Trouble Rising (New Adult Rock Star Romance): Tyler and Katie's Story #3 Read Online Free PDF

eventually. I was surprised she’d waited this long. I caught Tyler’s eye and he shrugged.
     
    “Twelfth of never.” I gave her a dark look over the rim of my coffee cup.
     
    “Well, that’s probably best,” she said, stirring sugar into her coffee. Oh, the snark. Gee, thanks, Mom, I thought but didn’t say. Then she looked up and saw the expression on my face. “I just mean, you know, you have so much going on, between Trouble’s tour and the series.”
     
    Right. What I saw on her face was, “You can barely take care of yourself, let alone a child.”
     
    But she wouldn’t say that, at least, not in front of Tyler. She’d probably say it later, just to me. She couldn’t hold it back forever—I knew that much. She’d let it slip, one way or another. Luckily, the waitress came over and interrupted the track this conversation was on.
     
    “If I can get you anything else…” The waitress put the bill down on the table. “Just let me know…”
     
    “Thanks.” My mother smiled up at her.
     
    The waitress turned to go, but then she stopped, turning back to look at Tyler.
     
    “I’m sorry, but… are you…” The waitress glanced across the restaurant, then looked back at Tyler. I knew what was coming. “It’s just… the girls over there at that table were wondering… aren’t you Tyler Cook?”
     
    My stomach sank when I looked over at the table full of teens, whispering behind their hands and giggling. I met Tyler’s eyes and saw that little edge was back, a slight stiffness in his shoulders, and cursed my mother’s idea to go to breakfast.
     
    “What would Tyler Cook be doing here?” I asked the waitress, holding out my half-full coffee mug. “Think you can get me some more coffee? This is cold.”
     
    “Sure.” The waitress—her name tag said Elaine—gave me a nod, a look of confusion on her face.
     
    She knew it was Tyler—probably knew who I was, too. Our wedding had been a day of mourning among Trouble and Tyler Cook fans everywhere. But it was hard to contradict someone politely when they said they weren’t who you thought they were. At least, outside of Hollywood. In Hollywood, you couldn’t pretend, like I was now. The spotlights—and the odds—were too good there.
     
    “It’s not getting any warmer,” I prompted, and Elaine flushed and turned toward the kitchen. The girls looked up at her expectantly as she approached the table, shaking her head, and there was a little outburst of disbelief and more glances our way as she delivered her news.
     
    “You didn’t have to be rude, Katie,” my mother said, keeping her voice low. “I have to live here. Besides, everyone knows already.”
     
    “I’m sure they do.” I sighed, seeing the way Tyler’s spine straightened. Waiting for fans to approach was like putting on armor. “I was just buying us a little time. Do you want to go?”
     
    I was talking to Tyler, not my mother.
     
    “It’s okay.” He was watching the table out of the corner of his eye, I could tell. So was I. The girls were whispering and talking and gathering up their courage. It wouldn’t take them long before they decided, and then one of them would approach, since their send-the-waitress plan had failed.
     
    “We just wanted to keep a low profile, remember?” I reminded my mother, who started to protest. “You don’t want a million people swarming the house, do you?”
     
    “There aren’t anywhere near a million people in these parts, Katie.”
     
    “It’s just an expression.” I rolled my eyes.
     
    And then they were coming over. Not one of them, but all four of them.
     
    “Would you sign my napkin?” The tall one, darkly pretty for a Midwestern girl, clearly the confident ringleader, held out a pen and a clean napkin to Tyler.
     
    “Sure.” He didn’t deny her—he never did. I was the one who tried to protect him, when I could, from situations like this. The first couple times you had your meal interrupted by a