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girl. Such a supportive daughter.
    She has such sexy eyelashes …
    I dug my finger into the pressure point on my palm. Do not think sexy thoughts about Kate.
    I was doing this to help her. To help her family. And I couldn’t hit on her, no matter how much I wanted to.
    She was way too real for me to risk.
    “I’ll email you … all the time,” Kate whispered in her dad’s ear.
    I shuffled forward, scraping my shoes against the concrete footpath. Moments like that felt too private for me to overhear. After all, this was a very tight family.
    Family. It was something I worked hard to protect.
    Because I had to atone for ruining not one, not two, but three.

 

     
    T HINGS I Have Learnt About Coal:
     
They are the least organised group of individuals I’ve ever met
This is despite them having a cast of thousands to help keep them in line
     
    “Lee! Lee, I love you!”
    “Can I get your autograph?”
    “Come to New York!”
    “Overwhelming, right?” Lee flashed me a grin, and I looked up at him and tried for a smile.
    “Overwhelming would be one word for it.” I pulled my shoulder bag around so it rested closer against my body as one particularly confident fan reached out and touched it over the airport barricade. “Noisy would be my first pick though.”
    “Ha! You get used to it.” Lee raised his hand, as if he was about to give my shoulder a rub, then jerked it back and scratched his head instead, as if he’d realised the error of his ways. Cameras flashed in the crowd, and I nodded. He was a smart guy. I’d no doubt that a picture of him with his hand on my shoulder would quickly go from Lee being a nice guy and comforting his new employee, to Lee Brings Home Aussie Souvenir on the front page of whatever gossip rag bid the highest for it.
    “This way please, Mr Collins.” A big guy in a black suit opened a door that took us away from the screaming hordes in the airport terminal and over to a giant bus. The back of it was open, and guys in tanks and shorts were loading equipment in by the eerie white glow of several temporary floodlights. I spotted my suitcase being thrown in the back, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d been wondering how on earth we’d get our luggage from the baggage claim area and avoid getting mobbed at the same time.
    The bus door was open and Lee half-walked, half-galloped up to it. He climbed the stairs and turned and waved to a few fans, who were craning their necks over a fence to see us.
    “Bit of a joke, right?” A shoulder nudged mine, and I looked up at Xander, the drummer. His dark eyes flashed to the crowd in the distance and then landed back on me. He wasn’t smiling. His lips were thin.
    “It is what it is.” I shrugged. “I mean, I guess you kind of have to play up to it, right?”
    He looked at me, really looked at me, so penetratingly it felt as if he were seeing me naked. Or, as if he wanted to, anyhow. “I’ll protect you, you know. If you need it.”
    “I’m … I’m sure I’ll be fine.” I studied my feet and kept walking toward the bus.
    “That’s what they all say …” Xander put his hand under my chin and raised it so my gaze met his. “… at the start.”
    He stalked off to the bus, and I tried to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach. Between Mr Show Biz and Mr Sleazy, I didn’t exactly feel at ease.
    “Don’t worry ’bout him, Kate.” Michael threw an arm around my shoulder.
    “I’m not.” I forced a smile.
    “That’s not what your face says.” He winked and squeezed me tighter against him. “He can be a bit of a douche,” he whispered, “but he’s all right once you get to know him.”
    We walked to the bus together, and I ignored the flash that illuminated the air behind us. At least if a photo of Michael and me hugging appeared on the front page of a paper back home, Stacey wouldn’t be concerned. She knew just how much he adored her—and it wasn’t hard to understand why. Stacey was every guy’s wet