“So you’re punishing me?” Bijou asked.
“You know how much she loves you. She’ll do anything for you.”
“But I won’t do that,” KT interjected.
Her mom ignored her. “The only way Karma will overcome her stage fright is if she has a stake that’s high enough to encourage her to change her pattern. We all know how hard you’ve been working for this concert, Bijou, and how much it means to you, especially with what happened with that awful Bryland boy. If anything is going to inspire Karma, it’s her love for you.”
Bijou shook her head. “KT isn’t going to get on stage. She can’t even tune her guitar in front of a handful of people without freezing or getting sick.”
Lara patted Bijou’s arm. “Then I suggest you help your sister get over her fear.”
“This is unbelievable.” KT waved her arm, not caring that the coffee sloshed onto her shirt. “You can’t do this to Bijou.”
“Yes, we can,” Lara said firmly. “Which leads me to the second thing I want to talk to you about.”
“Is this where you take away my car next?” Bijou asked wryly.
“Don’t be silly, Bijou. This has nothing to do with you.” Lara speared KT a look. “Your sex life.”
“What sex life?” her sister chimed in.
She shot Bijou a glare. “Brat.”
Lara came to stand toe-to-toe with her. “I invited a man over for you to meet.”
“Mom.” She grabbed her hair at the roots. “I don’t need you to pimp me out.”
“Apparently you do. You never leave the cottage, Karma,” her mom said when she continued to protest. “You’re selling yourself short. You have so much in you and you bottle it up. So we’re giving you a life enema.”
“Geez, Mom.” She began to pace. “I’m not performing, and I’m not dating anyone you throw at me. I’m perfectly capable of finding my own boyfriend.”
“Are you?” Lara said with an arch of her brow.
She crossed her arms. She didn’t want to date anyone. She had a concerto to finish. She was
busy
.
Lara took the forgotten coffee cup out of KT’s hands. “He’s coming over later. Don’t disappear. And, for goodness’s sake, Karma, change your shirt.”
They watched speechless as their mom floated out of the kitchen.
“I didn’t see that Mack truck coming,” her sister said.
Neither did KT, but she wasn’t letting it run her over. She hoped.
Chapter Two
Bijou Taylor measured her life in two periods, before and after Brice Bryland.
Forget that backstabbing cockroach.
She breathed in as she squeezed her right butt in the lunge, trying to focus on the music playing over the speakers rather than her bitterness.
It was hard—she had a lot of bitterness toward Brice. Of course, it was warranted. After the way he’d pretended to like her, only to steal the song she wrote, she couldn’t imagine feeling any other way.
She shook her head and switched legs. She needed to focus on positive things. Being negative wasn’t going to help her achieve her goal of being on the cover of
Rolling Stone
by herself and not as part of a feature on her parents.
She had all her goals and dreams set on this concert. She’d wanted her success to be based on her own merit not her parents’ name, but after last year with Brice and being dropped by the label, she wasn’t averse to using their benefit concert as a platform.
She was going to nail it, too. All she ever wanted was to be a rock star.
Being the daughter of the legendary duo, Anson and Lara, was both a blessing and a curse. Not that she’d change anything. She adored her parents, especially her dad. Somehow, incredibly, they’d provided her and her sister a grounded, nurturing environment despite the touring and fame.
She glanced at her father who was lying on a bench, fiddling with his iPhone instead of working out. “You doing okay over there, Daddy?”
“Just dandy, Ruby Red.” He waved a hand over his head, his attention never wavering from his phone. “Just taking a second to recover.”
A flood of humor and love filled her chest. He was adorable, more like a geeky older guy than a rock star. Unlike his contemporaries, he was a sweet, loving family man. She loved that he still called her Ruby Red. He’d forever been telling her she was a “magnificent jewel.”
She had him and her mom to thank for the person she was, from her looks to her talent. Her talent was a given, although she knew KT blew her out of the water where that was concerned. Her looks—well, she played up the basics her parents had passed down.
Not that she looked anything like them. Her mom and dad were both small. She and KT towered over them, apparently throwbacks to some recessive Amazonian gene in their line. Except for their eyes—they both had their mother’s hazel eyes.
