairy tale.

Except there hadn’t been a happily ever after for them. In the end, the prince had left the princess behind and gone off to become country music’s hottest bachelor, while the princess had stayed in the same small town and dreamed of a moment just like this one. Only in her dreams, the prince came back to find her; he didn’t just happen to run into her in a hotel lobby.

Not that she still held onto those old fantasies. Gemma was a grown woman now, not the fanciful girl with her head in the clouds. She was a successful, independent woman. She owned a little used bookstore, had a nice group of friends, and then there was Charlie . . .

She shouldn’t be doing this.

Not only was it not fair to Charlie, who’d never even met his father, but Travis didn’t deserve to have her melting all over him like the gooey girl she used to be. He’d stayed away for years without a single phone call and he wanted to act like they were just old friends? No. She had too much self-respect to let him think that all was forgotten and forgiven and they were going to act like he hadn’t wrecked her for longer than she was willing to admit.

Gemma pulled away from him and tried to act cool, even as he released her slowly, his hands leaving a heated trail across her waist that burned through her clothes. He shouldn’t be able to affect her still. He had broken her heart twice: once when she’d found him with that other woman and then again when he hadn’t come after her.