Read Girl on Tour (Kylie Ryans) for Free Online

remembering how cornered he’d felt when people started telling him he had a problem. “No. That’s not what I’m saying at all.” He took a deep breath and tried to explain better. “Look, I’m done with drinking my pain away. And yeah, it’s hard, and I’m not exactly in complete control of it. But Pauly has a friend. His name is Camden Reynolds. Dr. Camden Reynolds.”
    Gretchen smirked. “Oh, good. Pauly finally came out of the closet then.” She turned to Pauly and grinned. “And you landed yourself a doctor. Congratulations.”
    Trace watched as his manager grimaced. He hated Gretchen. Most people did. But Trace couldn’t bring himself to. He saw too much of himself in her. Not that he necessarily liked himself much. But he was working on that. “He’s an addiction specialist. He can go on the tour with us and you can talk to him any time you feel like things are getting out of control.”
    Gretchen’s steely gray eyes darkened. “No.”
    Trace cleared his throat. He’d known this wouldn’t be easy. He’d tried being nice, but women like Gretchen didn’t really respond to that. Nice guys were the ones they crushed to dust under their boot heels and stepped over to get to some sorry son of a bitch who’d treat them like shit. He knew—he’d been a sorry son of a bitch most of his life. “Okay, let me rephrase. See, I wasn’t asking you. I was telling you. Dr. Reynolds is basically going to be at my beck and call. If you start fucking things up on the tour, he will intervene. And so will I.” He leaned back in anticipation of the anger that was about to come spewing out onto him.
    Surprisingly, Gretchen just glared back at him. When neither of them said anything, Pauly spoke up. “Look, both of you are in poor standing with the label. They think you’re both drunks who can’t handle your careers and aren’t worth their time or money. Either this tour can be your way of showing them you’re still the kind of artists they want to support or you can prove them right.” He shrugged as if he were okay with whichever option they chose.
    Trace nodded in agreement and turned his focus back to Gretchen. “What do you say, Gretch? Can we show those suit-wearing bastards that we can do this? Or should we call it a day and cancel the tour?”
    She reached forward, grabbing the shot in front of Pauly and downing it before anyone could blink. Standing abruptly, she stumbled but regained control of herself before Trace or his manager could offer to help her. She stopped next to where Trace sat and leaned down to his level. He could smell the tequila on her breath. Thankfully he’d never been much of a fan. If she’d been drinking bourbon, his mouth probably would’ve watered at the scent. “Hm. What do I say?” He turned to look at her, his stomach clenching at the redness in her eyes. The vacant stare on her face. She looked like hammered hell. That was what Kylie Lou must’ve seen when she looked at him. How or why she’d thought him worthy of her was beyond him. Gretchen let out a little snort and continued on with her response. “I say it’s a shame. You used to be a lot more fun.” With that, she sauntered away from them, over to the bar where she propped up on a stool and began flirting with the bartender.
    “Well…that answers that,” Pauly said.
    Trace dropped his head into his hands. “Well…fuck.”

“W here in the hell is my left boot, Lily? I’m serious!” Mia shouted from the back of the bus where she was digging through her closet.
    “I don’t know! Hey, have you seen my straightener?” Lily called back. “Oh, is this your boot?”
    Kylie stepped out of her room and ducked just in time to narrowly miss being nailed in the head by a flying Frye boot. They’d just parked outside the Fall Festival fairgrounds in Denver where the girls would be performing in a few hours. She picked up the boot that had nearly maimed her and carried it into Mia’s room. “Looking for