The one thing Anson and Lara had passed on was their love for music and their talent. Bijou had always wanted to follow in their footsteps. She lived for the adoring roar of a crowd and seeing their rapt expression as she sang.
KT? Not so much. Her sister preferred to be behind the scenes. Not that Bijou could blame her, not from what she’d heard about that dinner party when KT was four years old. Bijou shuddered, imagining the scene she’d been way too young to witness.
She kind of understood why their mom was doing this. She knew Lara had always felt guilty about that night; obviously she was trying to correct a wrong. Bijou just wished her mom hadn’t coldcocked
her
. Because that was what it felt like, just like when Brice had stolen her song.
“You need spotting?” her dad asked absently, out of the blue.
“I’m fine.” She glanced over at him as she stepped out of the lunge. “How about you?”
“I’ve got it all covered.”
From her perspective, it looked like the only thing he had covered was Angry Birds. She grabbed her workout towel and blotted. “Are you doing more reps?”
“Of course. I haven’t maintained this physique by being a sloth.” He patted the small belly he’d started to grow in his sixties.
“You’re my role model.” Bijou got on the floor to do a set of tricep push-ups, remembering how she’d thought Brice was so much like her dad when she’d first met him.
Wrong.
So
wrong.
Gritting her teeth, she held the pose low, and then painfully pushed up. She’d been a fool about Brice. A double fool, because he’d not only broken her heart, but he’d stolen the song she’d composed for the two of them to sing.
KT had called him an asshole. Actually, KT
still
called him an asshole.
Bijou smiled, warmed with the love that she always felt when she thought of her sister. She’d witnessed her friend Rosalind’s relationship with her sisters, so she didn’t take her closeness with KT for granted.
She couldn’t disagree with their mom. KT really was wasting away in the carriage house. Her sister wasn’t much of a performer, even if she didn’t get stage fright, but she was an amazing composer and musician.
And her voice.
If Bijou hadn’t been so secure in her own talents, she’d have been bitterly jealous that KT got the angel’s lungs.
The door to the workout room opened and the object of her thoughts walked in. Which struck her odd because her sister avoided anything hard. “Are you working out?” Bijou asked.
“Hell no.” Looking at her like she was insane, KT walked to the refrigerator in the corner. “I’m out of sparkling water in the carriage house. Hey Dad.”
Their dad groaned like he was benching two-hundred instead of his four-ounce phone.
Bijou watched her sister pull out a bottle and shook her head. “First coffee, now water. Maybe you should go shopping.”
KT shrugged as she uncapped it. “It’s easier this way. The main house is closer than Whole Foods.”
“You’re the laziest person I know.”
“I have no problem with that role.” She pointed with the water bottle. “Better than kicking my ass just to look good.”
“It’s a part of my career.” Elbows in a stable triangle, she slowly lifted her legs into a headstand. “I have to look good.”
KT made a face. “I’m not going to bust my balls just to look a certain way for my public.”
“You don’t have a public.”
“And I like it that way.”
“Well,” their dad said, heaving himself up from the bench like his muscles just couldn’t handle it any longer. He stretched his arms out and groaned. “I’ll leave you two girls to do your thing. Thanks for the workout, Ruby Red.”
“Any time, Daddy.”
He stopped to give KT a kiss on the cheek before shuffling out.
“It’s so cute that you guys are workout partners,” KT said after the door closed. “Does he ever actually exercise?”
“Of course not. I think he comes up here to make Mom happy.”
“Speaking of making Mom happy, I came up with a solution.” KT smiled in her usual, confident way. “I just need to show her that I’m living up to my potential, right? She doesn’t care what I do as long as I’m fulfilled.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I’m going to get a job.”
Bijou laughed, tightening her abs to keep from falling out of her pose.
“What?” KT frowned. “You don’t think I can find a job?”
“Oh, you can find a job, I just don’t think anyone would hire you. And don’t say Starbucks would,” she said, cutting off her sister. “They might, but they’d fire you the instant a customer pissed you off and you told them to shove it.”
KT frowned. “You’re right.”
Of course she was. She knew her sister.
“I’ll just have to do other things,” KT said.
