Decked with Holly by Marni Bates

that’s—”
    I ignored Nick, walked into camera range, and waved to the rock star I’ve been crushing on for the past two years. In exactly none of my daydreams did I meet him after illegally using his drummer’s bathroom.
    But at that moment it really didn’t matter because I was speaking to the lead singer of ReadySet .
    Definitely time to play it cool.
    â€œHi, uh, Timothy Goff. Mr. Goff? I don’t know what to call you, but . . . uh, hi!”
    Mental head slap.
    â€œCall me Tim,” His smile faded as he took in my less-than-polished appearance. “You look—”
    â€œLike crap,” I finished for him. “Nick said as much earlier.”
    Tim’s head whipped over so he could glare at his bandmate. “Real nice, Dom. Kick any puppies lately too?”
    At least Nick had the decency to look embarrassed. “I’m working on that part. Puppies are hard to find on a ship.”
    Tim only ignored him and focused back on me. “Ignore my friend—I generally do. I was actually about to say that you look like you might need some help. Do you mind telling me what happened?”
    I melted right there on Nick’s bed, something he must have noted since he snorted in disgust. That was enough to get me pulling myself together again. I didn’t want to play the starstruck girl for any rock star, not even Timothy Goff.
    So I focused on telling him the whole story: my seasickness, Nick’s attack with the pepper spray, how I woke up to find a crowd of screaming girls outside the door, with only a few interruptions from Nick. It was pretty clear from the looks that Tim kept shooting him that he was in the doghouse.
    Which, strictly speaking, wasn’t exactly fair.
    â€œIt was nice of him to offer me a place to crash,” I admitted to Tim. “He didn’t have to, and I wasn’t in any shape to refuse so, uh, that was nice.”
    Not exactly poetry, but I thought I felt Nick relax just a little beside me.
    â€œRight,” Tim agreed. “Listen, Holly, it was great meeting you, but I need to talk to Dom alone. There’s some confidential band stuff we need to discuss.”
    â€œOf course.” I nodded until I probably resembled a bobble-head. “I should probably head out anyway so—”
    â€œNo!” both boys hollered.
    â€œUh, you should really stay right there until we get everything sorted out. Maybe you could order up some coffee or something?” Tim suggested.
    I looked between him and Nick. Dialing in room service for some free coffee didn’t sound bad to me.
    â€œSure.”
    Nick grabbed his iPad back before I could change my mind and headed straight out to the balcony, shutting it firmly behind him.
    Successfully shutting me out while they discussed my future.
    Well, that was comforting.
    Not.

Chapter 10
    Dominic
    Â 
    O f course, Holly would be perfectly agreeable . . . when she was talking to Tim.
    Even disasters like Holly acted . . . nice around him, which was one of his skills that I usually admired with only a small twinge of jealousy. Then again, usually I wasn’t operating solo on roughly four hours of sleep with dozens of screaming girls camped outside my room. In this case, “usually” didn’t apply.
    And I was getting sick and tired of telling Holly that I wasn’t gay while she made moon-eyes at Tim.
    The irony of which had not escaped me.
    â€œI don’t know how this happened,” I admitted to Tim. “This kind of stuff happens to you, not me.”
    â€œFunny, I can’t remember the last time I pepper sprayed someone in the face.”
    â€œI meant getting cornered by fans. And you’re the one who gave it to me!”
    â€œYeah, and using it on a seasick girl was exactly what I had in mind. Dom, do you have any idea how bad this is?”
    His words mirrored what I’d said to Holly only minutes earlier. I hoped it hadn’t sounded so