Read Rock Starred: Love My Way for Free Online Page A

someone. Brad’s brutal words hit me square in the center of my chest. He wasn't sure he'd ever really loved me. There was somebody else. He had to leave, be true to his own heart, before it was too late. He was sorry, but it was better for both of us. Every word left a hole in me, some of them bigger than others, and I'd been trying like hell to close them since. How could I have been so unequivocally wrong about someone? The question still haunted me.
    "Maybe I'm still not ready."
    "The longer you keep doing this, the more it's going to seem normal. And it's not normal." Her lovely green eyes held a familiar mix of pity and love. "You're like a sister to me. I can't watch you do this to yourself anymore. You need to learn to keep the past where it belongs and give some guy, somewhere, a chance."
    "I want to. I'm just scared." My voice dragged as I battled the tears and overwhelming sadness that came when I thought about Brad.
    "You have every right to feel that way, but you have to let down your guard at some point."
    The room went silent as my mind swirled with bad memories, like I was swimming my way out of a whirlpool. I had to find a way to put this behind me. I blew out a breath through my nose. "I suppose you're right."
    Gwen knocked her head to the side and wriggled her finger in her ear. "What was that?"
    I huffed. "You're right."
    Her eyes opened wide in disbelief. "Let me find a tape recorder. You never tell me I'm right about anything."
    "That's because it's annoying to admit."
    She smiled wide, pulling me into a hug and patting me on the back. "Okay. Tonight. You and I are going to go have a fabulous dinner and drink wine so you can tell me what Peter looks like naked."
    I crinkled my lips and swallowed.
    "Then we're going to get in separate cabs," she said. "I'm going to come back here and order crème brûlée from room service and take a bath in our insane bathtub. You're going to go see Slump and you're going to relax and have fun and just be Katie. Let life happen."
    "You aren't coming with me?"
    "No way. I don't ever want to see Stony's face again."
    "What do you mean let life happen?"
    "I mean you need to just go with something. Give Peter a chance."

Chapter Five
     
    I climbed out of the cab in front of Club Moxie, first astounded and then discouraged by the line of people two or three across, down the sidewalk and around the corner. Was this a sign? I was ready to bail when I saw that there was a separate window for will-call tickets with only a few people waiting.
    Stepping up to the glass after the guy in front of me collected his tickets, I leaned to speak into the window opening. "Kate Stillman. I'm on the Slump guest list."
    A woman with black spiky hair dragged her finger down a long list of names and flipped to a second page. My name was scribbled down at the very end. "Do you have a plus one?" she asked.
    "No, it's just me."
    She crossed my name off the list. "Hold on two secs. I'm supposed to let security know that you're here." She mumbled into a walkie-talkie and then leaned forward to talk to me through the glass again. "It'll be a minute. They'll come and get you."
    I stepped away and wrapped my arms around my middle, wishing I'd had the sense to throw on a cardigan or jacket before we'd left the hotel. It had rained during dinner and the temperature had dropped a good ten degrees, making my silky, sleeveless top seem like an idiotic choice, no matter how good I felt about the way I looked in it.
    Gwen had given me endless amounts of encouragement throughout dinner. Her words were all well intended, but they didn't bolster my confidence at all. They only made me question what I was doing. A second date seemed like a suicide mission, my heart and pride hanging in the balance. For all I knew, Peter just wanted a farewell fuck before he hit the road with the band the next day.
    The line to get into the club dwindled and I wondered if I'd been forgotten. I should have just gone back to the