“Like?”
“I don’t know. I’ll think of something.”
Mom was right—she was going to have to help KT get her ass on stage. “You better come up with a more concrete plan than that, or else get ready to strut your stuff.”
Her sister shuddered. “Don’t threaten me.”
“I’m just warning you how it’s going to be.” She levelled a look at KT, who slouched.
“I’m not going to let you down, Bijou. I’ll show Mom I’m living my life so she’ll relent and stop punishing you.”
The door opened. “Bijou, love, are you in here?” their mom called out.
KT looked at her and then dove behind the counter of the little kitchen area, ducking behind the cabinets.
Bijou arched her brow at her sister, who waved her hand madly. She dropped out of her headstand and began to do bicycle crunches. “In here, Mom.”
Lara glided in, her flowing dress trailing her thin frame. Their mom had an ethereal type of beauty that became more finely honed instead of decaying as she got older. “Bijou, have you seen your sister? She’s not in the carriage house.”
She resisted glancing to her right. “I haven’t seen her in a bit. Why?”
“I invited someone over to meet her.” Her mom checked her watch. “He’s waiting in the living room, and I haven’t been able to find her. I don’t want her to stand him up like she did the nice boy I invited over yesterday.”
She darted a glance at her sister, who shook her head so hard her hair flipped over her face. Sighing, Bijou returned her attention to Lara. “I’ll look for her, Mom.”
“Thank you, love.” She blew a kiss and left.
After checking to make sure the coast was clear, KT scrambled out from behind the counter. “Later, dude.”
“Wait.” Flipping onto her stomach, she grabbed her sister’s leg as she rushed by. “Where are you going?”
“To Scott’s. Duh.”
“Scott’s on his honeymoon.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll go hide in his house. Half the time I never see him anyway.”
“What about the guy in the living room?”
“You go see him.”
Bijou shook her head, sitting up. “He’s here for
you
.”
“Then he’s going to be waiting a long time,” KT said over her shoulder as she strode out of the gym.
“You owe me,” she yelled after her sister, getting up from the floor. “
Big
.”
All she heard was the quiet
whoosh
of the door closing.
“Fine.” She drank a swig of water, grabbed her hand towel, and dabbed at her face on her way downstairs.
Bijou stumbled on the unsuspecting guy wandering in the hallway looking at the platinum records lining the entryway. She pasted a smile on her face and went to tell him KT wasn’t interested in dating him, cursing her mom for feeding these poor men to the wolves like this.
Though this one, at least, looked good from behind. His faded jeans molded to him perfectly, and his black shirt showed off wide shoulders.
He looked up as she approached, and she was struck still by his ultra-blue eyes. She blinked, feeling like she’d been slammed into a wall.
Only then she saw the details—the thick leather necklace around his neck, his artfully messed hair, and just enough five o’clock shadow to look disreputable without being slovenly—and she frowned. He was
so
her type.
Which made him all wrong for her.
She straightened her spine and headed for him.
He pointed to her parents’ records as she approached. “This is amazing,” he said.
She glanced at the gleaming gold and platinum discs. One day …
One day.
She nodded. “It’s a life’s work.”
“It’s a good amount of work.” He smiled at her. “Are you Karma?”
She laughed, and then she laughed more; the thought of her being her sister was so ridiculous.
“You have a great laugh, even when it’s at my expense.” Still smiling, looking more interested, he held his hand out. “Will Shaw.”
“Bijou Taylor, Karma’s younger and more charming sister.” She shook his hand, ignoring the shivers that went up her arm and down her spine. She let go and stepped back.
He looked beyond her. “Is Karma on the way?”
“No.”
He didn’t bat a lash. “Will she be on her way?”
“I’ll just be upfront, because you seem like a nice guy.” Bijou put her hand on his arm. Strong. Ropy. Hot. She shook her head to clear it rather than in reply to his question. “KT sent me to run interference. I’m sure if she met you, she’d like you, but she’s not interested right now.”
He frowned. “Lara led me to believe that KT had signed on to the idea.”
“Mom can be overly optimistic.” So he wouldn’t feel bad, she added, “It’s not you.”